Human life demands austerity and service to the spiritual master, not sense gratification that enslaves like disease.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.5.1–3 — May 4, 1968, Boston 680504SB-BOSTON [122:11 Minutes] Prabhupāda: [kīrtana] Softly. [prema-dhvani] Thank you very much. [devotees offer obeisances] [break] Please come forward. [pause] Please come forward, all. [25:32] [pause] First of all I have to thank Jadurāṇī for the nice pictures.
She is giving us light about spiritual understanding. So Kṛṣṇa will bless her with greater energy for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Thank you. So this picture, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, with His associates just joined into the picture... rādhā-kṛṣṇa-praṇaya-vikṛtir hlādinī śaktir asmād ekātmānāv api bhuvi purā deha-bhedaṁ gatau tau [Cc. Ādi 1.5]. [The loving affairs of Śrī Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa are transcendental manifestations of the Lord’s internal pleasure-giving potency. Although Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa are one in Their identity, previously They separated Themselves. Now these two transcendental identities have again united, in the form of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya. I bow down to Him, who has manifested Himself with the sentiment and complexion of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī although He is Kṛṣṇa Himself.] It is a very great science. The Absolute is one, but in order to enjoy transcendental bliss... there is a pleasure potency in the Absolute Truth, Personality of Godhead, which He expands as Rādhārāṇī, and She also expands in Her associates, Lalitā, Viśākhā—all these damsels. So in this material world the reflection, perverted reflection, of the pleasure potency is there.
A deficiency is there. Here we cannot have any pleasure on a permanent basis. Real pleasure is eternal: ramante yogino ’nante satyānande cid-ātmani [Cc. Madhya 9.29]. [”’The Supreme Absolute Truth is called Rāma because the transcendentalists take pleasure in the unlimited true pleasure of spiritual existence.’] Therefore yogīs, they try to enter into that eternal blissful life.
Just like diseased person who is actually serious about healthy life has to undergo certain restriction by the physician in order to quickly get out of the diseased condition. Similarly, if we want eternal bliss… We are hankering after bliss, but we do not know how to enjoy eternal bliss. That prescription is here, instructed by Mahārāja Ṛṣabha to his sons, that tapo divyaṁ putrakā [SB 5.5.1]: [Lord Ṛṣabhadeva told His sons: My dear boys, of all the living entities who have accepted material bodies in this world, one who has been awarded this human form should not work hard day and night simply for sense gratification, which is available even for dogs and hogs that eat stool. One should engage in penance and austerity to attain the divine position of devotional service. By such activity, one's heart is purified, and when one attains this position, he attains eternal, blissful life, which is transcendental to material happiness and which continues forever.] “My dear sons, this life, this human form of life, is not to waste for seeking material pleasures after so much hard struggles for life, because such temporary material pleasure is also enjoyed by the dogs and hogs.” So human life is not for wasting the valuable asset simply in the manner of dogs and hogs. We have got responsibility. The soul is transmigrating from one form to another body, and this human form of body is just suitable to prepare yourself how you can enter into that transcendental platform of bliss of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. You are seeking pleasure, but you do not know how to achieve that pleasure.
For achieving that pleasure, the prescription is here: tapo divyaṁ. “You have to undergo certain principles of austerity, my dear sons,” divyaṁ, “for achieving the transcendental pleasure in association with the Absolute Truth.” And by practice of austerity your existence will be purified. And when your existence will be purified, just like when you get your healthy life… In diseased condition, if you want to enjoy something very pleasing, you cannot. Just like in jaundice, a man suffering from jaundice, if you give him sweet candy he’ll taste it bitter. So we are trying to imitate that enjoyment, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, but you are suffering the bitterness.
If there is not bitterness, then here, why do we find so much arrangement for counteracting the result of sex life? We have discovered so many pills, so many scientific methods, that “We shall enjoy sex life but we shall not taste the bitterness of it.” That means here there is pleasure that is imitation, but we are tasting the bitterness of it. So if we want real pleasure without any bitterness, without any inebriety, then we have to prepare ourselves exactly as a patient silently follows the rules and restriction of the physician to come to the healthy life and then enjoy. In diseased condition neither we can exactly enjoy life. So this material condition of life is diseased condition.
That we do not know. And we are trying to enjoy in this diseased condition. That means we are aggravating the disease—we have to continue. We are not curing the disease.