Svayam Bhagavan Keshava Maharaja delivered Srimad Bhagavatam class titled, ‘The Fast Track’ in Cologne, Germany, in April 2024.
0:00:00 Pre-Roll
0:00:33 Introduction
0:02:56 Verse reading
0:07:00 Seminar
welcome to the wisdom that breathes Channel across all our platforms we try to share wisdom which is relevant and accessible to everyone but on this particular platform we go deeper into some of the ancient principles found within the scriptures if you find some of the terminology difficult or inaccessible then go over to our kabas Swami YouTube channel where you’ll be able to find other content which is perhaps more relatable thank thank you and enjoy the wisdom that breathes okay so begin bavan this bagavan puu Swami at that time bhagavan also suggested some Innovations in the presentation of the forthcoming French edition of shrimat bhagwatam Kanto one which will go into production shortly he plans to remove the painting depicting the creation from the front cover and put it inside on the end papers he wants to put a painting of Krishna and Bam on the cover which he thinks will help increase the door Todo sales prad was all smiles hearing his report nothing pleases him more than news of his books being sold or news of how the people of the world are appreciating them he approved the idea for a new cover and told bagavan his ideas were very good he said that Bhavan should sell books in huge quantity and then print again however not every GBC man is experiencing such success brahmananda Swami sent yet another disheartening report although he is working hard fulfilling many roles as GB Nairobi Temple president life membership director correspondence secretary and so on he seems to have become despondent in his attempt to preach in Africa he has major problems to deal with and very few devotees to help him nandakumar Swami is there but he is untrained and cannot cope with more than just the pujari work and cook So today we’re reading from c number six of the sh bhat today we’re reading from chapter number five entitled Nar cursed bya and today we’re reading from text number 37 so if you can repeat of [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] m [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] for for [Music] [Music] from the from [Music] the of persons not freed of person not freed considering the of Duty the of Duty ruin of the path of good fortune of the of Good Fortune most sinful the translation and purp by his Divine Daka said my sons were not all freed from their three debts indeed they did not properly consider their obligations oh nari oh personality of sinful action you have obstructed their progress toward good fortune in this world and the next because they are still indebted to the saintly persons the demigods and their father I think you all remember the context of the story but prajapati Daka had 10,000 sons and prajapati means one who is meant to populate the universe so the service of Daka is to increase the population in the universe so Dua was having a difficult time increasing the population so then what happened is he performed a many prayers and a yagya and then finally he United with his wife aik and from them 10,000 Sons were born and they were known as the haras but then what happened is those harvas 10,000 Sons they went to a place called nayas and there they began to execute austerity because before you can procreate before you become a father or a mother you should become qualified yourself because if you’re a father or a mother then it means you become a guru so before you become a guru and have children you should also uh improve your own character um and therefore they went to perform austerities before they took up uh Parenthood but when Nar money saw these 10,000 sons and they were very very qualified so then he said to them why are you going into married life why are you going to get into so much entanglement you can just take the fast path uh so then he convinced them Nar monei was very convincing some preachers they’re very very convincing book distributors like that they can convince anyone so n convinced the har so got very angry because this was his great chance to populate the universe and 10,000 sasis in one go a big hit you know so then Daka tried again so then Daka had another thousand sons and these thousand Sons went to the same place and none you know like if you’re a good book distributor and you find a good town where you can distribute a lot of books then you go there again you know you try to do another good day on San so when these other thousand Sons came to this place noney came there again and 1,000 Sons he again made them all sasis he said why why will you become a gasta no need so then 11,000 sons in one go n when he turned them into runia so Daka became so angry so now he’s telling Nar monei how did you make them all sasis you didn’t realize that they have debts they have debts and they can only renounce the world after they fulfilled their debts so you actually did a great disservice so this is dua’s argument so purple she explains as soon as a Brahman takes birth he assumes three kinds of debts debts to the great Saints debts to the demigods and debts to his father the son of a brahmana must undergo celibacy brahmacharya to clear his debts to the saintly person he must perform ritualistic ceremonies to clear his debts to the demigods and he must beget children to become free from the debts to his father prati daksha argued that although the renounced order is recommended for Liberation one cannot attain Liberation unless one fulfills his obligations to the demigods the Saints and his father since dua’s Sons had not liberated themselves from these three debts how could n monei had led them to the renounced order of Life apparently prajapati Daka did not know the final decision of the shastras as stated in shrimat bhagwatam 11541 [Music] [Music] everyone is indebted to the demigods to living entities in general to his family to the petas and so on but if one fully surrenders to Krishna Munda who can give one Liberation even if one performs no yug one is freed from all debts even if one does not repay his debts he is freed from all debts if he renounces the material world for the sake of the Supreme personality of godhead whose Lotus feet are the shelter of everyone this is the verdict of the shastra therefore n was completely right in instructing the sons of Prapa Daka to renounce this material world immediately and take shelter of the Supreme personality of godhead unfortunately Prapa Daka the father of the harvas and the Savalas did not understand the great service rendered by nari Dua therefore addressed him as Papa the personality of sinful activ and a a nons person since n was a great Saint and V he tolerated all such accusations from Prapa he merely performed his duty as a v by delivering all the sons of Paka enabling them to return home back to Goden forur [Music] [Music] kishna [Music] go [Music] [Music] kishna kishna kishna kishna [Music] so sometimes parents become very angry if their children renounce the world I was have a personal experience one time there was one young uh young boy he wanted to join the temple so his father came his father was so angry that he wanted to join the temple his father called the temple president everyone I was also in the room so his father said I don’t mind he can give his life to Krishna I don’t mind but first he should get married then he should get a job then he should learn responsibility then he should bring his children up to be good citizens and then once he’s done all of those things I have no problem I will be the first person he should give his life to Krishna but first he should do all of those things so the devotee looked at his father and said okay so then we let him go you’ve grown up you got a job you had your children they’ve now grown up they’re doing very well then we’ll take you instead his father said no noce okay you can take him so then the devote told him see you always say later we’ll do after we do everything we’ll come coming Krishna just now coming but it may not happen because in life so many things can happen so many things can divert you so Nar monei in these children he saw the opportunity that they don’t need to go through the whole journey of Life they can directly surrender so what is the need them for for them to go through so many different things in the Vic scriptures is explained that there is a journey of life and the journey of life goes through four stages brahmacharya gasta Vana andas he said in brah you learn in gasta asham you earn in Vana asham you turn and inas Ash you burn the idea is then you return back to godhe so this is the cycle of Life first you learn then you earn then you start to turn away from the world and then eventually you return back home back to godhead so this is the scientific way in which one’s life is meant to go but is explained in Scripture that if one becomes a brahmachari and they can directly uh go towards renunciation then that is also a path that can be taken one path is to go through the four stages and another PA is to skip the two middle stages and go from one to four directly therefore in some of our scriptures and some of our aaras we see they went directly from one to four can you think of any acharia in our lives who went from brah directly toas spiritual Master he was what you call a brah and that means one who remains renounced for their whole life so daka’s argument here is that he Daka doesn’t understand that there are two options here either one can go through all the stages or one can go direct but Daka doesn’t understand the second approach to life and what he feels is that when you miss out the two middle ashrams gasta and vanasa then you don’t fulfill your debts how do you fulfill your debt to your father prob mentioned in the purple does anyone remember to be your father to be a father yourself to have children but how do you become a how do you have children if you never get married how do you fulfill your obligations to the demigods anyone remember prop had said you have to perform what yagya ritualistic activities but when you’re a renunciate you don’t do ritualistic activities You’re simply engaged in hearing and chanting and preaching so there’s no karmaa no rituals so how do you fulfill your obligations if you don’t become a grasta he’s thinking so therefore Daka is thinking if they miss out these two ashs how they will fulfill their obligations but pra explains that the bhagwatam tells us that if you surrender to Krishna then simply by surrendering to Krishna you don’t have to do anything else to fulfill your obligations because when you water the root of the tree then what happens all the branches all the Twigs all the leaves automatically become satisfied because you’re watering the root therefore in the beginning of the Bhagavad Gita will [Music] [Music] say Krishna says I come to this world why does Krishna come to this world dharm to establish Dharma agreed Krishna comes to this world to establish Dharma but what does Krishna say at the end of the bhavita give up all Dharma isn’t that contradiction on one hand Krishna says I come to the world to establish Dharma and then 30 minutes later at the end of the bhavita Krishna says give up old Dharma so does Krishna want you to follow Dharma or does Krishna want you to give up Dharma what’s your understanding which one do you want to follow follow Dharma or give up Dharma both how do you follow something and give it up at the same time when when you you can get everything up and just surround to kishna but when you’re not like on that on that platform you have to exactly so the purpose of Dharma is to lead you to bti the goal of Dharma is bti so while following Dharma helps you to get to bakti is useful but once you’ve attained bti once you’ve surrendered to Krishna once you’ve attained the ultimate goal you don’t need to practice Dharma anymore the great Souls may still practice Dharma even when they fully awaken bti to educate the people in general that d is good but basically the great Souls don’t have to follow Dharma because the goal of Dharma or following Duty and obligation and rightous living the goal of that is to attain love so nari here is telling the haras and sa ASAS you have the opportunity to just absorb yourself in bakti you can just directly love Krishna and if you directly love Krishna don’t worry about all your other Dharma that will automatically be fulfilled because the goal of Dharma is to attain bakti and therefore if you attain bakti then you fulfill the purpose of Dharma and then you no longer will have any debts towards any of these objects and so this is uh the higher understanding butati Daka he doesn’t have this understanding because prapti Daka is not a pure devote of Krishna prapti Daka knows something about shastra he knows something about Dharma he knows something about following VC regulations but what Prapa doesn’t understand is what the goal of all of that is sometimes people follow religion but they have no idea of the goal sometimes people come to the temple but they have no idea of what the purpose of coming to a temple actually is or sometimes they do have an understanding but what they’re doing is just coming and practicing religion and coming to the temple for some lower material reason so B says religion can be performed on four levels the lowest level is when you practice religion out of that means fear higher than that is when you practice religion out of Asha and that means material desire higher than that is when you practice religion out of gavia and that means duty but higher than all of those purposes of practicing religion is when you practice religion out of and so uh nari wants to lead the haras and the saas into pure love for Krishna and he sees that for them there’s no need to go through the steps of Dharma they’re ready and therefore he tells them give all give it all up and just surrender but for many people in the world that may not be practical for many people in the world that may not be the path that’s most suitable for them for many people in the world it doesn’t make sense to give up your family to give up everything and to just immediately try to uh surrender everything to Krishna therefore for most people they can go through the four stages of life and that’s perfect and that’s beautiful even Shila prad went through the four stages but there may be some individuals who can take the other route and here nari saw that there was an opportunity and so he encourag them to go in that direction and so in this way we can see when we look at our own life we choose the path that is most suitable for us which one is better the four stages or the direct path the best one is the one that suited to you and so some of our great Souls were gastas and they went through the stages and some were Nik brahmacharis and they didn’t but both of them uh achieved were uh completely absorbed in love for Krishna so everyone should just take the path that is most suitable for them and here n introduced the haras and theas to the path that would be most suitable for them and in this way their lives became successful [Music] has any question if you have any comment or anything more you would like clarification on yes I was always wondering because D was instructed by Krishna to populate the univ was also his service is this not a conflict in interest yes so Daka was given a service by Krishna and daa’s service was to populate the universe so then Nar monei why is he giving Daka a hard time nari shouldn’t he realize that this is krishna’s Will du is just doing his service n monei realizes that there’s different ways in which Dua can achieve his service so later on what happens is after Daka has 10,000 Sons they renounce then he has another 1,000 Sons they renounce then how does what does Daka do next he has more children but who are those children he has 60 daughters and Dua is able to still complete his service to Krishna because n when he doesn’t try to make the daughters into sis he realizes that for them it’s more natural to go into family Liv And so yes Dr had a service to Krishna but Daka also had a responsibility to do the best for his sons and so the best for his sons would be to immediately take shelter of Krishna but at the same time Daka had a service to Krishna but there was another way to perform that service to Krishna which was by having daughters and those daughters could then go on and be married and populate the universe so therefore there was a win-win uh there was a way in which both things could be satisfied and so nari knew that yes even if I make his son’s renounce still Dua won’t be affected in his ability to perform his service because later on he can have other children and those children can perform uh the task that he wants to do for Krishna but right here is an opportunity for someone to go back home back to godhead and when the opportunity is there for someone to go back home back to godhead that must be the priority above everything sh PR once said if I can make one pure devote of Krishna my whole mission will be a success so when Daka when nared saw that was there was an opportunity here he realized we must take Advantage but what about dua’s service to Krishna that will be performed later on there are many ways to achieve that but for now the priority is to give his sons the best opportunity to perfect their lives does that make sense anyone else um if I got it correctly what you were saying is that like for some people mus to all the stages some people most just go from one to four but isn’t it sometimes displayed in a way that like you were also saying like it’s it’s still like if somebody can do it to go from one to four is still like the most uncomplicated or easy kind of way or I get yeah so there are two so there are two parts one is to go all the stages and the other one is to just go directly from Brahma toas so I said um I was asking the question which is the best and my answer was the best one is the one that’s suitable to you but then yes one can say the best one is also the one which is Least Complicated there is always danger when you begin engaging with the material energy that many things could go [Music] wrong remember the story of the sage who went to the ganga the banks of the ganga and he said now I’m just going to sit here and chant so then as he was chanting he heard uh he a thought came in his mind that uh I’m sitting here ch but I don’t have anything what am I going to wear tomorrow I need another set of clothes otherwise what am I going to do I won’t be able to have clean clothes tomorrow so then he said okay I’ll come back to my chanting in a second let me just get another pair of doy and c and I’ll just wash it and keep it there then I’ll sit down and CH so you got a pair he hung it on the line then he said okay now I’ll ch so he began chanting and as soon as he was chanting he heard the sound of a rat and the rat was eating away at his Doty which was on the line he was chanting but he couldn’t concentrate cuz he heard the rat so he said oh my God this rat is going to eat my doy and then if it eats my doy I won’t be able to wear something tomorrow so I need to do something so then he went away and he decided to buy a cat so then he brought the cat and he kept the cat there and then he sat down to Chan thought if there’s a cat then the rat won’t come if the rat doesn’t come then the doy will be there then I’ll be able to wear it tomorrow and then I began chanting and then as soon as he began chanting then what happened is the cat started crying meow meow realiz oh my God someone needs to feed the cat the cat also needs need to you know need some milk so then he got up from his chanting he got a cow I need to get some milk so I need to get the cow to get some milk to feed the cat to make sure that the rat stays away so that my Dy is there so that I can chant and I can wear something tomorrow so then he brought the cow so then you he’s saying there’s a cow there’s a cat and then he says uh so he begins chanting and then the cowo begins like crying and realize oh no the the cow also needs someone to milk him so then he said maybe I should get married because then I’ll have my wife she can milk the cow so that we can get the milk to feed the cat so that the rat will stay away so that I have my so that I can peacefully chant knowing that I have something to wear tomorrow anyway like this it went on and on and on because as soon as you begin engaging with the material world life becomes very very complex it’s very dangerous therefore if you can go the direct path and have less engagement with the material energy in one sense it’s safer but maybe that’s not relevant for us maybe that’s not practical so then what we do is we can become reusers but what did sh say simple living I thinking most people now are simply living hardly thinking but our concept is simple living High thinking so if we go the route where we go through all the asham that’s still okay but we have to be careful because when you get engaged with the material energy we can become very very distracted and life can become so complex that in order to survive in this world we have no time left to worship Krishna and so uh like this in one sense we can say yes the direct path is better because it’s less risky more simple less distraction but if we go the other path we can still protect ourselves through shil pra’s instructions to try to live does it make sense all right any last [Music] question okay yes repeating because you just neveress gives us conditions us much not fully not full possibility the material world uh doesn’t give us the full facility to worship will not but we still here but we’re here we have this in the body yes so uh um yeah how to it Ching M was nice story about the S very Niti to Les it to make it Les what we understand neveress is you mean this material world I I can’t get rid of it so fully because it’s not possible that I can do I can’t yes but how toads he said yeah sh he said make the best use of a bad bargain we’re in this world there are so many distractions there are so many difficulties there are so many obstacles uh it’s a in one sense it’s a bad bargain devotees also they realize kuga is a difficult time sometimes devotees get into kuga qat it’s really bad out there you know it’s so difficult it’s K guys hard it’s difficult but once there was devotees they were talking about kuga he said kuga very bad very bad very difficult and then one person he came up from the back and he said kuga it’s not kuga this is you got so you can M you can see the world and say no no very bad very bad very difficult very hard very maybe impossible maybe small chance very difficult or you can say this is you ganga is here and when ganga is here then ganga makes even very difficult things very very easy ganga makes that which is very very high very very achievable Because by the mercy of Shri chanya Maha pru uh even uh the lame can cross mountains the blind can see stars in the eyes the dumb person can speak eloquently and even someone who is very weak can also attain Perfection so yes it’s difficult but the holy name of Krishna is very very [Music] powerful guys ocean of faults a however EO one Mahan great quality there’s one great quality in kuga aish chant krishna’s names M and you become released from all the difficulties and you attain the Supreme destination so yes it’s difficult but we make the best use of a bad bargain and realize that mahu where we struggle mahu will make up the difference if we take shelter of him thank you so much yes um I have a question you talked about the four different stages of religion and how we can have people come out of fear and out of material desires and the four is um out of love but when we are coming we don’t have this love understand how to attain this love and I think at least for me it’s like we try to be happy and to find ways to be happy enough we saw so many things which do not must us make happy because they’re not permanently it seems for me like is the only reasonable way to become happy because other things I have F out and how how this in this concept when you know your stage that not there like already you have this playar or maybe you don’t even know that this goal is somehow achievable how you position yourself in this you know somehow egoistic way because yeah so we understand that prma or love is the highest but if we are honest then we are not there we have many agendas we have many desires uh so how do we get there how do we get to prma the first thing m is that it’s not that you are it’s not that these are just stages you go from one to two to three to four there is elements of all of these like say for example if someone is on the level of fear but they also have some material desires as well and say someone is on the level of material desire but they also have some gratitude towards Krishna a little bit of dutifulness as well and maybe someone who’s on the dutifulness they also have some love for Krishna so the point is you can’t say you don’t have any love for Krishna isn’t it have some love for Krishna maybe it’s small but some love is there and then what we do in kishna Consciousness is whatever love we have we try to use that to serve Krishna selflessly and what happens is when we find those moments where we love Krishna and serve him selflessly then it enlivens our heart so much that we feel I should love Krishna more I should serve selflessly more and uh it’s like sometimes when there’s padan time and you’re very hungry but you make the sacrifice to serve the devotees okay let’s serve then what sometimes happens is after you’ve served all the devotees you know what happens right you actually feel like your own hunger has disappeared just by serving selflessly you feel okay actually I don’t to eat so much it was just nice to serve and then in the future when the opportunity comes to serve you think that was so nice to serve selflessly maybe I can do it again and like this what happens is more and more we realize if I try to make myself happy then I become miserable but if I try to make Krishna happy that’s what actually fulfills my heart there’s a beautiful verse in the seventh Canto where prad Mar says one is happy so long as they don’t try to be happy the moment you start endeavoring for your own happiness your misery begins and therefore the Mantra of life is don’t try to be happy try to serve don’t try to be happy it doesn’t work but try to serve and if you serve then Krishna enchants your heart and then everything comes is that okay yes okay last one and then we finish I to I was thinking about it Rec because it is written in different [Music] books kishna to make to give him pleasure makes us yes shra says the J is eternally the servant of Krishna and therefore we eternally serve Krishna but the most amazing thing is that the devote of Krishna derives more happiness than Krishna himself and therefore because the devote of Krishna derives more happiness in the relationship than Krishna himself Krishna himself comes to serve his devotees Krishna himself comes to experience what it would be like to be a devotee Krishna actually comes to the world as mahu and accepts the mood of Rani because the devote of Krishna in their service to Krishna experien is more happiness than even Krishna himself so the fact that we are J and eternally in a position to serve Krishna is the most amazing news in the universe because no one derives more happiness than the person who becomes the greatest servant and the more you become a servant the more you develop selflessness the more we give up our selfish self-centered mentality the more our life becomes beautiful and that is the great opportunity that all of us [Music]