Review of Bhakti Vriksha Program
January 27, 2001
Following in our usual format, we read an excerpt from Japa Walks, Japa
Talks by Satsvarupa das Goswami. As he was taking a morning walk, he
describes the atmosphere around him. He says that the birds hop around on the
ground, almost forgetting that they must fly. When they do fly, they fly due to
fear of him approaching. We are much like those birds. We often engage in so
many nonsense activities that we think we have no time or energy for spiritual
realization or devotional service. Fear of maya is usually not strong
enough so that it may even take a near-death experience for a devotee to become
serious about the process of Krishna Consciousness. At our program, one devotee
brought up the world-famous devotee-musician, George Harrison, who was recently
attacked in his own home. Harrison told reporters that he began to chant Hare
Krishna during the attack. He supposedly has also re-enlivened his taste for
Krishna Consciousness. As Stephen Covey says in his book, The Seven Habits of
Highly Effective People, we must "put first things first". In
Krishna Consciousness, the concept is the same. We must put first things first
such as chanting our rounds, etc. We should schedule our time wisely.
Texts ten, eleven and twelve of the First Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam were
covered during the class on January 27, 2001. The Kali Yuga is further described
in text ten. People of this age are "quarrelsome, lazy, misguided, unlucky,
and above all, always disturbed". Humans live very short lives, they have
little time to study the Vedic literatures or to carry out the rules and
regulations of an orderly lifestyle. The Kali Yuga mentality consists of bad
association, a list of sinful activities, cinemas, mundane sports, gambling,
fighting, etc. Many individuals try to manufacture religious ideals and material
welfare work based on an underlying desire for sense-gratification. Very few
people are actually God-conscious or really want to please the Lord.
Particularly in the United States, people live a "push-button"
lifestyle, they eat abominable foodstuffs that destroy their health, and almost
no one knows how to live a life in harmony with God's universal laws.
Irregular habits, a bad educational system, exploitation of the material nature,
over-eating, over-sense gratification, and over-dependence on another's mercy
are some of the most prominent problems of this age. Basically, everyone wants
what they want when they want it and they will go even to Machiavellian means by
which to get it.
The philosopher Machiavelli possessed a ruthless mentality in his endeavor
for political and social status. Kali-yuga minded people stop at nothing to
gratify their senses. The materialistic educational system throughout the world
fosters the concept of competition and sense-gratification. The whole idea in
this age is to attain material education and in turn to increase money making
for satisfaction of one's desires. Profit, adoration, and distinction are the
latent motivations for many people in this age. We also discussed the point
about being over-dependent on another's mercy. Many people also attempt to get
what they desire by putting forth as little effort as possible. We see this a
great deal in America whereby some individuals exploit the welfare system, for
example.
In text eleven, the sages ask Suta Goswami to select the essence of all
scriptures and to explain it for the benefit of all human beings. Prabhupada
explains in the purport that all scriptures and scriptural injunctions are meant
for the satisfaction of the self or atma. Different scriptures manifest
according to time and circumstance so the scriptures of the world are
innumerable. The sages took into consideration the fallen condition of this age
and they could foretell that no one would be able to follow the Vedic
injunctions perfectly.
Prabhupada explains in the purport of text twelve that Krishna is bhagavan.
This means that he is full in all six opulences; beauty, strength, fame,
knowledge, wealth, and renunciation. Krishna also protects his devotees, whom he
in inclined toward even though he is factually equally disposed to everyone. Sat
refers to the Absolute Truth and those who serve the Absolute Truth are called satvatas.
The sages glorify Suta Goswami in text twelve saying that he knows why Krishna
appears in the womb of Devaki and they are very anxious to understand this. In
the following texts these points are elaborated on.
Thank you for your kind attention on these points. Hare Krishna.
