Hare Krsna to all
Pranams
All glories to Srila Prabhupada
What follows is two short paragraphs from a lecture given by
Srila Prabhupada wherein he clearly and concisely explains
every soul’s predicament in this material world. And how to
solve this problem. We are ETERNAL, but have forgotten this
fact and now take the TEMPORARY situation as the real one.
Forgetting our nature means forgetting Krsna. And we pay
the price for that forgetfulness– by birth after birth.
Hare Krsna
Damaghosa das
750729SB.DAL
So this future, past, present, future, is being controlled by the three modes of material nature. If we practice in this life sattva-guna, then urdhvam gacchanti sattva-sthah: then we shall be promoted to the higher planetary system. Madhye tisthanti rajasah. If we cultivate rajo-guna… Rajo-guna means kama-lobha, kama, simply desiring. This is called rajo-guna. “I want this, I want this, I want this.” Because there is no satiation of want, therefore every man or woman planning something, “How my sense gratification will be fully satisfied.” This is rajo-guna, kama. Everyone is forgetting his real business. His real business is he should know, one should know, that “I am eternal. I have taken this temporary body and subjected to the laws of nature, birth, death and old age. So my real problem is how to become again eternal, not accepting any more birth, death, old age. That is my real business.” But because I am infected with the material modes of nature, we are making different plans. Everyone is busy. Everyone is busy in different plans, forgetting his real business. This is called maya. Maya means…, ma means not; ya means this. Therefore maya means when you understand, “This is not my business,” then you are out of maya. “This is not,” ma-ya.
… So these are all due to different infection of the guna. Tamo-guna means shameless, tamo-guna. Rajo-guna means lusty desire. And sattva-guna means knowledge, to see things as they are. So just like here in the temple, we are cultivating sattva-guna, or more than that, above sattva-guna. Above sattva-guna. It is said in the sastra that to live in the forest is sattva-guna. Sattva-guna, people have got tendency to live in a secluded place, solitary place, without any disturbance. That is sign of sattva-guna. And to live in the cities, big, big cities, skyscraper building, this is rajo-guna. And to live in the brothel, in the liquor shop, in the slaughterhouse, this is tamo-guna. Sattva-guna, rajo-guna, tamo-guna. But to live in the temple is transcendental. Transcendental. It is above sattva-guna, rajo-guna, tamo-guna, to live in temple. Therefore we are introducing this Krsna consciousness movement so that the persons who are in Krsna consciousness, living in the temple according to the regulative principles, they are above all these sattva-guna, rajo-guna, tamo-guna. That is wanted. Nistraigunya. Traigunya means three gunas, and nih means negative. Nistraigunyo bhavarjuna. That is our aim, that although we are in this material world, by this Krsna consciousness process we shall live above these three gunas. These three gunas
cannot touch me. That is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita: sa gunan samatityaitan brahma-bhuyaya kalpate. Who? Mam ca vyabhicarini bhakti-yogena ya sevate. Anyone who is engaged in pure devotional service avyabhicarini, not mixed up, whimsical, regularly, as they are ordained, as they are prescribed. So if anyone is engaged in such transcendental loving service of the Lord, then his position is: he is above the three gunas.
