How to get free from the cycle of repeated birth and death

Changing bodies – SAMSARA the cycle of repeated birth and death

How to get free from the cycle of repeated birth and death
By Damaghosa das

Part 1) Explains simply and exactly, how we entangle ourselves in Karma-the cycle of repeated birth and death. Part 2) Explains easily the process given by the Authorized Spiritual Authorities of how to free ourselves from this endless cycle of nasty births and deaths.

PART 1
(As long as our mind is filled with impurity (the desire for
personal sense satisfaction) then we will accept another material body.)

761027SB.VRN Lectures
Pradyumna:”As long as one does not inquire about the spiritual values of life, one is defeated and subjected to miseries arising from ignorance. Be it sinful or pious, karma has its resultant actions. If a person is engaged in any kind of karma, his mind is called karmatmaka, colored with fruitive activity. As long as the mind is impure, consciousness is unclear, and as long as one is absorbed in fruitive activity, he has to accept a material body.”

(Criminal activity or sinful activity means to not recognize that everything belongs to God and instead we misuse His property for our purposes — if I use your watch for my own purposes without your sanction, I am criminal or sinful. Another example – if you take a flower, and pin it in your hair instead of offering to Krsna- this is papa, or sinful activity)

750105SB.BOM lectures
So the Aniruddha, He is the master of the senses, as it is stated here, hṛṣīkāṇām adhīśvaram, adhīśvaram, master, proprietor. So the common sense is that if my hand is the property of Kṛṣṇa, why it should be used for me? It should be used for Kṛṣṇa. This is good sense. Suppose something belongs to somebody else. If you use it for your purpose, that is illegal, not lawful. This is my watch. If you take away this watch and use for your purpose, then it is criminal. You cannot say the watch is being used either by him or by… It is being used, that’s all. No. You cannot use it. You can use it only by the permission of the proprietor. Without permission of the proprietor, if you use it, then you are criminal or you are sinful. Similarly, we have got all the senses. The senses are meant for working. The eyes are meant for seeing, the ears are meant for hearing, the nose is meant for smelling, the hand is meant for touching, the leg is meant for going, the stomach is meant for eating—so many, we have got, different senses. They are meant for different purpose. But if the purpose is for your sense gratification, then you are criminal because you are not proprietor. This is to understand bhakti. If you do not use all the senses for Kṛṣṇa’s purpose, then it is criminal. That is called pāpa.
So you are doing that. Every one of us, who is doing for Kṛṣṇa? Nobody is doing for Kṛṣṇa. Everyone is doing for his own purpose. He is taking one flower. The devotee is bringing the flower: “Oh, very nice flower. Let me take it to the temple and offer it to Kṛṣṇa.” That is devotion. The same flower, “Oh, it is very nice flower. Oh, let me pin it on my bunch of hair.” That is pāpa. The same thing. You must know how to utilize it. That is called bhakti. Everything can be utilized. Nirbandhaḥ kṛṣṇa-sambandhe yuktaṁ vairāgyam ucyate. That art we have to learn.

(The mode of living has to be changed-Krsna never says we must starve-No, just cook, offer to the Lord and He will leave everything as Prasadam-spiritualized foodstuffs)

So we are viṣaya. Everyone are. We are eating. Everyone is eating. Who can say, “I am not eating”? So viṣaya. So our business should be not to be attached for eating. Then shall I starve and die? No, you eat Kṛṣṇa prasādam. Eating is not stopped. Eating is not stopped. Eating means as you are cooking for yourself at home, the same cooking, do it for Kṛṣṇa and offer it to Kṛṣṇa and eat it. That’s all. The mode of life should be changed. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is not that you shall give up eating. No, how can I give you that? No, it is not possible. Neither Kṛṣṇa says, “Just give up eating.” Never you will find in the Bhagavad… Yuktāhāra-vihārasya. You must eat what you need. Yuktāhāra-vihārasya yogo bhavati duḥkha-hā. Kṛṣṇa never says that “Unnecessarily you starve.” You never find in the Bhagavad-gītā; neither any ācārya will say. Rather, you offer to Kṛṣṇa first-class foodstuff because He is the enjoyer, and Kṛṣṇa is so kind, He will leave everything for you for taking prasādam. So automatically you can satisfy your tongue. You offer to Kṛṣṇa first-class food, and Kṛṣṇa is so kind that He will eat; at the same time, He will keep it for you. Pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam eva avaśiṣyate Kṛṣṇa’s eating is not like that: because you have given Him very nice foodstuff, He will eat everything and nothing for you. (laughter) That is not Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa eats everything, He accepts your service, and keeps everything for you.

(Our conscious way of living must be changed from always seeking our own sense satisfaction to one of only seeking Krsnas satisfaction for His property-our body ! In a hospital they have blankets, we cant take them out and use them for our own purposes, but as long as they are in the hospital, they can be used by us for the purposes meant by the hospital)

This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You have to act by the desires of Kṛṣṇa. That is the proper use of your senses. You cannot use for your purpose. Anything… Just like you are working in some establishment. Anything in that establishment, you can use for the proprietor’s business. You cannot use it. Just like in hospital there are blankets. It is written there, “Hospital Property.” So long you are in the hospital, you can use it. But you cannot take it outside. Then you are criminal. Similarly, everything… Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam. Everything belongs to God, and you can use it for the service of God. This is the instruction, Vedic instruction. You can use it as prasādam, but everything should be offered to the Supreme. Yajñārthe karmaṇaḥ loko ‘yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ [Bg. 3.9]. If you do not do that, if you engage yourself always in good activities, as the karmīs they do, and earn money and use it for your own sense gratification, that is pāpa activity.

So therefore, if we become sinful every moment, how we can become happy? It is not possible. If you want to become happy, you have to become pious. And the standard of piety is to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, devotee of Kṛṣṇa. That is the highest perfection of life.

Thank you very much. (end)

PART 2
(This body is a source of three kinds of misery-if we do not get the service of Krsna
then repeated birth and death and these three miseries, we must continually face)

761026SB.VRN — I have got already one body which is klesada. Everyone has got experience. No one is here who can say that “My body is very nice. There is no klesa. There is no pains and pleasure. I am very perfect.” That is not possible. As soon as you get a material body, it must be subjected to so many sufferings: adhyatmika, adhibautika, adhidaivika. Tribulations there must be. Material body means klesada. Therefore the Vedic civilization is to stop getting this material body. That is Vedic civilization. Not that increase. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gita. Two things are there. You must accept, you must get the service of Krsna. Otherwise you go on in this way.

Mrtyu-samsara-vartamani. Asraddadhanan purusa dharmasyasya parantapa mam aprapya. If you don’t get Krsna, then there is no other way. There is no other alternative. The only alternative is mrtyu-samsara-vartmani. You get one body and again you die, again get another body. This will go on. Rsabhadeva, said, “This is not good.” Na sadhu manye yata atmano ‘yam asann api klesada asa dehah.

So this culture, this education, is practically nil. Especially in Kali-yuga, it is very regrettable. But the informations are there, the science is there. If one is intelligent, he can take advantage of this science, Krsna consciousness, and mold his life accordingly so that he can stop this process of accepting a body which is klesada. Klesada. That is the perfection of life. And that can be simply done very easily if you simply study Krsna, if you come in this temple and see Krsna. Very simple method

(To say Krsna or God is everywhere, without the proper realization is blasphemy or foolishness If we cannot see Him and talk with Him, then where is our level or realization? That stage of being able to see and talk with God comes by beginning with Deity Worship)

751027SB.NAI Lectures 223427/530501
For the kanistha-adhikari, he cannot He, like parrot, he can say, “Krsna is everywhere.” He must be educated, “Here is Krsna in the temple.” Otherwise it is simply blaspheme, that “Krsna is everywhere.” That’s a fact, but where is your realization? Krsna is within your heart. Have you got that realization? Isvarah sarva-bhutanam hrd-dese ‘rjuna tisthati. Have you got that realization, that Krsna is within your heart? Can you talk with Krsna? He says, Krsna says, “I talk.” Buddhi yogam-dadami tam. Krsna gives intelligence. Krsna is giving, but have you got that realization?

So these are all facts, that Krsna is everywhere, Krsna is within your heart, Krsna is within the atom. Andantara stha-paramanu-cayantara-tham. That’s a fact, but where is your realization? Therefore you have to begin realization by arcana. That is very essential. Then more you become expert in arcana, ye yatha mam prapadyante, the more you become realized, then more you become advanced.

(If our goal is to see and talk with the Lord, then to not accept the authority and instructions of the Acaryas means we will be unsuccessful again and again)

SB 4.18.5 — A foolish person who manufactures his own ways and means through mental speculation and does not recognize the authority of the sages who lay down unimpeachable directions is simply unsuccessful again and again in his attempts.

PURPORT: At the present moment it has become fashionable to disobey the unimpeachable directions given by the acaryas and liberated souls of the past. Presently people are so fallen that they cannot distinguish between a liberated soul and a conditioned soul. A conditioned soul is hampered by four defects: he is sure to commit mistakes, he is sure to become illusioned, he has a tendency to cheat others, and his senses are imperfect. Consequently we have to take direction from liberated persons.

(So many devotees think they can just invent a method of deity worship suitable to them, or even ignore doing it, or whimsically change the basic instructions given by Srila Prabhupada-this he says is the greatest danger to our movement)

73-01-04.Dhr Letter: Dhruvananda
From now on unless I order you do something change or in addition, go on with the usual standard way. You manufacture ideas and then I have to waste my time. I have given you everything already, there is no need for you to add anything or change anything. Why you are asking these things? Who has given you such freedom? Pujari should operate entirely under the supervision of temple president and GBC, not independently. The greatest danger to our movement will come when we manufacture and create our own process for worshiping the deities. So don’t ask any more new questions, whatever is going on, follow it just to the exact standard as I have given you, that’s all.

(If we do not follow the Acaryas instructions, regarding how to chant and worship the Lord, this offense means our bhakti will gradually wither away and we will be lost.)

770225r2.may Ramesvara: Just like this Alice Coltrane. She has done her small part. She made this record album with Govinda Jaya Jaya and Hare Krsna. Prabhupada: That is… That will be a good thing. But when he (she) does it properly it will be more effective, because there is… If one does not chant in the process, then gradually it degrades. The offense will increase. There is chance.

Brahmananda: We want to bring them to the process.
Prabhupada: Yes, that is the ultimate. That is stated by Rupa Gosvami

yena tena prakāreṇa
manaḥ kṛṣṇe niveśayet
sarve vidhi-niṣedha syur
etayor eva kiṅkara

that “Somehow or other, bring him to chant Krsna or to become little Krsna conscious. Then, when he’s little purified, then the vidhi-nisedhah…” He’s not rejecting the vidhi-nisedhah. Vidhi-nisedhah means regulative principles. It is not rejected, that… But when he’s a little purified, this vidhi-nisedha syur etayor eva kinkarah.

So we must come to that point. In the beginning you may be very liberal: “All right, chant.” We do like that, and I have done it. There is no regulation. But that does not…, that (the rules) it should be neglected. He should be given affirmed, “By simply, whimsically chanting this…” No, that is not.

The thing is that some way or other, if you are near the fire, you’ll get some heat, but there is a process how to take heat. That you cannot reject. “Because I am getting little heat, it is sufficient,” that is sahajiya.

770127rc.bhu — Prabhupada: And you must see that what you are doing, that is according to the principle which all other sadhus and devotees do. They have tilaka, and you say, “I have no tilaka.” That is not sadhu-marganu. Sadhu-marganu gamanam. They have kanthi. You say, “I can avoid it.” That is not sadhu-marganu-gamanam. So, from very beginning, if you disobey, then how you’ll make progress?

Adi 7.95-96 — “I firmly believe in these words of My spiritual master, and therefore I always chant the holy name of the Lord, alone and in the association of devotees. That holy name of Lord Krsna sometimes causes Me to chant and dance, and therefore I chant and dance. Please do not think that I intentionally do it. I do it automatically.

Purport– A person who cannot keep his faith in the words of his spiritual master but acts independently never receives the authority to chant the holy name of the Lord.

Lectures : Seattle, September 25, 1968 : 680925LE.SEA :

Prabhupāda: If you can please your spiritual master, then you know that God, or Kṛṣṇa, is pleased. Yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo yasyaprasādān na gatiḥ kuto ‘pi . And if you cannot please your spiritual master, then you must know that you do not know your whereabouts. You do not know where you are going.

Paris lecture June 13 1974:
I can see you, you can see me, similarly, you can go directly see God, and live with Him, dance with Him, play with Him, eat with Him. That is the perfection of life.