View source for Karma means when you act according to the sastra, that is called karma. Lawful activities. The lawful activities is very good. But unlawful activities, you are punishable. So the business of sense gratification is unlawful activities

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[[Category:karma]]
[[Category:Meaning of Sanskrit Words]]
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[[Category:sense Gratification]]
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<div id="Lectures" class="section" sec_index="4" parent="compilation" text="Lectures"><h2>Lectures</h2>
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<div id="Srimad-Bhagavatam_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="1" parent="Lectures" text="Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures"><h3>Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures</h3>
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<div id="LectureonSB1533VrndavanaAugust141974_0" class="quote" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam_Lectures" book="Lec" index="153" link="Lecture on SB 1.5.33 -- Vrndavana, August 14, 1974" link_text="Lecture on SB 1.5.33 -- Vrndavana, August 14, 1974">
<div class="heading">Karma means when you act according to the śāstra, that is called karma. Lawful activities. The lawful activities is very good. But unlawful activities, you are punishable. So the business of sense gratification is unlawful activities. You cannot gratify your senses more than necessity. Everywhere that is the stringent laws of nature.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on SB 1.5.33 -- Vrndavana, August 14, 1974|Lecture on SB 1.5.33 -- Vrndavana, August 14, 1974]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Is very important verse. Actually, this is the essence of Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. What is that? People become diseased by sense gratification. Everyone knows. Too much sense gratification means creating disease. For example, some nice eatable. But if you, because it is very nice rasagullā, therefore I shall devour one dozen, that's not very good. That will create indigestion immediately. So in this material world, people are so much enthusiastic in the matter of sense gratification. Whole world. Not only now, this is the place for competition of sense gratification. Advancement of civilization means, the so-called civilization, material civ..., means how much you are able to gratify your senses. That is civilization. How much you are given facilities to gratify your senses. This is the modern idea, hedonism. More eat, more drink-eat, drink, be merry, and enjoy. Sense gratification.</p>
<p>This is not only new. Formerly the Carvaka Muni, he also advocated, ṛṇaṁ kṛtvā ghṛtaṁ pibet. In India, they want to eat very nice foodstuff prepared from ghee. So he advised that ṛṇaṁ kṛtvā ghṛtaṁ pibet: if you have no money, then beg, borrow, or steal, get ghee and eat very nice. Ṛṇaṁ kṛtvā, the word is... Suppose one has no money, then how to get money? Either cheat somebody, beg, or beg. But begging for gṛhastha is not very good thing, but sometimes they do so. Beg, borrow, or promising, "Give me now money, I shall pay you." And when credit is lost, then steal, pickpocket. This is as theory. Similarly, Carvaka Muni, ṛṇaṁ kṛtvā ghṛtaṁ pibet, never mind. "No, I will have to pay." "No, that we shall see later on, never mind." "No, I will be sinful, I will have to pay next life." This is within the blood of every Indian that if I cheat you or if I take some money from you without your benefit, without repayment, then I will have to suffer. Still in India they believe this. There are some incidences that a man, father took some loan from some gentleman and his father died, and his son came to pay the money to the creditor: "Sir, my father took so much money from you. Now my father died without payment. So I have got money, you kindly take it." He says, "Let me see my book whether your father took it." So he said, "All right, consult." So after consulting the books, he said, "I don't find any item that I gave loan to your father." "No, sir, I know, my father said at the time of death that 'I owe so much money to that gentleman, I could not pay; you pay it.'" So the trouble was the man says "I don't find any debit to your father's name. How can I take your money?" And he is insisting, "Yes, my father took money from you, kindly take." This was India. This was India. They knew that "I cannot cheat you." Karmī, in the karma-kāṇḍa, if I cheat you, then I will have to pay you four times this life or next life. That is the law of karma. Therefore, we are collecting money, we should not cheat. Every paisa should be spent for Kṛṣṇa; otherwise we shall be liable to pay. If we use one farthing for our sense gratification, then we will have to pay for it. This is the law of karma. The charity is given, why? Why charity is given to the brāhmaṇa? Nowadays they have manufactured charity to the daridra-nārāyaṇa, poor man, gāñjā smoker, bidi smoker. But in the śāstra, it is not. Śāstra says tasmin deha, those who are devotee, those who are brāhmaṇa, they should be given, he should be given, he should accept. Why? Because if a brāhmaṇa takes some money from you, if a Vaiṣṇava takes money from you, he everything will employ in the service of the Lord. This is utilization.</p>
<p>So at the present moment, people are becoming more and more poor, and they are simply educated to gratify senses. So the whole world becoming chaotic, diseased condition. Even in the topmost level, the President of United States, he was also caught dealing very unfavorably, and he was forced to resign. And what to speak of others? He is not a poor man, he is not uneducated, the topmost man, elected President of USA, but there is cheating even there, just see. And what to speak of others? Yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhaḥ ([[Vanisource:BG 3.21|BG 3.21]]), in the Bhagavad-gītā it is, tat tad eva itaraḥ janaḥ, sa yat pramāṇaṁ kurute lokas tad anuvartate. If a person, president, cheats his countrymen somehow or other, and why not others? They will also do that. "Oh, president does it. What I am? What can I know?" In this way, the more we are inclined to sense gratification, the more we are becoming sinful. And more we are becoming sinful, the more we must suffer. That is the law of nature. Āmayo yaś ca bhūtānāṁ jāyate yena suvrata.</p>
<p>So by this karma... vikarma rather. Karma means when you act according to the śāstra, that is called karma. Lawful activities. The lawful activities is very good. But unlawful activities, you are punishable. So the business of sense gratification is unlawful activities. You cannot gratify your senses more than necessity. Everywhere that is the stringent laws of nature. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā ([[Vanisource:BG 7.14|BG 7.14]]). You cannot surpass it. Duratyayā. If you surpass, then you will be punished. There is simultaneous law of nature. The example is that you can eat, say, four ounce or eight ounce foodstuff. If you eat ten ounce, then there will be suffering, indigestion, you cannot eat, there will be dysentery, so many things. That is nature's law. So people are becoming entangled in karma. Yajña sa karma, one should work for Yajña, for Kṛṣṇa. But they are not doing that. They are doing for sense gratification. Ye pacanty ātma-kāraṇā. Bhuñjate te tv aghaṁ pāpaṁ ye pacanty ātma-kāraṇāt ([[Vanisource:BG 3.13|BG 3.13]]). That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. If you live only for sense gratification, then you become entangled in the law of karma.</p>
<p>So here it is suggested that āmayo yaś ca bhūtānāṁ. In the previous verse Nārada said, karma brahmaṇi bhāvitam. Karma, your activities, should be dovetailed in the matter of satisfying the Supreme Lord. That is the way of devotional service. But how karma can be engaged, that is prescribed in this verse, that āmayo yaś ca bhūtānāṁ jāyate yena suvrata. You get disease. Suppose you have taken too much milk and you become diseased, dysentery, could not digest; have taken too much sweet rice or rabri, so there is dysentery. That must be there. Too much eating will cause. So āmayaḥ, āmayaḥ means mucus or disease. So there is mucus, yaś ca bhūtānāṁ, due to eating too much milk preparation. Tad eva hy āmayaṁ dravyaṁ na punāti cikitsitam. So cannot be cure it even by that milk preparation. The same milk preparation which has caused your mucus, disease, it can be cured by the same milk preparation, cikitsitam, but it should be medically treated. The same milk. The milk is the cause of your dysentery, but the same milk, when it is medically treated, can cure it. This is the secret. How? One milk preparation. Milk is the origin. Rabri, you take too much and there is dysentery. And cikitsitam, the same milk converted into yogurt, add little black pepper, little salt and lime, it will cure. The origin is the milk. So one way you become diseased and the other way you become cured, but the preparation is the same—milk. Similarly, our activities in this material world with these material elements, when we violate the laws, we become entangled. But the same material activities, when it is turned into Kṛṣṇa prasādam, dovetailed with Kṛṣṇa for hearing and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, what we are doing? We are also doing the same thing. Here is the temple. What is this temple? The same ingredients, the same cement, same brick, same stone, same worker, same plan as the skyscraper. But what is the difference? Because it is cikitsitam, it is for Kṛṣṇa. You spoil your energy by the same purchase of cement, bricks, and other things for sense gratification—a theater hall, a dancing hall. The same energy spent for dancing for Kṛṣṇa, the same hall, you become liberated. By one dancing hall you go to hell, and by another dancing hall you become liberated. This is the secret.</p>
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