Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,
Please accept my humble obeisances! All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
It always happens that time and again we become complacent with our own situations and tend to take things very casually and it requires a very powerful alarm to wake us up from the dream and illusion and the following powerful speech by our beloved Guru Maharaj on the Srimad Bhagavatam 1.1.14 is a real eye opener.
āpannaḥ saṁsṛtiṁ ghorāṁ yan-nāma vivaśo gṛṇan
tataḥ sadyo vimucyeta yad bibheti svayaṁ bhayam
Living beings who are entangled in the complicated meshes of birth and death can be freed immediately by even unconsciously chanting the holy name of Krishna, which is feared by fear personified.
The verse itself describes the purport of the verse. "āpannaḥ" means "entangled". We are really helplessly entangled. We do not have any way to get out of it. Our situation is very complicated. By nature we are completely spiritual and even then, don't know really, how and why we are punished this way. That is why for millions of years, our rishis and sages and scriptures thought over again and again and so many incarnations appeared just to explain that we are entangled in the complicated meshes. It is a very nice translation by Srila Prabhupada. He gives the word to word equivalent of "saṁsṛtiṁ" as "in the hurdle of birth and death". It is not one time. It is hurdle. Once we are out, again we are subjected to the same thing. It is not that we will tolerate one birth and death and then we are free. No. It is a hurdle. Because it is a hurdle, no way can we get out of this, and on top of it, He has forced on us the behavior patterns of the millions of combinations of three modes of material nature. It is not only straight forward three. No. There are so many combinations. Many times goodness is mixed with darkness and darkness is mixed with passion. All the three we carry at the same time and there are millions and millions of combinations of the ratios of these things. May be sometimes goodness is high and darkness is a bit low. Because of these combinations, we are forced to accept the bodies to the extent we are attracted to these particular modes. Frankly speaking, in this life, we are preparing to order our next body.
This is how it is a hurdle and is so very complicated. The word "saṁsār" comes from "saṁsṛtiṁ". And "samsriti" means unsurpassable misery experienced in the material existence and this is the material existence that we have the hurdle and then we are helplessly slaved completely under the influence of millions of combinations of material nature and in addition to that there is "bhutānam yan mithah kalih" (the dissensions between living entities due to social intercourse) again. With those mode of material nature, we come together and we have so many complications in our mind. Unlimited complications we carry from the last millions of births. As a fish also we had entertained the lusty ideas. In any species we had the same influence of the millions of combinations of modes of material nature and the whole burden is carried by the subtle body - mind, intelligence and false ego.
If our bhakti is not complete, may be in the last time we had human existence, that is why we are forcibly put in to the 8400000 births and deaths and again in the ignorance we are again preparing for the next round and that is again 8400000 births and deaths. We do not know how to get out. We try our best. Krishna says "mām aprāpyaiva kaunteya tato yānty adhamām gatim" - you do not attain Me, and go to the lowest species of life.
That is how it is very complicated situation we are put in. we do not have the time. The time is slipping out. Years and years and years and years are going in deep sleep. We are completely entangled. When are we going to realize these things? Unless we realize these verses and unless we really very peacefully go through these things, we cannot even a have a dint of idea of our complicated situation. It is not that we want to scare, but this is the fact of our actual position of material existence and it has got to be understood.
Maharaj was referring to Arjuna's calling out to the lord when he was chased by Ashwatthama's weapon and the same shall be posted in the ensuing mail, Krishna willing.
Thank you very much.
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Gurudev,
Vaijayantimala devi dasi
Abu Dhabi.
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