A sobering description of the material world by Nārada Muni
At the end of the 4th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, Nārada Muni gives a sobering description of our position in this material world, identifying with the body, birth after birth.
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At the end of the 4th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, Nārada Muni gives a sobering description of our position in this material world, identifying with the body, birth after birth, and acting under the influence of the three material modes. Due to our minute independence, we can choose our path, but by misusing it, we remain in the material atmosphere.
“The living entity by nature has minute independence to choose his own good or bad fortune, but when he forgets his supreme master, the Personality of Godhead, he gives himself up unto the modes of material nature. Being influenced by the modes of material nature, he identifies himself with the body and, for the interest of the body, becomes attached to various activities. Sometimes he is under the influence of the mode of ignorance, sometimes the mode of passion and sometimes the mode of goodness. The living entity thus gets different types of bodies under the modes of material nature.” (SB 4.29.26-27)
Our natural position is as servants of the Lord, and we remain happy as long as we remain in this subordinate position. However, as soon as we desire to become the master, we abandon the protection of Krsna, and our problems start. We try to open our own business, to become competitors of the Lord, but this position is illusory and simply results in anxiety and suffering.
When we are predominantly influenced by the mode of goodness, we become pious and attain higher levels of existence, being elevated to the celestial planets, or even to the upper planets (Maharloka, Janaloka, Tapoloka, and Brahmaloka), which are inhabited by enlightened souls. In general, pious karmis (who perform fruitive sacrifices according to the rules and regulations of the Vedas) are elevated to Svargaloka, and jñanis, who faithfully study the scriptures, as well as great yogis, are elevated to these higher planetary systems. When the mode of passion is predominant, we remain as human beings, striving for economic development, life after life, on Earth or other intermediate planets, and when we fall under the mode of ignorance, we are born in the lower planets or in the animal kingdom.
No one is purely in goodness in this material world; there is always some contamination of the lower modes. The contamination of the mode of passion makes one attracted to sense gratification (even if according to the recommendations of the scriptures), and the mode of ignorance makes one see oneself as the body. This contamination is present even in great demigods such as Indra or Brahma. It is in this sense that Nārada Muni mentions that:
“Covered by the mode of ignorance in material nature, the living entity is sometimes a male, sometimes a female, sometimes a eunuch, sometimes a human being, sometimes a demigod, sometimes a bird, an animal, and so on. In this way he is wandering within the material world. His acceptance of different types of bodies is brought about by his activities under the influence of the modes of nature.” (SB 4.29.29)
Demigods are considered to be in goodness, but even they display some contamination of passion and ignorance in the form of identification with the body, attraction to sense gratification, etc. Only when one fully realizes his transcendental position as an eternal servant of the Lord does this stop. As Prabhupada explains in his purport to text 29:
“Actually the living entity is part and parcel of the Lord; therefore he is spiritual in quality. The living entity is never material, and his material conception is simply a mistake due to forgetfulness. He is as brilliant as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Both the sun and the sunshine are very brilliant. The Lord is like the full shining sun, and the living entities are like the small particles of that sun which constitute the all-pervasive sunshine. When these small particles are covered by the cloud of māyā, they lose their shining capacity. When the cloud of māyā is gone, the particles again become brilliant and shining. As soon as the living entity is covered by the ignorance of māyā, or darkness, he cannot understand his relationship with the Supreme God. Somehow or other, if he comes before the Lord, he can see himself shining like the Supreme Lord, although he is not as extensive as the Lord. Because the living entity desires to imitate the Supreme Lord, he is covered by māyā. We cannot imitate the Lord, nor can we become the supreme enjoyer. This is not possible, and when we think it is, we become conditioned by māyā. Thus the encagement of the living entity under the clutches of māyā is brought about by forgetfulness of his relationship with the Supreme Lord.”
The helpless condition of the soul, wandering in this material world without shelter, is made explicit by Nārada Muni in texts 30 to 33:
“The living entity is exactly like a dog who, overcome with hunger, goes from door to door for some food. According to his destiny, he sometimes receives punishment and is driven out and at other times receives a little food to eat. Similarly, the living entity, being influenced by so many desires, wanders in different species of life according to destiny. Sometimes he is high, and sometimes he is low. Sometimes he goes to the heavenly planets, sometimes to hell, sometimes to the middle planets, and so on. The living entities are trying to counteract different miserable conditions pertaining to providence, other living entities or the body and mind. Still, they must remain conditioned by the laws of nature, despite all attempts to counter these laws.
A man may carry a burden on his head, and when he feels it to be too heavy, he sometimes gives relief to his head by putting the burden on his shoulder. In this way he tries to relieve himself of the burden. However, whatever process he devises to counteract the burden does nothing more than put the same burden from one place to another.” (SB 4.29.30-33)
Life in the material world is composed of both pleasant and unpleasant circumstances. There is pleasure available in hell, and similarly, there is anxiety even in the celestial planets. This creates a situation where we are constantly busy, trying to counteract distress and find happiness. This combination of desire, anxiety, and fear makes us very entangled in this world.
Nārada explains, however, that all these attempts are just like moving a heavy burden from the head to the shoulder. The burden may change position, but it is still there. Similarly, counteracting the difficulties of our current position simply means continuing our material existence and being put in another unpleasant condition later on. The effort is thus ineffective, just like the effort of raising the burden on our head just to transfer it to the shoulder. As Prabhupada explains, we should simply try to develop our Kṛṣṇa consciousness and not waste our time trying to improve our material condition, understanding that ultimately it can’t be improved. Only when we become active in developing our Krsna Consciousness instead of counteracting material difficulties can our problems be finally solved.
One way to try to mitigate material miseries is through economic development. We can see humanity has been on this path for the past centuries, resulting in great technological progress and economic development. The world’s GDP has increased thousands of times in the last five centuries, and we now have facilities that would be inconceivable for people from the Renaissance. If material progress were to bring happiness, we would be all exultant by now, but that’s not what we see. People are still unhappy and anxious; the problems just changed, and new sources of misery were introduced.
One could argue then that one can solve material suffering by performing fruitive activities, as in the case of King Prācīnabarhi. However, these processes also can’t solve the problem, because they don’t awaken our original Krsna Consciousness. One may think that being promoted to the celestial planets may solve his material anxiety, but there is also anxiety in Svargaloka, and apart from that, when his pious results end, hell falls back to Earth, back to the starting point. Moving the burden to the shoulder just to bring it back to the head later on solves nothing.
As Nārada explains:
“Sometimes we suffer because we see a tiger in a dream or a snake in a vision, but actually there is neither a tiger nor a snake. Thus we create some situation in a subtle form and suffer the consequences. These sufferings cannot be mitigated unless we are awakened from our dream. The real interest of the living entity is to get out of the nescience that causes him to endure repeated birth and death. The only remedy is to surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead through His representative. Unless one renders devotional service unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vāsudeva, one cannot possibly become completely detached from this material world, nor can he possibly manifest real knowledge.” (SB 4.29.35-37)
Here, Nārada offers the same analogy of the material existence as a dream that Prabhupada offers in other passages. Dangerous situations experienced in a dream may be illusory, but this doesn’t prevent them from becoming a source of anxiety. A tiger in a dream can’t kill a person, but a man having a nightmare doesn’t know that, and therefore, he experiences suffering. Similarly, no force in the material world can harm the soul, but as long as we are not aware of this fact, we suffer due to identification with the body.
The most effective way to end a nightmare is to simply wake up, and similarly, the remedy for all our material anxiety is to surrender to the Supreme Lord and wake up to our eternal existence. The original position of the soul is loving service to the Lord, and it can be reestablished only through the practice of devotional service. Other paths, such as karma, jñana, and yoga, can be effective to a certain extent if combined with devotional service, but without at least a tinge of bhakti, all other processes are ineffective. One may progress to a certain extent, but will remain bound to this material world.
The problem is that due to the absence of transcendental knowledge, people don’t know that, and thus they perform actions that are against their own self-interest. After understanding the goal of life, we can surrender to the Lord through His representative, the spiritual master, and thus start our way back, starting by controlling the desires of the mind, which are the source of new bodies in this material world. As argued by Arjuna in the Gītā, controlling the mind is very difficult, but it becomes possible by the process of devotional service, which gives us a higher taste and breaks the chain of material actions and reactions that keep us bound to this material world.
Devotional service begins by following rules and regulations, and progresses up to the stage of loving service. As we become attached to the service of the Lord, we automatically become detached from service to the body, which is the foundation of material existence. Becoming detached from the body, we ascend to a platform of perfect knowledge, in which we perfect our devotional service.
In the beginning, the rules and regulations of the process of devotional service may appear to be difficult, but as we advance, they become natural. Our situation is similar to a drug addict, who struggles to get rid of the addiction.
How to become fixed in the path of devotional service? Nārada answers on texts 39 and 40:
“My dear King, in the place where pure devotees live, following the rules and regulations and thus purely conscious and engaged with great eagerness in hearing and chanting the glories of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, in that place if one gets a chance to hear their constant flow of nectar, which is exactly like the waves of a river, one will forget the necessities of life, namely hunger and thirst, and become immune to all kinds of fear, lamentation and illusion.” (SB 4.29.39-40)
If we get caught in the flow of the river of nectar of the description of the glories of the Lord from the discourses of pure devotees, then the practice of Krsna consciousness becomes easy. This simple process of hearing elevates us above the stage of bodily conception and makes it possible for us to remain fixed in the service of the Lord. As Prabhupada summarizes, “The secret of success in the cultivation of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is hearing from the right person.” When we associate with advanced devotees who have a taste for serving Krsna, we also become inclined to follow the same path.
Unfortunately, because we are so disturbed by bodily necessities and by the agitations of the mind, we are busy trying to improve our material condition, or at least maintaining whatever little we have, and thus we have little time to seek this association, as Nārada laments in text 41. In his purport to this verse, Prabhupada points to another trap, which is to become a sahajiyā, rejecting the association of real devotees and thinking oneself very advanced, even while failing even to follow basic regulative principles.
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