In reference to happy or not?

[atma 0]

I couldn't post a reply in that topic because of some problem with the server.

Yesterday in Bhagavatam class the speaker said that in the 3rd Canto of the Bhagavatam said that only paramahansas and fools are happy. Anybody knows the sloka and the purport to that?

I couldn't ask Maharaja about it because I was listening from the pujari room.

 

[Jahnava Nitai Das 2]

Thanks for pointing out the error. I just went through the threads and found about 20 of them that were still write protected.

 

 

[This message has been edited by jndas (edited 05-25-2001).]

[atma 0]

Here it is:

Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 3, Ch.7, text 17.

 

Translation and Purport by

His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada/

 

yas ca mudhatamo loke

yas ca buddheh param gatah

tav ubhau sukham edhete

klisyaty antarito janah

 

Both the lowest of fools and he who is transcendental to all intelligence enjoy happiness, whereas persons between them suffer the material pangs.

 

PURPORT

 

The lowest of fools do not understand material miseries; they pas their lives merrily and do not enquiry into the miseries of life. Such persons are almost on the level of animals, who, although in the eyes of superiors are always miserable in life, are unaware of material distresses. A hog's life is degraded in its standarn of happiness, which entails living in a filthy place, engaging in sex enjoyment at every opportune moment, and laboring hard in a struggle for existence, but this is unknown to the hog. Similarly, human beings who are unaware of the miseries of material existence and are happy in sex life and hard labor are the lowest of fools. Yet because they have no sense of miseries, they supposedly enjoy so-called happiness. the other class of men, those who are liberated and are situated in the trascendental position above intelligence, are really happy and are called paramahansas. But persons who are neither like

hogs and dogs nor on the level of the paramahansas feel the material pangs, and for them inquiry about the Supreme Truth is necessary. The Vedanta-sutra states, athato brahma-jijnasa: "Now one should inquire about Brahman." This enquiry is necessary for those who are between the paramahansas and the fools who have forgotten the question of self-realization in the midst of life in sense gratification.

 

[JRdd 0]

I was always struck by Srila Prabhupada's explanation, wish I could think where, but I remember reading it in a small book, like Raja-vidya, anyway, he explained how the higher one's consciousness the higher is his or hers capacity for pleasure, leading right on up to the highest pleasure which comes through performing unalloyed devotional service to the Lord.

 

I remember Gurudas prabhu saying once in a class in San Diego how little pleasure we get from our big toe, yet how much pain we get when we stub or smash it. Bodily consciousness is a far cry from the highest bliss.