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ANNOUNCER: Next is a class on the Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 5th canto, 6th chapter, text number
11, given by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, recorded on
December 29th, 1976, in Bombay, India. PRABHUPĀDA: So “Low-class
people, due to their gross ignorance, introduce a system of religion that deviates from the
Vedic principles.” The other day I was speaking that system of religion can be given by God
Himself. But they do not know who is God, where is God, what is His principle, why does He want
to give us religion. They are so ignorant, especially in this age, they do not believe in these
things at all. Very awkward position. So they deride at Vedic principles, nāstik. According to
them, “bhasmī bhūtasya dehasya kutaḥ punar āgamano bhavet.” “The body, which is burned down
into ashes, what is the meaning of talking about this body, that again it comes and takes birth in
a different form of life? Nobody believes these things.” And now everything, very precarious
condition of this age. “mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāḥ” [SB 1.1.10]
So therefore the process of reviving their Kṛṣṇa consciousness is Kṛṣṇa’s. No other process will
help. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He was Kṛṣṇa Himself. He advised, “harer nāma harer nāma harer
nāma eva kevalam” [Adi 17.21]. The only hope is if you go through the śāstras, Vedic
literature, that is the way to understand. But at the present moment people are so engrossed
with material affairs that they are not interested even to hear or to talk about Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
That is not a very good sign. It is the feverish condition of durbhikṣa. That is mentioned in
the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that people in general, when they come to the point of suffering
from natural law, then they will revive their nitya- siddha kṛṣṇa-bhakti. So therefore, as I was
speaking in this morning, we have to elevate the human civilization from a platform which is on equal
level with hog civilization. We should very carefully study and try to know whether the
advancement of civilization which we have accepted is genuine. No. It is not genuine. It is misleading.
Our aim of life is not to get a comfortable life for few years. Actually, there is no comfortable
life. Still, we consider and forget our real business, self-realization. “apaśyatām ātma-tattvaṁ gṛheṣu
gṛha-medhinām” [SB 2.1.2] So these persons, “māyā-sukhāya bharam udvahato vimūḍhān” [SB
7.9.43]. They have been described by Prahlāda Ma- hārāja as the most hated, foolish persons, vimū-
ḍhān. Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa has mentioned this class of men as mūḍha. And Prahlāda Mahārāja
has described these classes of men, not only mūḍha but vimūḍha. Vimūḍha means
particularly mūḍha. “pramattaḥ.Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma” [SB 5.5.4] Same thing,
vimūḍhān. It is very dangerous civilization. They are spoiling their human form of life. This human
form of life is meant for different purpose, tapasya. But they have been engaged in the lives of hogs
and dogs, work very hard, get some money, and enjoy for sense gratification. This is not human
civilization. So following their own mental concoction they automatically fall down into the
dark region of existence. Adānta-gobhir viśatāṁ tamisram. Here yesterday I went to Malad[?] to
some friend’s house. How they are living, middle- class men. In Bombay especially we see they
are living very awkward position, not very comfort- able life. Still, they stick to the city life, and if we
call them, “Come to Hyderabad. We shall give you nice place, nice food, nice milk, nice cloth. That is
your problem. We shall give you. Please come and live with us,” “No.” Therefore it is called hog
civilization. Hog, they are living in a filthy place, eating stool. If you request the hog, “Please come
with me. I shall give you nice place to live in. I shall give you halavā,” they’ll not come. So this
is the position. Therefore they fall down. Fall down means from our spiritual identification we fall
down to material identification, upādhi. Material identification, upādhi, designation. I am now
speaking, “I am Indian,” but “Indian,” that is my designation. I am neither Indian nor European.
You are not Indian, European. We are giving more stress on the designation. That is the mistake
of modern civlization. And in the śāstra such persons who designate himself with this body,
they have been described as “go-kharaḥ,” “sa eva go-kharaḥ” [SB 10.84.13]. So we shall be very
careful. Take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So next… [reading] “In this age of Kali
people are overwhelmed by the modes of passion and ignorance. Lord Ṛṣabhadeva incarnated
Himself to deliver them from the clutches of māyā.” God has no business to come here. He is
Vaikuṇṭha-pati. Vaikuṇṭha means vigata-kuṇṭha- yasmād. Kuṇṭha means anxiety. In the spiritual
world there is no anxiety, and the material world; it is full of anxiety. Sadā samudvigna-dhiyām asad-
gṛhāt. On account of accepting this false, temporary material world, we are always full of
anxiety, and Vaikuṇṭha world, kingdom of God, is just opposite: no anxiety. Why there should be
anxiety? Here we have got the fear of birth, death, old age and disease, and in the spiritual world
there is no such thing, birth, death, old age and disease. And everything is complete there.
There is no fight between one person to one person. In this way, the description is there. The
summary is that there is no jurisdiction for the three modes of material nature. It is above the
jurisdiction. That is Vaikuṇṭha world. So long we are in the jurisdiction of three modes of
material nature, [indistinct] up to that time we shall disagree with one another and there will be
trouble. Therefore the Vaiṣṇava religion is meant for the peaceful person. No trouble. “samaḥ
sarveṣu bhūteṣu mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām” [Bg. 18.54] Those who have come to the stage of
seeing everyone on the equal terms… Equal terms means spiritually. That we invite
everyone. There is no discrimination. We don’t care for the designations. We invite
everyone to leave aside the designation and come in your original form and be Kṛṣṇa
conscious and be happy, for which we are prepared to take all kinds of incon… There is no
inconvenience, but suppose in the old age I am traveling all over the world. People think that I
have taken some hardship. But for Kṛṣṇa’s sake, even it is hardship… Actually, there is no
hardship. But even it is hardship, we should take it. Para-upakāra. People are in ignorance, they are
suffering, and it is especially India’s business to release them from this material suffering and
give them information about the Vaikuṇṭha world, the world of no anxiety. And try to train them in
different ways. That is the real welfare activity in the human society. Thank you very much.
Subtitles by Pratyatoṣa Dāsa, March 01, 2011. Maximum line width: 30.2em. (Segoe UI font)