Pride And Envy: The Path To Self Destruction Part-2

vidya-tapo-vitta-vapur-vayah-kulaih
satam gunaih shadbhir asattametaraih
smritau hatayam bhrita-mana-durdrisah
stabdha na pasyanti hi dhama bhuyasam
Although the six qualities education, austerity, wealth, beauty, youth and heritage are for the highly elevated, one who is proud of possessing them becomes blind, and thus he loses his good sense and cannot appreciate the glories of great personalities.
So Lord Siva is responding to Sati’s request. Sati, when she got to know that her father was performing a very great sacrifice where all the demigods, all the sages, all the exalted personalities were going to attend, she also wanted to go there, although not invited. And Sati was not invited because Daksha got into a conflict with Lord Siva. It was not the fault of Lord Siva, he was completely absorbed in Krishna consciousness and as a result of that he could not properly respond to Daksha when he entered into the assembly. As a result of that Daksha became very, very upset. He felt that Lord Siva deliberately insulted him by not standing up to greet him. And that’s why Daksha developed a great animosity towards Lord Siva and as a result of that, although in that sacrifice everyone practically was invited, all the exalted personalities were invited, Lord Siva and Sati were not invited. Although Sati was Daksha’s daughter and a very dear daughter at that. Of all the daughter’s of Daksha at that time Sati was his dearmost. But on Brahma’s request or suggestion he offered Sati to Lord Siva. And now he developed the animosity and he did not invite Sati and Lord Siva. But still Sati wanted to go, she was pleading to Lord Siva, “Please let me go. After all, he is my father and I am his daughter. And a daughter doesn’t need any invitation to go to a father’s house.” That was her main point that, “I don’t need any invitation. I will just go there.”
But Lord Siva is reminding her or advising her not to go by giving proper reasons and these are the verses that Lord Siva was giving the reasons. That even though a person may be endowed with all the six great qualities, vidya – learning, tapo- austerity, then vithya – wealth, vapu – beauty, vayah – youth, urayi and great heritage, birth in a very, very exalted family. Actually Daksha had all of them. He was very learned naturally. He was very opulent. He had great, he performed great austerities. He was very expert in performing austerities. He was very handsome. He had a powerful body full of vitality and he was born in a very exalted family. He was the son of Brahma. Daksha is one of the ten sons of Brahma so in this way he was very exalted in all respects, but Lord Siva is pointing out that even though one may have all these six qualities but if one is proud, proud means, if one is in material consciousness, if one is in material consciousness then these qualities act in a detrimental way. Instead of becoming assets, instead of becoming ornaments they actually become hindrance to their character. They become blemishes to the character, because they become proud, they become puffed up, they become arrogant. As a result of that he loses all the good qualities. Prabhupada is pointing out, they all become zeroes. So the proper utilization of one’s qualities and wealth and opulence and beauty and strength, fame, power, all that must be utilized in the service of Krishna. Unless they are utilized in the service of Krishna they are simply useless, they are simply meaningless. Prabhupada is pointing out all these qualities become zero. But when they are placed after the Supreme One, that is, when they are used in the service of Krishna, then each zero multiplies by ten. Addition of each zero will lead to multiplication by ten, of the preceding one.
And also Lord Siva knew what would be the consequence of Sati’s going there. A personality like Lord Siva knows the time in all three aspects, but besides that another thing is that such an exalted personality or a personality who is endowed with Vedic wisdom, spiritual wisdom, can foresee things from its sequence. He could see what was the problem with Daksha: Daksha was in the bodily consciousness of life, he was in material consciousness. Unfortunately, Daksha could not become a devotee of the Lord. Although the word Daksha means expert, he was expert in everything. He even wanted to create something other than Brahma’s creation. He wanted to become Brahma’s competitor. He was so expert, but all his expertise culminated into nothing. It all became a big zero and not only that, he got a head of a goat. Because a goat is a goat, it’s stupid! Although his body is very qualified, very expert, but his head is that of a goat. And that will come later on, but we can see how Daksha developed his animosity unnecessarily with Lord Siva and it’s all because he considered, “I am the greatest.”
Actually, he was performing this sacrifice because Brahma appointed him as the head of the Prajapatis. The Prajapatis are the progenitors, all those exalted personalities who are going to assist Brahma in filling the universe with Prajas, living entities. Daksha became the head of them, Brahma appointed Daksha as the head of them. There were others Pulastya , Pulaha, Kratu, Angira, the great sages, there was Kasyapa, all these personalities, but Daksha became the head of all the Prajapatis and prior to that when he was…he appeared in the assembly of the demigods. Everyone, all the demigods, all the great personalities were present there, great rishis – also sons of Brahma – and as soon as Daksha entered, they all stood up to show him respect and only two persons did not stand up: one was Brahma and other other was Lord Siva. Brahma’s not standing up was understandable because Brahma is his father, he is greater than him, but Daksha noticed that Lord Siva did not offer his obeisances and his mood was, “Why did not you offer me obeisances?” And also Brahma, afterwards when Daksha entered Brahma started to glorify Daksha for his wonderful abilities and qualities. Lord Siva just kept on sitting there and Daksha… we can see how materialistic a personality he was that he became furious and he started to insult Lord Siva. He started to insult Lord Siva but Lord Siva did not say anything he just sat there, but Nandishvara, Lord Siva’s associate couldn’t bear it. He couldn’t tolerate, he became upset and he cursed the brahmanas – those actually who approved that act of Daksha without protesting. Because no one protested, he took it as an offence, that such a great personality has been insulted.
Actually, in reality Lord Siva’s position is even greater than Brahma’s position. Brahma is jiva-tattva, whereas Lord Siva is Siva-tattva, which is greater than jiva-tattva, which is between Vishnu-tattva and jiva-tattva, not quite Vishnu-tattva but it is almost Vishnu-tattva. Just as it has been described, kshiram yatha dadhi vikara-vishesha-yogat [Brahma Samhita  5.19], just as milk turns into yogurt with the contact of acid, similarly the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krishna became Siva. So He has been transformed, the difference is Vishnu can become Siva but Siva cannot become Vishnu. Milk can become yogurt but yogurt cannot become milk. That is the only difference. Why he did that? In order to achieve/accomplish a very special mission. One of that is to destroy this material creation and another more important consideration is to transfer, transmit the living entity from the spiritual sky and bring them to material nature. It is through the agency of Lord Siva that the living entities come down to the material nature. Why through the agency of Lord Siva? Because He cannot, Vishnu, Krishna cannot directly deal with the material nature because material nature is His external potency. He cannot possibly deal with external potency directly, since this external energy will become His internal energy if He deals with it directly. So He cannot deal with its external potency, so through the agency of Lord Siva He deals with material nature. Therefore material nature is Maha Maya or Durga and Lord Siva is her husband. So in that sense Lord Siva’s position is far superior to Brahma’s. Brahma knew that. Although in this context, in the material context, in the universal context Lord Siva seems to be Brahma’s son because he appeared from the body of Brahma, from between the eyebrows of Brahma. In that sense he is Brahma’s son. He came from Lord Brahma. He came through Lord Brahma in this material nature, but Daksha did not understand that. He was so puffed up, and that’s what actually happens with the materialistic person.
What is the meaning of a materialistic person? Materialistic person is a person who is entangled by the influence or affected by the influence of the material nature or the illusory energy of the Lord. And what does the illusory energy do? The illusory makes him think that he is the greatest and that is the meaning of material conditioning. He thinks everyone in this material nature thinks that he is the greatest. Why? Because his consciousness is projected towards the material nature, which is the external energy of the Lord, inferior energy of the Lord whereas he is coming from the superior energy of the Lord. Jiva is coming from the superior nature and material nature is inferior. Now although a living entity is minute but because he comes from the superior nature of the Lord, he thinks that this material nature is meant to lord over. Because whatever he sees is material, even the living entities, even the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he sees in a material way. The deity of the Lord he sees as stone or wood or metal. Just a statue, but I am greater, I am conscious, I am capable of doing so many things. But this statue, what can he do? It’s just standing there. Some fools have installed him and worship him. That is the materialistic people’s understanding. They see the greatest person, he thinks, “Oh, I am greater than him.” It’s only matter of time. Bill Gates, just give me a few years. I will become bigger than Bill Gates. He thinks he is the most handsome, most beautiful. He thinks that, he may be the most ugly personality, but he thinks he is the most handsome and he thinks that everything in this world is meant for his enjoyment. That is the meaning of the illusory energy of the Lord. On the other hand, when one takes to Krishna consciousness he begins to see that Krishna is the greatest and in the light of that he recognizes his position to be absolutely insignificant. And the more he comes closer to Krishna or the more he becomes Krishna conscious, the more humble he becomes.
So, as I was mentioning, Nandishvara became extremely upset because these people…Okay, fine Daksha had insulted Lord Siva but why these exalted personalities who are present in the assembly didn’t protest? They are brahmanas, they are supposed to be situated in knowledge. They are supposed to know what is what, after all they are well conversant with the Vedic wisdom. They are brahmanas, they should know. So therefore Nandishvara actually cursed them. Nandishvara cursed them, “Although you are learned, although you are conversant with Vedic wisdom but you did not understand the purports of the real meaning of the Vedic wisdom, therefore you will never understand the Vedic wisdom. You will never understand that the goal of Vedic wisdom is to recognize the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krishna.” He cursed them, “You won’t understand. You brahmanas you won’t understand that the goal of Vedas is to recognize Krishna as Supreme Personality of Godhead.” And he said, “Because you are in such bodily consciousness you will be concerned only about the ritualistic and Karma Kanda section of the Vedas.” And then he cursed them that, “Because you are in the bodily concept of life, you are seeing everything from the material perspective, you will remain bound in the cycle of birth and death.” Then he told them that, “Because you are in such bodily concept of life, in order to maintain yourself you have to go begging from door to door, your occupation will be begging. Because Daksha acted like such a stupid fool, his head will fall off and he will get a goat’s head.” It was actually Nandishvara’s curse. And we can see although it happened long, long time ago in Satya Yuga, we can see what the brahmanas, the so-called brahmanas are like even today. We can see that, it’s not just some fairy tale it’s all factual. It happened because of his curse.
And then Bhrigu counter-cursed Nandi that the associates of Lord Siva will become atheist. They will become atheist. They will live in an abominable way, in all kinds of dirty places, their activities will be unclean and they will be uncivilized. They will partake in meat eating and drinking alcohol. That also we see not only alcohol, they take ganja, charas, LSD, we notice so many people became the… I remember in the mid 60′s – early 70′s – the hippies they were all mostly Siva’s devotees. Before they came in contact with Srila Prabhupada, mostly they were Siva devotees. They used to go to Benares which is the place of Lord Siva. They did not go to Vrindavana, they used to go to Benares. They lived in a very, very unclean life. So in that way you can see…and what to speak of those recognized Siva devotees in India. They are all extremely unclean in their activities and nature. Some of them act like ghosts. And that’s another thing that ghosts are actually associates of Lord Siva. Because Lord Siva is so merciful that he gives shelter to even those creatures- bhoot, preta, pisachas- they are all Lord Siva’s associates but at the same time Lord Siva is the greatest of all devotees, vaisnavanam yatha sambuh. And there are others who are also devotees of Lord Siva but they are actually devotees of Krishna, they are Vaishnavas.
And so in this way the animosity developed between Daksha and Lord Siva. This brings up another point: it’s actually very difficult to understand Lord Siva.  Similarly, it’s very difficult to recognize a devotee. A devotee cannot be recognized from materialistic point of view. We cannot judge a devotee by his appearance, by his wealth, by his fame, because all these are external, material considerations. In order to recognize a devotee we have to go within the heart and we have to recognize the love that he has for Krishna. That is the only consideration, the only recognizable factor in a devotee: how much love he has for Krishna. Sometimes in ISKCON we fail to recognize very exalted devotees. Even in a Vaishnava community we see that we fail to recognize very exalted devotees, because we tend to judge people. We judge even the devotees from materialistic point of view – how big a position he has. We try to judge him according to position, we try to judge him according to his material assets, wealth. Therefore Srila Prabhupada used to say, “Don’t try to see a devotee with your eyes. The only way you can recognize a devotee, the only way you can see a devotee is through your ears. Try to see a devotee through your ears and if at all you have to see a devotee through your eyes, then try to see how attached he is to Krishna. How selflessly he is rendering his service to Krishna that is the main consideration for a devotee. How much he is doing for Krishna.”
Sometimes less intelligent people, we notice that…people get a lot of followers, especially in countries like India for persons those who are very handsome, they are sadhus but they say, “Oh, he looks so handsome.”  I have seen many sadhus in India, they got big recognition because they are so handsome. Or they can act very well, they speak Ramayana, Mahabharata. They speak nowadays, by Srila Prabhupada mercy it has become very …Bhagavata Katha has become very popular. I remember in Vrindavana I hardly saw anyone doing Bhagavata Kartha before and now you go to Vrindavana everywhere you see posters, such and such person giving Bhagavata Katha and so forth. But before ISKCON came and popularized Krishna consciousness nobody was interested in Bhagavata Katha – they were doing Ram Katha, Mahabharata Katha – but Bhagavata Katha, Krishna Katha was not so popular. Anyway, these people are very good actors, they sing well, they can make a big show of their so-called devotion. And thousands of people come to listen to them but not a single one becomes a devotee. They go to their… to participate in those programs, thousands sometimes they get 25,000-30,000 people come but not a single one changes his lifestyle. They listen to Bhagavata Katha, as soon as they go out they light their cigarette and start smoking or they will go to restaurant with their family and friends and eat all kinds of garbage and before eating that garbage they will have drink of alcohol. So what’s the use? This is a kind of entertainment for them. And these people are not devotees, they are entertainers like actors and actresses. Therefore Srila Prabhupada was very emphatic try to see a sadhu try to see a devotee through your ears. How much he is changing your life. How much he is changing your consciousness. That should be the most important consideration.
Thank you very much! All glories to Srila Prabhupada! Gaura Premanande Hari Haribol!
Before the conch shell blows are there any questions? Or they are waiting for me to stop the class and then they will blow the conch shell. Any questions?
Question: [inaudible]
BCS: Yeah, because they didn’t recognize Lord Siva’s position, exalted position. They felt in one way, well Lord Siva should have offered respect to Daksha because he is his son-in-law and Daksha is his father-in-law. To respect the superior is a custom. But that was a bodily concept. That was a bodily consideration; son-in-law, father-in-law. The real relationship should be with Krishna in the centre.
Srila Prabhupada ki Jai!

Pride And Envy: The Path To Self Destruction Part-1

Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya

Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto four, chapter three ‘Talks between Lord Siva and Sati’, text seventeen.

vidya-tapo-vitta-vapur-vayah-kulaih
satam gunaih shadbhir asattametaraih
smritau hatayam bhrita-mana-durdrisah
stabdha na pasyanti hi dhama bhuyasam

Translation:
Although the six qualities education, austerity, wealth, beauty, youth and heritage are for the highly elevated, one who is proud of possessing them becomes blind, and thus he loses his good sense and cannot appreciate the glories of great personalities.

Purport:
It may be argued that since Daksha was very learned, wealthy and austere and had descended from a very exalted heritage, how could he be unnecessarily angry towards another? The answer is that when the qualities of good education, good parentage, beauty and sufficient wealth are misplaced in a person who is puffed up by all these possessions, they produce a very bad result. Milk is a very nice food, but when milk is touched by an envious serpent it becomes poisonous. Similarly, material assets such as education, wealth, beauty and good parentage are undoubtedly nice, but when they decorate persons of a malicious nature, then they act adversely. Another example, given by Chanakya Pandita, is that a serpent that has a jewel on its head is still fearful because it is a serpent. A serpent, by nature, is envious of other living entities, even though they be faultless. When a serpent bites another creature, it is not necessarily because the other creature is at fault; it is the habit of the serpent to bite innocent creatures. Similarly, although Daksha was qualified by many material assets, because he was proud of his possessions and because he was envious, all those qualities were polluted. It is sometimes, therefore, detrimental for a person advancing in spiritual consciousness, or Krishna consciousness, to possess such material assets. Kuntidevi, while offering prayers to Krishna, addressed Him as akincana-gocara, one who is easily approached by those who are bereft of all material acquisitions. Material exhaustion is an advantage for advancement in Krishna consciousness, although if one is conscious of his eternal relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one can utilize one’s material assets, such as great learning and beauty and exalted ancestry, for the service of the Lord; then such assets become glorious. In other words, unless one is Krishna conscious, all his material possessions are zero, but when this zero is by the side of the Supreme One, it at once increases in value to ten. Unless situated by the side of the Supreme One, zero is always zero; one may add one hundred zeros, but the value will still remain zero. Unless one’s material assets are used in Krishna consciousness, they may play havoc and degrade the possessor.

Chant Hare Krishna And Krishna Will Provide Part-2

 The bahirmukha jivas, the living entities, those who have become averse to Krishna and as a result of that fallen under the influence of the illusory energy of the Lord, they are getting a chance to rectify their perverted mentality in this material nature. And through proper guidance, they ascertain how to rectify their perverted mentality and become free from their suffering condition. And the process is very simple, just surrender to Krishna. And the process of surrendering to Krishna is? By offering everything to Krishna. And the process of surrendering is? To engage the senses in order to give pleasure to Krishna’s senses. This is the very simple consideration of devotional service. Devotional service is not a very difficult thing to execute. Other spiritual activities are very difficult: austerities, penances, sacrifice, even deity worship, difficult. But devotional service is very simple. And devotional service is? Devotional service constitutes just these two considerations: [BG 9.27]
yat karosi yad asnasi
yaj juhosi dadasi yat
yat tapasyasi kaunteya
tat kurusva mad-arpanam
That is one aspect of devotional service, the other aspect of devotional service is: (CC Madhya-lila 19.170)
sarvopadhi-vinirmuktam´
tat-paratvena nirmalam
hrishikena hrishikesa-
sevanam´ bhaktir ucyate
Jai Sri Sri Gaura Nitai ki jai! Jai Sri Sri Radha Rasabihari ki jai! Jai Sri Sri Sita Rama Lakshman Hanuman ki jai! Jai Jagadguru Srila Prabhupada ki jai!
So, Srimad-Bhagavatam, time and time again reminds us of this principle.  Srimad Bhagavatam and Bhagavad-gita are giving us a very simple
understanding of devotional service. And devotional service means our constitutional activity or our constitutional position. Bhagavad-gita time and time again has pointed this principle out that ultimately coming to the conclusion of “Surrender unto Me. Just surrender unto Me.”
Surrender whatever you have, surrender yourselves, surrender your senses, your activities, everything ultimately. The result will be, “I will take care of you in all respects.”
You surrender, and Krishna will take care. You don’t surrender, Krishna will provide, but He won’t take care in that sense. He’ll provide out of a sense of duty. But when you surrender, then a loving relationship will develop and that love is a source of joy.
So Krishna made all the arrangements through material nature, especially this planet earth and then Mother Earth actually surrendered to Krishna, she actually explained why she did withdraw all the grains and herbs and plants and medicinal plants, herbs, which actually provide for the living entities’ survival. Because she saw that those assets, those gifts were being exploited by the demoniac people.
So from that we can understand that Mother Earth is actually able to provide everything that one needs, but if we are not careful, if we do not offer it to Krishna, if we do not accept them with a sense of gratitude, which is the principle of sacrifice: [ BG 3.10]
saha-yajnah prajah sristva
purovaca prajapatih
anena prasavis yadhvam
esa vo ‘stv istva-kama-dhuk
Saha-yajnah, when the prajas, the progeny, was procreated, when the living entities were brought into this material nature, this system has been established. A kind of rapport between the human beings and the demigods. So the human beings are receiving the gifts from the demigods in the form of different necessities being supplied. The demigods are supplying everything that we need. There is a need of water, the demigods are supplying. Indra is supplying water, in the form of rain. Pavandeva is supplying the wind. Suryadeva is supplying the sun rays, rays of the sun, light.
And in this way different demigods are responsible, in charge of different departments and they are providing for us, they’re supplying for us and we are supposed to pay them something in return for the service we are taking from them, the facilities we are taking, and that is called yajna. And Krishna is saying by establishing that relationship you live happily. The living entities are meant to live happily. And it’s a common sense consideration, we see in our day-to-day lives, we get facilities and in exchange we have to pay the price. We get electricity, at the end of the month the bill comes and we have to pay the bill.  We get the supply of water, the bill comes at the end of the month and we
have to pay. We get nice facilities for roads, we have to pay the bill. We have an education system, we have to pay the bill. We have the ability to earn money, and we have to pay the tax.
So in this way there are different facilities that we are receiving and in exchange for that we have to pay the bill. In our day to day lives we see… Now if we don’t pay then what will happen? Those supplies will be cut. We won’t get that supply anymore. So that is the primary consideration, initial consideration. In the material nature we are getting different facilities, we are being provided with different facilities, and who are supplying those facilities? The demigods. And we have to pay the price. What is the price?  The price is yajna. Whatever you are getting from them, a part of it is given back to them for their pleasure.
It has been pointed out in this chapter that the grains are actually meant to be offered in sacrifice. Not all the grains, part of the grains, with the milk in the form of ghee. These are the two essential things we are getting from Mother Earth: cows’ milk which is ultimately transformed into the essence, the ghee, and the grains. And when it’s offered for the pleasure of the demigods, that is sacrifice.
So in this way we can see that the food grains that are actually provided by the Mother Earth have three aspects, three purposes. One is our personal survival, for our food. The other is in the form of seeds to continue the process of production. And another part is offered to the demigods in the form of sacrifice. And then by getting that the demigods will provide. The demigods means the devotees so here it is pointed out these are non devotees. Mother Earth has pointed out she didn’t say a special demon, she said the non devotees. That means those who do not accept the authority of Krishna and the arrangement made by Krishna.
So because they are exploited and today’s world situation is like that, that’s why we can very easily conclude that what’s going to happen to this earth planet in a few years’ time and if we do not rectify the situation.  Like we are seeing there are so many natural calamities taking place.  One natural calamity is the weather pattern is changing. Then there is excessive heat, the heat waves, all the climactic conditions are changing so much. The places which were hot, they’re becoming extremely hot. The places that were cold, even they are becoming hot. And although we have not seen, we are seeing the rain is becoming scarce, the water is becoming scarce.
I remember when we used to travel in India, even twenty, thirty years back we used to see the rivers even in winter, even in early summer, they were full and rivers didn’t become dry the way they are becoming now. Yamuna, the way Yamuna changed the last thirty years. I remember when I used to come to Vrindavan in the seventies, the Yamuna was full, nowadays it is becoming dry. Most of the rivers are becoming dry. When we travel we see, we are going over a bridge, but we are not actually going over a river, we are going over some dry riverbeds.
So rivers are becoming dry, the sky is not generating rains. So what is going to happen? It is probably only a matter of a few years when the earth planet can actually become a desert. And then on top of that they are doing so many things, like hybrid seeds. Then such intense, heavy fertilizers are being used, they’re burning out the soil. And this civilization is a very, very destructive civilization. And what they are doing? They are causing these calamities for themselves. Due to their reckless activities, the human society today is causing such a calamitous situation for themselves in the near future.
They are simply concerned about their temporary pleasure. That is what materialistic was of life is. Just for a momentary pleasure, we are prepared to sacrifice anything which begins with sex life. Just for a momentary pleasure, they are prepared to undergo any kind of damage and loss. And in the broader scale, the human society is running after a similar kind of attitude, “Let us enjoy, even if it is for one day, one month or one year, doesn’t matter. Just have it. What will happen? We don’t care.” They are not concerned with… At least they may survive, they may go through their generation but what about their children? How they are creating the future for their children? What kind of future they are creating for their children? Their children will probably not have any food to eat, they won’t have any water to drink, they won’t have any pure oxygen to breathe.
It’s happening, like thirty, forty years back no one could even think that water could be polluted so bad that we have to drink only bottled water. We won’t be able to drink tap water, nobody ever thought of that. Prithu Maharaja simply wanted the grains and seeds. And he used Svayambhuva Manu to become the calf. Mother Earth in the form of a cow, she admitted that, “You come, you present me a calf and I will provide.”
Because the cow gives and provides for the sake of the calf but everyone else benefits. The cow gives milk for the sake of the calf, the calf only drinks a little bit but the rest of the milk is used for human beings. So that is the nature of the cow and that is the nature of Mother Earth. She said, “Present a calf, approach me in the proper way, I will provide.”  So then Prithu Maharaja made Svayambhuva Manu into a calf and he got the grains and seeds and all the wealth of mother nature. That was his need, to establish the principle of sacrifice, yajna. And then different living entities, different creatures came and fulfilled their needs. Like Brihaspati was made a calf by the sages because he is the best of the sages. So best of the community was made into a calf and they fulfilled their needs. And what was their [the sages'] need? Their need was to control their senses. The demigods made Indra into a calf. And what was their need from Mother Earth? Soma-rasa, nectar.
And this verse is describing the demons, what is their need? Their need is intoxicants. The demigods, the devas, thrive on nectar and the demons thrive on intoxicants, and Mother Earth provided those intoxicants for them, like alcohol and other such intoxicating beverages, that comes from the earth.  So in this way, Prithu Maharaja established the proper standard of receiving things, the gifts from Mother Earth for the sake of prosperity of different communities. The needs are not the same. The needs are according to one’s nature. Those who are in the mode of goodness, the demigods and their need is in the mode of goodness. Those who are in the mode of passion… Rather I should say that the demigods are not exactly in the mode of goodness, the rishis are in the mode of goodness, the sages are in the mode of goodness
and their need was according to their nature and it was provided by Mother Nature.
The demigods are in the mode of passion, and their needs are rather passion and goodness. Their needs were provided by Mother Earth. The demons are in the mode of passion and ignorance, passion in ignorance, and their needs were also provided, according to their demoniac nature, by Mother Earth. And according to their nature, their activities have also been prescribed. The demigods’ activities are to give and the demons’ [sages’] activities are to restrain their senses.
Jai Sri Sri Gaura Nitai ki jai! Jai Sri Sri Radha Rasabihari ki jai! Jai Sri Sri Sita Rama Lakshman Hanuman ki jai!
So in this way different living entities have their different nature and accordingly their activities have been prescribed and their necessities have been prescribed, just according to their nature. And varnashrama means to be engaged in our activities according to our propensities, and then it becomes easy, it becomes joyful. But when the varnashrama is not there, then people become engaged for other purposes.
In varnashrama, it is according to one’s propensity and tendency. Those who are in the mode of goodness, they act; they are engaged in a certain way and being engaged in that way they feel happy. The people in the mode of passion become engaged in a certain way; they feel happy doing what they are asked to do and so forth. But when the varnashrama system is not there, then some other factor, some other consideration becomes the motivation for the activity and as a result of that, they are not happy, they suffer.  Like in today’s society, people are not engaged according to their propensity, not according to their nature, but people are engaged in different activities for the sake of money. The criterion is money, not whether one likes to do or not. The consideration is? How much money I will earn, this job will fetch me more money, let me go for that. And as a result of that, no one is happy. Everyone is suffering, because they may get money but it doesn’t fulfill their inner cravings which is set according to their characteristics, according to their modes.
So this is how the whole society today has become so misguided that… Now to rectify the situation, Prabhupada has given this ISKCON movement, Prabhupada has created the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.  So we have to bring in the right understanding and educate people with the right information and engage people according to their right, according to their propensities. And the ultimate objective should be not just sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice.
The initial concept of sacrifice is yajna, is to please the demigods. But the ultimate consideration of yajna is to please Krishna. This point can be explained in this way that in the yajna, or offering it to the demigods, is like giving the tax, paying the bill to different departments in the
government. The different departmental heads collect the funds, but then what do they do? They offer it to the King, the head of the state. And he decides what’s to be done, because he is the ultimate consideration for collection.
The initial stage of yajna is for the sake of the demigods’ pleasure but when the demigods receive those gifts, what do they do? They don’t keep it themselves, they offer it to Krishna. And that’s a devotee, he’s like a via medium. He is not holding, like the departmental heads they are not…they are collecting the money but not spending it themselves, they are just offering it to the central treasury. And from there they get the budget.  They offer everything to the head of the state and then the head of the state gives them the necessary budgets for them to spend, to fulfill their purposes.
So similarly the demigods are actually departmental heads, but the Supreme Personality of Godhead is Krishna. And everything is ultimately meant for Him so when you offer it directly to Him, there is no need to go through the via medium of the demigods, we can directly go to Krishna, especially when Krishna is giving us that opportunity. In other ages, Krishna did not give that opportunity to have direct access, but in Kali-yuga He gives that opportunity: [BG 18.66]

sarva-dharman parityajya
mam ekam´ saranam´ vraja
aham´ tvam´ sarva-papebhyo
moks?hayisyami ma sucah
yat karosi yad asnasi
yaj juhoshi dadasi yat
yat tapasyasi kaunteya
tat kurushva mad-arpanam
That is the ultimate consideration. The ultimate consideration of yajna then again in this age of Kali is sankirtan-yajna. We don’t have to offer grains in the sacrificial fire. If we do it that’s all well and good, but even if we can’t do that, doesn’t matter. A special yajna for this age is:
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
[Kali Santarana Upanishad from the Krishna Yajur Veda]
You just chant the Hare Krishna Maha mantra and everything will be provided by Krishna. And we are seeing that time and time again how it happens.  Recently I had an experience. In Ujjain there was an acute water shortage, I mean, it became actually world news. When you go to different countries and you hear, “I’m from Ujjain.”
“Oh!” Because there has been so much broadcasting on the TV that the scarcity of water which is in Ujjain. And so when that happened, the
district magistrate met with me and told me about the crisis, that there is going to be an acute water shortage because the reservoir of water that they have for the city supply, it dried out, only in April. Not April, say late March it dried out. So rain wouldn’t be there until July, so that meant April, May, June and half of July, or practically end of July. So four months without water. No proper supply of water.
So I told him that the water actually comes by the mercy of the Lord, so if we do the sankirtan-yajna, the Lord will provide. So and then I proposed that, “Let’s have a three day harinama,” and we did that, he arranged, he was very supportive and the newspaper came and we had a press conference and big publicity was there and so we had a three day long sankirtana. Right in front of the temple we made a big pandal, blocked the road [laughs], we had three-day long kirtana, non-stop, 24 hours a day, 72 hour long kirtana.  And then some of them were asking, they were expecting that right after the third day there would be torrents of rain. And in the middle, actually some of the press people came and asked me, “Do you think because of that there will be rain?”
I said, “I don’t care. I don’t know whether it’ll come in the form of rain, whether it will come from the top or from the bottom, but the point is the Lord will supply.”
And then the acute shortage was there, and sometimes people came and said, “Oh you said that will happen and this will happen, didn’t happen.”  Then my question to them was, “Did you come and participate in the sankirtana? You didn’t.”
Then do you know what the reality was? That everywhere there was a huge shortage. But in our temple there was no shortage. We had three wells. Those three wells were full of water and I literally saw, when we told the press, I kind of casually told them, “Whether the rain comes from the top or the bottom, that’s not the consideration, the consideration is: the Lord will provide.”
And so then not only we had sufficient supply, we had so much water that every day we were giving out twenty to thirty tankards of water to the city.  So this is how Krishna actually responds, Krishna reciprocates. And another thing that happened is there was one village, which was about 14km away from Ujjain city, and those village people came, practically the whole village came. That person who led them is a schoolteacher, he’s also like the landlord of that area and he is very well-respected and because he has become a devotee, they’re also following him. And he reported that after the village people participated and when they went back in their village there was rain and their village didn’t have any scarcity of water.
So we see that our temple didn’t have any scarcity, even at the driest condition we had enough water, so much so that we could provide twenty-five to thirty tankards, you know those big trucks with those big tanks? We had been supplying thirty tankards every day to the village. And the water would go down; some tankards would go down to one foot or two feet, just water.  And the Temple President, Ganganarayana came and reacted, “Oh, what will happen if the water dries out?” But next morning you see that the water level went up again. [laughs]
So this is how Krishna actually reciprocates and increases our faith. This is the way to do, this is how to act. You render devotional service, Krishna will reciprocate. And as a result of that, our faith will become established.
Thank you very much, all glories to Srila Prabhupada! Gaura Premanande, Hari Hari Bol!
Does anybody have any question or comments? Yes?
[Devotee asks question:] Though Prahlada is born in a demon family, he is a great devotee of the Lord, why did he milk from the earth liquor?
[HHBCS:] Because that is their nature. You see the demoniac nature means those who are in the mode of ignorance, they need that. Just like a tiger needs meat, it’s his nature. And Krishna made that arrangement. According to one’s nature, he will get what he wants, whatever he needs. Just like you know a person in the mode of goodness will act a certain way, a person in the mode of ignorance will act in another way. Right? Like a cow will act in a certain way and dog will act in another way. A lion will act in another way.
So Mother Nature provides. Well, if that is your constitution, fine, take, drink. But don’t stay in that situation, that’s the thing. Become elevated.  The purpose of tamasic tantra will actually elevate from ignorance to passion, passion to goodness and from goodness, transcendental goodness. And Prahlada Maharaja, because he is born in a demoniac family, I mean, he has been born for some reason also in that family.
That has been described in Hari Bhakti Vilas. In his previous life, Prahlada Maharaja acted in a certain way, and as a result of that he had to be born in a demoniac family. But although he took birth in a demoniac family, he did something also in his previous life, like worshipping, unconsciously fasting on Narsimha Chaturdashi, cleaned the temple and stayed up the whole night. As a result of that, although born in a demoniac family, he became devotee of Lord Nrisinghadev, but because of ajnata-sukriti.
OK, thank you very much. All glories to Srila Prabhupada! Gaur Premanande, Hari, Hari Bol!

Chant Hare Krishna And Krishna Will Provide Part-1

daiteya danava vatsam´
prahladam asurarsabham
vidhayaduduhan ksiram
ayah-patre surasavam

Synonyms:
daiteyah — the sons of Diti; danavah — demons; vatsam — the calf; prahladam — Prahlada Maharaja; asura — demon; rishabham — the chief; vidhaya — making; aduduhan — they milked out; ksiram — milk; ayah — iron; patre — in a pot; sura — liquor; asavam — fermented liquids like beer.

Translation:
The sons of Diti and the demons transformed Prahlada Maharaja, who was born in an asura family, into a calf, and they extracted various kinds of liquor and beer, which they put into a pot made of iron.

Purport:
The demons also have their own types of beverages in the form of liquors and beers, just as the demigods use soma-rasa for their drinking purposes. The demons born of Diti take great pleasure in drinking wine and beer.  Even today people of demoniac nature are very much addicted to liquor and beer.  The name of Prahlada Maharaja is very significant in this connection.  Because Prahlada Maharaja was born in a family of demons, as the son of Hiranyakasipu, by his mercy the demons were and still are able to have their drinks in the form of wine and beer. The word ayah (iron) is very significant. Whereas the nectarean soma was put in a golden pot, the liquors and beers were put in an iron pot. Because the liquor and beer are inferior, they are placed in an iron pot, and because soma-rasa is superior, it is placed in a golden pot.
[End of Purport]

So, Prithu Maharaja milks the earth. Prithu Maharaja, when he saw that the earth became unproductive, the earth was not catering to the needs of the living entities, he became very angry and he chastised the earth planet very severely. The personified earth planet or in other words, we can say Mother Earth, Vasundhara. And being afraid and at the same time recognizing Prithu Maharaja’s anger, the earth explained why she did what she did and her reason was that all kinds of non devotees are simply exploiting the planet.  Everything is meant; whatever Krishna is actually providing through Mother Nature is for the living entities’ survival. The first consideration is actually living entities get what they need and the second consideration is that whatever is there must be offered to the Supreme Personality of Godhead
and by doing that the living entities will become spiritually elevated, the living entities will become situated in their constitutional position.