Anyone serious about spiritual progress must choose carefully which sounds to hear.
na copagayaty urugaya-gathah
“One who has not listened to the messages about the prowess and marvelous acts of the Personality of Godhead and has not sung or chanted loudly the worthy songs about the Lord is to be considered to possess earholes like the holes of snakes and a tongue like the tongue of a frog.” – Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.3.20
Urukrama refers to Krishna . Krama means activities. Uru means great. Vikraman means chivalrous activities, very brave activities. Those who do not hear about the brave activities of Krishna are satisfied with tiny activities of this material world. People give credit to an ordinary man who claims to have become God. How has he become God? Meditation. Now, what are his wonderful activities? Simply by meditation he has become God? This is foolishness.
God must act very wonderfully, otherwise how is He God? Because an ordinary man has a big beard he has become God? How foolish this idea is. People do not know what God is because they have not heard about God – how powerful He is, what brave activities He performs.
When Krishna was seven years old He lifted a great hill, Govardhan Hill. And He kept it on His finger for seven days. That is God. Krishna married sixteen thousand wives. Who can maintain sixteen thousand wives? One cannot maintain even one wife. Therefore Krishna is called Urukrama, “one who performs great activities.” When He had sixteen thousand wives, He expanded Himself into sixteen thousand forms so that no wife would be displeased. If I am one and I have many wives, every one of them will be displeased. Krishna provided sixteen thousand palaces, and in each palace there were many thousands of servants and maidservants, and each wife was blessed with ten sons. This is called urukrama, great activities.
Lord Ramacandra killed Ravana, who was so powerful that all the demigods in higher planetary systems were afraid of him. Ravana had become so powerful.
Ravana’s brother reigned in Brazil. There was a subway from Ceylon to Brazil. We get information from the Ramayana. Such powerful demons. Who now can make a subway from one country to another country? They can make a subway from one city to another, utmost. But at that time, Ravana was able to make a subway from one continent to another. In Brazil still there are big stocks of gold. Ravana used these gold mines to construct his city Svarna-lanka, “Golden Ceylon,” as it was known at that time.
Ravana was very advanced in material science, even at that time. And he was also a good scholar in Vedic literature. He was a great devotee of Lord Siva. By the blessings of Lord Siva he got so much opulence. And he became so powerful that he dared to kidnap the wife of Ramacandra.
Such a powerful demon was killed by Ramacandra, who approached Ravana’s kingdom on a stone bridge. The stones were floating on the water. Where was the law of gravitation? The law of gravitation – the so-called scientists’ imagination – does not act when Urukrama, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, acts. He wanted, “There should be no law of gravitation. Let the stones float on the water.” This is called urukrama.
We accept Lord Ramacandra as God, Lord Krishna as God – not these petty dogs and cats. We have no business with these petty dogs and cats. All rascals are declaring, “I am God.” No.
Because people do not know what God is, you have to inject within their earholes the message of God. That is your business. As we read in the previous verse, these rascals are compared to dogs, hogs, camels, and asses. They have no information of God, and therefore their earholes are compared to snake holes. Those of you who have taken to Krishna consciousness very seriously have got a very responsible task: to inject within their ears the chivalrous activities of God. Otherwise, their earholes remain as snake holes.
As I explained yesterday, nobody puts their hands or legs into the snake holes. If these earholes remain empty, without aural reception of the great activities of the Lord, they are as good as snake holes.
People have decided, “There is no God. God is dead. God has no personality. He’s zero.” Therefore they have no opportunity to hear about God. These earholes are meant for giving aural reception to the message of God. But people will not do that.
Therefore your mission is to go home to home, village to village, town to town, and give them an injection in the ear: “Hear.” Make arrangements, with nice dancing, nice chanting, prasada distribution. Why? Just to inject into their snake holes the words of Krishna . This is your mission. For those who have taken sannyasa, it is especially their duty. Sat-nyasa means to sacrifice everything for the Supreme.
Sacrificing the Doggish Mentality
Actually, we have nothing to sacrifice, but we must sacrifice the sense of “I am the Lord.” That’s all. What do you have that you can sacrifice? This is simply a bluff – sacrifice. We cannot sacrifice. What have we got that we can sacrifice? There is no question of sacrifice, but sacrifice means to give up the doggish mentality that “I am the Lord, I am God, I am the enjoyer.”
This doggish mentality has to be sacrificed. Otherwise, what can you sacrifice? What have you got? We speak of renouncement, but there is no question of renouncement. You haven’t got anything, so what is there to renounce? You come naked and you go naked. Simply by a false, illusory conception you think, “This is mine, this is mine, this is mine.” Actually, when you take your birth you do not bring anything with you. And when you go away you do not take away anything. The things were there, and the things will be there. You come and go. Then where is the question of sacrifice? Where is the question of renouncement? These are illusions. Isavasyam idam sarvam (Isopanisad, Mantra 1). Everything belongs to God; nothing belongs to you. So what is the meaning of renouncement? And what is the meaning of enjoyment? You cannot enjoy others’ property, nor is it a very nice thing if you say, “I renounce it.”
Suppose you are passing through the Bank of America. If you say, “I renounce this,” what is the renouncement? The Bank of America belongs to you? This is craziness. You cannot enjoy the Bank of America. If you go and try to enjoy it, then you’ll be a criminal. And if you say, “I renounce it,” then you are a madman. This is your position.
But people are going on under two impressions. The karmis are thinking, “I am the enjoyer. I am the lord of all I survey. This America is mine. You cannot enter.” This is the karmis’ position. Falsely they are claiming proprietorship of what does not belong to them. They are thieves, rogues.
There is a story that a group of thieves plundered some booty, some property, and then outside the town they were dividing it. So one of the thieves said, “Please divide the property morally.” Now, the property’s stolen property, and they are speaking of “morally.” The devil cites scripture. Similarly, you Americans have come from Europe and have stolen this property. Now you are speaking of morality.
Nothing belongs to us. There is no question of morality unless one surrenders to Krishna . Everything is immoral for a person who is not Krishna conscious. Therefore Caitanyacaritamrta (Antya 4.176) says,
‘dvaite’ bhadrabhadra-jñana, saba – ‘manodharma’
‘ei bhala, ei manda’ – ei saba ‘bhrama’
In this material world, which is called “duality,” we say, “These things are good; these things are bad.” Bhadra means good. Abhadra means bad. But these things are all the same. Seeing good and bad is simply mental concoction. Here the so-called morality and ethics are all nonsense, because you are trying to lord it over the property of somebody else. So where is your morality?
These sentiments – morality, immorality, good, bad – are simply manufactured. Unless one surrenders to Krishna , there is no question of ethics and morality. In our philosophical class we are now discussing Huxley’s morality. These are all a crazy man’s proposals. There is no morality without surrender to Krishna .
Full Use of Our Time
We can understand things as they are if we receive the message of Urukrama, Krishna , if we give aural reception to the activities of Krishna . Therefore, you should not waste even a moment in nonsense talk. You have got so many books about Krishna . Either chant Hare Krishna , Hare Krishna , Krishna Krishna , Hare Hare, or read books and discuss amongst yourselves.
We do not read any rascals’ books. They are manufacturing so many ideas. We read Bhagavatam, we read Srimad Bhagavad-gita, we read Brahma-samhita. Authorized books – not any rascal’s book. What can these rascals write? They’re imperfect. So don’t waste your time. Simply always pour in – give aural reception to – the message of Urukrama.
Don’t waste a single moment. This should be your life’s policy. Rupa Gosvami advises that an advanced devotee should always look to see whether his time is being wasted. Avyartha-kalatvam. That should be one of the targets of devotees, to consider whether I am wasting my time. Don’t waste your time. Always pour in the activities of the Lord, Krishna . Always, twentyfour hours. Caitanya Mahaprabhu says sada. Sada means always, twenty-four hours. Kirtaniyah sada harih: Always hear and chant about Krishna . Otherwise, the ears are like snake holes.
Similarly, jihvasati dardurikeva. Jihva means the tongue, and dardurikeva means like that of a frog – ka-ka-kanh, ka-ka-kanh. No. Urugaya: We should sing the glorious activities of the Lord. This should be our motto of life. Now read the purport.
Pradyumna Dasa: “Purport: Devotional service of the Lord is rendered by all limbs or parts of the body. It is the transcendental dynamic force of the spirit soul; therefore a devotee is engaged one hundred percent in the service of the Lord. One can engage in devotional service when the senses of the body are purified in relation with the Lord, and one can render service to the Lord with the help of all senses. As such, the senses and the action of the senses are to be considered as impure or materialistic as long as they are employed in sense gratification only. The purified senses are engaged not in sense gratification, but in the service of the Lord in toto. The Lord is the Supreme with all senses, and the servitor, who is part and parcel of the Lord, also has the same senses. Service of the Lord is the completely purified use of the senses, as it is described in the Bhagavad-gita. The Lord imparted instructions with full senses, and Arjuna received them with full senses, and thus there was a perfect exchange of sensible and logical understanding between the master and the disciple.
Spiritual understanding is nothing like an electrical charge from the master to the disciple as it is foolishly claimed by some propagandamongers. Everything is full of sense and logic, and the exchange of views between the master and the disciple is possible when the reception is submissive and real only. In the Caitanya-caritamrta it is said that one should receive the teaching of Lord Caitanya with intellect and full senses so that one can logically understand the great mission.” Prabhupada:
sri-krishna -caitanya-daya karaha vicara
vicara karile citte pabe camatkara
The exact language is there. The Caitanya-caritamrta author, Kaviraja Gosvami, says, “Put your logic to the mercy of Lord Caitanya. I request you. Consider. Don’t accept it blindly. If you accept the mercy of Lord Caitanya by systematic deliberation, then you’ll feel that it is wonderful.” (Cc. adi 8.15)
Our Krishna consciousness movement is not about pushing something forcibly on anyone. There is complete judgment. But unfortunately if one cannot understand, that is not our fault. One must have the intelligence to understand. Otherwise, logically, philosophically, it is perfect. Go on.
Pradyumna Dasa: “In the impure state of a living being, the respective senses are fully engaged in mundane affairs. If the ear is not engaged in the service of the Lord by hearing about Him in the Bhagavad-gita or in the Srimad- Bhagavatam, certainly the holes of the ears will be filled up with some rubbish.”
Prabhupada: Yes. This is the secret. We have got the ears, and we have got the sound also. We are reading this book. So if we don’t fill up our ears with this transcendental sound, then they will be filled up with some rubbish things. They cannot remain empty. Either you fill up with the transcendental message, or you fill up with rubbish nonsense. Two ways.
If you take care that your earholes are always filled up with the transcendental message of Krishna , there will be no scope for rubbish things to enter into them. Therefore our attempt should be for twentyfour hours of hearing. Kirtaniyah sada harih. Twenty-four hours. As soon as you get time, read books, discuss amongst yourselves. Don’t fill up the ears with rubbish things, because then your advancement will be choked. Go on.
Pradyumna Dasa: “Therefore the messages of the Bhagavad-gita and the Srimad-Bhagavatam should be preached all over the world very loudly. That is the duty of a pure devotee who has actually heard about them from perfect sources. Many may want to speak something to others, but because they are not trained up to speak on the subject matter of Vedic wisdom, they are all speaking nonsense, and the people are receiving them with no sense. There are hundreds and thousands of sources for distributing mundane news of the world, and people of the world are also receiving them. Similarly, the people of the world should be taught to hear the transcendental topics of the Lord, and the devotee of the Lord must speak loudly so that they can hear. The frogs loudly croak, with the result that they invite the snakes to eat them. The human tongue is especially meant for chanting the Vedic hymns and not for croaking like the frogs.
The word asati used in this verse is also significant. Asati means a woman who has become a prostitute. A prostitute has no reputation for good womanly qualities. Similarly, the tongue, which is given to the human being for chanting the Vedic hymns, will be considered a prostitute if it is engaged in the matter of chanting some mundane nonsense.”
Engaging the Tongue
Prabhupada: Yes. Our spiritual life begins with the tongue.
atah sri-krishna -namadi
na bhaved grahyam indriyaih
sevonmukhe hi jihvadau
svayam eva sphuraty adah
“Therefore, [because Krishna ’s name, form, and qualities are all on the absolute platform,] material senses cannot appreciate Krishna ’s holy name, form, qualities, and pastimes. When a conditioned soul is awakened to Krishna consciousness and renders service by using his tongue to chant the Lord’s holy name and taste the remnants of the Lord’s food, the tongue is purified, and one gradually comes to understand who Krishna really is.” (Bhakti-rasamrtasindhu 1.2.234)
These mundane, blunt senses cannot understand what is Krishna , what is Krishna ’s name, what is Krishna ’s form, what are Krishna ’s pastimes, what are Krishna ’s paraphernalia, what are Krishna ’s words. These senses cannot do it. But when one sense – the tongue – is engaged in devotional service, then one can understand Krishna . The tongue is engaged in devotional service by chanting Hare Krishna . This tongue is especially given to you. The dog, the cat cannot chant Hare Krishna , but you can. God has given you the opportunity.
Just as a chaste woman is meant for her husband, a chaste tongue is meant for chanting Hare Krishna and tasting Krishna prasada. If you can simply engage your tongue in chanting Hare Krishna and tasting Krishna prasada, you become perfect. Simple thing. There is no difficulty. Whenever there is time, chant Hare Krishna . And when you feel hungry, take Krishna prasada. And live here peacefully. Don’t talk rubbish. Then life is successful. Is there any difficulty? We are trying to give you Krishna prasada. We are giving you the chance to chant Hare Krishna . That is our duty. So take advantage of it, and make your life successful.
Otherwise, it is jihvasati dardurikeva. The frog’s tongue is very busy in croaking. But it is inviting death: “Please come here. I am sitting here.”
Similarly, by talking nonsense we allow our span of life to be diminished by the sunrise and sunset. But if we talk about Urugaya, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then our life cannot be taken away. It cannot be decreased. It will be eternal – simply by doing these two things. If we engage the tongue in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, then we can see God eye to eye.
Thank you very much.