Srimad Bhagavatam – 4.30.39~40 | Skopje, Macedonia | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | July 22, 2025
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya
nama om visnu-padaya Kṛṣṇa presthaya bhu-tale
srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine
namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani pracarine
nirvisesa sunyavadi pascatya-desa-tarine
jaya sri-Kṛṣṇa -caitanya
prabhu nityananda
sri-advaita gadadhara
srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrnda
Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Reading from Srimad Bhāgavatam Canto 4 Chapter 30 Verses 39, 40
ŚB 4.30.39-40
yan naḥ svadhītaṁ guravaḥ prasāditā
viprāś ca vṛddhāś ca sad-ānuvṛttyā
āryā natāḥ suhṛdo bhrātaraś ca
sarvāṇi bhūtāny anasūyayaiva
yan naḥ sutaptaṁ tapa etad īśa
nirandhasāṁ kālam adabhram apsu
sarvaṁ tad etat puruṣasya bhūmno
vṛṇīmahe te paritoṣaṇāya
Synonyms
yat — what; naḥ — by us; svadhītam — studied; guravaḥ — superior persons, spiritual masters; prasāditāḥ — satisfied; viprāḥ — the brāhmaṇas; ca — and; vṛddhāḥ — those who are elderly; ca — and; sat-ānuvṛttyā — by our gentle behavior; āryāḥ — those who are advanced in spiritual knowledge; natāḥ — were offered obeisances; su-hṛdaḥ — friends; bhrātaraḥ — brothers; ca — and; sarvāṇi — all; bhūtāni — living entities; anasūyayā — without envy; eva — certainly; yat — what; naḥ — of us; su-taptam — severe; tapaḥ — penance; etat — this; īśa — O Lord; nirandhasām — without taking any food; kālam — time; adabhram — for a long duration; apsu — within the water; sarvam — all; tat — that; etat — this; puruṣasya — of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; bhūmnaḥ — the most exalted; vṛṇīmahe — we want this benediction; te — of You; paritoṣaṇāya — for the satisfaction.
Translation
Dear Lord, we have studied the Vedas, accepted a spiritual master and offered respect to brāhmaṇas, advanced devotees and aged personalities who are spiritually very advanced. We have offered our respects to them, and we have not been envious of any brother, friends or anyone else. We have also undergone severe austerities within the water and have not taken food for a long time. All these spiritual assets of ours are simply offered for Your satisfaction. We pray for this benediction only, and nothing more.
Purport
As stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam: the real perfection of life is pleasing the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ: in understanding the Vedas, one has to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One who has actually understood Him surrenders unto Him after many, many births. We find all these qualifications in the Pracetās. They underwent severe austerities and penances within the water, and they did not take any food for a very long time. They practiced these austerities not for material benediction but for the satisfaction of the Supreme Lord. One may engage in any business — material or spiritual — but the purpose should be the satisfaction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This verse presents a perfect picture of Vedic civilization. People training to become devotees should be respectful not only to the Supreme Personality of Godhead but also to those who are elderly in knowledge, who are Āryans and actual devotees of the Lord. An Āryan is one who does not boast but is an actual devotee of the Lord. Āryan means “advanced.” Formerly, those who claimed to be Āryans had to be devotees of the Lord. For instance, in Bhagavad-gītā (2.2) Kṛṣṇa chastised Arjuna by saying that he was speaking like a non-Āryan:
śrī-bhagavān uvāca
kutas tvā kaśmalam idaṁ
viṣame samupasthitam
anārya-juṣṭam asvargyam
akīrti-karam arjuna
“The Supreme Person [Bhagavān] said: My dear Arjuna, how have these impurities come upon you? They are not at all befitting a man who knows the progressive values of life. They do not lead to higher planets, but to infamy.” Arjuna, the kṣatriya, was refusing to fight despite being directly ordered by the Supreme Lord. He was thus chastised by the Lord as belonging to a non-Āryan family. Anyone who is advanced in the devotional service of the Lord certainly knows his duty. It does not matter whether his duty is violent or nonviolent. If it is sanctioned and ordered by the Supreme Lord, it must be performed. An Āryan performs his duty. It is not that the Āryans are unnecessarily inimical to living entities. The Āryans never maintain slaughterhouses, and they are never enemies of poor animals. The Pracetās underwent severe austerities for many, many years, even within the water. Accepting austerities and penances is the avowed business of those interested in advanced civilization.
The word nirandhasām means “without food.” Eating voraciously and unnecessarily is not the business of an Āryan. Rather, the eating process should be restricted as far as possible. When Āryans eat, they eat only prescribed eatables. Regarding this, the Lord says in Bhagavad-gītā (9.26):
patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ
yo me bhaktyā prayacchati
tad ahaṁ bhakty-upahṛtam
aśnāmi prayatātmanaḥ
“If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I will accept it.” Thus there are restrictions for the advanced Āryans. Although the Lord Himself can eat anything and everything, He restricts Himself to vegetables, fruits, milk and so on. This verse thus describes the activities of those who claim to be Āryans.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
Okay, so this first mentions a lot of activities that are generally accepted as spiritual. Yeah, so we are studying the Vedas, accepting the Guru, respecting elders and brahmanas. It mentions lack of envy. It mentions doing severe austerities in the water and not eating food. So these are, somewhat spiritual, but not necessarily spiritual ! And in fact, we see in Bhāgavatam also, Kṛṣṇa says, “I’m not so much interested in studying the Vedas, in doing austerities and fasting and vratas, etc”. However, there is a way of spiritualizing these activities more. And that is, to somehow relate them to the Supreme Lord. So many of these activities described here, are part of the conduct of dharma or varṇāśrama. And because they are mentioned in the vedas, they are, we can say spiritual and they help to purify us.
At the same time Bhāgavatam clearly says that, “if you take to the process of bhakti, you can give up all of this dharma” !! This of course, is quite shocking for many people who are attached to following the varṇāśrama system. So even if you want to worship the Lord, how can you not follow dharma? However, this is clearly stated in Bhagavatam, bhakti is superior to dharma. And of course, dharma, the goal of dharma is artha and kama. If we want to get superior to that, we can go for moksha, liberation. So this is the process of jñāna yoga. But Bhāgavatam clearly says that, bhakti yoga is superior to both karma yoga and jñāna yoga and astanga yoga. So if you are qualified for bhakti, you are no longer qualified for those lower activities !! And therefore, you can give them up. Does a person who gets a Ph.D in Mathematics have to go back and keep studying 1 plus 1 equals 2? NO !!
Of course, we see that many devotees, many pure devotees they are practicing bhakti, but they don’t give up varṇāśrama. The reason is, they set a nice example for people who don’t do bhakti. So we have Yudhisthira and his brothers, we have Ambarisa, we have Dhruva, they follow all the rules, not because they are attached to them, but to set an example for others. Of course, there are some people like Rishabhadeva or Bharath Maharaja who give up all the rules completely. So therefore, we clearly distinguish between the process of bhakti and karma yoga, varṇāśrama dharma. We clearly distinguish between bhakti and varṇāśrama, karma yoga and dharma. Of course, in the beginning of Bhāgavatam it says, that this Bhāgavatam rejects all cheating dharmas.
Of course, we can say how can the vedas and dharma be cheating [Laughs]? But of course, we see, Kṛṣṇa says, these are all flowery words of the vedas. So flowery words means, the activities and the goals of karma yoga, varṇāśrama etc look very attractive. Of course, we know that some attractive flowers are also poisonous[Laughs]. Therefore, people are allowed to practice varṇāśrama, but it is not the best process. And thus, at the end of Bhagavad Gita, Kṛṣṇa rejects all dharmas, that means he rejects karma yoga, jñāna yoga and astanga yoga in favor of bhakti. Of course, that is a way in which these other dharmas like karma yoga and jñāna yoga become acceptable. And that is why, we offer these activities and the results to Kṛṣṇa . So in other words, we direct everything, even if they are material activities, somehow we relate it to pleasing Kṛṣṇa . In the varṇāśrama system itself, if there is no worship of Vishnu or Kṛṣṇa , those activities of varṇāśrama and dharma actually don’t give any results. And even if you do jñāna yoga and you refuse to worship the Lord or offend the Lord, you cannot get liberation. So the conclusion is that karma yoga, jñāna yoga and astanga yoga ultimately depend on bhakti yoga. And then we can say the logical conclusion is that, bhakti yoga is not dependent on karma or jñāna or astanga yoga.
So if people insist, yes, bhakti yoga is very nice, but you also have to do karma yoga, varṇāśrama , etc. otherwise, bhakti is a waste of time, so that is misunderstanding !! The Bhāgavatam clearly states that bhakti.. even Bhagavad Gita clearly states that, bhakti is independent of everything else. So, even in karma yoga, varṇāśrama , there must be worship of the Lord. Otherwise, we can’t even get artha and kama properly. We used to say, you can’t get in karma yoga, you can’t get artha and kama, unless there is that bhakti. But we don’t call this karma yoga, bhakti yoga as equal, because, the element of bhakti yoga is small, little. And the main interest is not to develop prema, or even to get liberation. It’s to stay in the material world and be comfortable. And people will worship the Lord, Supreme Lord Visnu or Kṛṣṇa because if they don’t, they can’t get their material comfort, so they do a little worship also. So it’s a little bit of bhakti and it’s also mixed bhakti, it’s not pure bhakti. So we can improve on that by doing these activities of varṇāśrama, which include a little bit of worship and then offer all the results to Kṛṣṇa .
So then we will say, okay, this is bhakti yoga. But no, it’s not [Laughs]. See, the activities of varṇāśrama consist of following the rules of varna and performing certain rituals. And for the brahmana and others, there are rules of cleanliness, etc. Bhakti is something different, it’s hearing about the Lord, chanting the Lord’s name and worshipping the Lord. So of course, we can purify these activities of keeping clean and doing, following your varna rules, etc by offering to the Lord. But still, the activity itself is quite different. Another way of saying this is, that the activities of bhakti – hearing, chanting, remembering, worshipping the deity arise from the cit sakti or svarupa sakti, internal energy of Kṛṣṇa. The activities of varṇāśrama, karma yoga result from the gunas of material nature, so they’re quite different. But of course, we can modify these activities and offer them to the Lord, so this purifies them. But that is not enough, to get us to spiritual world and get prema. So, it is definitely mentioned, if you want prema, you have to do pure bhakti. Now that means, in these activities, hearing, chanting, remembering, etc, even if we forget varṇāśrama and we only do hearing, chanting, remembering, but it is mixed with other desires, we don’t get prema !!
So therefore, that is why, in the Nectar of Devotion at the very beginning, Rupa Gosvami gives a definition of pure bhakti. It is by that pure bhakti in sadhana, we get to bhava and to prema. If we do mixed bhakti, we don’t get prema. If we just do varṇāśrama and karma yoga we get svargaloka, if we do a little bhakti [Laughs]. And if we do our varṇāśrama activities and we offer the results to the Lord, then may be we go to brahmaloka. So therefore, we have to distinguish very clearly bhakti from all the other processes. And we have to distinguish pure bhakti from mixed bhakti. So that is why we need some knowledge. We chant Hare Kṛṣṇa , it is also independent, but to get prema we need some knowledge. So, that knowledge is there. So we practice pure bhakti and we chant pure name.
So pure bhakti and pure name does not mean we have prema, we are doing sadhana. And we still have anarthas, so we are not really pure. But in our practice of bhakti, we are attempting for that purity. If we don’t attempt for that purity, then we end up with mixed bhakti and we don’t get prema. So if you want to be a brain surgeon, then you have to fix your goal on that particular brain surgeon goal [Laughs]. So if you say, yeah, I want to be a brain surgeon, but you start studying other things, then you don’t become a brain surgeon. So that is why we need proper knowledge of the goal and proper knowledge of the sadhana. Yeah, and just to get the sadhana straight, we need some philosophical knowledge also.
So the content of scripture is these three things – sambandha, abhidheya and prayojana. And we see that Srila Prabhupada endeavored to give this knowledge to the devotees. We have many popular spiritual movements, many coming from India, but where is the sambandha, abhidheya, prayojana? Where is the scriptural reference? Nothing. Yeah. So they can get some goal, but they are not gonna get prema. Of course people, devotees can also say, ahh prema is too far, why should I strive for prema? But that’s the whole goal of Caitanya Mahaprabhu to deliver Kṛṣṇa prema to all the people of kali yuga. Lord Caitanya is not preaching – go to svargaloka or get liberation. In fact, He is not just preaching prema, He is preaching Radha Kṛṣṇa prema, very, very rare !!! So to attain that specific goal of Radha Kṛṣṇa prema, we have to follow very specific process. So, therefore we have scriptures to help us.
So, we talked about this, you know, rules of varsnasrama etc and the best of doing that would be to offer the results to Kṛṣṇa . So therefore these activities which have their source in the material gunas become spiritualized. The activities of bhakti are already spiritualized, they come from Kṛṣṇa Himself. They are already, by their very nature offered to Kṛṣṇa before we start them [Laughs]. So this is the difference between all other activities and the activities of bhakti. So the devotees should have this understanding when they practice bhakti.
So, as I said, if one is qualified for bhakti, he is qualified for that and therefore he is no longer qualified for karma yoga or jñāna yoga or astanga yoga. Again, Nectar of Devotion, in the very definition of pure bhakti says that it is possible that you can still do karma yoga or jñāna yoga or even astanga yoga, as long as they do not contaminate and obstruct the pure bhakti. So I previously explained that, Yudhisthira and Ambarisa and Dhruva were following varṇāśrama also and they were doing it to set an example for others, not because they were materially attached. So the danger of mixing these other processes with the bhakti is that, we also begin to contaminate the goal of pure bhakti.
So in doing karma yoga, then we start developing material goals, we do jñāna yoga we start striving for liberation. Of course, even that is superior to doing karma yoga or jñāna yoga or astanga yoga. So definitely we can get more than svargaloka and we can get more than liberation even with mixed bhakti. Yeah. So then what we get? We get more than liberation, we can get Vaikuntha. But we don’t get prema. So this is what? Half, we are getting half results [Laughs]. So we can get salokya, planet of the Lord. We can get sarupya, we get spiritual body. But because of that mixture in our bhakti, the impetus to serve the Lord is diluted. And therefore we exist eternally in the spiritual world with a spiritual body with a relationship with the Lord, but very mild. And at the best, we get some sort of santa relationship with the Lord. So according to our practice, we get different results. So karma yoga gives one result, jñāna yoga gives another result, mixed bhakti gives one result, pure bhakti gives prema.
So scripture is there to encourage us to go for the highest goal, prema, not the other goals. And it also teaches us the method, pure bhakti. So we have to learn this, that means we chant the name, nama sankirtana is the process, but we need enough knowledge to practice pure chanting and pure bhakti.
Okay, Hare Kṛṣṇa !
Q & A:
1.) Hare Kṛṣṇa . Thank you Maharaja for the wonderful lecture today. So I have a question regarding the abhidheya or yukta vairagya, because from some devotees I heard that this is an important process on one part of the sadhana, but also there is mentioning that Rupa Gosvami didn’t actually put emphasis on these two. So if you can may be enlighten?
So there is one verse there in Nectar of Devotion that mentions about yukta vairagya and phalgu vairagya. Yeah, so this is because vairagya itself is said to be not a part of bhakti. It can actually be unfavorable for bhakti. So then Rupa Gosvami says, well the impersonalists and jnanis, yogis they practice this phalgu vairagya or false renunciation. Yeah, they reject material objects and the actions of the senses because it’s material, it leads to material impressions and karma.
Whereas those practicing bhakti are also renounced. But they use the senses, the body and objects of this world, so that’s called yukta vairagya. That means in engaging the senses and using material objects, the devotee remains detached for himself, because he’s offering everything to Kṛṣṇa. So pure bhakti when practiced, then it is automatically yukta vairagya. If we’re doing everything for Kṛṣṇa and for Kṛṣṇa ‘s pleasure, that means we’re not attached to anything for ourself. Of course, we go on, we surpass detachment from material objects. We replace that with complete attachment to Kṛṣṇa. So, vairagya or detachment from material objects is automatic with the development of bhakti.
2.) Maharaja you are speaking from and thank you for going into details about this mixed bhakti and pure bhakti and everything. So may be this question is a little bit kind of, we’ll see, but what if a devotee has a desire to worship Kṛṣṇa purely and has a desire for pure devotion, pure bhakti, but is may be, unable to perform, or is performing mixed bhakti. What will happen in the end? Is there like a final destination or there’s always a space for improvement, or is it desire what in the end counts or how to, I hope you understand the question.
Well, it depends on what you mean by mixed bhakti. Now I assume that devotees all know anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam, it’s a very basic verse and when we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, we’re not praying for get me a television set, get me a wife, get me a child, get me a house etc [Laughs]. And when we’re practicing bhakti, we’re not trying to get the svargaloka, we’re trying to develop unconditional love for Kṛṣṇa. However, because we’re doing sadhana, we’re not 100% pure if we were, we would have prema. So in the process of sadhana bhakti, we have anarthas. We have, you know, bhajana kriya, anartha nivrtti, nistha, ruci, asakti and bhava. So in that stage, anarthas are present, they get less and less and less. So there’s a minimum of anartha in bhava, before that there’s more anarthas. So in that sense, we could say we’re not practicing pure bhakti, because we still have anarthas.
So, sadhana by its nature means it’s not pure in the sense that we’re devoid of anarthas, we have anarthas but by the practice of pure bhakti, we gradually reduce the anarthas. So pure bhakti in sadhana means that yes, we have anarthas, we’re not really pure, but at least we have an understanding that when we worship the Lord we’re not going to pray for material benedictions or liberation. So persons that read this and okay, anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ I’m not ready for that, so I’m going to practice bhakti and I’m going to pray for some material things, so, yes, that’s mixed bhakti. So then he gets a svargaloka and he has still got some desires and he’s still a devotee and so he practices more bhakti and he still has material desires, so he goes to brahmaloka. And if he still has desires then, and he practices bhakti, Kṛṣṇa becomes very merciful and he can take him to the spiritual world and get rid of all of his desires, but he ends up with salokya and sarupya [Laughs] without prema [Laughs]. Of course, hopefully, in his whole progress over many births of practicing bhakti with the impurities, he will meet devotees and become inspired to practice pure bhakti and then of course he ends up with prema.
3.) If you can share some experiences that you had with Srila Prabhupada?
I mentioned the other day that yeah, I had some contact with Prabhupada because, but I was a newer devotee, senior devotees were devotees who had been in the movement for 5 years or more, or 6 years maybe [Laughs]. So they got more direct contact with Srila Prabhupada. However, in spite of that I did get the opportunity to speak to Prabhupada directly, and get some instructions from Srila Prabhupada and of course I went with Prabhupada to India when he first went there with the devotees and traveled with Prabhupada for some time.
So during that time, Srila Prabhupada was always completely absorbed in two things. One was preaching and trying to establish centers in that time in India, of course. And the other was, he was absorbed in translating and commenting on books like Srimad Bhagavatam. So he would occupy his day doing either of these. So of course, you see that the result of that was, of course that he was able to establish temples in India and around the world and also translate and comment on Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam. And the conditions were not so favorable. Now Prabhupada, a very great devotee, he goes to India and he asks somebody, being a wealthy man, you please give me some land, they didn’t give him anything [Laughs]. Of course, he did get some land in Vrndavana and Hyderabad but then for Bombay and Mayapur, he had to purchase. And where he got the money from? Because devotees in America were distributing books, so he got money from that and he used that to purchase land in Mayapur and Bombay. So though India now is very very prosperous, at that time, that ISKCON was prosperous in India, at that time it was quite a struggle. So Prabhupada had to import devotees from America and other countries [Laughs]. And he had to use money from other countries to purchase land and build temples in Mayapur and Bombay and Vrndavana and other places. Of course, Prabhupada had a vision for India and of course that has been fulfilled because India has become very strong in terms of the devotional service. Hare Kṛṣṇa !
4.) Connecting with this previous question and answer, somehow Prabhupada was always encouraging us that we can do it and Lord Caitanya also, that we can do this process in one lifetime and somehow or other wherever we are, we do our best somehow and follow. The point is we just need the mercy, we cannot make by ourselves, so it’s like a, it’s always stressed the mercy of Guru and Kṛṣṇa that it’s possible to get prema, to reach the goal. So, even if we are not perfect, of course no one is perfect in the material world. So somehow, how to get this mercy because without mercy it’s not possible, so that we don’t have to spend so many lifetimes sitting here [Laughs].
So power of Kṛṣṇa ‘s name is there, mercy of devotees is there and definitely we can never predict the great results that will come from that. And thus we see examples like Mrgari, the hunter, in three months he got bhava. On the other hand we see other examples for instance Bharata, Bharata got to bhava, then he became a deer, then he became Jada Bharata, then he got prema. So it took him three lifetimes from bhava to prema. And of course, Bharata was a descendant from Manu, so he had extra sakti also. So the progress may be quick, it may be slower. But even if it is slow, it is much quicker than doing a process like karma yoga, jñāna yoga or astanga yoga. And it may take many birth times but still that is relatively quick, when we look at all the endless births we had in the material world. The guarantee is that, when we start bhakti, we continue bhakti until we get perfection, even if it takes many lifetimes.
So in Nectar of Devotion, Rupa Gosvami says that there is a quick process that is mercy, we call that krpa-siddhi. But he says also that is very rare. So we can always pray I will be the rare example [Laughs], but we should also continue with our sadhana. So in Bhāgavatam it is said that, that devotee who experiencing all of his difficulties in the material world, he continues his process of bhakti without hesitation and accepts all the difficulties as simply his karma, as a result of that, he gets the mercy of the Lord. So if we can continue our bhakti very faithfully, with determination for this life and may be next life, next life then we can expect the mercy of the Lord.
There is a careful balance between mercy and endeavor. And that is represented by Mother Yasoda tying up Kṛṣṇa and every time she got rope, the rope was two fingers too short. So our Acharyas have said, what are these two fingers? Why too short? So the answer is, that one factor to make the ropes come together is endeavor. The other is mercy. So Mother Yasoda was very very determined, put a lot of effort to tie up Kṛṣṇa, she got more rope, more rope, more rope and she labored for hours to make the rope longer. And Kṛṣṇa finally seeing that Mother Yasoda was getting very tired, He said okay, I will get tied up. So He gave mercy and then two fingers disappeared and then she could tie up the rope. So in the beginning, you know, Kṛṣṇa was not merciful. He was looking at Yasoda, Yasoda was trying and trying. But after He saw Mother Yasoda’s endeavor which was a devotional endeavor also to tie Him up, then Kṛṣṇa became merciful. So we can get the mercy of Kṛṣṇa by putting forth very, very sincere endeavors of service.
5.) Maharaja, I would like to very much thank you for clarifying very important point, the one point which is struck me very much is that only bhakti which comes from Kṛṣṇa and all other yoga processes they come from tri-guna. So I would like to hear a little bit more about that.
So in Nectar of Devotion, bhakti is described in the bhava stage as being a combination of cit sakti and hladini sakti. And in 11th canto of Bhagavatam, Kṛṣṇa says that jñāna yoga arises from sattva guna, material guna. So varṇāśrama and karma yoga arise from tamo guna and rajo guna. Yeah. So, therefore those things in the gunas, karma yoga, jñāna yoga, astanga yoga cannot really get you out of the gunas. So they depend on bhakti [Laughs].
Yeah, so jñāna yoga, astanga yoga and karma yoga depend on bhakti to give their results. So even the jñāni, of course jñāni gets liberation. But if a jñāni offends the Lord, he cannot get liberation. So this also means that mayavadis and others who say, well we worship the Lord, but the Lord has a material form and a material body, so therefore ultimately we worship the Lord to get purification, but ultimately reject the Lord. That is offense. Therefore those jnanis cannot get liberation.
6.) Hare Kṛṣṇa , I wanted to ask one question about this varṇāśrama, is even by Lord Caitanya said it’s superficial and like this but Prabhupada also said that he didn’t do all the work, that he still has to establish varṇāśrama . This he left for his further generation to make it. So supposed to be that varṇāśrama devotees to do it, but still varṇāśrama is like something which can give you prema, so if you can say something about this?
So though Prabhupada made that statement, it’s also a little bit unclear. Does Prabhupada want the devotees to practice varṇāśrama? or is he telling the devotees to go out and establish varṇāśrama for people in general? Yeah. Those are quite different [Laughs] goals for devotees and for karmis. And then what is the varṇāśrama that Prabhupada says he has to establish? Does it mean the varṇāśrama of Manu? So that varṇāśrama is basically what we call smarta dharma which Prabhupada also criticizes. So then we can say, well daiva varṇāśrama, but then what is daiva varṇāśrama ? So of course daiva varṇāśrama means doing varṇāśrama and atleast we’re worshipping Kṛṣṇa in there. So if we do that in ISKCON, that means we make a little bit of worship of Kṛṣṇa and a lot of varṇāśrama, that doesn’t sound logical [Laughs]. And if we try to establish varṇāśrama for the people in general and have a little bhakti, we can’t even get the general population to a little bhakti, what to speak of following [Laughs] four regulative principles and practicing varṇāśrama, so that’s even more difficult [Laughs].
So then, yeah, so what is, what does varṇāśrama mean? One place Prabhupada said, varṇāśrama means chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa [Laughs]. So that of course is there and we’re trying to encourage everybody to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa . So may be that’s varṇāśrama [Laughs]. If we simplify varṇāśrama to its simplest, simplest principles of varṇāśrama that we want to follow, may be we can say, follow four regulative principles. But even that actually isn’t varṇāśrama because only the brahmanas do that, the ksatriyas are allowed to intoxicate and take meat and have women and whatever, so then, even that doesn’t seem to be real varṇāśrama .
So then there’s another attempt. Okay, let’s establish varnas in ISKCON. But then of course, Bhāgavatam also says it’s an offense to think of devotees in terms of brahmana, vaisya, ksatriya and sudra. So why we want to give them names? And of course definitely we don’t want to do it by birth, we designate this one as a brahmana and then his son becomes a brahmana and his grandson becomes a brahmana, we don’t want to do that either. So who establishes and how do we establish, who is what varna? So that itself may be a very difficult task to do because people will disagree that, I don’t want to do that. I want to do this instead [Laughs]. Or everyone may just opt out and say I want to be a brahmana. So I won’t do the work, you have to support me. Or I’ll be the sudra, I don’t want to think anything. I’ll just wash the dishes [Laughs].
So it’s rather difficult to say what Prabhupada meant by establishing that varṇāśrama for who, what rules to follow etc. And if we spend all of our time doing that, then that takes away from our endeavor to practice pure bhakti also. So in any case we should never, what, disregard or make the main goal of our movement insignificant.
Devotee: Okay, thank you very much. Srila Prabhupada ki jai!
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhāgavatam ki jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ki jai!!! Srila Prabhupada ki jai!!!