by Sri Vrindavan das
Srila Prabhupāda: So when Kṛṣṇa advises, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66), it is the right advice, but we cannot take it. Kṛṣṇa is the right friend, suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānām (BG 5.29), but we don’t accept His friendship. We want to go in our own way. (break)
Jñānagamya: There is so much envy in my heart, and when I’m chanting I’m understanding the envy is causing me so much distress. And yet I can’t give it up. I cannot leave off these envious feelings. How is it that the spirit soul…
Srila Prabhupāda: That is material world, envious. That is a disease, to become envious. The spiritual world means no enviousness. That is spiritual world. And material world, there is only envious. I’m envious of you, you are envious of me. It is a society of enviousness. Dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo ‘tra paramo nirmatsarāṇām (SB 1.1.2). Paramo nirmatsara. One who is not at all envious, for him, bhāgavata-dharma.
(Morning Walk – Tehran, August 8, 1976)
Madhudviṣa: You were talking about enviousness, Śrīla Prabhupāda. And we see that this even sometimes pervades in our own society.
Srila Prabhupāda: Because you have, you are not yet perfect. That means. You are not yet perfect. You are trying to be perfect. Now be perfect.
Madhudviṣa: Is there a way, is there a specific way to counteract this bad quality of enviousness?
Srila Prabhupāda: And yes, just chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Cleanse your mind. All dirty things will go. Because you neglect to chant regularly, therefore the dirty things remain.
Pañcadraviḍa: One devotee was talking with a Māyāvādī sannyāsī, famous sannyāsī. So he said that “Your desire to attain mukti, that is a material desire.”
Srila Prabhupāda: No, we don’t want multi.
Pañcadraviḍa: Yes. So…
Srila Prabhupāda: Mukti flatters me: “Please accept me.” We don’t want multi.
Pañcadraviḍa: So the devotee went on, “To want to become one with the Lord, that is material desire.” So the Māyāvādī, he answered, he said, “No, to want to remain separate from the Lord and enjoy rasa, or exchange, with Him, that is also material desire. Because you want to stay two, God and you, so you can be separate just so you can enjoy an exchange. That is also a desire.”
Srila Prabhupāda: Therefore, because you have no brain, therefore you cannot understand the rasas with Kṛṣṇa. That is spiritual; that is not material. Ānanda-rasa. Ananda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhiḥ (Bs. 5.37). That is the Vedic statement. There is cinmaya. In the spiritual world there is ananda. You… You have no knowledge. You, due to your poor fund of knowledge, you think that in the spiritual world there is no rasa; it is simply void, negation of this rasa. Just like a diseased man. He is practiced to drink bitter medicine and pass stool on the bed and so many inconveniences, so if some of his friends says, “When you’ll be cured, you’ll be able to pass stool in the lavatory. You haven’t got to, haven’t got to pass stool…” Then he shudders: “Again I have to pass stool after becoming cured? Again I have to eat? No, no, this is not good. Make it zero.” He has no idea what is the meaning of passing stool in healthy stage. It refreshes the body. We get good energy. That he cannot conceive. He thinks that “If there is passing of stool again, then it must be the same suffering as I am undergoing now in this condition.” So the Māyāvādī’s idea of spiritual life means negation of these material activities. But they have no idea that similar activities are there in spiritual life, but that is not material. That is their poor fund of knowledge. Therefore we are… You are not understanding Caitanya-caritāmṛta, the rādhā-kṛṣṇa-praṇaya-vikṛtīv hlādinī-śaktir asmāt. That I am explaining for the last few days. That is not at all this material. So unless there is loving affair in the spiritual world, how here it is as perverted reflection? It is the reflection of the reality. The reality is there. That they cannot understand. That is also hinted in the Bhagavad-gītā, that “There is another feature, or another nature,” paras tasmāt tu bhāvo ‘nyaḥ (BG 8.20), “which is sanātana, is eternal.” Here the rasas, on account of being material, they are flickering. But there, real rasa is permanent. Here the loving affairs between two parties finish as soon as the bodies finish. But there, there is no question of finishing. Increasing. Ānandambudhi-vardhanam, increasing. Harer nāma… (Break)…in reality, “what I am,” that can be understood through devotional service, not by karma, jñāna, yoga. But… Give this example, I mean to say, authoritative statement of Kṛṣṇa, that bhaktyā mām abhijānāti (BG 18.55).
(Morning Walk – April 2, 1975, Mayapur)
© Bhaktivedanta Book Trust
