Srimad Bhagavatam 5.14.12 – The Material world as a Great Forest of Enjoyment

sa yada dugdha-purva-sukrtas tada karaskara-kakatundady-apunya-druma-lata-visoda-panavad ubhayartha-sunya-dravinan jivan-mrtan svayam jivan-mriyamana upadhavati.

TRANSLATION: Due to his pious activities in previous lives, the conditioned soul attains material facilities in this life, but when they are finished, he takes shelter of wealth and riches, which cannot help him in this life or the next. Because of this, he approaches the living dead who possess these things. Such people are compared to impure trees, creepers and poisonous wells.

PURPORT: The wealth and riches acquired through previous pious activities should not be misused for sense gratification. Enjoying them for sense gratification is like enjoying the fruits of a poisonous tree. Such activities will not help the conditioned soul in any way, neither in this life nor the next. However, if one engages his possessions in the service of the Lord under the guidance of a proper spiritual master he will attain happiness both in this life and the next. Unless he does so, he eats a forbidden apple and thereby loses his paradise. Lord Sri Krsna therefore advises that one's possessions should be given unto Him.

yat karosi yad asnasi

yaj juhosi dadasi yat

yat tapasyasi kaunteya

tat kurusva mad-arpanam

"O son of Kunti, all that you do, all that you eat, all that you offer and give away, as well as all austerities that you may perform, should be done as an offering unto Me." (Bg. 9.27) Material wealth and opulence attained through previous pious activities can be fully utilized for one's benefit in this life and the next if one is Krsna conscious. One should not try to possess more than he needs for the bare necessities. If one gets more than is needed, the surplus should be fully engaged in the Lord's service. That will make the conditioned soul, the world and Krsna happy, and this is the aim of life. (End of Srila Prabhupada’s purport.)

HH Radhanath Swami: The great Sukadev Goswami is speaking the knowledge he had received from his father, Srila Vyasadev but he is speaking with realization because he has personal experience and what he has observed within this world which is here compared to a forest of enjoyment. In a grievous condition a person takes shelter of material wealth and riches. It explains here that due to pious activities in previous lives the conditioned soul attains material facilities in this life. However everything is temporary. Our pious activities are temporary by nature and therefore the result of al pious and sinful activities is also temporary by nature. It has a beginning and an end and in due course of time the material facilities we have are finished and then one has to take shelter because of attachment one has to take shelter of wealth and riches. And because we are seeking such shelter such a person approaches people who have these things, who Sukadev Goswami calls the living dead. They are dead to the real purpose in life. They are dead to their true identity but they appear to be living so vibrantly but unfortunately it is in the realm of forgetfulness. People who are very materially successful whether it be due to beauty or various skills and arts that they have mastered or maybe due to money, fame, prestige, power. Often times they appear to be very much enjoying, very much alive and thus they attract other people’s minds. Sukadev Goswami tells that they are the living dead. What is death? In this sense loosing consciousness of one’s true identity.

The spirit soul which is eternal, full of knowledge and full of life, bliss, the spirit soul which is part and parcel of God, the spirit soul which is the reservoir of all pleasure in connection to God is the source of life. It is life. There is no other life. This material body is simply a yantra, simply a machine created by material nature. A doctor knows quite well how the machine works just like a mechanic knows how the automobile works. And when the machine breaks down the doctor knows which parts to change or whatever else has to be done. Body is dead matter. It is comprised of the five gross elements of earth, water, fire, air and ether. Just like a car, an automobile can do nothing without a driver it is the human being, the driver that gives life to the automobile. We can make the horn sound as is so often done in India. We can make it go forward, backward, right or left, we can go faster or slower. We could either obey the laws of the state and get the facilities or we could break the laws of the state and get risk of punishment. But it is not the car doing anything. It is the soul. It is the driver. So in the same way this body is dead matter, it is a vehicle. It is the soul that is life. When we forget the nature of the soul and the purpose the soul has been put on this earth, which is self-realization then we are compared to the living dead. We are living sometimes in such vibrant, dynamic and enjoyable ways but internally being unconscious of our true reality we are as if we are dead. And you become what you associate with. If you associate with the living dead then you will die spiritually. Everything is based on our association and here it explains the nature of approaching people who are too much attached to the illusory material enjoyment. They can provide facilities for you to become like them but they are compared herein the forest of enjoyment to be like impure trees, creepers and poisonous wells.

It takes an intelligent person to understand which fruit is nourishing and which fruit is poisonous, which water is poisonous and which water is nourishing because with an untrained eye you can make no distinction. Yes? Recently we were in Rome, Italy and devotees like to think of very fantastic settings for Srimad Bhagavatam class. Sometimes we have it in caves in the jungles, sometimes we have it in forests, sometimes on river banks. One of very nice friends and devotee Mukundananda Prabhu, this is very much an increased service for him, that when devotees come from all over Italy and sometimes other parts of the world, to create a very wonderful and enjoyable setting to have Bhagavatam class. So this year we went into a very beautiful forest on the banks of a small river and we were sitting and we spoke for couple hours from Srimad Bhagavatam and then we had kirtan and there was no limit of space in the forest. So they way devotees were dancing was quiet sweet. They were just dancing all over the place. I could hardly see them, they were going so far away because the kirtan was amplified with a battery amplifier and devotees were dancing and dancing and they were dancing with trees and just like our devotees here sometimes hold hands and go in circles. There were there, four, five devotees circle around trees all over the forest. Everywhere you look there was devotees dancing and some were running into the bushes and dancing. Very sweet! So after the kirtan ended we were walking back and I saw on a vine, it was just hanging right over the path these very big, round juicy blueberries. Blueberries are very nutritious and very delicious for those of you who have had. They are very favored foods in the west. There were just so many of them growing on this vine. In fact there was so many vines with these thick juicy blueberries and it was almost like each one of them was so ripe and succulent, they were calling out in their blueberry voice, “Eat me, enjoy me, eat me, enjoy me.” So I was thinking this is very nice. So many plump succulent blueberries! I was in the front of the procession going back to the road. I was thinking I would distribute these. I will pick them up and distribute them to the devotees, but living in a forest myself for some time I understood that you have to know what you are doing and if you don’t know you have to ask. So I asked one devotee, “Can you tell me something about these blueberries.” He said, “Yes, they are poisonous!” I said, “Blueberries are so nice.” He said, “I know but there is a slight difference in this blueberry and the others. Some are nutritious and good but this particular variety is toxic. If people would eat them they would get very sick, very, very sick. If you eat too many you could die.” Hare Krishna!

So like that it looks nice, it looks so delicious. In fact they look more delicious than the good blueberries, honestly they look more delicious, more nourishing than the edible varieties but the fact is it is poison. Similarly in a deep poison well, the water looks no different than a good well. Srila Prabhupada explains that arsenic, you cannot taste it, Prabhupada said actually people say that you can’t taste it but nobody knows because if you taste it you die so how can you tell somebody what it tastes like. But arsenic as far as we understand doesn’t have any taste. It is clear. If there is arsenic in water it can poison you if the quantity is too much you will get sick or you can die. It looks like water and it tastes like water. So sometimes in a poisonous well there is too much arsenic or some other substance, maybe those blueberries fell in. Many different things can make a well poisonous. Of course if it has the wrong bacteria just like we have experience here, if the well has the wrong bacteria everyone can get typhoid. Yes? But you can’t taste typhoid, you can’t smell it, can’t see it with your naked eye. People are drinking water thinking that, “I am quenching my thirst, I am getting energized. Water is so important.”

According to all medical practioners one of the most important things for good health is to drink lots and lots of water to keep your body flushed out and properly lubricated and purified. Water is very important for good health, prevents so many diseases but if it is the wrong water, if it has poison or if it has poisonous types of bacterias, you cannot see, it looks clear and you are drinking and drinking and thinking, “Such nice benefits I am getting.” Then high fever, suffering and possible death! What is not seen by the naked eye this is the purpose of having knowledge, real knowledge is to see actually what is what because maya is literally translated by our acaryas as that which is not. It appears to be something but actually it is not that. We appear to be these bodies but we are not these bodies. The things we try to enjoy in this material body appear to be very beneficial and pleasurable for us but it is not,

ye hi samsparsa-ja bhoga

duhkha-yonaya eva te (Bg 5.22)

Contact between the senses and the objects bring enjoyment but actually that enjoyment is the source of misery and pain and an intelligent person does not delight in them. So intelligence is to discriminate what is actually for my welfare and what is not. Which is the real well, which is the poisonous well, which is the nourishing fruit, which is the poisonous fruit. This is intelligence and then intelligence is descending by the mercy and the grace of God. Just as we have heard experience is the best teacher and a fool learns by no other way. A person who is actually intelligent doesn’t have to go through the experiences of making the wrong choices and suffering again and again. Yes experience is a great teacher but the problem is how many people learn, how many people graduate after getting all these good teachings, experience of being kicked.

punah punas carvita-carvananam (SB 7.5.30)

We are being kicked birth after birth after birth and how many people are actually learning from the teacher of experience and graduating the score – no more birth, no more death? It is very rare! A fool learns by no other way. That is why Srila Prabhupada was so concerned that these books be circulated to the general population so that people would have knowledge, intelligence, intelligence by which to make the right choices. The nature of life is that at every moment we have choice, choice of what to think. Of course so many thoughts come to the mind but with our intelligence we have the choice, what to ponder upon, what to meditate upon. Krishna says,

man-mana bhava mad-bhakto (Bg 18.65)

“Always think of Me, become My devotee.” So we have this choice at every moment. Do we want to contemplate the objects of the senses? Krishna tells in Gita what is the cycle that takes place, the cycle that is activated when we contemplate the objects of the senses. Now for the objects of the senses and the desires to enjoy them to come to our mind that is something that may not be avoidable to us in this particular stage of our development. However we do have the choice of what to contemplate – desire for sinful activity, desire for selfish egoistic gratification may enter our mind but we have the choice, “Am I going to contemplate on this or am I going to contemplate on Krishna? It is all-important, we have that choice, we have a choice in every moment what we are going to contemplate within our minds. We have a choice within our minds whether we are going to surrender to the dictations of the mind and senses or whether we going to take shelter of Arjuna on his chariot in the battlefield of Kuruksetra and fight against ignoble, immoral, unfavorable thoughts. We have that choice.

We have a choice of every single word we speak. We can speak prajalpa. Sri Caitanya Mahaparabhu explained what is prajalpa and the worse prajalpa is criticizing others and the worse criticism is criticizing devotees. It tastes good, we like it, our egos like it, our egos like to hear others criticized; our egos like to be just entertained by mundane subject matters. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu said when you speak criticisms of others with your mouth you are eating poison. It is poisonous. How is it poisonous, because it kills ones spiritual propensity, which is our life. So yes, at every moment we have a choice of thinking and according to our thoughts we are either nourishing ourselves with nectar or poison. We have a choice of every single word we speak are we going to taste nectar or poison and we have a choice every moment in our actions. We can act pious, we can act impious and there are so many degrees of piety and impiety or we can act in the service of the Lord. That is free will. We always have that free will. In the human species that is the special quality, that is the blessing, that we have free will. And we are responsible to the most minute degree. We are responsible for what we choose at every moment. We are responsible for our thoughts; we are responsible for our words and our actions. Krishna tells in Gita, “When one contemplates the objects of the senses lust develops.” Desire to enjoy! From lust when it is unfulfilled anger, from anger, bewilderment of memory, when the memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost; when intelligence is lost we act in certain ways that the reaction is that we fall down again into the material pool of ignorance. So Krishna tells us!

Rupa Goswami explains the first symptom of devotional service in the spirit of surrender is to accept what is favorable for Krishna consciousness and to reject what is unfavorable for Krishna consciousness. This is the first symptom of surrender. It is all about making our choices at every moment. Am I going to choose to contemplate to speak or act in a way that is favorable to Krishna consciousness or unfavorable? If we do not know maya will definitely bewilder us. We will go to the well in our deep thirst and think, “Let me drink.” And that water maybe so sweet but it may have typhoid or it may have excessive arsenic. It is poison and the more we drink, the more we are destroying our well being imperceptibly. It may not take effect immediately. Yes if you drink bad water if it has a particular type of disease it may take several days until that disease actually takes effect in your body. So we must know, very important! Poison wells, poison fruit from contaminated trees that is what it is like when we take shelter of people who provide wealth and riches or in other words materialistic enjoyment. Srila Prabhupada explains that whatever we have there is no harm in attaining wealth and riches. If you use it in Krishna’s service your wealth and riches is a facility that helps toward the ultimate liberation but when we use it for our own egoistic selfish purposes beyond what is necessary it is like poison.

yat karosi yad asnasi

yaj juhosi dadasi yat

yat tapasyasi kaunteya

tat kurusva mad-arpanam (Bg 9.27)

Krishna is speaking Bhagavad-gita out of love out of mercy. He is telling it as it is. “All that you do, all that you eat, all that you offer or give away, all charity, all austerity, it should all be done as an offering to Me.” Why because it will make us happy. Srila Prabhupada explains it would give us happiness both in this life and the next. Without this principle then people are under the illusion that, “The more that I can enjoy, the more that I can acquire, the more I will be happy.” But the more you are eating poisonous fruits and drinking poisonous water and enjoying it but how long will it last?

Very powerful purport! Here Srila Prabhupada explains very succinctly. “However if one engages his possessions in the service of the Lord under the guidance of a proper spiritual master he will attain happiness both in this life and the next.” Srila Prabhupada explains the guidance of a proper spiritual master because one who approaches guru or acarya knows things as they are. They understand actually what is right and what is wrong, what is divine and what is demoniac, what is favorable and what is unfavorable.

Without such training from guru, sadhu and sastra it is impossible for people to understand it by their own intelligence because our intelligence is defective, it is conditioned, it is bewildered, and it is tainted by ego. So how could we possibly even if the truth is in front of us we cannot discriminate what is the good fruit and what is the bad unless somebody who knows tells us. Therefore the Vedic literatures explain that one cannot understand the Vedas, one cannot understand what is what without the spiritual master teaching us. But under the guidance of a proper spiritual master we could utilize what we have in Krishna’s service in such a way that will give us the ultimate benefit in both this life and the next. Prabhupada continues, “Unless he does so he eats a forbidden apple and thereby loses his paradise.” Hereby Srila Prabhupada is so expertly extracting the essence from the old testament of the Bible. You all know the story I believe. It is the story of the original sin, an allegorical explanation of how human beings fall into this condition of illusion. In the book of Genesis it is described how within six days the Lord created heaven and earth and all species of life. First there was simply total darkness in a vast ocean and the spirit of God was present there and said, “Let there be light!” And there was light. And that first day He created day and night and on the second day He created the sky “Let there be sky.” And there was sky and on the third day the Lord said, “Let there be land.” And from the ocean rose land and He called it earth. Then He created all the trees and grains and fruits and edible things to cover the earth, in other words, food for sustenance. Of course there was nobody there to eat it and the He created all the living beings, sea monsters within the water and birds to fly in the sky. He had already created the sky, the earth and the water and He created living beings to live in the water, to fly in the sky and then on the next day He created all the creatures, the animals to live on the land.

On the sixth day He created a human being. Hare Krishna! And after creating everything like that then He decided to take rest on the seventh day. The first living being that He created according to the allegory of Genesis was a man whom he named Adam. Adam did not really know what to do. He was all alone. The Lord actually created Adam from the dust of the earth. From the dust of the earth He created Adam, a man and then He breathed life into him. He breathed the spirit into this human form, which was composed of dust, earth. Then He told him, “You have dominion. I am putting everything on this earth under your care, all the fish and all the birds and all the animals and all the reptiles and everything else. I am putting you in charge as My representative. You have dominion.” All the facilities of the planets and all the grains and the creepers. But the lord saw that He needed a companion so He put Adam to sleep, deep sleep. While he was sleeping, the Lord did a very special surgery. He opened up his body and took out his rib, one of his ribs and then closed it up so you couldn’t even see that anything was taken out. And from that rib He created a female who was the counterpart for the male and when Adam awoke and saw a female he said because she was born of my bone and my flesh she will be known as woman. Woman means from man. This is the biblical explanation.

Then God created a paradise in the eastern part of His creation were there were so many trees that only gave good fruit, succulent and delicious fruit and so many grains and so many herbs. Everything was there and the Lord said, “You can eat from these fruits and grains and trees and be happy but there is one tree in the center of paradise, which is called the tree of knowledge and good and evil. Do not eat from that tree! Do not even touch that tree. Everything else is yours.”

So there is countless trees with countless fruits and there is just one tree that He said, “Don’t touch, don’t eat or you will die!” That is what He said, “You will die if you eat this fruit.” So they were living happily when a serpent spoke to Eve. Eve was the lady. “Did God tell you that you could eat from any fruit from any tree in this whole paradise, the Garden of Eden?” Eve said, “Yes we can eat anything except from one tree, the tree of knowledge of good and evil because if we eat that fruit, if we touch that fruit we will die.” And the serpent said, “You will not die, take my word, you will not die. This is a very good fruit. This is the best fruit. That is why He told you not to take it because it is the best. In fact if you eat this fruit you will become like God.”

So Eve did not have very good association, she was seduced by the logic of this serpent. And she picked the fruit from that tree of knowledge and good and evil, she picked that fruit and she ate from it. Then she called Adam and induced him to eat from it and after they ate something completely changed in them. Previously they were happy, they were free, they had no clothes, they were naked but all of a sudden they looked at each other and they felt ashamed. They felt ashamed at what they had done and they started to see things according to duality.

The fruit of the tree of god and evil means you loose your innocence and you start seeing things within the realm of duality. Previously everything was simply good. In the Garden of Eden, God made everything so that there was only good but then their was this consciousness, good, evil, honor, dishonor, pleasure, pain, heat, cold, success, failure, birth, death. Those things were not existing within their minds. They were innocent, their hearts were pure but after they ate this apple. Prabhupada calls it the forbidden apple then they started seeing everything from the point of view of false ego and under the pretense of false ego they see all dualities. They are entrapped by these dualities. Then they felt ashamed and lost their innocence. They lost their purity. When God was coming in the forest walking through the Garden of Eden, they were hiding from Him and he called out, “Were are you, were are you?” And they said, “We are hiding.” Then He said, “Why are you hiding?” They said, “Because we have no clothes on.” So they started getting fig leaves and sewing them together and making little like dhotis with fig leaves. They were making little clothes covering their private parts. God said, “How do you know you are naked?” They didn’t even know what was naked meant before. They were so innocent. “How do you know you are naked? You must have eaten the forbidden fruit that I told you not to eat.” They did and now they developed this whole egoistic mentality and they fall under the dualities of material nature. And because of that God asked, “Why?” Adam said, “Because Eve told me to.” So He asked Eve, “Why did you do that?” “Because the serpent told me to. I was bewildered by this serpent.” So the Lord told the serpent, “You have done this? This is your curse that you will crawl on the ground without legs, your belly on the ground. You will simply be eating dust day and night.” Hare Krishna!

Then for Eve he said, “Your purpose is to procreate. You will have to procreate in severe pain. Childbirth will be painful to you.” And to Adam He said, “I have given you so much of everything. In paradise everything was there. Now all of you have to leave paradise. If you loose your innocence, if you loose the purity of your heart, if you see through the realm of duality, you must leave this place and just to eat you are going to work so hard. Plowing the fields and tilling and toiling and not only that, because you have eaten that fruit from the ground will come thorns and all sorts of bushes. You will have to fight against these thorn buses and poisonous creepers and till the grounds just to get food.” Hard work. In paradise everything was easy, was so nice.

So what is this forbidden apple? It is that desire to enjoy against the will of God. Now the Bible is allegorical in this explanation. From the Vedic literatures we can get a very deep understanding of what is happening here. The serpent is maya – the illusory energy always trying to tempt us and influence us with envy of God. The root cause of all material conditioning is envy. What is that envy? Envy means that I want to be the enjoyer. That is an envious state of consciousness because Krishna,

bhoktaram yajna-tapasam

sarva-loka-mahesvaram (Bg 5.29)

Krishna is the supreme enjoyer of everything. He is the proprietor of everything. We are prakriti, we are meant to be enjoyed by Krishna. Everything is meant to be enjoyed by Krishna.

yat karosi yad asnasi

yaj juhosi dadasi yat (Bg 9.27)

Everything should be offered to Krishna for His enjoyment. Why? Prabhupada explains here that if you offer everything to Krishna for Krishna’s enjoyment then you will be happy, the world will be happy and Krishna will be happy. If you water the root of the tree, the whole tree is nourished. It you forget the root of the tree, you can do everything else but the tree will suffer and every part of the tree will suffer. We are all part and parcel of Krishna.

samsiddhir hari-tosanam (SB 1.2.13)

Bhagavatm describes whatever your occupational duty maybe whether you are a brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, or sudra; brahmacaris, grhasta, vanaprasta or sannyasa.

atah pumbhir dvija-srestha

varnasrama-vibhagasah

svanusthitasya dharmasya

samsiddhir hari-tosanam (SB 1.2.13)

Whatever your particular occupation, whatever your particular status in society, the purpose is to please Krishna. If we please Krishna, the soul is nourished, we are satisfied. Why? Because Krishna is the supreme enjoyer. He is the root of our existence.

bhoktaram yajna-tapasam

sarva-loka-mahesvaram (Bg 5.29)

Prabhupada called this the peace formula. Krishna said, “If you want to be peaceful just understand these three principles.” Krishna is the enjoyer of all sacrifices, Krishna is the proprietor of all living beings and Krishna is the ever well wishing friend of everyone. This is very interesting. We are meant to be enjoyed. If everything is the property of God then whatever is in our care must be utilized according to the will of the proprietor, Krishna. Krishna tells here,

om purnam adah purnam idam (Iso Invocation)

Everything is perfect and complete. Krishna has created everything perfect and complete. If we don’t understand our relationship with God as eternal servant then we become ignorant of the perfection of everything. The first verse after the invocation is - everything is provided by the Lord. We should take what we need. We should not accumulate more and more and more for our own personal interest. Otherwise we become entangled. Krishna is the proprietor. We must utilize whatever He gives us according to His desire. And He is the well wishing friend. This is very important. Even we can give up enjoying all types of material enjoyments, we can give up all possessions and we can think, “I am the benefactor, I am merciful.” Yes. This is another catch of maya.

Even to think that you can be the friend of someone, even if you are a sannyasi or a sadhu who has given up all worldly things if you think you can save someone that is also an illusion, that is also envy. Krishna is the supreme benefactor, the supreme friend of all living beings. Therefore in Vaisnava society what is compassion? What is friendship? Not that I will deliver you. Srila Prabhupada was praying on Jaladutta – in fact today is the first day that Prabhupada arrived in America, very holy day. When Prabhupada was in Boston harbor he wrote those beautiful prayers, praying to Krishna, “Let me be an instrument of your mercy Krishna. I have no power to deliver anyone. I have no power to speak, to transform their hearts. Only if You give me the words, You can transform their hearts. You are the supreme well wisher, you are the supreme friend, You are the supreme benefactor of all living beings. Let me just be an instrument, let me be Your puppet. Make me dance as You want me to dance.” A puppet takes no credit for what it does It is the puppeteer who is doing everything. The difference between a puppet and other species of toys is that the puppet is surrendered to the puppeteer and others do their own things. So Prabhupada is praying, “I have no knowledge, I have no devotion but somehow You have given me this name, Bhaktivedanta, now it is for You to fulfill the real purport of the name Bhaktivedanta – the giver of knowledge and devotion.” Prabhupada did not consider himself to be the benefactor of the friend of anyone. He considered Krishna the supreme friend. Prabhupada made it so clear. He said, “My only qualification is that I am simply repeating the words of my Guru.” And what is parampara? That means the original unadulterated words of God. “This is my only qualification. I am simply repeating the word of Krishna without changing, adding or subtracting anything.” Bhagavad-gita As It Is! As Krishna spoke it, as Krishna intended to be understood. That is what Prabhupada gave. He took no credit. “The real guru,” Prabhupada said, “Is not one who claims to be God but one who brings you to God, who on behalf of God, representing God brings you to God.”

So this original sin that is described in the book of Genesis is to eat is to that forbidden apple under the influence of the serpent. By the influence of the serpent the poison of envy enters our heart. By the influence of the serpent of maya, that poison of envy enters our heart and then we want to take a role of an enjoyer, which means take the role of God because He is the only enjoyer. We want to take the role of proprietor, which is to be God because He is the only proprietor or to take the role of being the benefactor of others. Again envy of God because He is the only benefactor. Very solid but very deep!

When we eat that fruit which we enjoy it may taste very good but it is poisoned, we loose our innocence we loose our purity and then we see everything in terms of I and my.

janasya moho 'yam aham mameti (SB 5.5.8)

I am this body and those things in relation to this body is mine and I will enjoy. We loose our innocence. We are exiled from paradise, from the Garden of Eden and we have to toil and suffer in this world. It was at that point when Adam and Eve had to leave the Garden of Eden God said, “From dust you have come and to dust you will go.” And it is the whole conception of the fear of death. The loosing of ones immortality or the conception of immortality, the fear of death was brought about only because of this duplicity.

Srila Prabhupada writes, “Unless he does so, use everything according to the will of God, he eats a forbidden apple and thereby looses his paradise.” So this is a universal principle. The fall of the soul into this material state of consciousness is born when we want to be the enjoyer the proprietor or the benefactor. In other words we want to take the role of God. Yet Krishna is so kind. Even though we have disobeyed, even though we have misused our free will and we have lost our innocence, we have become polluted, we are totally immersed in knowledge of dualities, the ignorance of knowledge of dualities the lord is so kind.

yada yada hi dharmasya

glanir bhavati bharata

abhyutthanam adharmasya

tadatmanam srjamy aham (Bg 4.7)

Still He comes to this world again and again and again! Just to give us the chance, He presents His word, His instruction which His love, His mercy. We should understand that the prohibitions within the scriptures, telling us what not to do should not be seen as something very restrictive and painful. It is the love of God. He is telling us always what is good for us, what will make us happy. We see in the world today people who acquire more and more and more technical knowledge, material knowledge, often times they become so infatuated and so proud that they become so much obsessed with this idea that – I am in control, I am the knower, I am God – atheism.

Science originally was created to show the glory of God. The original scientists were Christians who wanted to glorify God by showing how unbelievable He has created this world and that is a devotee. The more we see how the world is created the more we just have to bow down to Krishna with love and devotion. How this creation is in such systematic order! This is unbelievable. There is such a balance in every way. Yes. The sun is coming down and if you look at the sun through a prism you will see different colors. How is light which is apparently invisible to our eyes is actually filled with all these colors, all these beautiful bright colors! Violet is one end of the prism and red is the other. There is infra red and ultra violet. It is also very dangerous, very, very dangerous. Therefore Krishna so incredibly He creates ozone. Yes? What is it? O3? He creates the ozone and the ozone lets all the good light of the sun to come in and nourish us and gives us light and give us happiness and give us vitamins and all these other things, everything! But it filters out the ultra violet and infrared which could cause us suffering and death. How wonderful God’s creation, so perfect, absolutely incredible! And it is working on a global level.

Then with our very advanced technological intelligence and knowledge we use these chemicals, which destroy the ozone that God has given us. Now ultra violet rays and infrared rays are coming and causing us cataracts and causing us cancer and all sorts of other things. So much suffering, global warming. Global warming is one of the reasons for all these great hurricanes and floods and droughts, scientifically and ecologically proven. It is not the simple farmers causing these problems; it is these big, big people who have so much scientific knowledge, creating things to profit by supplying to peoples demands for greed and lust. Creating so many things, providing all sorts of resources for people who want to enjoy separate from God and break the will of God. It is creating an ecological disaster, so many problems. Why we want to know, but we are trying to know according to our own speculative ideas. According to the book Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein actually wanted to create something that would be for the greatest benefit for humanity. He wanted to set the stage in which he could keep people alive forever, bring the dead back to life. He had good intentions in his heart but his good intentions were mixed with some false ego. He wanted to be famous; he wanted his name to go down in history as the one who has done it. And what happened? His incredible scientific knowledge created a monster that caused him and his whole family pain and misery. Hare Krishna! Haunted him.

That is quite symbolic of this world Our knowledge when it is not utilized according to the will of God it creates so much pain and damage, so much bondage. Why? Because that serpent of envy is speaking, maya devi is speaking, “Enjoy. Enjoy.” “Yes, yes.” “No illicit sex, no intoxication, no gambling, no meat eating.” “Yes, yes. You have heard this, Gurudev has told you this and acaryas have told you this and the scriptures are telling you this, but actually just a little, please just a little. Enjoy.” “Why not.” For something so small and so temporary we loose so much. Jesus said, “What is the use if you gain the whole world if you loose your immortal soul.” What to speak of gaining this little thing and that little thing how much we loose!

Krishna descends to this material world out of His causeless mercy, out of His love to reestablish the true principles of religion to attract us to the supreme paradise of the spiritual world, our original home by performing the lilas, the pastimes of the spiritual world, He performs them in this world just to attract our hearts and our minds back. So kind! And He gives us the power to obliterate ignorance and envy through hearing His glories, through utilizing whatever we have in His service, especially by chanting the holy namesHare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare!

Are there any questions?

Question: How to protect ourselves from the poisonous well?

HH Radhanath Swami: Listen to the tape of class. That was what it was about. Yes therefore all the rules and all the regulations and all the great scriptures of the world are to teach us how to get out of the well of material existence, but in order to understand properly we must understand in principle how and why we came here. The origin of all suffering, the origin of all bondage, the origin of the misconception of death is because we want to be like God. And in Kali yuga the most notable revered and popular religious teachers are the impersonalists, the mayavadis. Just see how Kali yuga works! The original sin that causes all suffering and death is we want to become like God but we can never become like God. We are always subordinate eternal servants of God but we want to become like God. That is born of envy. Yet hundreds and tens of thousands of pious people will go to hear the most popular religious teachers and they’re teaching you that you are God, that you are one with God!

Therefore Srila Prabhupada explained this mayavadi philosophy, this desire to become one with God it is the first snare of maya and it is the last snare of maya. Can you imagine how tricky maya is, people are so addicted to selfish egoistic enjoyment and here you become sannyasi, you give up enjoyment, you study the Vedas, you discriminate between all the dualities and at all times, neti neti neti neti. You become fixed in discrimination, you become fixed in total renunciation, totally pious and charitable to others and what is the goal? To become God! Hare Krishna! That is the serpent speaking through all these big, big gurus. Yes, do it all in the guise of being very pious and very great become God.

Therefore Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu through Swarup Damodar Goswami told one person who was influenced by mayavad when a devotee hears this philosophy, that you become God, That god’s form, God’s name, God’s pastimes are ultimately illusion. Ultimately we are all one, it breaks that devotees heart. It is intolerable to hear, it breaks the heart. So yes, we have all come to this world because we all want to enjoy the position of God in our own small little ways and that is why we stay in this world, but the Lord is so kind He comes to lift us out.

jiv jago, jiv jago, gauracanda bole

kota nidra jao maya-pisacira kole

(Songs by Vaisnava Saints on the Glories of the Holy Name)

Lord Caitanya has come. Wake up sleeping souls, wake up souls, wake up, you are sleeping on the lap of maya. Wake up!

enechi ausadhi maya nasibaro lagi'

hari-nama maha-mantra lao tumi magi'

(Songs by Vaisnava Saints on the Glories of the Holy Name)

And he is telling us how to wake up. I have got the medicine that will cure this disease of ignorance. This disease of the duality attachments, attachments to dualities. When we actually become self realized we become transcendental to the dualities, why?

param drstva nivartate (Bg 2.59)

Because we are experiencing something higher otherwise we are just being like in the ocean of material existence. The waves and the dualities are constantly tossing us from one direction to the other. And that higher taste can be achieved by the grace of God, by the chanting of the holy name Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare! But we must chant with the proper service attitude in the spirit of the servant of the servant of the servant, not aspiring to be the supreme.

Question: What type of freedom, somebody asked me the question and I was not able to reply, that Lord has given us freedom, He loves us and that is why He has given us freedom but He is also forcing us to surrender. So where is the freedom?

HH Radhanath Swami: The question is why don’t we surrender? How many billions of people are on this earth? Six billion. How many are in India? One billion? So we are talking human beings now. How many are surrendered to Krishna? If Krishna were forcing us to surrender this whole planet would be one big harinam sankirtan party. Just like at Pune yatra we have kirtan with two thousand. So if everyone were surrendered we would have kirtan with six billion people in the kirtan.

kirtaniyah sada harih (CC Adi 17.31)

Day and night! We are devotees and we are not even surrendered to the Krishna. So Krishna never forces anyone to surrender. Krishna invites all of us back into the paradise of His supreme abode and He teaches us the method of doing it. He teaches us the method of surrender.

man-mana bhava mad-bhakto

mad-yaji mam namaskuru (Bg 18.65)

Always think of Me, become My devotee, worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend.

So simple but we have our free will, we refuse to surrender and even when we have the desire to surrender in our hearts still due to our previous conditionings the mind is telling us, the senses are telling us so many alternatives and we keep making the wrong choice perpetually, birth after birth after birth. Krishna is so kind! The path of bhakti is so practical. You can be a grhasta, a brahmacaris, a varnaprastha, sannyasi, you can be a priest, you can be a politician or a military person, administrator, your could be a business person, and industrialist, a farmer even a lawyer, you could all these things or you could just be a simple worker and you can attain perfection of life by just surrendering to Krishna. And how to surrender, it is so easy just do what we are doing for Krishna’s pleasure under the guidance of guru sadhu and sastra.

Prabhupada ends this purport and we will end class with Prabhupada’s words, “However, if one engages his possessions in the service of the Lord under the guidance of a proper spiritual master he will attain happiness both in this life and the next. Unless he does so, he eats a forbidden apple and thereby loses his paradise. Lord Sri Krsna therefore advises that one's possessions should be given unto Him.

Material wealth and opulence attained through previous pious activities can be fully utilized for one's benefit in this life and the next if one is Krsna conscious. One should not try to possess more than he needs for the bare necessities. If one gets more than is needed, the surplus should be fully engaged in the Lord's service. That will make the conditioned soul, the world and Krsna happy, and this is the aim of life.”

Srila Prabhupada ki, Jai!

Gaura-premanande Hari Haribol!
Thank you very much.