Purport. According to Bhagavad-gita, the sum total of the twenty-four elements described therein is called the yoni-mahat-brahma. The sum total of the living entities is impregnated into this yoni-mahat-brahma, and they are born in different forms, beginning from Brahma down to the insignificant ant. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam, another Vedic scripture, the sum total of the twenty-four elements, pradhana, is also described as yoni-mahat-brahma. It is the source of the birth and subsistence of all living entities. I think I'll read the next two verses also. Text 12. Just the aggregate elements, named, aggregate the sum total of the elements, namely the five gross elements that we know. Earth, water, fire, air, ether. And the five subtle elements, that is referring to this touch, sound, sound, touch, form, taste, and smell. And the four internal senses. That's, and another mind, intelligence, false ego, and then also something which is called contaminated consciousness. And I never understood that either. Yeah. The five senses for gathering knowledge, we know, they they are corresponding to the this five subtle elements. Sound and touch and so on. Eyesight, hearing, tongue for tasting, and so on. And knowledge for organs for action, that's the leg, hands, tongue for speaking, and rectum, and genitals. Okay. So, this this according to the, it says here that the sum total, the aggregate element, all these elements that is listed, that is called pradhana. And this is it seems to be a little bit different from what we heard yesterday. That pradhana is the unmanifested stage of material energy. And when it is manifested in in this kind of element, then it is called prakrti. But so, so of course the unmanifested stage, then that means also that the senses and all this that is listed here is present, but in an unmanifested stage. I'll read the next also.
Mahābhūtāny ahaṅkāro
buddhir avyaktam eva ca
indriyāṇi daśaikaṁ ca
pañca ca tan-mātrāṇi ca
Bhūtapo nirmano 'nilaḥ
tan-mātrāṇi ca tatra vai
gandhādīni matāni me
There are five gross elements, namely earth, water, fire, air and ether. There are also five subtle elements: smell, taste, color, touch and sound. Yes. So the full explanation of the first verse.
Indriyāṇi daśaikaṁ ca
tvak-cakṣu rasana nāsikā
vāk-pāṇau-karaṇau medram
pāyūr-daśama uccate
The senses for acquiring knowledge and the organs for action number ten. Namely, the auditory sense, the sense of taste, the tactile sense, the sense of sight, and the sense of smell; the active organ for speaking, the active organ for working, and those for traveling, generating, and evacuating. Again, the explanation of the first verse, number 11. So then the 14th.
Mana buddhir ahankara
kṣitam mitram taratmakam
caturdhā rakṣate vedo
dviṣa lakṣaṇa rūpaya
The internal subtle senses are experienced as having four aspects, in the shape of mind, intelligence, ego and contaminated consciousness. Distinctions between them can be made only by different functions, since they represent different characteristics. In one sense, intelligence is the discriminatory power of the mind. Yes. Purport. The four internal senses, or subtle senses, described therein are defined by different characteristics. When pure consciousness is polluted by material contamination, and when identification with the body becomes prominent, one is said to be situated under false ego. Consciousness is the function of the soul, and therefore behind consciousness there is soul. Consciousness polluted by material contamination is called ahankara. I'll read the next also.
Etāvān eva saṅkhyāto
brahmaṇaḥ saguṇasya ha
sanniveśo mayā prokto
yaḥ kāla pañca-viṁśatiḥ
All these are considered the qualified Brahman, the mixing element, which is known as time, is counted as the twenty-fifth element. Okay, so this is time. Purport. According to the Vedic version, there is no existence beyond Brahman. Sarvam khalv idam brahma. From Chandogya Upanishad, 3.14.1. It is stated also in the Visnu Purana that whatever we see is parasya, parasya brahmanah shakti. Everything is an expansion of the energy of the supreme absolute truth, Brahman. When Brahman is mixed with the three qualities of goodness, passion and ignorance, there results the material expansion which is sometimes called saguna-brahma, and which consists of these twenty-five elements. In the nirguna-brahma, where there is no material contamination, or in the spiritual world, the three modes of goodness, passion and ignorance are not present. When nirguna-brahman is sound, simple, unalloyed goodness prevails. Saguna-brahma is described by the Sankhya system of philosophy as consisting of twenty-five elements, including the time factor, past, present, and future. Jaya om visnu-pada paramahamsa parivrajakacarya astottara-sata sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada ki jaya. Namaste Sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine nirvisesa sunyavadi pascatya-desa-tarine. Elements they are when we speak about the period periodic system, they are also elements. But the first is hydrogen.
The periodic table. And those are also elements, so that is if you want to break down something to the small constituent parts. It is that thing which consists of these elements. When you distribute books, there should be an element of surprise. When you go up to a person... If you see a person from far away, and he sees me and he sees that I have books, then it is very difficult to distribute a book to that person. Usually because then he has already set up his defense system. Manidara prabhu he is an expert at showing this. People find themselves in their tank, a tank. And they drive around in their tank. They might see you but don't want to believe these... And then they see that "No, there is someone with books." "Oh, best to turn on like the armored vehicle" or whatever it is. So when you distribute books, then there must be a small, a small element of surprise. You kind of come up to the person and the person is surprised. But there must be other elements too. You have to be humble, you have to be clear in your presentation, and so on. So here we have a description of which elements the material nature consists of. And we know from Bhagavad-gita:
bhūmir āpo ’nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca
ahaṅkāra itīyaṁ me bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā
Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego — all together these eight constitute My separated material energies. So and then we have eight, eight elements. And then we have knowledge acquiring senses, five, that is 13. And then we have those... What are they called? Taste, and smell... Yes, there are five of them also, which have to do with knowledge acquiring senses. So that is 18. And then we have... In any case, you get up to 23, and 24 becomes this with contaminated consciousness. And then 25 is the time. And if you compare then the periodic table with this, the list of elements that the material nature consists of, so that list in the periodic table, there when you manipulate the material nature, chemists, they invent new molecules. And as soon as they have found a new molecule in some way they think about "How should this be used?" "Yes, it might be good to use to make things flame resistant." And then you can use this, best to sprinkle this molecule on sofas, so that if the person who sits and smokes on the sofa, if he forgets the cigarette on the sofa, it doesn't start burning. And so on, because they invent lots of things. And I don't know if it's true, but these pharmaceutical companies, they, when they discovered that you can use oil to make medicines, then they made a fantastic drive that all natural medicines, they should be banned as... what is it called... think it helps, but it doesn't help.
Q: Placebo?
A: Yes, placebo is one thing too, but you imagine that it helps. For example, natural remedies, alternative medicine, natural remedies probably belong there. So if you have a wound in your eye or something, then you can bathe it with... what is it called, it is a special herb that you can also drink as tea, and it is antiseptic. But there is no, there is certainly no one who proves it. If you are to prove that something helps, then you have to do enormous studies and it must be approved by the Medical Products Agency. So... What was I doing? Yes, the periodic table, there you can try to connect different things, you can manipulate the material nature so to speak to achieve something, for example artificial medicines. But it only creates chemical processes. For example, margarine. To get margarine from this oil, from that yellow stuff that grows in the fields. What is it called?
Q: Rapeseed.
A: Rapeseed, yes. Someone who knows... my father knew someone who worked with that. He said that there are 40 processes before you get... 40 separate processes to produce margarine. Artificial. So that, also as an example I can give with my father. He, together with some others, figured out that there are isotopes...
An isotope means that an isotope has a specific element, protons with a certain number of protons. You remember that from school? And then one isotope can have a certain number of neutrons and another isotope can have another number of neutrons. So they understood that iodine-125, it is a very heavy element. It emits a certain radiation. And they came up with the idea that one could make an X-ray machine that was as big as a pen. So it can be used in different contexts with a very small radiation dose. And everyone is interested in that, having a very small radiation dose but an accurate X-ray radiation. Then one could use this X-ray machine in field investigations. If you go out to people and are going to investigate there instead of something, then you can use it. And then also when it comes to stomach problems, it has also been able to be used. It is fantastic! But so that is what you can do with this periodic table and these substances, the elements. But what is described here, from this one can understand what the material body is and where they come from, where these elements come from. And one can understand the origin, it is Krsna. It is not the Big Bang, but the origin of this material universe is Krsna, who has material energy. And actually they talk about primordial soup. It sounds almost like pradhana. So you almost understand that this theory of the Big Bang is not so crazy, because somehow from pradhana these elements are manifested, and how it continues over to one thing and another, as fast as an evolution. But this knowledge, it leads to self-realization, which is the very purpose of the whole creation. That Krsna, with these material elements that have come forth, with all of this every body that we get in this world is built, as we go from one body to another. And that is because Krsna, He gives us the opportunity to first enjoy and believe that we are God in different ways. Because that is what one wants most. And but then there is the possibility to understand that these elements will never give us the satisfaction that we long for. There was indeed a [unclear] that Prabhupada often mentioned. He said that there is no one who has been loved by having a high position. No one who is loved because he is rich. No one who is loved or can love because he is rich, and so on and so on. We can see that. Reciprocation of both material, as we heard Dasavatar's explanation, as he said with the child. First there are diapers, and the parents have to take care of feces and urine and vomit and all that with the child. It is a huge job. It doesn't give anything back. But when the child has grown up and sees his father and sees his mother, and "here are my siblings, here are my friends", then the child can express a kind of love and perhaps do something in return. I don't know how one, it's a bit advanced, does something for father or mother, and then pleases father or mother as a proof of love. In the same way, it is actually only Krsna who can reciprocate with us in a completely satisfactory way. Otherwise it becomes like castles in the sand. It is quite wet, but it becomes irritating and disturbing with the sand. So that is the material, material has a... Actually, the body that we have, which we think "this is me", it is only like a kind of dummy. I don't know if one says dummy, it is something that one uses which is not real. And we think we have, but we have no idea how the body works. Who can describe how when one drinks milk from the mother, milk, how this milk is transformed into these things, the cells, how it goes into the cells and so on. We have no idea how it works. But it works for the most part with digestion, everything we eat, and distributes to... so what we think is us, is actually something completely foreign to us, to the soul actually. But we identify ourselves so strongly with this body. So
A: ...differs completely from the body's constitution and is just in its constitutional position. The constitutional position is to render service to Kṛṣṇa. Just like the child, in its constitutional position, is grateful to its parents, first of all.
A: Shouldn't we read this first verse in the book? But I must...
A: Does anyone have any question? Yes?
Q: Yesterday you spoke about the subtle body, which is usually described as being three: it is the mind, the intelligence and the ego.
A: Yes, and sometimes it is described as the contaminated consciousness.
Q: Yes.
A: I, as I said, don't really know what was a subtle form of activity, they do talk about it. We can ask AI. Here something is written about the mind.
Q: Where?
A: In the introduction.
Q: Yes.
Q: It says almost the same thing. "Consciousness is the function of the soul and therefore behind consciousness there is soul. Consciousness polluted by material contamination is called ahaṅkāra."
A: Yes, we will read up on it at our place later, in peace and quiet. Any other question?
Q: How interesting, this point you made with the scientific division, or the descriptions of the components of material nature compared to... For the intuition, when you read this, especially if you have learned in school about the periodic table, then it seems like a primitive understanding of material nature, and that it is much more logical and advanced, the periodic table, where you understand the elements, you can... It's easier in some way to comprehend everything, that we see there are different elements and all those elements consist of different small particles that build up. It is easier than thinking about this: earth, water, fire, air, space. But how is the goal of this division, like, explained? So that you understand, you kind of separate the body and the consciousness and how you can achieve liberation, like, and the senses, that they are also separate things.
A: Yes, they have another function, so to speak, this knowledge. With the material knowledge you can then do different things, for example an X-ray machine like we talked about and things like that. You can make medicines and the like, but what is the ultimate purpose?
Q: Sometimes I usually play with the thought... No, not play with the thought, but it would have been interesting to, sometimes you know this that the body is not the senses and you can learn that we have five senses like, but what, if one would just all, all of this knowledge is taken away, how would one then look at the world? It is difficult to understand how one would experience the world if one did not have this knowledge. You mean if, yes, because sometimes you think, there doesn't seem to be such a big difference because, from before and now like, I am the same person, I am still attached, I am still... But it would have been interesting to know how one would look at the world if one didn't know that like, if one just was, like if one just was materially prevailing and identified with the body and...
A: But they, viṣayīs, they are indeed not conscious as we think. They are much more... they are very confused.
Q: Is that so?
A: Yes, also. I don't know how it feels to have, I don't remember, I have been around for a few lifetimes, but I still don't feel completely clear, I am still a little confused.
Q: Yes, but...
A: But sure, what is this? One can see how it builds up, how it originates. I happened to think of that. It is very difficult for those who do not have this knowledge. It is indeed a knowledge that defines what one is in relation to everything else. They indeed undergo, so to speak, a lot of problems unnecessarily.
Q: It is very difficult. But it feels like making one's way, and in that picture, to take this chance and make it, and achieve liberation.
A: Yes, it is indeed described that the human body is like a very good boat, a vessel, which can go across the ocean of material ignorance, the material ocean, and then the spiritual master and Vaisnavas, they are like experts at navigating this boat. And the human advantages, that is, we have a certain intelligence and we have hands, we have feet, we have we can, yes, everything, these are so to speak winds that can like carry the boat across the sea, the sea of ignorance. So he who does not utilize this situation, he is an ātmahā. He murders himself.
Q: It is seen as something luxurious to begin with, after a while it becomes everyday life, everyday life. And then I think one [rumbles on]... and then after a while, it's like tickling someone on the back, it creates comfort, then it starts to chafe.
A: Mhm. That is what... It is like scratching a wound. That you scratch yourself when you have got some mosquito bite. And so you scratch it, but it does not go away, you scratch more and more and in the end it starts to bleed. So that is what...
Q: You see on so many here, almost everyone, close ones. They have never been happier in that sense. They seem to have reached the very top of the pyramid of human existence, and then they start looking for threads to avoid...
A: I still think that you can see a lot of possessiveness.
Q: [How so]? They are not at all much of owners...
A: They want to move as they... Yes.
Q: There is also a well-known Vaisnava who says that there are only two types of people who are happy in this world.
A: Yes, that's right.
Q: It is either those who are transcendentalists or those who are completely entangled in the material. Those who are in between...
A: The fools and the transcendentalists, they are always happy. So we who are in between have to struggle on and try to become wise persons.
Q: But you see that materialists are not happy, never.
A: No.
Q: Even Trump who has millions, he wants more, more, more.
A: More, more. Even more, even more, even more.
Q: Much wants more, as they say.
A: Yes. There is a verse by... yes, what's it called? He has talked about this with cats and dogs. He who misuses this human form of life, who is like cats and dogs, without any understanding of the science of self-realization. So cats and dogs, when they die, they understand nothing. Mostly they die in the middle of [the crisis] when they die. And so, the human being dies without having, like, cultivated self-insight. They are like cats and dogs that die. And it is really like killing oneself. The human being, like.
Q: Okay. They struggle all the time then to be happy, to search for something they have lost or want. And everything they do is wrong. The material world is not like that kind of place.
A: So we must change the center of our attention, from our body and mind to Krsna.
Q: Yes.
A: We must... so that everything does not center around me, but everything centers on Krsna. It is other [parts] it is about, around the center.
Q: Yes, okay.
A: So, then we thank...
Q: Krsna, thank you very much.
A: Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jaya.
Q: Jaya!