By Hansadutta das
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Text 28
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For the sake of happiness one
indulges in unrestricted sense gratification, but alas, after some
time, the body becomes diseased. Although death is the ultimate
destination of everyone in this world, still people do not give up
their sinful habits.
This verse explains that in the beginning, sense
gratification can give one a little bit of pleasure, but in the end,
for that little
bit of pleasure, one will have to suffer a great deal. We may go to the
hellish planets, or sometimes we become diseased and end up going to
hospital.
In this condition it becomes even harder to enjoy.
It is also explained that even though people know they
will be going to hell by performing sinful activities, still they do
not give up these sinful activities. They have some understanding that
this is wrong, but still they desire to have this sense gratification. Sukhatah
means for the sake of happiness. There is
just some momentary sense pleasure, and for that they are willing to
undergo many sufferings.
In this connection there is the story of Bilvamangala
Thakur. Although later in his life he became a devotee, in the
beginning he was very attached to a prostitute, and he underwent all
kinds of suffering to enjoy with her. Once he left his house at
midnight, during a big storm, and no ferryman would take him across the
river on the way to her house, so he found a dead body and hung onto it
just so he could cross the river. Even though the water was very cold
and dangerous, still he was thinking
of enjoying, and he went through all this hardship just for the sake of
some momentary sex pleasure. Later he became a great devotee and poked
out his eyes, because they entangled him in sense gratification, but
the moral of this story is that sense gratifiers do not care how much
suffering they
have to undergo as long as they can have their sense gratification.
Here it says that death is the ultimate destination of
everyone in this world. They are enjoying and going to hell, but still
they never learn their lesson. Krishna says that after many, many
births
of practice in yoga, then one can come to Him. It is not that
one
can give up sense gratification very easily; it takes a long time. But
one should try to give up sense gratification, because it will
ultimately lead him to hell. One should try to take to the process of yoga
and thereby save himself from going to hell. When Lord Chaitanya came,
He knew that so many people were in ignorance of this fact. He started
this movement on a large scale in India, but after a while it died down
again. Then Bhaktivinoda Thakur came, and he started publishing books
about
this philosophy. He tried to send his books to universities all over
the
world. When he, in turn, passed away from this earthly planet, he gave
the mission to his son, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur
Maharaja.
He established sixty-four temples and centres all over India for
preaching
this movement. He translated many books and preached all over India and
even
in England and Germany.
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta
Swami Prabhupada
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Then, when in turn he disappeared, he gave the movement to his
disciple, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, who translated more than sixty
books from Sanskrit to English and published them through his
Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, and spread Lord Chaitanya's mission all over
the world, including Russia and China.
Now even people in some of the remotest places of the world have the
chance
to give up this momentary pleasure and attain to Krishna consciousness.
The process is very easy. It is just chanting this holy
name of Krishna, which is very pleasurable. By giving up momentary
sense pleasure, we can have the eternal pleasure of serving Krishna.
Hare Krishna.
