“I am always praying to Srila Guru Maharaj, our society must be with this: love and affection.” Morning darshan, 19th April 2007, Nabadwip. (podcast link) (notes and slokas)

“Anything you will do, do with love, with affection; that’s called nirmatsarāṇāṁ satāṁ.”

Some notes (book references) and slokas from today’s lecture:

mantro ’yaṁ rasanā-spṛg eva phalati śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmātmakaḥ
(CC: Madhya-līlā, 15.110)

The gist is, “You chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahāmantra and be happy.” This śloka is very strong. Śrīla Prabhupād gave four directives, but what will happen if someone cannot follow these four directives? (Religion of the Heart)

dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo ’tra paramo nirmatsarāṇāṁ satāṁ
vedyaṁ vāstavam atra vastu śivadaṁ tāpa-trayonmūlanam
śrīmad-bhāgavate mahā-muni-kṛte kiṁ vā parair īśvaraḥ
sadyo hṛdy avarudhyate ’tra kṛtibhiḥ śuśrūṣubhis tat-kṣaṇāt
(SB 1.1.2)

Kaitavo means cheating. There is no cheating in the religion given in Śrīmad Bhāgavatam.

Once, Śrīla A.C. Bhaktivedānta Swāmī Mahārāj told me I was “cheating my stomach”. When I was staying with him in Kolkata, I used to study Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā from him in the morning. Sometimes, he would ask me if I had taken breakfast, and whenever I would answer, “Yes”, he would say, “What did you have?” If I would answer, “Muḍi (puffed rice)”, he would say, “Oh, you are simply cheating your stomach!”

Religion can also cheat us. My “stomach” may be “full” of some religious conception, but it is being cheated! It is possible that religion can fully exist in our body but in a cheating way. It may be possible that we are being cheated of the real substance.

Sādhus have a variety of different qualities, but extremely good sādhus are paramo nirmatsarāṇāṁ. They are not envious or jealous of anyone. Matsarāṇām means enviousness. It is a very bad quality. Many sādhus have matsarāṇām. The Bhāgavatam says, “There is no possibility of matsarāṇām in the knowledge I am giving. This is a unique type of knowledge; it is free of matsarāṇām.”

How will one get the knowledge of the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam? Sadyo hṛdy avarudhyate ’tra kṛtibhiḥ śuśrūṣubhis tat-kṣaṇāt. If one is fully surrendered and has a good service mood, he will immediately get this knowledge. If one is fully surrendered and does not mix with any bad qualities, he will get transcendental knowledge. But the first condition is one must be a sādhu.

A sādhu means one who is honest and saintly. A sādhu is not one who just wears a saffron cloth. Saffron cloth is a symbol of Vedic identification. A deer hunter may be a sādhu if he is not envious and is surrendered to Kṛṣṇa. Another good quality of a sādhu is that his heart is always hankering for the service of Kṛṣṇa.

If one has these qualities, he will get the transcendental knowledge given in Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. Mahāprabhu said, “Śrīmad-Bhāgavataṁ pramāṇam-amalam: the knowledge which is revealed in the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam is spotlessly pure, it is the ripened fruit of all the Vedas, and that fruit is love for Kṛṣṇa, or Kṛṣṇa-prema.” (Religion of the Heart)

anyābhilāṣitā śūnyaṁ jñāna-karmādy anāvṛtam
ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānuśīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā

sarvopādhi vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam
hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa sevanaṁ bhaktir uchyate
(BRS 1.1.11-12)

In the Vaiṣṇavīya-tantra-sāra in the section explained as Gītā-mahātmya, the glories of Śrī Gītā are explained to us in varieties of ways, but the Vaiṣṇava Āchāryas like Viśvanāth Chakravartī, Baladev Vidyābhūṣaṇ, and especially Śrīla Bhakti Vinod Ṭhākur, expressed the line of drinking that full cream milk as the exclusive devotional method. Therefore, Śrīla Prabhupād Saraswatī Ṭhākur, following Bhakti Vinod Ṭhākur’s line, avoided focusing on other intentions, as we can see in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu and Nārada-pañcharātra (Affectionate Guidance)

mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya
śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ
āgamāpāyino ‘nityās
tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata
(BG: 2.14)

“O son of Kuntī, the contact of the senses reacting with their objects give the sensations of cold and heat, pleasure and pain. But they are all temporary, always coming and going. So tolerate them, O Bhārata.”

nṛ-deham ādyaṁ sulabhaṁ sudurlabhaṁ
plavaṁ sukalpaṁ guru-karṇadhāram
mayānukūlena nabhasvateritaṁ
pumān bhavābdhiṁ na taret sa ātma-hā
(SB: 11.20.17)

We have this human body in our hand, and it is very rarely achieved. Many, many births have passed, but suddenly we have attained this human body by our karma, good karma no doubt. It is sulabhaṁ sudurlabham, which means it is not easily attainable, but we have attained it. If you want to cross a river or an ocean, you need a boat. This human body is like a boat, and we have now attained it. With the help of this human body, our soul can easily cross over the ocean. But who is the guide of the boat? My Gurudev is he, the navigator. All my good fortune has descended from Kṛṣṇaloka in the form of my Gurudev, and I have connection with him. Kṛṣṇa is very merciful to show our destination through the Guru, through the Sādhu, and through the scriptures. In this way he is giving the favourable wind for this boat of ours to go to our destination. So, one who will not take this chance is a suicidal man. (The Divine Servitor)

labdhvā sudurlabham idaṁ bahu-sambhavānte
mānuṣyam artha-dam anityam apīha dhīraḥ
tūrṇaṁ yateta na pated anumṛtyu yāvan
niḥśreyasāya viṣayaḥ khalu sarvataḥ syāt
(SB: 11.9.29)

“The human form of life is very rarely attained, and although temporary, gives us a chance to achieve the supreme goal of life. Therefore, those who are grave and intelligent should immediately strive for perfection before another death occurs.” (The Golden Volcano of Divine Love)

āhara-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca
sāmānyam etat paśubhir narāṇām
(Hitopadeśa)

We must understand the difference between animal life and human life. Human life can be almost the same as animal life. Humans may live in an organised way in cities and buildings, and animals may live in the jungle, but both humans and animals engage in eating, sleeping, fearing, and enjoying (āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ cha). These are the natural activities of life for all species. So what is special about human life?What makes human life more than animal life? It is not actually brain power or intellectual capacity but dharma, religion.In human life jīva-souls can connect with their soul’s natural religious mood and culture. If humans don’t use their brain and consciousness to connect with their transcendental existence as jīva-souls through dharma, then there is no difference between their human life and the life of a beast.

Dharma has been explained in a very nice way by Śrīla Bhakti Vinod Ṭhākur. He explained that if we search everywhere throughout all the planes of existence in the universe, ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ (Bg: 8.16), we will find that everywhere there is some form of religion, some form of dharma. He used the example of water. What is the religion of water? Water’s nature, or religion, is liquidity. Fire’s religion is producing heat and light. A stone’s religion is to be hard. In this way he gave many examples. Every object and being within the universe functions according to its dharma because of the presence of consciousness, the presence of a jīva-soul, within it. The jīva-souls always exhibit their dharma, nature, but they do so through their forms of embodiment. The jīva-souls are sometimes covered by an animal form, sometimes by an insect form, and sometimes by a human form. All these forms are coverings, part of the illusory environment of māyā, which make the jīva-souls forget their spiritual dharma, their true nature as eternal servants of Kṛṣṇa. (Revealed Truth)

brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva
guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja
(CC: Madhya-līlā, 19.151)

“According to the thread of their karma, the living beings are wandering throughout many species of life in the universe. Among all such wandering souls, one for whom the fortune of spiritual merit (sukṛti) has arisen by which devotion is facilitated gains the seed of the creeper of devotion by the grace of Guru and Kṛṣṇa; that seed is good faith (śraddhā).”

It is not a light thing. We must know that this seed of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the most valuable thing in the whole of creation. “Everything—good or bad—belongs to Kṛṣṇa, and I am His unconditional servitor.” Our general thought must be like this, and the details will develop gradually. We need not apprehend any injustice. He is Absolute Good, so His mercy is absolute. His love is absolute; He is the loving centre. We must make our heart broad, wide, to accept such a seed. Love is the widest thing. Love can accommodate even the enemy. Love is not afraid of any sacrifice, so it can accommodate even the enemy, and he is thereby conquered. Such conquering is complete and perfect. Our conquest is not perfect, but love’s conquest is perfect. So we must be prepared to pay the value of this greatest achievement.‘Die to live’.What can I give? Everything belongs to Him, and I also belong to Him. I must admit that I am His. This much is necessary. This is the central knowledge, and it is not unreasonable. I am not out of central control, and His all-controlling potency is not power, but love. This is the most liberal proposal, good news, and fortune. (Sermons of the Guardian of Devotion Vol. 1)