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Bhagavänera Kathä 5 THE MESSAGE OF GODHEAD by Çré Çrémad Bhaktivedänta Svämé Mahäräja (Continued from the previous issue) [NOTE: This page uses Balarama font (available here) for better transliteration of Sanskrit into English]
The laws created by the whimsical nature of a human mind, state
that one receives capital punishment for taking a human life. There is,
however, no such injunction for killing living entities other than humans. But
the laws of providence are different. Bhagavän’s law is that one will receive
punishment for destroying any life, just as a person is punished for committing
murder. Atheists refuse to accept the existence of Bhagavän, because to do so
would impede their performance of sinful activities. Småti-çästra describes that in the performance of household activities many
types of sin occur due to the willing or unwilling destruction of life. Every
household duty, such as cooking, grinding, storing pots and cleaning, incurs
such sin without the householder wanting it. To free oneself from these sinful
actions, one can perform païca-çünä-yajïa. Therefore
the only law is to accept prasäda, remnants of food that have been
offered in sacrifice to Viñëu, the Lord of all sacrifice. One who
selfishly cooks for the satisfaction of his own senses and the lasciviousness
of his tongue, and not for the service and pleasure of Viñëu, undergoes suffering
as a result of his sinful acts. This is the law of providence. Many householders, however, still take shelter of sanätana-dharma and follow the process of
service to Viñëu to attain freedom from such sinful activities. Leaders of
countries and societies are therefore instructed to work for the satisfaction
of Viñëu, thereby benefiting themselves and those who follow them. Because
people follow their ideal, it is the leaders’ duty to carefully study the
various ways of performing yajïa, sacrifice for the pleasure of
Çré Viñëu. For the benefit of society, spiritual universities are required to teach
people how to perform karma as an
offering to Viñëu. Bhagavän Çré Kåñëa indicated to Çré Arjuna that he should
perform this type of yajïa: yad yad äcarati çreñöhas / tad tad evataro janaù sa yat pramäëam kurute / lokas tad anuvarttate Bhagavad-gétä (3.21) Whatever action a great man
performs, common men follow. And whatever standards he sets by exemplary acts, all the world pursues. Alas! Such a time has come that most of those who are identified
as superiors, as well as those who are great leaders of societies and countries, are inimical to Viñëu. What, then, will they do
for Viñëu? If they do not perform yajïa for
the satisfaction of Viñëu, how will they attain release from the fruits of
their own sinful activities? If great leaders do not declare Viñëu to be the omnipresent
Absolute Truth who, although possessing a form, remains present everywhere in
his formless, non-distinct aspect, then how will the common man understand this?
It is Håñékeça, the master of the senses, who is the sole proprietor of
everything; we cannot be the masters and enjoyers of this world. We should gratefully
accept only that which He mercifully gives us. We must not hanker after or
claim the property of others. éçäväsyam idam sarvaà / yat kiïca jagatyäà jagat tena tyaktena bhuïjéthä / mä gådhaù kasya svid dhanam Çré Éçopaniñad (1) Everything animate and inanimate
within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord. One should therefore accept only that which is necessary for himself, that is set aside as his quota. One should not accept anything more, knowing well to whom it belongs. Only if the leaders correctly perform their duties by placing
Bhagavän at the centre of them will they and their
followers attain supreme auspiciousness. If, however, they do not place Bhagavän at
the centre of their activities,
and instead pose as Viñëu themselves, deceiving their disciples by accepting läbha (wealth), püja (worship)
and pratiñöhä (praise), many unfortunate people (followers) can fall on to the path of ruination upon seeing their
example of pretentious renunciation.
They will achieve nothing but this. Such leaders uselessly incite their ignorant flatterers to engage in many types of sinful
activities. By thus increasing
their own läbha, püja and pratiñöhä, these leaders
bring about the destruction of their followers. They do not understand that wealth, worship and praise are transient and will be
destroyed along with their
body. The sinful activities performed to attain läbha, püja and pratiñöhä are subtly mixed with the mind, intelligence and false ego, in the form of seeds of future sinful action. Performing
these sinful activities will
compel the jéva to sink in the cycle of birth
and death, as he
wanders throughout the various species of life, birth after birth. The mass of people follow the example set by leaders who are
devoid of tattva-jïäna. It is therefore correct for those leaders to act with great
care, having understood the art of performing karma
as a sacrifice (karma-yoga). Only out of impudence will one who is not adept at
curing his own illness prescribe treatment for the sick (the common masses).
Unless one knows the specific disease he is treating, and the proper medicine
and diet for it, he will not be able to benefit the sick. Similarly,
prescribing a medicine that simply fulfils the desire for sense gratification
will never benefit the common people. The disease will only spread, and the
doctor (the leaders) will also suffer by being infected himself. Human society’s indifference to Viñëu is its fundamental disease.
It is true that by failing to administer the proper medicine and showing only
superficial sympathy, the senses of the sick person may receive momentary
relief, but no real benefit is achieved. If a sick person is not given the
proper medicine and diet he will certainly rush into the jaws of death. The best and only diet for curing the multiple diseases caused
by nescience is the remnants of sacrifice offered to Bhagavän, bhagavat-prasäda. And the greatest medicine is to surrender oneself completely
to Him by taking darçana of His deity form, worshipping Him (arcana), serving
Him (däsya), being His friend (sakhya), and
completely offering Him your very self (ätma-nivedana). This is
all based on hearing and chanting the narrations of His glories. Performance of
such devotional activities will bring auspiciousness for the whole world;
anything else will bring inauspiciousness. If people perform these activities
there will be no chance of problems
arising for human society. In fact everything will be advantageous.
Opportunists and economists should deliberate upon these facts. Although the leaders of society, headed by Mahätmä Gandhi, have
made great endeavors to bring about peace in the world, these endeavors are not
bearing any fruit and they never will. This is because they lack encouragement
by the mahäjanas. The imaginary “God” of the impersonalists (nirviçeñavädés) cannot eat, see or hear; therefore their God can never bring
peace to the world. How will He, who is bereft of sensory organs, see people’s
suffering or hear their prayers? The only result of worshipping Bhagavän as the
nirviçeña-vädés do, is inauspiciousness. It will never be auspicious. Very little
of the Absolute Truth is attained by contemplating impersonal knowledge of Him.
By studying and discussing dry empirical knowledge, the complete personal
aspect of Bhagavän is not realized. Rather, one only attains suffering and
difficulties. Therefore, leaders such as the respected Gandhi will only benefit
the people if they endeavor to realize the personal aspect (saviçeña) of the Absolute. On the other hand the general mass of people
are gross materialists, expert in performing activities related to the
body and mind. People with such a low level of consciousness are absorbed in
such mundane activities and cannot develop faith in the existence of the
spiritual world, which lies beyond this material world. They consider the body
to be the all-in-all and they are so
deeply absorbed in the animalistic mentality of eating, sleeping, fearing and
mating that they cannot discriminate between sinful and pious activities. Tirelessly
working like this to satisfy the senses is known as mogha-karma, useless activity,
and it is inspired by mogha-äçä, useless desires. Many mundane scientists, acting as reformers, engage in harmful
activities to bring about world ruination. By producing various objects that
satisfy the skin, tongue, nose, ears and eyes, they have created a dangerous
rivalry among materialistic people, whose worldly entanglement they have
intensified. These people thus claim dominance over material nature, but the
more they dominate, the more they themselves are dominated and bound by the
shackles of material nature. And the more they accumulate wealth, the more
restless they become. The lakñmé of
Bhagavän is only to be enjoyed by Him. To the degree that one tries to seize Her, one falls into the jaws of ruination, just as the whole
dynasty of Rävana did. The result of making such great endeavors to maintain
the body is that it becomes a great burden simply to sustain it with a little
food. The consciousness of some people is a little more advanced than
this lower class of men. They are the fruitive workers who perform charity work
and other pious activities with full faith that in their next birth they will
be sure to receive a greater level of sense enjoyment. Both kinds of fruitive
workers fail to understand that both sinful and pious activities are the cause of
bondage. They do not understand that to perform niñkäma-karma-yoga (selfless action that is offered to Bhagavän) is the actual art
of performing karma (action). Karma-yogés, who are expert in the art of karma, skillfully perform karma-yoga with apparent attachment, in order to teach karma-yoga to the foolish fruitive workers
and the world. This art of karmayoga brings auspiciousness to both the performer and the society.
Bhagavän Çré Kåñëa has given this very same teaching in the Bhagavad-gétä (3.25): saktäù karmaëy avidväàso / yathä kurvanti bhärata kuryäd vidväàs tathäsaktaç / cikérñur loka-saìgraham O descendant of Bhärata,
ignorant people perform karma with attachment to maintaining themselves. Similarly you, being wise,
should also work (perform karma-yoga) to set an
ideal for the people in general. Those learned in tattva-jïäna perform activities to maintain themselves just as ordinary
people do, but as a yajïa to
please Viñëu. The general populace consider such wise
persons to be sense enjoyers like themselves. Such persons, however, are not
foolish fruitive workers but learned karma-yogés. Nowadays we are witnessing
the karmé world prosper in various ways due to the
expansion of modern material science. Many factories, hospitals, universities
and so on have sprung up, thus binding the world further in the ropes of karma, or action. In ancient times
such mundane activities were not so prominent, but due to the effects of asat-saìga these tight bindings and coverings of karma are being invented. Wise karma-yogés, therefore, can engage all such activities in yajïa for the satisfaction of Viñëu,
thus attaining expertise in the art of performing karma. (To be continued)
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