Elevation To Perfection

(Compiled from notes on lectures of H. H. Mahavishnu Goswami)

This is based on the wonderful class given by our dear Gurudeva in Singapore on the subject matter of elevating our activities to religious perfection which will lead to renunciation and finally culminating in loving service to the lotus feet of the Lord. Maharaja was super excellently explaining the verse 3.23.56 from Srimad Bhagavatam

neha yat karma dharmaaya
na viraagaaya kalpate
na tirtha-pada-sevaayai
jivann api mrto hi sah
"Anyone whose work is not meant to elevate him to religious life, anyone whose religious ritualistic performances do not raise him to renunciation, and anyone situated in renunciation that does not lead him to devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, must be considered dead, although he is breathing."

Maharaja dissected the verse very nicely as under
1. How our Karma ( work ) should elevate us to religious perfection.
2. How religious perfection should lead to renunciation.
3. How renunciation should lead to loving devotional service to the lotus feet of the Lord.

1.How our Karma ( work ) should elevate us to religious perfection ?
In Bhagavad gita Krishna says in 3.5

na hi kascit kshanam api / jaatu tisthaty akarma krt
kaaryate hy avasah karma / sarvah prakrti jair gunaih
"Everyone is forced to act helplessly according to the qualities he has acquired from the modes of material nature; therefore no one can refrain from doing something, not even for a moment."

Everyone is forced to act helplessly. In our body all the time blood circulation is going on, kidney, liver, everything is working non-stop. There is no annual holiday for the heart. Think the disaster if the heart decides to stop working. Krishna shows by His personal example that even though He is nothing to gain, still He is engaged in performance of duties. He states in Bhagavad gita 3.22

na me paarthaasti kartavyam
trisu lokesu kincana
naanavaaptam avaaptavyam
varta eva ca karmani
"O son of Prthaa, there is no work prescribed for Me within all the three planetary systems. Nor am I in want of anything, nor have I a need to obtain anything – and yet I am engaged in prescribed duties."

In the battle field of Kurukshetra, every day after the war is over, Lord Krishna will come back and He will not take any rest. He will take care of the horses. What benefit He is going to get by doing all these things? In the material world, we are all full of fruitive tendencies and these tendencies will change slowly. Ours is a preaching institute and we have to preach. By preaching, we solidify our knowledge and we should always remember that the general mass/hearers not only hear us, they see us also. In America a research was carried out on how people learn. By hearing, they learn only 3%, by seeing they learn 25% and by association they learn 100%. We think I can go on speaking and people will be hearing. If the realisation is absent and we don’t behave properly, everything ends in a flop. The bubble is going to burst in the end. Unknowingly, because of our fruitive mentality we want to grab everywhere. Greed is working subtly everywhere. Sri Krishna clearly draws the line on the limited extent of sense enjoyment we can have by the following verse in Srimad Bhagavad gita 2.64

raaga-dvesa-vimuktais tu
visayaan indriyais caran
aatma-vasyair vidheyaatmaa
prasaadam adhigacchati
"But a person free from all attachment and aversion and able to control his senses through regulative principles of freedom can obtain the complete mercy of the Lord."

You are permitted to enjoy the senses (vishayaan indrais caran). In the second line He draws the line This enjoyment is subject to the following two conditions:
1. aatma vasyaih –all the senses must be under your control.
2. Vidheyaatma – Regulated freedom.

This is the speciality of the human beings. Otherwise there is no difference between animals and ourselves. Animals do not know about ‘aatma vasayaih’ and certainly they don’t know about ‘vidheyaatma’. If we follow these things, the result is ‘prasaadam adhigacchati’, we get the mercy of Krishna. If we don’t follow, we don’t get the mercy of Krishna. If you want to have the mercy upon you, this is the formula. We are not allowed to do anything we like. Anything which does not agree with regulative principles is always punishable.
‘neha yat karma dharmaaya’ – Those activities which don’t follow these regulative principles, they cannot lead you to religious perfection. Our activities must be so very nicely arranged that every moment of our action also should lead us to religious performance and the secret of that karma is 100% and more than 100% honesty. Honesty must be there in the karma. Shirkers are rejected, workers are respected. Why are we shirkers? Because we don’t know the art of foreseeing. How long we are going to work we don’t know. That’s why we shirk our duties. All illicit activities are there and formerly in our young age Kali yuga was there, but it was not Kali yuga at all because everybody was following this ‘aatma vasyaih vidheyaatma’. The whole society was guided by these two words. It was a very safe society. Everybody knew everybody. There were no illicit activities at all. Dishonesty was completely absent. Honesty was to that extent prevalent that they were very satisfied with whatever they earned and they had full faith in Krishna. Immaculate honesty must be there. We learn from the pages of Srimad Bhagavatam that dishonesty or any other bad quality disturbs the digestion. Any bad quality we follow, we are bound to lose our health.

We are all behaving exactly opposite to Srimad Bhagavatam and therefore we can't foresee. If you don’t foresee, how your karmas are going to be purified? In the olden days people’s karmas were very nice. Everybody was sure that he will get his share of income for sustenance. There was no competition what to speak of cut-throat competition. This competitive attitude was not there and everybody had full faith in Krishna. Electricity was not there. So there was no additional magnetic field and people were peaceful. Now in the house we are not peaceful due to the presence of magnetic field. What to talk of house, anything we eat is electricity. The chutney we eat is full of electricity. In this situation it is very difficult to put Srimad Bhagavatam and Srimad Bhagavad gita into practice. But there is no other way. That’s why diseases are increasing. In our times there was only TB/Typhoid. There was no heart disease. Only one or two rich people may have the heart disease. So there must be fundamentally something wrong or otherwise why we get diseased with so many new diseases with unknown names. One Dr.Coleman has written a book on ‘How to save yourselves from doctors killing you’. In US they found out some drug and did not find any disease. They carried the research on how this drug can be applied. They found out that children are restless and they administered that drug to decrease inattentiveness. Instead of Srimad Bhagavatam (which gives definite result) everyone goes after various medicines. May be in emergency, we may have to take help of these medicines, but so for as possible we should avoid and take the medicine of Srimad Bhagavatam.

The more you follow Srila Prabhupada you will not need anybody else. Please daily go to him and he will lovingly guide you. He has the monopoly. He has done so much that nothing is left to be done by anybody else. If anybody tries to do something, at the best he has to copy him. To that extent, we are very lucky to be with his literature. He could not take out his heart and put it in the books. He was not having any tinge of dishonesty. The more you try to grab another's possession, the more you will be diseased. We have the innate tendency, if I will get something for free, I will take as much as possible. Please try to avoid these things. If you don’t have anything to eat, don’t eat. But don’t grab. To that extent we must be completely renounced. This attitude is not there, because our activities are sinful. ‘na iha yat karma dharmaaya’ is completely absent. Only one-fourth of the sloka, we are not able to follow. For good we have to come to our senses. Ask this question "When are you going to come to the senses?". It is getting late. Life is as it is, very flickering. We are alive today, after 1 hour what will happen, we don’t know. So why to plan this and that. We should be completely satisfied with our situation, then our karmas will not have the dishonest tinge.

Honesty is the finest element ‘iha’ – ‘in this planet’. If your honesty is more than 100% in your karma, you can see the result. The best result is that you are completely satisfied. That satisfaction will give you the nice feeling in your body by which you will be able to inquire about the transcendence. Then we will know about the goal of our life and what is to be done. The art of foreseeing will be there. You will be relieved from your karma because of your honesty. By stopping the work, you will never be relieved. Encourage people to perform karmas in this direction. This is the way for religious perfection.

2. How religious perfection should lead to renunciation.
As soon as the karma becomes completely purified and we become relieved from the karmic reactions, then automatically dharma or religious perfection will be attained. There is no need of separate endeavour. Karma should be performed in that way that we are religiously going ahead.
Everything in this world goes up. In the hut, through the hole, all the atoms goes up through the sun rays. Whatever is here living/nonliving is attracted to Krishna because everything is His energy. But we stop this tendency by our dishonesty and by shirking our own duties. We completely destroy the whole thing. At the most what is likely to happen? You may not be able to get money or you may not have vehicles/house. Why to stay in three or five star apartment, just sleep under million stars with no money. We should never endeavour beyond our capacity. If we have 10Rs, then we should try to do what is possible with Rs.8. That is allowed. Over endeavour always puts you in trouble. Our greedy/fruitive mentality always pushes us to over endeavour. If you want to over endeavour, take Srimad Bhagavatam in your hand and do over endeavour. That is allowed and you will be respected everywhere. In the worldly activities, over endeavour is condemned.
It is better to quit the world than to create dishonesty everywhere. By not following Srimad Bhagavatam we are killing ourselves and we don’t know that. Why Krishna has given these instructions. He knows because He has created the planet. This planet is manufactured by Krishna and He has given the booklet in the form of Bhagavad gita and Srimad Bhagavatam and you will get the good results. But we are so very proud. As soon as He rejects us there is no way to survive. As it is we are in difficulty. Don’t add to your difficulties particularly by your dishonest behaviour.
Suppose we are to able to perform honest work then religious life begins, and such religious life should lead to renunciation. We have double R (RR – 1st R for Religious perfection and 2nd R for Renunciation). Religious life must naturally direct us to renunciation. This stage is very difficult because by our nature we are attached. But there is only one way that if you meditate upon transcendence, then sometime we will be able to do it.
In Bhagavad gita Krishna says in 10.41
yad yad vibhutimat sattvam
srimad urjitam eva vaa
tat tad evaavagaccha tvam
mama tejo-'msa-sambhavam
Know that all opulent, beautiful and glorious creations spring from but a spark of my splendour.
So much of inconceivable energy and how much great He should be. We should always think about the greatness of the Lord. Because we don’t strive for religious perfection, we don’t have the tendency to think about Krishna. To just cultivate this tendency you have to be very honest in the religious path. Otherwise you don’t have the peace to think about Him. In no way, our peace of mind must be disturbed. We can’t have any peace, unless we follow the recommended path given by scriptures. We try so many ways but we are not peaceful at all.
Maharaja was quoting a beautiful verse from Mukundamala- strotra (verse 14), regarding the supreme greatness of the Lord.
prthvi renur anuh payaamsi kanikaah phalguh sphulingo laghus
tejo nihsvasanam marut tanu-taram randhram su-suksmam nabhah
ksudraa rudra-pitaamaha-prabhrtayah kitaah samastaah suraa
drste yatra sa taarako vijayate sri-paada-dhuli-kanah
"Once our Saviour has been seen, the whole earth becomes no greater than a speck of dust, all the waters of the ocean become mere droplets, the totality of fire becomes a minute spark, the winds become just a faint sigh, and the expanse of space becomes a tiny hole. Great Lords like Rudra and Grandfather Brahma becomes insignificant, and all the demigods becomes like small insects. Indeed, even one particle of dust from our Lord’s feet conquers all."
We are all on the tottering platform of running after fruitive works. Understand the power of the holy names. Nobody was preaching in the past but everybody knew about Krishna’s greatness. In Kali yuga we have to convince our mind about the greatness of Krishna. So again the scriptures are there. Please confirm your own self and make your faith very strong in Krishna and that is required for renunciation. Otherwise you will never renounce. There will be so many tricks of the mind to hold on to our possessions. Till we are alive we may possess something. As soon as we are dead, people will inquire about our deposits. Living entities grab. To avoid these things, it is better not to have anything, or otherwise be magnanimous. It is easy to say, but difficult to follow. But without this there is no other way. Whether you are stingy or magnanimous, you will be forced to leave everything and that is the art of foreseeing.
So before time affects us, please come to the serious study of scriptures. There is no way to avoid time except devotion. Death does not approach us means, your body will have to go, but you will be at ease and not baffled.
He is so great that with a spark He is maintaining the whole manifestation beyond our power of expression. Hence He has to be experienced. This experience will be there when there is meditation on His holy names. By thinking about the greatness of the Lord, He will make us ignore the material formalities or otherwise to chant the names of the Lord in the roads is not possible. We should realize our limited capacity and be humble.

3. How renunciation should lead to loving devotional service to the lotus feet of the Lord.
Once we understand the greatness, we are attracted to Him, and we start worshiping Him. Once this idea is completely fixed in our mind, worship is there. There is no carelessness in renunciation. Everything must be performed immaculately. Prescribed duties must be performed. Don’t look for fruitive results. This tendency will give the renunciation. Worship will follow. Otherwise ‘jivann api mrto hi sah" - "Although breathing we are dead." Don’t follow this.
In the end complete satisfaction will be there. Always see that whether the activity is satisfying yourself and other living entities.
Thanks to HG Devakinandan prabhuji, who gave us this Video CD nectar of Srimad Bhagavatam flowing from our beloved Gurudeva lotus mouth or otherwise it is not possible to share this rare nectar.
It is imperative to understand that all the lectures of our beloved Gurudeva is not merely knowledge but profound realisation and this needs to be shared in this forum and it will serve as the one and only saviour for us and the next generation. I beg humbly that all the devotees who associate with our beloved Maharaja to share those profound realisations in this forum for the ultimate benefit of all. Even one percent application of this profound realisation would make our lives successful.

Chant,

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna

Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Rama Rama

Hare Hare

and be happy.