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THE FOLLOWING LECTURE ON THE SRIMAD BHAGAVATAM CANTO 3, CHAPTER 9, BRAHMA’S PRAYERS FOR CREATIVE ENERGY, TEXT 13, WAS GIVEN BY HIS HOLINESS BHAKTI CHARU SWAMI IN ISKCON UJJAIN, INDIA ON 1 JANUARY 2008.

Transcription : Her Grace Ranga Radhika Dasi
Editing : Ramananda Raya Dasa

Audio-Reference : click here


Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya

Srimad Bhagavatam, third Canto, chapter nine ‘Brahma’s Prayers For Creative Energy’, text thirteen.

pumsam ato vividha-karmabhir adhvaradyair
danena cogra-tapasa paricaryaya ca
aradhanam bhagavatas tava sat-kriyartho
dharmo ‘rpitah karhicid mriyate na yatra

Synonyms:
pumsam — of the people; atah — therefore; vividha-karmabhih — by various fruitive activities; adhvara-adyaih — by performance of Vedic rituals; danena — by charities; ca — and; ugra — very hard; tapasa — austerity; paricaryaya — by transcendental service; ca — also; aradhanam — worship; bhagavatah — of the Personality of Godhead; tava — Your; sat-kriya-arthah — simply for pleasing Your Lordship; dharmah — religion; arpitah — so offered; karhicit — at any time; mriyate — vanquishes; na — never; yatra — there.

Translation:
But the pious activities of the people, such as performance of Vedic rituals, charity, austere penances, and transcendental service, performed with a view to worship You and satisfy You by offering You the fruitive results, are also beneficial. Such acts of religion never go in vain.

Purport:
Absolute devotional service, conducted in nine different spiritual activities — hearing, chanting, remembering, worshiping, praying, etc. — does not always appeal to people with a pompous nature; they are more attracted by the Vedic superficial rituals and other costly performances of social religious shows. But the process according to the Vedic injunctions is that the fruits of all pious activities should be offered to the Supreme Lord. In Bhagavad-gita (9.27), the Lord demands that whatever one may do in one’s daily activities, such as worship, sacrifice, and offering charity, all the results should be offered to Him only. This offering of the results of pious acts unto the Supreme Lord is a sign of devotional service to the Lord and is of permanent value, whereas enjoying the same results for oneself is only temporary. Anything done on account of the Lord is a permanent asset and accumulates in the form of unseen piety for gradual promotion to the unalloyed devotional service of the Lord. These undetected pious activities will one day result in full-fledged devotional service by the grace of the Supreme Lord. Therefore, any pious act done on account of the Supreme Lord is also recommended here for those who are not pure devotees.
[End of Purport]

pumsam ato vividha-karmabhir adhvaradyair
danena cogra-tapasa paricaryaya ca
aradhanam bhagavatas tava sat-kriyartho
dharmo ‘rpitah karhicid mriyate na yatra

But the pious activities of the people, such as performance of Vedic rituals, charity, austere penances, and transcendental service, performed with a view to worship You and satisfy You by offering You the fruitive results, are also beneficial. Such acts of religion never go in vain.

So Brahma is praying to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Brahma had been instructed by the Lord to create this material nature, the universe. This is actually the secondary creation aspect. The primary creation or the principal creation, original creation was done by Vishnu Himself, Mahavishnu, lying on the Causal Ocean, as He was breathing. The bubbles caused by His breathing are the universes. Originally those universes were hollow inside, empty inside, like a bubble. Inside the bubble, what do you have? Inside the bubble you have air. There is nothing, just air. The space is vacant. So then Mahavishnu expanded Himself as Garbhodakasayi Vishnu and He entered into each of these universes and filled half of the universe with water generated out of His body. From His own body He generated the water called Garbhodaka water, and then He laid on that water on the Ananta Sesha, a bed created by Ananta Sesha. Then from the navel of Garbhodakasayi Vishnu a lotus came out and Brahma was situated on that lotus.

The first created being, Brahma, was directly generated out of the navel of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.  And initially Brahma didn’t know what to do, because Brahma just came, he saw that he is sitting on a lotus and that lotus was actually situated on a vast pool of water, and he was sitting there. Brahma did not have any knowledge of where he came from, who he was. He just appeared. Brahma was not born like the babies are born, then they gradually grow. Brahma directly came from the navel of the Lord and he was fully conscious. But he was conscious of the present, but he didn’t have any memory of the past. That is the situation of every living entity all the way up to Brahma in this material nature. When they are born, what happens? Most of the time when one is born he doesn’t have any recollection of his past. When you were born did you remember anything? Did you remember how it was like in the mother’s womb? Did you remember how it was like before you died in a previous body? Or how it was while we were dying in our previous body? Do you remember how the Yamadutas came and dragged us out of that body and subjected us to all kinds of punishment? So that is the birth in the material nature. We get a new body and we don’t have any recollections of the past. The memory begins from that point onwards. Some faint memory remain in the subconscious mind or in the subtle body, very faint memories, but no distinct memories of the past.

So then Brahma received the mercy of the Lord in the form of Gayatri mantra and meditating on the Gayatri, Brahma could see the Lord face to face. And Brahma was instructed by the Lord what to do. What was the purpose of Brahma’s coming to this material nature? The purpose of Brahma’s coming to the material nature was to create the universe. The universe was hollow. There was nothing, just Garbhodakasayi Vishnu lying, but in order to create the universe what was needed? The need was for many, many people to come, many souls to come and acquire material bodies. So that creation, that aspect of the creation which is known as the secondary creation, was caused by Lord Brahma.

The first aspect of creation is the way it appeared from Lord Mahavishnu. That’s the first aspect which is known as ‘sarga’ aspect of the Bhagavata Purana. The Puranas have ten symptoms. How many of you remember those ten symptoms. Okay, Shyama Piyari? Your hand went up first.

Devotee: atra sarga visarga sthanam ca utthaya manvanatra isanukatha nirodha mukti ashraya

Okay. So now tell me, what are they?
Devotee: sarga, visarga
Sarga means what?
Devotee: primary creation
Very good
Devotee: visarga means secondary creation
Okay.
Devotee: sthanam, the place. Posanam means to look after, to maintain.
Okay, then utthaya? [to another devotee:] You go on from poshanam.
Devotee: poshanam is maintenance of devotees.
Maintenance of devotees, yeah. Then utthaya.
Devotee: Utthaya is creative impetus.
Creative impetus, utthaya, then?
Devotee: manvantara is the change of Manus. Isanukatha is the pastimes of the Supreme Lord.  Then…
Nirodha.
Devotee: Nirodha….
Okay, good. Ganganarayana?
Devotee: Niratas ca sayanam, how the universe is situated in the universal form.
Okay, very good, and mukti.
Devotee: mukti [unclear] and ashraya is Krishna Himself.
Krishna Himself, the summum bonum. So a Maha Purana must have these ten symptoms. Now here, what is being described? The visarga aspect, the secondary creation which started from Brahma. So the Lord instructed Brahma. This creation in the material nature takes place in which mode? The mode of passion. Brahma is the controller of the mode of passion and the creation actually takes place in the mode of passion and Brahma is the presiding controller of that specific mode. The material creation takes place in the mode of passion. Then maintenance takes place in which mode? Maintenance takes place in the mode of goodness and destruction takes place in the mode of ignorance. So creation, maintenance and destruction are conducted by three different modes. Of these three the creation aspect was done by Lord Brahma.

So after being instructed Brahma is now offering his prayers to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In this particular verse Brahma is actually indicating that how one should act. Like, we notice there are different types of activities. In this material nature we see that some people just act without any consideration for the consequences. They just do things for their immediate benefit. They act just for their sense gratification. Those acts are irresponsible acts. Then responsible acts begin by following the instructions. Like, for example, we go to a country and we know there are the laws of that country. We follow those laws. If somebody doesn’t follow the law, then what will happen? If someone goes to a country but doesn’t follow the law then he will be arrested and be punished. But when one follows the laws then what happens? Then he lives peacefully, lives happily and he gets the benefit. Now, in a higher sense, in a greater sense there is a broader concept of law. When you go to a country, the country has its laws, but in a broader sense the whole creation the country has the law given by the king of that country or the government of that country. But who is the King of kings? The Supreme Creator. The Supreme Creator also, does He have a law? Did He give the law? Yes, and those laws are known as dharma. Dharmam tu sakshad bhagavad-pranitam. [SB 6.3.19] The laws that are given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead are known as dharma.

Now, when we consider dharma what do we find? Dharma is giving the indications: do this and do not do that. Just like in a country there are do’s and do not’s, abide by the law and don’t break the law. Don’t tell a lie. Don’t steal. Don’t inflict any unnecessary pain to others. So these are the basic principles of dharma, the do’s and do not’s. And then it goes to a higher consideration. Do not try to enjoy in this material nature whimsically. There is a systematic way of doing it. You want to enjoy? Yes, very good. You want to enjoy, but in order to enjoy what do we have to do? We have to act in an appropriate way. In order to enjoy, you have to do certain things, say for example, austerities is one thing, charity, dana means charity, tapasya means austerity. You undergo some difficulties in order to achieve something greater. Give in charity, if you have something in excess then give it to others who don’t have it. That is called charity. Then sacrifice, in simple words sacrifice means pay the bills. At the end of the month doesn’t the state expect that you pay the bill? Electric bill, the electric supply you got for the month, and then you have to pay the bill. You got the water supply, you have used the roads. You are getting all these facilities so you pay the bill. Pay the bill to whom? To the higher authorities.

And there are some higher authorities in the universal consideration also. Just as there are departments and departmental heads in the state, in the broader consideration, in the universal consideration there are higher authorities of different departments. Like there is also a water department, fire department, sun department, moon department, education department, finance department. And there are different heads of those departments and they are known as ‘devas’ and ‘devis.’ Like the controller or the head of the water department is Varuna. The head of the fire department is Agni. The head of the wind department is Pavana. The head of the rain department is Indra. The head of the education department is Sarasvati. The head of finance department is Lakshmi. So these are the devas and devis who are different departmental heads. Now when you get the facilities from them you have to pay the bill for getting those facilities. Paying those bills is actually the sacrifice. I have received this facility so now I am offering you the payment for the bills, the bills I am paying.

Now, when you pay the bills then what happens? The supply continues. If you don’t pay the bills then what happens? The supply will be cut off. And when you pay the bills then you get other facilities. Not so much in India, but it is very common in countries like America. If you pay the bill in time and all, then they give reduction. Okay, you paid the bill for three months in time, the fourth month you don’t have to pay the bill, or we will come and install you some new facilities in your house for the electric department. So this is how they offer these facilities as a recognition of your good deeds. So these aspects are known as dharma. But although there are different departments but ultimately when they take those bills, payments, ultimately what do the departmental heads do? They offer them to the state government. Or if we consider a state with a king then they offer it to the king.

The normal condition of ruling is through monarchy. Nowadays the monarchy is gone, therefore instead of monarchy, instead of one king there has been democracy. Due to their irresponsible acts, when the kings became very tyrannical, became independently whimsical and tyrants then the kings were thrown out. People did not want that king because what is the responsibility of a king? Is the king’s business to exploit or is the king’s business to protect? An ideal king gives protection but due to the influence of Kali when the kings became independent, generally the kings used to function under the guidance of the saintly personalities. Those saintly personalities are known as the brahmanas. Does a saint appear according to his birth? Is there any family of saints? Generally it is not by birth. We can’t say that only from a certain family all the members will become saints. The ultimate consideration of a saint is by his qualification. Unfortunately, again due to the influence of Kali, the main consideration became birth, not the qualification. When sometimes in the family of a saint a demon was born and he was recognized as a saint, then what will happen? The demon will act like a demon but he is identified or recognized as a saint, and then there will be trouble. And this is how the Vedic culture was actually destroyed. The emphasis was given on the birth but not on qualification.

Anyway, the actual structure was, the kings, the rulers, the kshatriyas, the kshatriyas are very powerful individuals. They are very powerful. They are actually in the mode of passion. So because they are in the mode of passion they are very powerful. And the saintly people are in the mode of goodness. So these very powerful rulers, the warriors, they used to function under the guidance of the saintly personalities. That’s why they never acted independently. They acted under the guidance of their superiors. But those people, those who were superiors, they were not into enjoying in this material nature. Being in the mode of goodness they were withdrawn. They didn’t even live in a crowded place, in a city or even towns. They lived away from everything in a solitary place. There they used to have their ‘tapovana’, tapovana; a garden to perform their mediation and austerities. Generally those places used to be in a very serene atmosphere on a bank of a river and there they would perform their spiritual activities. Whereas the powerful kings, because they are in the mode of passion, they had a natural tendency to enjoy and the freedom was given to them. Yes, you can enjoy but while you are enjoying you have to also give protection. There will be people who will be under you. They will serve you but you have to give them protection. So that is how the civilized human society was structured.
They used to perform, the kshatriya, the word kshatriya means kshatat trayate iti kshatriya: one who gives protection from injury. Kshat means injury and trayate means gives protection or delivers. Who did they give the protection? To their citizens, those who were subordinate to them. The king had his citizens, subjects, and those subjects used to act on behalf of the king and the king used to give them protection. How? Just as a father gives protection to his children, and just as grown up children also help the father, the citizens, grown up and capable citizens used to give the support and help and service to the king. So this is how there used to be a mutual interdependence. But when the Kaliyuga began then the brahminical structure, brahminical culture was lost. The brahmanas were not qualified. They were not actually situated in the mode of goodness. They were not qualified with the brahminical qualifications or saintly qualifications of being compassionate, being merciful, being learned, being wise and being detached. Instead, what they became? They became ignorant. They became exploitative and they became enjoyous. So as a result of that they started to use their position. They were pretending to be saints but they were actually trying to exploit everybody. So when they started to behave like that, the kings thought, “Why should we act under these rascals? Who are these? These are a bunch of exploiters. So why should we function under these people?” So the kings became independent and when they became independent and there was no one to guide them, the kings became gradually tyrannical. They became tyrants. Instead of giving protection to their citizens they started to exploit their citizens. They started to exploit to such an extent that the citizens became completely disgusted with these kings and then they tried to get rid of them.

Actually, in the Western history this phenomena became very prominent, very clear, very distinct, especially in countries like France and Russia. Actually the first revolution came in France, the French Revolution. At that time Louis XVI the citizens of the country were suffering so much. They didn’t have any food to eat, whereas the king was living in extreme luxury. They were living in extreme luxury, exploiting people, extracting from them any form of tax for their enjoyment without even considering how they are going to eat, that they were starving, there was no food. And then they went in protest in front of the palace of the king. And Louis XVI’s queen, Marie-Antoinette, she asked why they are screaming and shouting like that. So she was told, “Because they don’t have any bread to eat.” And her comment was, “Then why don’t they eat cakes? If they don’t have bread, let them eat cake!” So this is how unconcerned and ignorant those people actually became, and the result was a revolution. When a person is dying, he doesn’t have any hope for anything, then what will happen? He’ll become ferocious. And then they destroyed that monarchy. They killed everybody. Whenever they found any trace of royalty, any royal blood in somebody, they just put him under the guillotine. They created a device. A big blade would be hanging and the person would be kept underneath and they would let the blade drop: chop! The head would get chopped off. So that is how they were killing, thousands of people were killed under the guillotine in that French Revolution. So in this way the monarchy was abolished and instead of monarchy came democracy; for the people, by the people, of the people.

Anyway, this is how the history changed but actually the human civilization prior to that for thousands of years always maintained this system of monarchy, the king. And the king would not be whimsically acting. The king would not act whimsically. The king would be following a very specific system. The laws were not given by the king. The laws were given by the saintly personalities of the past, Samhitas, especially Manu Samhita. Manu Samhita gave the law for the mankind. Now who is Manu? Manu is the first progenitor of mankind, the original man, and from him came the mankind or Manava. Do we see the link? Man and Manu. The word man has come from Manava. Manu’s offspring are manavas, just as Danu’s offspring are Danavas. Diti’s offspring are Daityas. Like that. So Manu is the father of mankind and Manu gave the law for the mankind. What is the law meant for? The law was meant for a peaceful situation in the human society.

Why there is law? Is the law just to exploit people? No, the laws are there to create a peaceful atmosphere. Laws are there to bring order in the society. Law and order: you follow the law, there will be order. If you don’t follow the law, what will happen? A very wonderful, a very classical example of that is, you go to the big cities in India, where you see that there is no traffic law, especially in cities like Calcutta. Nobody follows the traffic law. There the rule is might is right. The light is saying red, they just won’t stop and drive away. And what will happen as a result of that? There will be complete chaos. But if they maintain the law then what would’ve happened? The flow would have continued if the traffic is actually maintained by the lights. Red light means stop and green light means go. So when it is green light then you can go, but if it is red light you should stop. But not to follow the law means, “I don’t care for the red light. I am not going to stop, I’ll carry on.” And the result will be accident. So that is why it is important to follow the law. Law brings order. And breaking the law means crime. You break the law, there will be crime. It’s a criminal act not to abide by the law. And the crime is dealt with punishment. If you commit a crime, if you break the law, you’ll be punished. But nowadays what is happening? Between the crime and punishment another factor has come in. That’s called bribe. So you break the law, you give bribe, you won’t be punished. And as a result of that the whole society has become so chaotic. So what should a man actually do?  A civilized individual, what should he do? He should abide by the law and order. He should abide by the law in order to create order in the society. So in the broader sense, that law is called dharma. You follow the law, you will be rewarded. You break the law, you’ll be punished. So then comes these two considerations: ‘papa’ and ‘punya’ (piety and sin). You abide by the law, there will be piety. You break the law, there will be papa (sin). And as a result of sin what will you get? You’ll get punishment. As a result of punya or piety you will get reward.

So that is what Brahma is pointing out and then Brahma in this particular verse is pointing out that ultimately all these pious activities must be done for the sake of pleasing the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So papa and punya also have a temporary consideration. Both papa and punya have temporary consideration. You get some piety and you get rewarded. But once you get the reward, piety is something like getting some asset, getting some money. Piety is like subtle money. You have money, you can fulfill your desire. But after you spend the money then what happens? It’s minus. It’s gone. Then you have to go and earn some more money in order to get what you wanted. So the first consideration is, don’t commit sinful activities but act in a pious way. Don’t break the law, follow the law. Follow the path of dharma, don’t go against the rules and regulations as such. The result will be: you will be rewarded. But those rewards are actually temporary. You get punya, like, say you have a hundred rupees and you go and buy something that costs ninety rupees. Then ninety rupees is gone. Then if you want to buy something for two hundred rupees, then what you have to do? You have to go again and work and earn the money and then only you can buy that. So that’s why these results of punya are temporary.

But in this particular verse Brahma is saying that when this punya is offered to the Supreme Personality of Godhead then the benefit of that is permanent. Say, for example, what happens, you got some asset, you got some money, now you go and offer that money to the king. The king will take the money and then what will the king say? He’ll say that, “Very good. I have recorded that you have given it to me.” And there, there is no diminution, especially when that is offered to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Like, I was talking of the departmental heads and the king. The departmental heads collected but then they offer it to the king. So devis and devas are the departmental heads, but the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna or Vishnu, is the Supreme King of kings. And all the demigods, the devas, whatever they are receiving as an act of sacrifice from you eventually they offer it to the king. Just like the departmental heads, when they collect tax or when they collect the bills, they offer it to the treasury. The treasury belongs to the king.

So, similarly, in the supreme consideration the devas and devis, they are the different departmental heads but Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore in Sanskrit we find these two expressions: devas (devatas) and Bhagavan. Indra, Chandra, Varuna, Ganesha, they are devas., and Sarasvati etcetera are devis. They are not Bhagavan but krishnas tu Bhagavan svayam. [SB 1.3.28] Ete camsa-kalah pumsah krishnas tu Bhagavan svayam. Bhagavan means the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is one without a second. Devas and devis are in the material nature but Krishna is in the spiritual sky, beyond this material nature.

So Brahma is actually saying, he is offering the prayers to Narayana who appeared in front of him, he is saying that, “Charity, austere penances and transcendental service performed with a view to worship You and satisfy You, by offering You the fruitive results are also beneficial. Such acts of religion never go in vain.” So the ultimate consideration of religion is to submit to that Supreme Personality of Godhead and offer everything unto Him including ourselves. That is the final consideration and that point is known as the unalloyed devotional service to the Lord or pure devotion to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Thank you very much. Does anybody have any question?
[To be continued]

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