PERFECTION OF LIFE

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atha me deva sammoham

apakrastum tvam arhasi

yo 'vagraho 'ham mametity

etasmin yojitas tvaya

TRANSLATION

Now be pleased, my Lord, to dispel my great delusion. Due to my feeling of false

ego, I have been engaged by Your maya and have identified myself with the body

and consequent bodily relations.

PURPORT

Maya is the false ego of identifying one's body with one's self and of claiming

things possessed in relationship with the body. In Bhagavadgita, Fifteenth

Chapter, the Lord says, " I am sitting in everyone's heart, and from Me comes

everyone's remembrance and forgetfulness. " Devahuti has stated that false

identification of the body with the self and attachment for bodily possessions

are also under the direction of the Lord. Does this mean that the Lord

discriminates by engaging one in His devotional service and another in sense

gratification? If that were true, it would be an incongruity on the part of the

Supreme Lord, but that is not the actual fact. As soon as the living entity

forgets his real constitutional position of eternal servitorship to the Lord and

wants instead to enjoy himself by sense gratification, he is captured by maya.

This capture leads to the consciousness of false identification with the body

and attachment for the possessions of the

body. These are the activities of maya, and since maya is also an agent of the

Lord, it is indirectly the action of the Lord. The Lord is merciful; if anyone

wants to forget Him and enjoy this material world, He gives him full facility,

not

directly but through the agency of His material potency. Therefore, since the

material potency is the

Lord's energy, indirectly it is the Lord who gives the facility to forget Him.

Devahuti therefore said, " My

engagement in sense gratification was also due to You. Now kindly get me free

from this entanglement. " By the grace of the Lord one is allowed to enjoy this

material world, but when one is disgusted with material enjoyment and is

frustrated, and when one sincerely surrenders unto the lotus feet of the Lord,

then the

Lord is so kind that He frees one from entanglement. Krsna says, therefore, in

Bhagavad-gita, " First of all

surrender, and then I will take charge of you and free you from all reactions of

sinful activities. " Sinful activities are those activities performed in

forgetfulness of our relationship with the Lord. In this material world,

activities for material enjoyment that are considered pious are also sinful. For

example, one sometimes gives money in charity to a needy person with a view to

get back the money four times increased. Giving with the purpose of gaining

something is called charity in the mode of passion. Everything done here is done

in the modes of material nature, and therefore all activities but service to the

Lord are sinful. Because of sinful activities we become attracted by the

illusion of material attachment, and we think, " I am this body. " I think of the

body as myself and of bodily possessions as " mine. " Devahuti requested Lord

Kapila to free her from that entanglement of false identification and false

possession. In asking this, Devahuti is

accepting her son, Kapila, as her guru. He consequently tells her how to solve

all material problems. Material life is nothing but sex attraction. pumsah

striya mithuni-bhavam etam (SB. 5.5.8). Material life means that men are after

women and women are after men. We find this not only in human society but in

bird, dog, cat and demigod society. As soon as people join to satisfy their sex

desire, the attraction becomes greater and greater. An apartment

is needed for privacy, and then one has to earn a livelihood and acquire some

land. Without children,

married life is frustrated, and of course the children have to be educated. Thus

one becomes entangled in material life by creating so many situations, but at

the time of death Krsna comes and takes away everything--house, land, wife,

children, friends, reputation and whatever. Then we have to begin another life.

It is not that we simply die and finish everything. We are living eternally; the

body is finished, but we have to accept another body out of the 8,400,000 forms.

In this way, our life is going on, but we are thinking in terms of wife,

children, and so forth. This is all illusion. In any case, we will not be

allowed to stay here, and

although we are attached to all this, everything will be taken away at death.

Whatever post we are occupying--be it president or Lord Brahma--we are occupying

temporarily. We may be here five years, ten

years, one hundred years or five million years. Whatever, our position is

limited. Our position in the

material world is not eternal, but we are eternal Why, then, should we be

illusioned by the noneternal?

By nature we are part and parcel of Krsna, and Krsna is sac-cid-ananda-vigraha.

In order to transcend the

darkness of material life and go to the world of light, we need to approach a

guru. It is for this reason that Devahuti is approaching Lord Kapiladeva. In the

morning, when the sun arises, the darkness of night immediately goes away.

Similarly, when God or His incarnation comes, the darkness of material life

is dissipated. When Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, came, Arjuna's

illusion was dispelled. He was thinking, " Why should I fight with my relatives? "

Actually the whole world is going on under this

conception of " my " and " mine. " There are fights between nations, societies,

communities and families.

People are thinking, " Why are you interfering with my business? " Then there is a

fight. Because of illusion,

we do not consider these situations temporary. On a train, people may argue and

fight over a seat, but one

who knows that he will only be on the train for two or three hours thinks, " Why

should I fight? I shall only

be here for a short while. " One person thinks in this way, and the other person

is ready to fight, thinking

that his seat is permanent. No one will be allowed to stay within this material

world; everyone will have to

change his body and position, and as long as one remains here, he will have to

fight and struggle for

existence. This is the way of material life. We may temporarily make some

compromises,but ultimately the

material world is full of misery. We are very much attached to this material

world, but according to the

Vedic system, renunciation is compulsory, for when one reaches the age of fifty,

he renounces his family

life. Nature gives warning, " You are now past fifty. That's all right. You have

fought in this material

world. Now stop this business. " Children play on the beach and make houses out

of sand, but after a while

the father comes and says, " Now, my dear children, time is up. Stop this

business and come home. " This is

the business of the guru--to teach his disciples detachment. The world is not

our place; our place is Vaikunthaloka. Krsna also comes to remind us of this.

The dharma, or order, of the Supreme Person is to

become His devotee and always think of Him. Krsna says:

man-mana bhava mad-bhakto

mad-yaji mam namaskuru

" Engage your mind always in thinking of Me, offer obeisances and worship Me. "

(Bg. 9.34) In this way,

Krsna opens the door, but we unfortunately do not accept Him. Krsna tells

Arjuna, " Because you are My

friend, I am revealing to you the most confidential dharma. " What is that?

" Simply surrender unto Me. "

This is the dharma taught by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and Krsna's

incarnation and His devotee

will teach the same dharma. We are all after happiness, but we do not know how

to enjoy happiness.

We want to enjoy our senses, but it is not possible with these covered false

senses. The senses must be

opened, and that is the process of purification. We are thinking of ourselves

according to so many false

material identifications, but we should take Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's advice:

jivera `svarupa'

haya--krsnera `nitya-dasa.' We must come to understand, " I am the eternal

servant of Krsna. " After all, our senses are employed for the satisfaction of

somebody--either for ourselves or for someone else. That is kama,

krodha, lobha and matsara-- illusion. If we are not serving our own lusty

desires (kama), we are serving

anger (krodha). If I am the master of anger, I can control my anger, and if I am

the master of my desires, I can control my desires. In any case, I am a servant,

and my service should be transferred to Krsna. That is the perfection of life.

If we are situated in the transcendental position (bhakti), we can understand

Krsna, Krsna cannot be understood by mental speculation; otherwise He would have

said that He

could be understood by jnana, karma or yoga. However, He clearly says, bhaktya

mam abhijanati: " Only by

devotional service can I be understood. " If we want to know Krsna as He is, we

have to accept the process of

bhakti. It is this bhakti process that Kapiladeva will reveal to Devahuti. FOR

THE COMPLETE BOOK 'TEACHINGS OF LORD KAPILA' WRITETO ME AT chanu15

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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