View source for The nature of dharma is that bhagavata is the topmost knowledge. He (Suta Gosvami) is giving directly the topmost religious system

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{{terms|"The nature of dharma is that bhagavata is the topmost knowledge. He is giving directly the topmost religious system. The topmost religious system is devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead Who is not perceived by direct senses"}}
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{{compiler|Krsnadas}}
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[[Category:Nature Of]]
[[Category:dharma]]
[[Category:is That]]
[[Category:Bhagavata]]
[[Category:Topmost]]
[[Category:knowledge]]
[[Category:give]]
[[Category:Directly]]
[[Category:topmost]]
[[Category:Religious System]]
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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="LectureonSB126NewVrindabanSeptember51972_0" class="quote" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam_Lectures" book="Lec" index="36" link="Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- New Vrindaban, September 5, 1972" link_text="Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- New Vrindaban, September 5, 1972">
<div class="heading">The nature of dharma is that bhāgavata is the topmost knowledge. He is giving directly the topmost religious system. The topmost religious system is devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead Who is not perceived by direct senses. And that devotional service should be ahaituki. No hetu. Hetu means cause. I am going to the temple with some cause. For mitigation of some difficulties, I shall pray to... That is also nice, but that is haituki, there is some hetu, or cause. We should serve Kṛṣṇa without any cause.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- New Vrindaban, September 5, 1972|Lecture on SB 1.2.6 -- New Vrindaban, September 5, 1972]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">So now, at the present moment, they are rejecting religion. Everywhere, all over the world. We have to... Travelling all over the world, the only scarcity is sense of God, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, God consciousness. They have practically rejected God consciousness. So that will not make him happy because he cannot become happy imitating the animals. Now they are imitating animals, becoming naked. That is they, that is their advancement of civilization, to become naked, nudist. So actually decline, from human life they are decline to animal life. Because two kinds of life, animal life and human life but if they do not take to the proper position of human life, cultivation of knowledge and religion, then they are animals so gradually they will decline to animal life. So we should not decline, we should make progress, that is human life.</p>
<p>So progress means to make progress in religious concept of life. That is progress. Not, that is not progress, material comforts, that is not progress. Material comforts according to the body, that is already settled up, deha-yogena dehinām. As we have got body, a particular type of body given by nature, the machine... Just like your comfort of driving car is estimated according to the car you have got. If you have got a very nice costly car, then it drives very comfortably, but if you have got a less costly, cheap car, then you are not so comfortable. Similarly our comforts and discomforts are already settled as soon as you have got a particular type of body. There is no necessity to improve it. We cannot improve it. For example, just like a hog, he has got a particular type of body, he can eat stool. You cannot improve his eating process by giving him halavā, that is not possible. Therefore śāstra says, deha-yogena dehinām. Our material comforts, standard of material comforts, are already settled up by the body which you have got. Therefore our business is: if you are not in the bodily concept of life, then our business is how to make spiritually advanced. Bodily comforts of life, we cannot improve. That is not possible. We can improve our spiritual advancement of life. That is given to us.</p>
<p>Therefore all the śāstras, all the Vedic literatures, all the great saintly persons, they come. They simply come to give you hint how you can make spiritual advancement of life. They do not come here to say how you can make very comfortable material life. They never say. Either you say Jesus Christ or Kṛṣṇa or Lord Buddha or Hazrat Muhammad or anyone, all of them have come to give you information for spiritual advancement of life, not for any material advancement of life. That is intelligence. Material advancement of life, you should be satisfied. Whatever God has given you, you be satisfied with that. Don't waste your time, that is not possible. Therefore your occupational duty should be... The highest occupational duty is suggested here, yato bhaktir adhokṣaje. If you engage yourself in such occupational duties by which you can increase your devotional service for the Supreme Personality of Godhead.</p>
<p>The Supreme Personality of Godhead is described here in this chapter as Vāsudeva Adhokṣaja. Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa's name, another name is Vāsudeva, and His another name is Adhokṣaja. Adhokṣaja means not to be understood by direct perception of our senses. Akṣaja, we try to understand everything with our senses, we want to see something, we want to touch something, we want to smell something, we want to hear about something, we want to taste something, these are our direct test. So Kṛṣṇa, God, cannot be understood by these direct tests. Therefore He is called Adhokṣaja. You cannot understand Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is here, but because we have no training, we see that it is a stone statue. But He is Kṛṣṇa. We do not know that Kṛṣṇa is so kind but because I cannot see Kṛṣṇa at the present stage of life therefore Kṛṣṇa has appeared in a form which I can see. That is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa, the same Kṛṣṇa, but Kṛṣṇa can appear because everything is Kṛṣṇa, everything is Kṛṣṇa's energy, so He can appear in His energy. So He has appeared in this material energy, bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ ([[Vanisource:BG 7.4|BG 7.4]]). So He has appeared just like stone, because we cannot see except stone. Therefore He has appeared like stone, but He is not stone, He is Kṛṣṇa. Therefore Kṛṣṇa's name is Adhokṣaja. Adhokṣaja means we cannot perceive Kṛṣṇa by direct sense perception but He is so kind, so merciful that He appears before us as we can perceive Him directly.</p>
<p>That yato bhaktir adhokṣaje, and that bhakti, that devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, should be ahaituki. This is first-class, this is their system. Because the enquiry was where is now dharma. So he is describing what is the nature of dharma. The nature of dharma is that bhāgavata is the topmost knowledge. He is giving directly the topmost religious system. The topmost religious system is devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead Who is not perceived by direct senses. And that devotional service should be ahaituki. No hetu. Hetu means cause. I am going to the temple with some cause. For mitigation of some difficulties, I shall pray to... That is also nice, but that is haituki, there is some hetu, or cause. We should serve Kṛṣṇa without any cause, not that by serving Kṛṣṇa I shall improve my material position and so many causes maybe. But real service, real devotional service must be without cause. That is pure devotional service.</p>
:anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ
:jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam
:ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-
:śīlanaṁ bhaktir uttama
:(Brs. 1.1.11)
<p>There are different stages of bhakti. The first-class bhakti is anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ, without any material desires, ahaituki. Apratihatā and cannot be checked by any material condition. Bhakti, or devotional service is not such a thing which can be checked. "Sir, I was feeling very sick, therefore I could not chant." No, that is not bhakti. We are subjected to all these tribulations utterly, but bhakti... Just like Haridāsa Ṭhākura, he was going to die, or he's change his body, he's going to Vaikuṇṭha. Caitanya... He was chanting daily 300,000s. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu advised him, "Now you are sick-willed, you can reduce your chanting." Haridāsa Ṭhākura said, "No, sir. That I cannot do." That is Haridāsa Ṭhākura. We cannot imitate Haridāsa Ṭhākura. Even at the point of death he was chanting 300,000s of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Apratihatā, this is called apratihatā, without being checked by any material condition. So if you want to become a devotee, no material condition can check you. It is so nice, so easy, ahaituki apratihatā yayātmā suprasīdati. The real thing is that we want satisfaction of our self, so if we want actually satisfaction of self then we shall take to this devotional service without being checked by any material condition or for without any material reason, then you shall be happy. Thank you very much. (end)</p>
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