Transcription and Editing : Vinod-Bihari Dasa

Today we are concluding our seminar on brahmacarya.  We will concludewith Lord Rsabadeva’s teachings to His sons described in the fifthChapter of the fifth Canto. We will read the first verse of thatchapter together.

“Lord Rsabadeva told His sons: My dear boys, of all the livingentities who have accepted material bodies in this world, one who hasbeen awarded this human form should not work hard day and night simplyfor sense gratification, which is available even for dogs and hogs whoeat stool. One should engage in penance and austerity to attain thedivine position of devotional service. By such activity, one’s heart ispurified, and when one attains this position, he attains eternal,blissful life, which is transcendental to material happiness and whichcontinues forever.”

So Rsabadeva is giving His parting advice to His sons. He was aking, about to leave home to take to Vanaprastha. He was leavingeverything behind, just about to walk away without anything. He wouldjust leave home and start walking toward the forest. That is the Vedicculture: detachment and renunciation. He did not hesitate to walk away,but before leaving He gave his parting advice to his hundred sons.

The first thing He tells His sons is: “Do not become unnecessarilyengaged in sense gratification, especially that now you have a humanform which is very precious and meant for spiritual emancipation.” Hetells them that sense gratification is also available to stool eatinganimals. What is available for the stool eating animals should not berun after by you. A stool eater is a hog or a pig. Pigs are famous foreating stool. But one who is called a pig is actually a woman hunter,one who’s whole life is centered around sex life. So why should a humanbeing waste his special facility in running after sex life? Rather,tapo divyam, one should design his life to perform austerities, orvoluntary acceptance of difficulties for the sake of spiritualadvancement. For example, Rsabadeva voluntarily accepted the austerityof leaving home. He decided that his home atmosphere was no suitablefor spiritual advancement. So even though He did not need to, Hevoluntarily went to the forest.

We must therefore be brahmacaris, be focused on the spiritualplatform. Not just celibacy, which is just a by-product. Actually,devotees want to become lovers of Krsna, not celibates. They want tobecome attached to Krsna. In order to do that, one must be very carefulnot to be overly involved in sex life.

Rsabadeva then tells something else to His sons. In text 4 He tells
His children:

“When a person considers sense gratification the aim of life, hecertainly becomes mad after materialistic living and engages in allkinds of sinful activity. He does not know that due to his pastmisdeeds he has already received a body which, although temporary, isthe cause of his misery.  Actually, the living entity should not havetaken on a material body, but he has been awarded the material body forsense gratification. Therefore I think it not befitting an intelligentman to involve himself again in the activities of sense gratificationby which he perpetually gets material bodies one after another.”

Here He is pointing out the cause of our material bondage. Materialnature creates an illusion which is, first, to consider this body to bethe self. I am not this body, but I am thinking that this body is me.This is illusion.  The body is matter, but I identify with it. That iseverybody’s illusion.  What is the result? Text 8 tells us: “Theattraction between male and female is the basic principle of materialexistence. On the basis of this misconception, which ties together thehearts of the male and female, one becomes attracted to his body, home,property, children, relatives and wealth. In this way one increaseslife’s illusions and thinks in terms of “I” and “mine”

See how the illusion thickens? That is the root of our bondage inthe material nature. So you see how a living entity becomes bound tomatter due to the basic attraction for the opposite sex? The wholetrouble begins with that. Srila Prabhupada was so emphatic that we arenot our bodies, because there lies our entire material bondage. As soonas we identify with the body, we automatically become attached to theopposite sex, and all the rest. In today’s civilization, though, peopleare not even interested in marriage even, just free sex. It is being soadvertized. Therefore the spiritual culture that Srila Prabhupada gaveis very important to uphold and distribute to others. Until we do that,we are not performing our duties. We have to distribute it to others.In the Bhagavatam we find the same advice being given again and again:“Don’t become attached to your body; rather, develop your attachment toKrsna.’

I think there is a need for an in-depth understanding of thispoint.  Brahmacarya means to become situated on the spiritual platform.Sometimes there used to be people who used to say that to be abrahmacari means to hate women. It doesn’t work. The biggest womenhaters were the first ones to fall down. It is not by negation that onemakes progress. One must learn to respect women in order to become atrue brahmacari. Then also, it is not only meant for the brahmacaris.Srila Prabhupada pointed out that even the householders arebrahmacaris. Those who unite for the sake of procreation
are also brahmacaris because that is the purpose of sex life: only forthe sake of procreation. In nature, do the animals unite for sensegratification? No. Now, a certain pleasure has been attached to thisact,
otherwise humans would not do it. So in order to trick you into thatact, some sense gratification has been added to it. But foolish peopleforget the real purpose and therefore destroy themselves spiritually.Therefore an intelligent person should understand that sex life is theworst illusion.

Stupid human beings led by even more stupid leaders think that thisis the goal of life. And the result is disaster. But Srila Prabhupadabrought sanity to humanity, an intelligent class of people whotranscend this illusion and come to the spiritual platform. They arethe only ones who can benefit human society. Those who are in illusioncannot benefit others. A blind man will bring another blind man down aditch. Therefore in order to properly guide human society there is aneed of a class of people with the proper vision. Therefore we musttake to Srila Prabhupada’s teachings, and the basis of that isspiritual life, which has brahmcarya as the essence.

Generally in ISKCON one does not want to speak about this in publicbecause it is a sensitive subject. But recently, after the Australianolympics, I was reading an article of how the coaches train up their
athletes. All of them are very strict about them refraining from sexlife.  So even the materialists have figured out that you have to learnto control  your sex desire. Then after class yesterday, one of thedevotees told me that Muhammed Ali, when he used to have a fight, forthree months before the fight he would not indulge in sex life. But thestupid leaders of human society say, “no. Engage in sex life. It is thegoal of life.”

So pigs are trying to make a pig society. But our mission is tocounteract this. Srila Prabhupada established ISKCON for this. We sayno to their entire emphasis on sex life, meat eating, intoxication andgambling. They are promoting these things everywhere. Today, thebiggest businesses are these 4 things.  Maximum money is spent on these4 activities. Is it not? If anyone wants to become a successfulbusinessman, these are the 4 things one get can involved in. TheAmerican government decided to spend 10 billion dollars to prevent drugsmuggling, but those passing the budget are themselves involved in drugtrafficking, so then the money will simply go to their own pockets.

Prostitution is another big business. It means illicit sex. Gamblingis also huge: Las Vegas, Reno. There are entire cities based ongambling. In a middle of a desert they built an entire city based ongambling where people from all over the world come to lose billions ofdollars. Kali is spreading his influence through these four activites.Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu came here to defeat Kali. That is why inISKCON, members must themselves follow these four regulativeprinciples. They should also stop these activities in the world. TodayKali is winning. Who are we siding with, Kali or Sri CaitanyaMahaprabhu? We are siding with Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and are in Hisarmy. Therefore we must defeat Kali. The sign of Sri CaitanyaMahaprabhu’s victory will be the abolition of these four activities.When no more of these activities will go on in the world, then we willunderstand that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has won. Some will continue todo these things, but they will be driven out of human society into theforest.  So we must become qualified soldiers in the army of SriCaitanya Mahaprabhu. Hare Krsna.