Posts Tagged ‘instruction of gita’

Making Sure the Foundation is Strong!

Lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam 3.25.16-18/Teachings of Lord Kapila, the son of Devahuti

by Sri Srimad Bhaktisvarupa Damodara Swami

on Oct.28, 1988 in San Francisco, CA

“So these verses are extremely important for making a deeper understanding and also commitment to our even day to day activity of devotional life. It is said that unless one is freed from, it’s called, kama and lobha, kama means this lusty desire, lobha means greedy, greedy desire, so unless these are purified from the mind it will be extremely difficult to be engaged in any steady type of devotional service. So this is the background of Krsna conscious activity. You can say that I’m trying to become a devotee but this is the foundation where to start with, where to start that devotional activity. So this kama/lobha, the root cause of being attracted to kama and lobha is that the living entity is somehow so much under the influence of the modes of material nature, especially raja guna and tamo guna, the passion and ignorance. When passion and ignorance dominate a person then he is generally, the symptoms are like this kama and lobha, attraction to kama and lobha, kama means lusty desires and lobha means greedy desires. So these are very strongly mentioned here. So, by practice of devotional process, devotional service, one must try to be purified of these attractions. That is actually the background. One’s mind must become purified. In that pure state, when the mind becomes purified from kama and lobha, then what happens is that then he transcends all these material hankerings and he’ll be situated properly.  So he’s no more influenced by either happiness or distress, in other words he’s becoming equipoised. The mind becomes very steady. That is the beginning platform of Krsna consciousness. So unless we can’t even do that then we are far, far, far and long, long, we are long, long behind or far, far behind our practice of Krsna consciousness. Then what is the result? It says, once one begins that as the basic foundation. Tada purusam atmanam. At that time the soul can see himself to be transcendental to material existence. In other words the quality of atma is called svayam-jotir. Svayam jotir means self-effulgent. He’s shining. The self is shining. This atma, the nature of atma is shining with this transcendental consciousness. But the pure nature of the atma can only be visible, can only be understood, can only realized when you are completely free from kama and Read the rest of this entry »

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