Lord Vāmanadeva Begs Charity from Bali Mahārāja
“The Personality of Godhead said: O my dear King, even the entirety of whatever there may be within the three worlds to satisfy one’s senses cannot satisfy a person whose senses are uncontrolled.”
PURPORT: The material world is an illusory energy to deviate the living entities from the path of self-realization. Anyone who is in this material world is extremely anxious to get more and more things for sense gratification. Actually, however, the purpose of life is not sense gratification but self-realization. Therefore, those who are too addicted to sense gratification are advised to practice the mystic yoga system, or aṣṭāṅga-yoga system, consisting of yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra and so on. In this way, one can control the senses. The purpose of controlling the senses is to stop one’s implication in the cycle of birth and death.
As stated by Ṛṣabhadeva:
nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma
yad indriya-prītaya āpṛṇoti
na sādhu manye yata ātmano ’yam
asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ
[SB 5.5.4]
“When a person considers sense gratification the aim of life, he certainly becomes mad after materialistic living and engages in all kinds of sinful activity. He does not know that due to his past misdeeds he has already received a body which, although temporary, is the cause of his misery. Actually the living entity should not have taken on a material body, but he has been awarded the material body for sense gratification. Therefore I think it not befitting an intelligent man to involve himself again in the activities of sense gratification, by which he perpetually gets material bodies one after another.” (Bhāg. 5.5.4) Thus according to Ṛṣabhadeva the human beings in this material world are just like madmen engaged in activities which they should not perform but which they do perform only for sense gratification. Such activities are not good because in this way one creates another body for his next life, as punishment for his nefarious activities. And as soon as he gets another material body, he is put into repeated suffering in material existence. Therefore the Vedic culture or brahminical culture teaches one how to be satisfied with possessing the minimum necessities in life.
To teach this highest culture, varṇāśrama-dharma is recommended. The aim of the varṇāśrama divisions—brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, brahmacarya, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa—is to train one to control the senses and be content with the bare necessities. Here Lord Vāmanadeva, as an ideal brahmacārī, refuses Bali Mahārāja’s offer to give Him anything He might want. He says that without contentment one could not be happy even if he possessed the property of the entire world or the entire universe. In human society, therefore, the brahminical culture, kṣatriya culture and vaiśya culture must be maintained, and people must be taught how to be satisfied with only what they need. In modern civilization there is no such education; everyone tries to possess more and more, and everyone is dissatisfied and unhappy. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is therefore establishing various farms, especially in America, to show how to be happy and content with minimum necessities of life and to save time for self-realization, which one can very easily achieve by chanting the mahā-mantra— Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.
[formerly the advanced human condition was mode of goodness, where people lived simply and depended upon what material nature would provide for them.Now the modern condition is one of ignorance and passion where our senses are trying to enjoy more and more but becoming less and less satisfied. Our devotee motto is to simplify your life and purify your soul. How to do that? First step is to understand the difference between what we “want” and what we “need”]
“If I were not satisfied with three paces of land, then surely I would not be satisfied even with possessing one of the seven islands, consisting of nine varṣas. Even if I possessed one island, I would hope to get others.”
“We have heard that although powerful kings like Mahārāja Pṛthu and Mahārāja Gaya achieved proprietorship over the seven dvīpas, they could not achieve satisfaction or find the end of their ambitions.”
“One should be satisfied with whatever he achieves by his previous destiny, for discontent can never bring happiness. A person who is not self-controlled will not be happy even with possessing the three worlds.”
PURPORT: If happiness is the ultimate goal of life, one must be satisfied with the position in which he is placed by providence. This instruction is also given by Prahlāda Mahārāja:
sukham aindriyakaṁ daityā
deha-yogena dehinām
sarvatra labhyate daivād
yathā duḥkham ayatnataḥ
“My dear friends born of demoniac families, the happiness perceived with reference to the sense objects by contact with the body can be obtained in any form of life, according to one’s past fruitive activities. Such happiness is automatically obtained without endeavor, just as we obtain distress.” (Bhāg. 7.6.3) This philosophy is perfect in regard to obtaining happiness.
[here , in a nutshell, above Srila Prabhupada describes material happiness, and next he describes spiritual happiness. Material happiness comes from destiny,past fruitive activity, it cannot be altered, increased or decreased.this type of “happiness” is meant to be understood, tolerated and while this goes on, one should cultivate spiritual happiness thru transcendental senses]
Real happiness is described in Bhagavad-gītā (6.21):
sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tad
buddhi-grāhyam atīndriyam
vetti yatra na caivāyaṁ
sthitaś calati tattvataḥ
“In the spiritually joyous state, one is situated in boundless transcendental happiness and enjoys himself through transcendental senses. Established thus, one never departs from the truth.” One has to perceive happiness by the supersenses. The supersenses are not the senses of the material elements. Every one of us is a spiritual being (ahaṁ brahmāsmi), and every one of us is an individual person. Our senses are now covered by material elements, and because of ignorance we consider the material senses that cover us to be our real senses. The real senses, however, are within the material covering. Dehino’smin yathā dehe: [Bg. 2.13] within the covering of the material elements are the spiritual senses. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam: [Cc. Madhya 19.170] when the spiritual senses are uncovered, by these senses we can be happy. Satisfaction of the spiritual senses is thus described: hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate. When the senses are engaged in devotional service to Hṛṣīkeśa, then the senses are completely satisfied. Without this superior knowledge of sense gratification, one may try to satisfy his material senses, but happiness will never be possible. One may increase his ambition for sense gratification and even achieve what he desires for the gratification of his senses, but because this is on the material platform, he will never achieve satisfaction and contentment.
According to brahminical culture, one should be content with whatever he obtains without special endeavor and should cultivate spiritual consciousness. Then he will be happy. The purpose of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to spread this understanding. People who do not have scientific spiritual knowledge mistakenly think that the members of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement are escapists trying to avoid material activities. In fact, however, we are engaged in real activities for obtaining the ultimate happiness in life. If one is not trained to satisfy the spiritual senses and continues in material sense gratification, he will never obtain happiness that is eternal and blissful. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (5.5.1) therefore recommends:
tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena sattvaṁ
śuddhyed yasmād brahma-saukhyaṁ tv anantam
“One must practice austerity so that his existential position will be purified and he will achieve unlimited blissful life.”
“A brāhmaṇa who is satisfied with whatever is providentially obtained is increasingly enlightened with spiritual power, but the spiritual potency of a dissatisfied brāhmaṇa decreases, as fire diminishes in potency when water is sprinkled upon it.” (SB 8.19.26)
pamho agtACBSP, SRI VAMANA DEVA AVIRBHAVA MAHOTSAVA KI JAI
Thank you for posting this nice and accurate article by HDG ACBSP, it’s been posted properly by inspiring people to do more austerities. Especially today we should meditate on this special article on this special day of SRI VAMANA DEVA LILA by forgetting to think to something else i mean is not worthy to think of the guru hoaxers by wasting time by paying respect to ordinary people who lost their common sense and are not pratical at all anymore. To get caught by the fake reflection makes everyone forget that the real aim of life is to become Krsna conscious by meditating always on the real and pure reflection until one become a genuine brahma nistham as our guru maharaj.
To think always that we are products of SRI KRSNA passing through many lives in the material world until all our sinful activities gets burns, we need to be engaged constantly in nama rupa guna and lila of SRI KRSNA without caring for people who don’t want to become Krsna conscious. All the pastimes of SRI KRSNA are very sweet i mean is not all the time the same soup of the material world where degraded citizens are fighting like cats and dogs daily until death. Knowing your own business one must keep to pay respect to GURU SADHU SASTRA by ignoring all the biped citizens who are simply spoiling another human form of life by chewing the chewed, don’t get more trapped by thinking of all these insignificants citizens including all the guru hoaxers, it’s better to think properly by not waste more time in ordinary people who forgot they have to die without saving themselves therefore they lost the soul the heart everything and at the end at the time of departure from this world of living dead, there is nothing anymore to take without the real reflection purely manifested, therefore more we do now to get the real spiritual body manifested and less pain there is at the time to leave this fake reflection trapped in the bodily concept of life which is changing constantly, therefore they don’t know who they really are but SRI VAMANA DEVA can tell us that straight away only when we surrender everything to HIM who is the supreme owner of the self worlds etc..
BALI MAHARAJ KI JAI,ATMA-NIVEDANA.KI JAI,SRI VAMANA DEVA APPEARANCE DAY KI JAI, SRILA PRABHUPADA KI JAI
ys haribol