Love for Man vs. Love for God - 04 May 1997 Birmingham
Srila Gurudeva: We have come from India and especially we are coming from Vrindavan.
The devotees from England and all over the world have some curiosity about Vedic culture. Now we see the whole world is attracted to this Vedic culture and Vedic knowledge.
We are doing so much exercise, mentally and bodily, trying to be happy. Nowadays there are so many inventions and so many discoveries in medical science but still, how to be happy? Now the world is very small. We can see anything in the world from our own room. We can hear anything from the other side of this sphere.
Even from a very remote village we can see and hear that right now the Labour Party has come in power in England. One can see cricket and all sorts of sports from all over the world and enjoy. However there is a cost of this new civilization. Even though we are nearer, still we feel no sympathy or affection for our neighbor or even our wives and husbands. There is no faith between spouses and thats why they even have separate bank accounts and everything. Children have separate accounts, husband has separate, all have separate, because of no faith and actually no love for anyone.
Someone may live in the same building and be dying but nobody cares and they don’t even know who that person is. So this is the problem of the new civilization. There is no love and affection for anyone.
We are born in this human body but we should try to think about the future and we should ask the question, “Who am I?” This question should arise, “Who am I? Am I this physical body, or something else? Why did I come here to this world?”
We will have to get old one day unless we are going to die now. All who have taken birth will have to die. When we die we will take nothing from this world with us. We have struggled so much to collect things in this life but we cannot take it with us. This body will also be left here. Where will we go? If these questions are not arising in our heart and mind then certainly we are not more than animals.
Also we can see that whatever we do, we do it to obtain happiness, but we see that none are actually happy. Even an Emperor, a Prime Minister, a Rastrapati, or even rich people are not happy. For a moment they are happy but the next moment so many problems come. Why? We don’t want to get old but by force we will have to be old. So these questions should arise in our mind.
These questions have been solved in our Vedic knowledge, in the Vedas, Upanisads, Mahabharata, Ramayana, and especially in the Gita and even more especially in the Srimad Bhagavatam. I will try to explain something from the Srimad Bhagavatam.
From the Gita you should know that this body is not myself. We are soul. We are part and parcel of the Godhead, Krsna Himself, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. We are actually servants of Krsna, eternal servants. But coming in this world we have forgotten Him and that is why all kinds of problems are coming.
Let us go to five thousand years ago when Pariksit Maharaja was the Emperor of the whole world. He was so learned and rich. He had a beautiful wife, beautiful children, and also a very big Kingdom all over the world. He had so many wise persons in his ministry. He was supported by Krsna. He had everything that a man could want. He was powerful, beautiful and wise. However he was unhappy because he had been cursed to die in seven days and no-one could protect him from that. A small boy of five years had cursed him that after seven days he will die by the bite of a serpent and no-one can protect him.
So he was in a dilemma what to do. After he had been cursed he returned to his kingdom, gave up all his rich ornaments and cloth and went to the bank of the Ganges river. He stopped drinking and eating and sat down there on the bank of the Ganges. At that time from the whole world all the realized rishes and maharishis came and gathered there. Vyasa was there as well as Narada, Gautuma, Hari, Yagnavalkya, Visvamrta, and all others were assembled there.
How did they know to come there? Five thousand years ago there was no radio or internet, no computers, nothing, but they all knew. They were high class of realized souls. By the practice of bhakti yoga one can know about Vaikuntha and all of this world. One can know all hearts. One can tell if someone is happy or unhappy and they can tell past, present, and future.
So they knew that after seven days a serpent will come and bite Pariksit Maharaj, and that he is now at the banks of the Ganges river. So all assembled there at a very big sabha, assembly.
In the meantime a very young boy, a very beautiful looking boy, quite naked, came to the assembly. As he was coming there some naughty young boys were running beside him and throwing dust at him. Some girls also were looking at him thinking that he is very beautiful but quite mad and so they were also throwing stones at him.
However when he reached the assembly, King Pariksit Maharaj stood up to receive him. Narada, Vyasa and all the other leading sages also stood up and welcomed him and they took this naked boy, covered in dust and dirt, looking quite mad, and offered him the vysasana. He sat down there, quite naked.
King Pariksit stood and with folded hands asked the boy, very honorably, “If anyone is dying, just now, on death’s bed, what should he do?” The second question asked was, “Those that are not dying yet, but eventually will die, then what should they do?”
“How can we be happy?” This is the question of the whole audience. This is the problem with all. We can see that there was the Emperor of the whole world that had all facility to be happy, so much wealth, a beautiful strong body, so much power to rule over the whole world but he was not happy, and on the other side was a naked boy with no possessions, no wristwatch to see the time, not a single penny but he was so happy. He had not taken bath for so long a time, he had absolutely no care for his body but he was so happy.
So we can see between the two personalities that one who had everything wasn’t happy and the other who had nothing, no cloths even, he was happy. Why? Because he had Vedic knowledge. Actually Pariksit Maharaj also had all Vedic knowledge but he was just pretending to be like that. He was a prauda-bhakta, but in order to give something for the general persons, he was playing the part of somebody who is not happy. In fact he was not less than Sukadeva Gosvami.
So we should try to know that thing that made Sukadeva Gosvami so happy and why Pariksit Maharaj was not happy? All these things we can find in the Srimad Bhagavatam. There is no book like this in the whole world. It is the purport of all the Vedic scriptures, because Vyasa has collected it in his last days. Previously he had collected all the Vedic knowledge which he then divided into the four Vedas and made so many Puranas, Mahabharata, Vedanta and Sutras and yet still he was not happy. His Gurudeva came and said, “Why are you not happy? You have given all kinds of knowledge, by Gita you have told everything, but still you are not happy.”
“I don’t know, please tell me.” Vysas replied.
His Gurudeva (Narada) replied that, “You have not told about Krsna. You have told something in the Puranas and the Upanisads about Krsna but you have not told about the gopis’ prema, their love and affection.”
If coming to this world we do not have this prema, this love and affection, then our life is like an animal.
So everywhere in the Vedas, Upanisads and especially in the Srimad Bhagavat Gita, it has been told that actually we are the servant of Krsna and Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. We can have the service and darsana of Krsna if we have prema. We have all affection in our hearts but that love and affection is confined to one’s self and one’s family. We don’t know that we are part and parcel and the servant of Krsna. A lion or a ferocious tiger also has some love and affection for their children and wives. He could kill anybody in order to protect his family.
Dacoits and thieves may kill so many people and yet they may have so much love for their own family, their wife and children and near and dears. So we see everybody has love and affection, but not for Krsna. This is the problem of this Yuga and this so called civilization.
Sukadeva Gosvami is explaining to Pariksit Maharaj that we are all part and parcel of Godhead and yet we have forgotten this and that is why we are unhappy and we will continue to be unhappy for lakhs and lakhs of births if we do not have bhakti towards Krsna, love and affection for Krsna, and that is why Krsna is so merciful, causelessly merciful. He sometimes comes Himself otherwise He sends His Acaryas, Guru’s.
Five thousand years before, Krsna came to this world, especially in Vrindavan, Braj Bhumi, with all His associates. Why did He come? We see that there are some reasons. What reasons? At that time King Kamsa, a demon, and his friends like Aghasura, Bakasura, Putana, and others were making so many problems for all. They were free to take any wife and to kill anyone.
So Prithivi Devi, the Earth Goddess, took the shape of a cow and went to Lord Brahma who had created this world. She was weeping. Lord Brahma then went with all the gods and goddesses to the bank of the milk ocean and there he meditated and prayed to Bhagavan that, “Bhumi Devi is so unhappy and You should please come and protect her.”
[to be continued.]