A Shrimad Bhagavatam class (3.5.47) given by His Grace Purujit Dasa, the founder of the Bhaktivedanta Lives in Sound Society
tathapare catma-samadhi-yoga-
balena jitva prakrtim balistham
tvam eva dhirah purusam visanti
tesam sramah syan na tu sevaya te
Translation
Others, who are pacified by means of transcendental self-realization and have conquered over the modes of nature by dint of strong power and knowledge, also enter into You, but for them there is much pain, whereas the devotee simply discharges devotional service and thus feels no such pain.
Purport by His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada:
“In terms of a labor of love and its returns, the bhaktas, or devotees of the Lord, always have priority over persons who are addicted to the association of jnanis, or impersonalists, and yogis, or mystics. The word apare (others) is very significant in this connection. "Others" refers to the jnanis and the yogis, whose only hope is to merge into the existence of the impersonal brahma-jyoti. Although their destination is not so important in comparison to the destination of the devotees, the labor of the nondevotees is far greater than that of the bhaktas. One may suggest that there is sufficient labor for the devotees also in the matter of discharging devotional service. But that labor is compensated by the enhancement of transcendental pleasure. The devotees derive more transcendental pleasure while engaged continuously in the service of the Lord than when they have no such engagement. In the family combination of a man and a woman there is much labor and responsibility for both of them, yet when they are single they feel more trouble for want of their united activities. The union of the impersonalists and the union of the devotees are not on a par. The impersonalists try to fully stop their individuality by attaining sayujya-mukti, or unification by merging into oneness, whereas the devotees keep their individuality to exchange feelings in relationship with the supreme individual Lord. Such reciprocation of feelings takes place in the transcendental Vaikuntha planets, and therefore the liberation sought by the impersonalists is already achieved in devotional service. The devotees attain mukti automatically, while continuing the transcendental pleasure of maintaining individuality. As explained in the previous verse, the destination of the devotees is Vaikuntha, or akuntha-dhisnya, the place where anxieties are completely eradicated. One should not mistake the destination of the devotees and that of the impersonalists to be one and the same. The destinations are distinctly different, and the transcendental pleasure derived by the devotee is also distinct from cin-matra, or spiritual feelings alone.
So these are the comparisons between the Vaishnavas and the impersonalists. It is not the same. More or less, these shlokas are basically an elaboration of what Krishna explains in the Bhagavad-Gita. In the 12th chapter, called Devotional Service, Arjuna is asking Krishna, ‘Who is superior? The impersonalists, or the personalists?’ One who merges with Your impersonal effulgence, Brahman, or one who approaches You in devotional service?
Krishna says that, ‘yes, both achieve Me, but out of those, the one who approaches Me with personal feeling, he's superior. And the impersonalist is simply undergoing unnecessary suffering.’ Krishna says, ‘at last he achieves me, after all this trouble, denying, simply denying.’ The impersonalist’s only activity is denial. Deny the form, deny the personality, deny the face, deny the name, deny the varieties. This philosophy is taken up by people who are frustrated. Of course, we should be frustrated with material existence. That is intelligence. There is no happiness here. Although we try to convince ourselves ‘I'm very happy, I'm very nice’, it is nothing but a shadow reflection of real happiness. Real happiness cannot be found here, in the material world. That is a foolish endeavor.
The whole society, they try for temporary pleasure, material sense gratification that culminates in sex pleasure. That's it. In the Shrimad-Bhagavatam, in the second canto, it is stated that the non-devotees simply engage in working very hard during the day, and at night, they do two activities: sleeping and sex. That's all. That's the life of a non-devotee. Working very hard and then enjoying sleeping and sex life. There is no higher aim in their life, no higher goal. Even if there's some culture, even if there's some religious sentiment, everything is aimed towards the satisfaction of these two; sleeping and sex. So that is a lot of suffering. That is lots of misery. That's service. It's simply labor. A labor of love, without love. Simply labor. So someone who's intelligent, someone who's frustrated, he wants to stop that. No more of this. Why do I need this sex? What is this nonsense sex life? Simply rubbing genitals together. The animals also engage in this. And simply for this insignificant two or three seconds of pleasure, I'm working so hard like an ass. Devotees who distribute books have the experience. So many people, how they have to work hard, how they have to rush. ‘Oh, I have to go. I'm so busy’. They have to dress up for work. They're very stressed out. Every day going to work, and with all this work, what do they manufacture? Simply some atomic bombs. If you analyze the type of work people are engaged in, it's simply this nonsense advertisement business. Buy this, buy that. Or financial scamming. How to scam other countries for money, who then have to slave it off. And the western people, they enjoy it very nicely. Or they manufacture nice atomic bombs so the whole world can be destroyed. People are often accusing, ‘Oh, you're not working’. Yes - we are not working on your stupid bombs. We don't want to participate in destroying this world with your nonsense work. The real work, from the material point of view, that is truly needed, is growing food. Taking care of cows, milking cows, cooking, making ghee, cheese, and cloth- the real necessities of life, not these cell phones and cheating and all kinds of sense gratification, like virtual reality. Just see, there's virtual reality, the internet, and so on. Why is it here? Because people have lost their spiritual side. There's no spiritual life. Religion is taken as some kind of a sentiment. People actually don't have any respect for religion. If you say, ‘I want to preach religion’. It's all finished. This is not scientific, they say. Because people are not satisfied with gross sense gratification, they have now developed this subtle world, AI world... you cannot touch or smell, you can only see and hear. Maybe you can touch the screen a little bit. You play with the buttons, that's all. But suppose you want to touch my hands, you cannot. It's a subtle world. This gross world I can touch, I can smell, I can eat, I can do so many things. They have developed this, because of the desire for spiritual life, transcendental life. They want to transcend. This Facebook is also a form of transcendence. We have transcended the geographical distances. Now we can meet together and have a Bhagavatam class, although some of you are thousands and thousands of miles away from London. So, they're manufacturing these things. But unless you come to Krishna, you will not be satisfied with this either. This is another shadow reflection. Again, an imitation of spiritual reality. So, people are wasting their time working on unnecessarily creating gross sense or subtle sense gratification for others. Unless they understand that they are not the body, they are not the senses, they are not the mind, they will not be satisfied. They will go on searching, inventing things. Technological advancement is going very, very fast. Now the AI has advanced to the point that two GPTs are talking to one another. Have you heard this? Two GPTs. Have you seen this? This is crazy, huh? I posted the video on my timeline. Two GPTs are talking to one another. They're talking about the humans: “Oh, he's there. This guy is watching us”. I don't know how this is possible. There's some technological magic. They can invent so much nonsense.
Unless you come to the soul, you will not be satisfied. That is the aim of life. Even the atheists will agree. The aim of life is to enjoy. An interviewer asked this to Prabhupada, he said, “What is the aim of life, Swamiji?”. And everybody thought Prabhupada was going to say spiritual practice and austerity, or knowledge. But Prabhupada said simply ‘to enjoy’. That is the aim of life. So devotees are enjoying by service. It's very nice what Prabhupada explains here. One may suggest there is sufficient labor for the devotees also, in the matter of discharging devotional service. Some might say that ‘Oh, you're also working. You say that, oh, these karmis are working hard like asses, they have to go to work. But you have to wake up early, you have to sweep the floor, you have to do so many services, then you have to go in front of Prabhupada and report your services. So much labor. This is horrible. This is slavery. Serving and no salary. At least I have a salary, but you're working, working for Krishna, and you have no salary. What is this?’. But Prabhupada says that the labor of the devotees is compensated by the enhancement of transcendental pleasure. Transcendental pleasure. This is the unique feature of Krishna conscious work. Why don't people like to work? Because they do not derive any pleasure from working. They derive pleasure from the fruits of their labor. If they get a salary, they can spend money, they can buy things to satisfy their senses. But working itself, nobody likes that. So the unique feature of Krishna conscious devotional service is that while performing devotional service, the devotees derive pleasure. In other words, the pleasure is derived not by enjoying the fruits of devotional service, but by devotional service itself. Devotees experience this while distributing books. You feel transcendental pleasure by distributing these books. And all the money collected goes straight to the temple. No devotee keeps any money for himself/herself. There is no fruit, but still, devotees derive pleasure from distributing books. This is, as I said many times, because you're pleasing Krishna. And because you're part and parcel of Krishna, then that pleasure also you can feel. Ye atma suprasidati. You are satisfying the atma by serving Krishna. We're giving pleasure to the soul, our own soul. So that is the enjoyment that everybody is looking for. That's what we want. And that pleasure is eternal.
The devotees derive more transcendental pleasure while engaged continuously in the service of the Lord than when they have no such engagement. A devotee who has no service, he doesn't feel satisfied. He doesn't feel happy. There was an instance, some devotee was engaged in Deity worship in a temple in India. He was very satisfied with that service and he was doing it every day, very strictly. Deity worship takes some time. It’s absorbing. When one worships the Deity, it's a very concentrated meditation on Krishna. Changing the dress, bathing the Deities, cooking for the Deities, doing arati and everything. It's a very, very purifying process. The mind is so polluted, we're always thinking of our own pleasure. Here at BLISS we're engaged in Deity worship, maybe not on such a large scale, but on a small scale also, it evokes or reawakens this consciousness of service in us. So, this devotee in India was serving and then somehow or other, he was removed from that service, and he was very dissatisfied. He was doing other service, but he was very unhappy. So that devotee, he wrote to Shrila Prabhupada. He said, ‘Prabhupada, I cannot function’. So Prabhupada said, ‘Okay, you go back. You must go back to that service.’ That is good, that one develops attachment for devotional service. This is the nature of the devotees. They don't care for any results. Just like our Dhananjaya prabhu. Whether he collects one thousand or two thousand, he always gives me everything.
I take everything. He goes, he works the whole day and all the money that he collects, he gives to me. I take everything. I do nothing. I simply take it, and he's very happy about it. (laughs) Why? Because the pleasure of service is higher. This fruitive mentality that we have, this is the cause of our unhappiness. We derive pleasure from the fruits of our labor temporarily, but in the long run we suffer because we always depend on the results. We are always chasing after the result, chasing after the material energy. And she's going this way, that way, this way, that way. And we've been dragged all over the material existence from one species to another. So, a devotee is not a fool. He understands that there is nothing to be derived from my pleasure here. If I water the root, automatically the branches and leaves are nourished. If I serve Krishna, then all my necessities will be supplied. I don't have to worry. I don't have to make any extra endeavour to satisfy my own life and so on. Simply by serving Krishna, depending on Krishna, surrendering to Krishna, Krishna will take care of all the necessities. In the Bhagavad-Gita 9.22, Krishna says, “But those who worship Me with devotion, meditating on My transcendental form⎯to them I carry what they lack and preserve what they have.” If you're afraid that if you surrender to Krishna then you will be a loser, think again. Krishna will not touch it. It will be preserved. You’ll not lose anything. And whatever you're lacking, Krishna will supply. He will give you whatever you need for your service. So, devotees derive more transcendental pleasure while engaged continuously in the service of the Lord than when they have no such engagement. Shrila Prabhupada mentions in a class that an early disciple couple, Govinda Dasi and Gaurasundara, her husband at that time, “They're always coming to me and they are begging me, ‘please Swamiji, give me more service. Give me more service, more service, more service, flood us with service, give us more service. No sleeping, no eating, simply serving, serving, serving’”. So, from the external point of view, it seems that these people are foolish. This is some kind of brainwashing cult. People are serving for no reason, and this old Swami is exploiting. Now they cannot say such a thing, because Prabhupada is not here. But externally it seems like that. Internally, however, the devotees are feeling a great deal of pleasure inside. That is why they ask for more service. That is also selfishness, but that is real selfishness. How to derive pleasure from serving Krishna? If you understand this principle, then the gates of unlimited pleasure in life open up. If you don't understand, devotional service will be a source of misery for you. It's not actually devotional service. You are trying the same thing as you have tried in so many species of life, so many millions of lifetimes. You're trying to derive sense gratification from Krishna's service. So, you will not be successful with that, you'll be very frustrated.
There is no sense gratification. There is Krishna gratification. That is how we enjoy. Prabhupada gives a wonderful analogy here. “In the family combination of a man and a woman there is much labor and responsibility for both of them, yet when they are single they feel more trouble for want of their united activities.” You see? Family life. Although it is so much responsibility, so much work, so much worry and so on, the pleasure derived from being in conjugal relationship is so high that one does not mind even working so hard. This is a very good example because a devotee also, he derives pleasure because he knows that ‘my worshipful Lord, my beloved Lord is pleased’ or ‘my spiritual master is pleased’. So that becomes pleasing. Sometimes, when a man is very much in love with a woman, he works very hard. He buys her diamonds and tries to impress her, he makes something gigantic. I saw on YouTube, there was a man who made a huge love letter in the sand on a beach and then he filmed it with a drone, he went to such heights. And then he shot that and he showed it to the woman. So the woman was in tears. ‘Oh, you impressed me so much’. Immediately she wanted to marry him. The man, while he's working hard, making the letter in the sand, he's not feeling any pain. He's simply meditating on her smile, on her laughter, on her tears, how she will be impressed by the presentation. And although he's working very hard, sweating, huffing and puffing, there's no pain. Zero pain, simply tasting pleasure by that work. So this is how devotees are serving Krishna. They derive great pleasure because they know Krishna will be pleased. So when we don't have any pleasure from service, it's on account of ignorance, that we don't understand who Krishna is, we don't understand how to serve him. What is the purpose of service? That's why we have to hear about Krishna from the authorities, from Shrimad-Bhagavatam, from Shrila Prabhupada, to develop this loving attitude towards Krishna. If you do not hear, then that service becomes burdensome. Prabhupada said that ‘if you do not read my books, these temples I have established, they'll become pigeonholes’. Have you seen pigeon houses? They’re full of stool. Pigeon stool. So it will become simply a place where you eat and pass stool.
So the preaching must always be there. There must always be preaching. That's why all the devotees should attend these classes. It's very important that you come to the class and you maintain this class culture every day. We sit down at the same hour, we read a shloka, we discuss together. Sometimes I give class, sometimes you give class, it doesn't matter. Somehow this class should go on. That is why we are called the Bhaktivedanta Lives in Sound Society. Because it's this transcendental sound that gives us all the inspiration to do service. In the same way, the Deity worship also. If we do not hear, then the Deity worship also becomes very troublesome. ‘Oh, do I have to do this?’ It's very, very detestful to such a person. So hearing is very, very important. Krishna says, tushyanti cha ramanti cha. “The thoughts of My pure devotees dwell in Me, their lives are fully devoted to My service, and they derive great satisfaction and bliss from always enlightening one another and conversing about Me.” (Bg 10.9) Ramanti means ‘enjoy transcendental bliss’ and tushyanti means ‘become pleased’. Satisfaction, great pleasure, and bliss. Satisfaction. Yayatma suprasidati. The soul is satisfied. They derive this bliss and satisfaction by enlightening one another about Krishna topics. So you should enlighten one another. If you want to talk with other devotees, you should enlighten them about Krishna consciousness. You should also enlighten me. Every devotee should be enlightened. Because Krishna katha is always nectarian. Of course, we have to distinguish between the neophyte devotee and the advanced devotee. Senior, junior, yes, some hierarchy is there, but when it comes to Krishna katha, it is so universal that everybody becomes enlightened. Shrila Prabhupada himself said, ‘I'm reading my own books. Because even myself, I'm deriving some new enlightenment from these books’. This is the nature of Krishna katha. It's unlimited. It is not that you learn it once and then you know it and that's it. It is alive. This Krishna katha is alive. It lives on its own. It has its own life. You perform this morning program. You execute the rules and regulations. You hear the Shrimad- Bhagavatam discussed with the devotees. So this will then have an effect. These devotees will also do their own class in their homes, and the people who hear from them will also do the same. This is also parampara, the disciplic succession. Not simply the list, Prabhupada, Bhaktisiddhanta, Gaurakisora Dasa Babaji... that is not the only parampara. Parampara is also this, sharing Krishna consciousness with others. Enlightening one another about Krishna, about the conclusions of the shastra pertaining to Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So in this way, we can go on serving.
The impersonalists, however, they cannot, even if they discuss Krishna katha. Prabhupada explains that after contemplating Brahman, they become so bored that they even start reading the Bhagavatam. But because of their previous impersonalist background, they cannot derive any pleasure from it. The pleasure that one derives from reading Shrimad-Bhagavatam, Krishna katha, Krishna lila, His pastimes, is because the devotee knows that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As soon as you think Krishna is an ordinary man, then this becomes just another mundane literature. And it becomes hackneyed. You cannot read it continuously. You read it once and that's it. Then you want something else. So you cannot stick to Krishna katha if you are not a devotee. Their path is simply full of darkness and full of obstacles. Lord Chaitanya warned us not to hear the Sharirakiya Bhashya, the commentary on the Vedanta sutra by Shankaracharaya, the head of the Mayavadi school. Don't hear from Mayavadis. Be very careful, because you can get contaminated by this ‘frustration philosophy’, and lose all taste for Krishna katha and for service to Krishna. The impersonalists are great offenders because they claim that they're equal to Krishna. Or that Krishna is just an ordinary man. Offenders cannot enter the spiritual world. They cannot enter into the mysteries of Krishna's philosophy. One must become a devotee. This is unconditional. Bhaktya mam abhijanati. Absolutely necessary. Any questions?
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