Always working for others-- means no time for Krsna.
This lecture by Srila Prabhupada is for all of us who want to be devotees but have NO TIME or very little time for devotional services in the association of devotee. This brilliant lecture by Prabhupada clearly tells us how this body which we now inhabit does not belong to us- now or in the past or in the future. We are simply borrowing it from Krsna for some time. If it is not used for the owner of the body-Krsna, then all those activities are criminal or sinful.
The class has been summarized into 9 different points. See SB 3.5.3 purport at the very end for final proof.
Damaghosa das
May 10 1973 LA- SB lecture
SB 1.8.48-Translation: "King Yudhiṣṭhira said: O my Lord, I am the most sinful man. Just see my heart, which is full of ignorance. This body, which is ultimately meant for others, has killed many, many phalanxes of men."
Prabhupāda: So anyone explaining. You can explain.
1. Pradyumna: This body, even while we are in it, does not belong to us, and before we came into this body, it was matter, belonging to someone else, and after we leave this body, as it says in the purport, "While there is life in the body it is meant for the service of others, and when it is dead it is meant to be eaten by dogs and jackals or maggots." So after death the body is disposed of in different ways. Some people bury the body; in that case the worms take the body. Some people burn the body; in that case it is consumed by fire and becomes ashes.
2. Prabhupāda: This one word, pārakyasya is very important. ... But if we consider philosophically, we'll see that even this body does not belong to me. Therefore it is a very important word, pārakyasya. From the very beginning. The body was given by father and mother. So if anyone creates something, so that thing belongs to the creator. If the father and mother has created this body, then from the very beginning the body belongs to the father and mother. And actually, in the childhood, as the father and mother says, "Sit down here, eat this, don't go there," everything is controlled by the father and mother, and originally given by the father and mother. So how we can claim, "This is my body"? From the very beginning. Then somebody maintains you. Suppose you are working in office, in a factory. So actually that body belongs to him, the maintainer. Just like a dog. The master maintains it, and the dog's body is meant for the service of that master. As soon as the master indicates, "You do this," immediately he does it. A dog has no independence, practical. So in this way the body belongs to the master. In the beginning, body belongs to the father and mother. Then, if you grow up, then body belongs to your country. In this way, go up to the death point, and after death also, the body belongs to others.
There are three stages, three different kinds of transformation of this body after death: stool, ashes and worms, uh, earth or dirt. According to the Vedic civilization, the body is burnt into ashes. So the body becomes ashes. And somebody throws the body to be eaten up by some animal. The Parsee community in India, they throw the body to be eaten by the vultures. That is their system. So after eating, the vultures, they pass stool; so body becomes stool.
3. So this is called ajñānam.[ignorance] If you work for your own thing, there is some sense. But if you are working for others only, you have no claim, and day and night, hard work, then what is that intelligence? That is ass's intelligence. Ass. Ass just like works very hard, not for himself. He works for the washerman, for carrying tons of cloth on his back and for a morsel of grass. So in the actual sense also, if you go to see a gentleman, busy gentleman, businessman, ask him that "We want to talk with you something about Kṛṣṇa consciousness." "Oh, I have no time. I have no time, sir." "Why?" "I am very busy." "Why you are busy?" "For business." "What is this business for?" "For maintaining my family." So in this way, ultimately, he is thinking he is working for himself, but he is working for others.
4. So our intelligence is, if we have to work for others and sacrifice this body for others, why not for Kṛṣṇa? That is our philosophy. If I am whole time, whole duration of life, I am working for others... Others means, ultimately, my senses. The senses are others.
5. But at the ultimate analysis the body belongs to somebody else. So we are fool, that I am doing so much sinful activities for others. This is sense. But one... Everyone is under this ignorance. Although he is working for others, he is thinking "I am working for myself, for my interest." Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum [SB 7.5.31]. These rascals, they do not know what is actually his self-interest. He is working for other's interest, but he is thinking that "I am working for my interest." This is ajñāna.
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So therefore Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja says, aho me paśyata ajñānam: "Just see how much foolish I am. I am foolish, I am." This body... I may be king, but this body, although I am king, if I do not discharge my duties nicely, president or king or very big man, immediately votes will be against me. So I am working for others.
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Philosophy means to see the actual fact. That is called philosophy. So if we philosophically take all these things, we are working for others out of ignorance, and I am thinking that "It is my interest. It is my self-interest..." Actually, you have to work for others. That is your business. And that other is Kṛṣṇa, not this material world. I have to work for others. Because I am servant originally. Jīvera svarūpa haya nitya-kṛṣṇa-dāsa [Cc. Madhya 20.108-109]. That is the constitutional position of every living entity, a servant. He cannot be master. If you don't become servant of Kṛṣṇa, then you have to become a servant of māyā. You cannot be master of māyā. That is not possible. Master of māyā is Kṛṣṇa. Mama māyā. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā [Bg. 7.14]. A master can control māyā, but we are not master. We are servant. How we can control māyā? It is impossible. But if you become servant of Kṛṣṇa, māyā will not touch you. That's all. Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te [Bg. 7.14]. You cannot control māyā. That is not possible, because you are servant. If you don't become servant of Kṛṣṇa, you must become servant of māyā.
8. So we are falsely trying to enjoy māyā. Enjoy means master. That is not possible. Tribhir guṇamayair bhāvaiḥ. This is the influence of the three modes of material nature. We are falsely thinking that... The so-called scientific advancement, they are also trying to control over māyā, nature. That cannot be. It is not possible. But they will go on trying for it. The māyā, there is a nice example I have seen in somewhere, in India. There was a mirror and a bird, a sparrow, was coming. And as soon as he comes before the mirror, there is another sparrow on the other side. So he'll strike the mirror, that "There is another bird." And he would also strike. In this way he was struggling. That shadow sparrow was striking and he was trying. He was trying. He thought that "I shall defeat the other sparrow." But that is not possible. That is not possible. I have seen it practically. This is foolishness. The bird is thinking that "There is another sparrow. Strike it." And he is also striking. That perpetual striking is going on. That is called struggle for existence. He has no sense.
9. Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that "I don't want any material wealth," dhanam. Na janam. "I don't want to be leader of hundreds and thousand of people, president or this or that. No." These are material desires. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu is nullifying everything: "No, I don't want this." Na dhanaṁ na janaṁ na sundarīṁ kavitām. "I don't want any beautiful wife also." These are material desires. Everyone wants. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu rejects. Then you want mukti? Because after all, mukti... Dharma artha kāma mokṣa [SB 4.8.41, Cc. Ādi 1.90]. Mokṣa means mukti. People are addicted to these four principles. So ultimately, You want mukti? "No. That is also not." Why? Mama janmani janmani. Janma, if one takes birth again, then there is no mukti. Mukti means no more taking birth in this material world. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, "I don't want this, don't want this, don't want this." And janmani janmani means "I don't want mukti also." Janmani... If one is mukta, he is liberated, he cannot take birth again. So He says, mama janmani janmani: "Let there be birth after birth, birth after birth. It doesn't matter." Then what You want actually? No. Mama janmani janmanīśvare bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī tvayi: [Cc. Antya 20.29, Śikṣāṣṭaka 4] "Simply I want to serve You. That's all. It doesn't matter. What shall I do with mukti? I may go to hell; it doesn't matter. But I want to serve You there also."
Some Conclusions-The above lecture clearly and without a doubt, establishes that we do not own or belong to this body, therefore all family, society, national or universal work we do, if it is devoid of service to the actual owner of this body (God) is nothing more than illusory activities which bind us to the wheel of samsara, or birth and death.
We may try to squirm around and try to avoid our spiritual duties, but the fact remains, we are still servants constitutionally and that service mentality must be applied to the spirit and not matter . If we persist in serving mostly maya, the illusory energy of the Lord, then we will never taste the actual pleasure of spiritual life, for spirit and matter do not mix.
SB 3.5.3-PURPORT--To be obedient to the wishes of the Supreme Lord is the natural position of every living entity.But due only to past misdeeds, a living being becomes averse to the sense of subordination to the Lord and suffers all the miseries of material existence. No one has anything to do but render devotional service to the Supreme Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Therefore any activity other than transcendental loving service to the Lord is more or less a rebellious action against the supreme will. All fruitive activity, empirical philosophy and mysticism are more or less against the sense of subordination to the Lord, and any living entity engaged in such rebellious activity is more or less condemned by the laws of material nature, which work under the subordination of the Lord.