Srila Gurudeva - 28 January 1997 – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
His [Prahlada Maharaja's] father called him and asked, “What have you learned from your teachers. Tell me something.”
He thought that Prahlada would speak about politics, hypocrisy or economics but Prahlada said, “I have learned from my gurudeva that in this world all are unhappy. All are feeling misery. They should give up all their relations, their association and should be in the association of pure Vaisnavas and chant Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
When Hiranyakasipu heard this, he became so furious at Prahlada, and went to kill him. “What is your position?” Prahlada Maharaja spoke this. What sloka was this?
sri-prahlada uvaca
tat sadhu manye 'sura-varya dehinam
sada samudvigna-dhiyam asad-grahat
hitvatma-pataà grham andha-kupam
vanam gato yad dharim asrayeta
- Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.5.5
[Prahlada Maharaja replied: O best of the asuras, King of the demons, as far as I have learned from my spiritual master, any person who has accepted a temporary body and temporary household life is certainly embarrassed by anxiety because of having fallen in a dark well where there is no water but only suffering. One should give up this position and go to the forest [vana]. More clearly, one should go to Vrndavana, where only Krsna consciousness is prevalent, and should thus take shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.]
Prahlada Maharaja spoke this sloka, “O supermost demon! You are the king of the demons. I think that to chant the holy names in the association of the Vaisnavas and bhaktas is the cause for your eternal happiness. Other things cannot [give you happiness]. So, you should always try to remember Krsna’s pastimes and names.” Hiranyakasipu became furious. Prahlada said, hitvatma-patam grham andha-kupam. These houses are like blind wells. Do you know a blind well?
In a jungle there was a well with water but after some time the water dried and serpents and scorpions came there. Some bricks became broken and fell inside. Grasses grew and the pipala or banyan tree—do you know the pipal tree and banyan tree? A tree having these hairs. You will see this everywhere. The banyan’s branches were here and there covering the well. A man was going to cut a tree or take some honey from the forest. At once, a dangerous tiger attacked. The man was upset, “What to do?” He ran but he could not run as quickly as the tiger. He was about to be attacked but at once he saw there was a well and there were branches hanging from the tree and by this it was covered. So, he took two branches of the tree and went down. But when he looked below, he saw dangerous and poisonous serpents hissing as if they were about to bite him, so he could not go inside. He was hanging onto the two branches. In the meantime, two rats came. One was black and the other white. They began to chew the branches of the trees from where he was hanging from.
Understand? Don’t disturb anyone. Let that remain. You should try to listen.
Two rats came and began to cut the branches from which he was hanging. In a minute or two the branches would break, and he would fall down. Inside is death. Outside of the well is death. In the meantime, he saw that a branch was coming towards his mouth. On that branch, so many bees were there collecting honey in a beehive. From that, a drop of honey, slowly dropped—one, two…. They were golden drops, very sweet drops were coming…one, two…. He saw this and could not check himself. He took his tongue and tasted one drop and exclaimed, “How sweet! How sweet!” But the rats were coming. In a moment he will go and die. Outside is death. Inside is death. If you shake the branch where the bees are making their rooms, they will come and attack. At once lakhs and lakhs of bees will come out and, in a minute or two you will die. So, in four ways, on every side of you… and all ten directions, death is waiting for you. But this taste is coming, “How sweet!” And then his is forgetting everything. What is this?
You will have to die. Old age will come. If you are going by rail, car, or airplane, they can be smashed at any time and you can die at any time. There is no certainty what the next moment will be. In India, there are not so many [tragic] deaths. There were two airplanes, one from Arabia and the other from Russia. The planes crashed and all died. There was plenty of space to protect themselves. An airplane is not like a rail or car on the road. They had so much space, but they died. Not one of the riders escaped. All died.
Do you know earthquakes? Especially in this area—like Japan, Burma, Philippines—when the earthquakes come, hundreds and hundreds of persons die. There is no certainty when you will die. But in this there is one drop of sweetness. “My wife is so beautiful. My husband is so beautiful. My children are so lovely.” If you have any job and in the evening return home feeling very tired, and your son or daughter comes onto your lap, you will think, “Oh how sweet.” You will forget all your labors if your wife comes to you with a sweet voice, not in an angry mood.
If all day he is doing so much hard labor, and he is so tired and he has just come home and if the wife says, “Oh you are tired. Take a glass of juice.” All these things are very sweet.
The children will come and clap, “Oh father has come! Father has come!” Then he will forget everything. But death is everywhere. You should remember that there are so many problems. Prahlada Maharaja advises us that we should not taste that one drop [of sweetness]. Be careful. If you touch that drop of sweetness, you will let go of the [branches] with your hands and you will go down.
What is the banyan tree? Our past karma. Our bad and good activities. It has come like a tree that we will have to taste both bad and good activities. You are bound to taste these. No one can check this. Only harinama can check this. The two branches represent good karma and bad karma, bad activities and good activities. Who are the rats? Day and night. Night is the dark rat and day is the white one. In night we make merry and drink so much with the family and enjoy with our wife and husbands and mostly sleep. And in the day, we are working for nothing. This is living like dogs.
We have seen dogs in India running so sweetly. If anyone asks the dog, “Where are you going? Where are you going?” the dog replies, “I am in a hurry.” Where does the dog go? He will go to a stone and he will pass some urine, smell it and again return. This is for nothing. So, we are like this. If you think very gravely and deeply about what to do about your family, know that when they will grow up to twenty-five or twenty-six years old, they will fly away with their wives [or husbands]. They will not care for you, for their father and mother. You can realize this. You may do things for your country. Our Indira Gandhi, our previous prime minister, was trying to do things for the country, but someone shot her. Gandhi was a mahatma but he was murdered. He did not do anything for himself. He was not selfish. He did everything for others, but they shot him down. So, whatever you are doing will not give you happiness. Try to earn something to escape your life so that your life will be easy. Not more. Otherwise, they might not protect you.
Listen to Prahlada Maharaj. What is he telling us? From the beginning of your life, you should chant and remember Krsna. You are saying, “When we grow and are old then we will take up chanting Krsna’s name,” but you have no time. We have no time to die, but death will not see that. In the mother’s womb, so many die. We see that children die and young strong twenty-four-year olds also die. There is no certainty. From the beginning of our life, we should chant and remember. Krsna is so merciful.
One thing he said is that if suffering is coming, we don’t want suffering, but suffering comes anyway. We don’t want old age. When we become forty or fifty, some hairs begin to be white. We look in the mirror and try to pick it out. Then the next day instead of one, we see four or five more have come and again we try to take them out. Then the next week, several have come and we take some medicine, [hair dye]. Anyhow our hair is going, our eyesight is going, and you will not digest anything anymore. So many problems will come. One day you will have to die. Without calling them, sufferings, sorrows and problems are coming by your past impressions. In the same way, if you are meant to taste happiness then happiness will also come. Everything will come automatically. You should not worry for your meals, etc. We don’t do anything for our eating, clothing, going here and there.