SB 8.6.14
sa tvaà vidhatsväkhila-loka-pälä
vayaà yad arthäs tava päda-mülam
samägatäs te bahir-antar-ätman
kià vänya-vijïäpyam açeña-säkñiëaù
SYNONYMS
saù—that; tvam—Your Lordship; vidhatsva—kindly do the needful; akhila-loka-päläù—the demigods, directors of different departments of this universe; vayam—all of us; yat—that which; arthäù—purpose; tava—at Your Lordship’s; päda-mülam—lotus feet; samägatäù—we have arrived; te—unto You; bahiù-antaù-ätman—O Supersoul of everyone, O constant internal and external witness; kim—what; vä—either; anya-vijïäpyam—we have to inform You; açeña-säkñiëaù—the witness and knower of everything.
TRANSLATION
My Lord, we, the various demigods, the directors of this universe, have come to Your lotus feet. Please fulfill the purpose for which we have come. You are the witness of everything, from within and without. Nothing is unknown to You, and therefore it is unnecessary to inform You again of anything.
PURPORT
As stated in Bhagavad-gétä (13.3), kñetra-jïaà cäpi mäà viddhi sarva-kñetreñu bhärata. The individual souls are proprietors of their individual bodies, but the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the proprietor of all bodies. Since He is the witness of everyone’s body, nothing is unknown to Him. He knows what we need. Our duty, therefore, is to execute devotional service sincerely, under the direction of the spiritual master. Kåñëa, by His grace, will supply whatever we need in executing our devotional service. In the Kåñëa consciousness movement, we simply have to execute the order of Kåñëa and guru. Then all necessities will be supplied by Kåñëa, even if we do not ask for them.
Lecture Begins
We are reading this morning from Srimad Bhagavatam 8th canto, 6th chapter etnitled “The demigods and demons declare a truce”, text number 14.
Somehow the demigods, the devatas, like all the devotees of this world, there are different level of consciousness. Therefore everyone in their own unique way is approaching the Lord. It is such a beautiful thought, let us take the example when we are doing nama sankirtan. Recently in Sri Mayapur dham there was approximately 40000 of us, in the temple of Radha Madhava, all chanting together Radharani’s and Krishna’s holy names. What does Krishna hear? Krishna hears all levels, at one level He hears combined the sound vibration of 4000 people crying out God’s names all in same melody accompanied by mrdanga and kartalas and sometimes the flute and trumpet. So this is what we hear, we hear the tumultuous sound of 400o voices all merged together like in chorus vibrating the holyname. And the unity of how we all try to sing the same melody, with the same rhythm, its an effort to be united! If the leader ofthe kirtan sings one melody and everybody in the group decides to do what ever they like best, it will be very different sound of kitran. Whether you like the melody or don’t like the melody everybody surrenders to sing the smae and some people they like to just very shanty, just sit down in a very meditative mood and cry out for God and others want to dance wildly to dovetail whatever their propensities may be stirred out from millions of births. Whatever your particular preference may be at that time to, sit to dance, according to how the kirtan is, everybody surrenders. We all chant slow because thats the way we all have been directed, if we are told to dance we all start dancing. So in this way, for a Kirtan to sound beautiful and sweet it needs cooperation. Cooperation means the higher principle, we may have a prefernec of a melody and we may have preference of the speed or the style but we all accept in unity, what everyone is doing in accordance to the leader. When the Kirtan is harmonious, when there are so many people it’s very tumultuous sound, Its a beautiful sound. You can’t hear just one voice during the chorus, you hear one voice actually but that one voice is the sound of every one’s voice. From a distance you can’t hear any one individual there is one voice verse the combination of 4000 people. That’s our offering. And why is it so pleasing to the Lord because we are all cooperating for higher purpose. We are all united for the pleasure of the centre or whole or Krishna, in spite of all our differences. Some may have very melodious sweet voices trained in classical singing, others may by material standards crock like frogs. Some may be children with high shrilled voices, others may be very old people with gravelled chocked up voices, others are very young screaming out, bit all these differences there are men there are women there’s old there’s young, there are different nationalities, different races but the voice becomes one, the voice of our common unity for a higher purpose than our selves, To invoke the presence of god in his names. So Krishna hears that, but also he is hearing each and every individual voice according to what you sound like. There is 4000 people there and you may be just be moving your lips so that other people think that you are chanting, but Krishna sees that you are not chanting. Not only does he see, but He hears. He hears every single individual voice, simultaneously as a whole as a single voice he hears each and every individual voice what you sound like, what is your volume, what is your melody? what is your rhythm? Simultaneously Krishna hears our intention of every single person. What do you want? Why are you chanting? Are you chanting just because everybody else is chanting? Are you chanting because you want good grades in exams? There is no better place than Mayapur to get blessings. Are you chanting because you want unalloyed pure devotional service? Are you dancing because it may help you digest the feast? (audience laugh) Gauranga Prabhu and his associates have prepared for you with all that ghee and groundnut oil, those rotis made by Belgam devotees. Or dancing to show off what an acrobatic physique you have. Or you are dancing because you really want to give pleasure to the Lord and the vaisnavas.
So, all of us, we can to some extent hear the one voice that is everybody together, or our own voice. But Krishna, He hears the one voice of our unity, simultaneously he hears every single devotee’s voice, and simultaneously He is feeling, seeing, and hearing our desire, our intention, our motives. This is actually what is happening during Nam sankirtan. And Krishna is going to reciprocate and manifest Himself to each and every individual, and collectively to everyone, and to the world, according to all of these different considerations and many more.
Srila Prabhupada is quoting from the Bhagavad gita, that Krishna tells that there is the kshetra and the kshetrajna. There is the body which is like the field of the activity. But then there is the knower of the field. That is the jivatma – the soul. The body is dead matter. Krishna says in Gita, “Higher than the dead matter is the senses.” Because the senses are so subtle, they can actually perceive things. They have the power of perception – the senses. Dead matter can not see. But within that dead matter, there is a subtlety called the senses which actually has the power to see, to taste, to hear and to touch and to feel and smell. Subtler than the senses is the mind. The mind has the power, after the senses experience something, to react. I like this. I don’t like this. I want this, I don’t want this. And then all the experiences and all the impressions that we had in this life and all the previous lives are stored within the mind, and sometimes a thought comes up. We are looking in a mountain in the Himalayas, on a holiday, and our mind is saying, “O what a beautiful mountain!” All of a sudden a thought comes up. “How am I going to pay my rent next month, for mu flat in Bombay?” the mind is very subtle – makes impressions.
Subtler than the mind is the intelligence. The intelligence has the power to reason. The senses perceive something, the mind want it, the intelligence says no, it’s not proper, it’s not good for you. Or if you want something is not good for you the good intelligence will say don’t do it, the bad intelligence will figure out the way to do it anyway. Depending on whether the intelligence is directed by the mind and senses, or the intelligence is being directed by the higher principle of the subtlest of all subtle, within this world which is the atma, the soul, the witness. The soul is perceiving everything through this body and in this body, but then there is the supersoul the parmatma. Who is not only the witness and proprietor of the individual body like you and me but is the witness and proprietor of everybody, every human of all races of all planets, all the demigods, all the insects, all the animals all the fish, every plant. Simultaneously the supersoul is seeing every desire, every action hearing every word.
So there is nothing unknown to the lord. So why do we pray if the lord already knows everything, why do we pray? We pray because through prayers we cultivate a connection of submitting ourselves before the supreme power of God. And that submission is what awakens a relationship between soul and God.
So we find here there are various demigods it says say my Lord we the various demigods. Now some of the demigods what are they praying for? They have just lost everything. Think about it we read the Bhagavatam, but if we really want to understand what’s being said we have to enter into the experience of the particular characters. It’s not just a story of the demigods approaching the Lord. Think about it, think about if you were in this position. The demigods have families, like many of you have families, and they have very high positions, much wealth, prosperity. They have lost everything. Not only have they lost everything, but they are subjugated by a higher power who has occupied their land. Yes! Like in London we hear stories some decades ago many people were of Indian origin were living in the country of Uganda, for business purposes. Some of them were for mgujarat wer eborn and raised in Uganda, their grandparents moved there long ago. They developed business htey invested they developed the society, became quite successful became wealthy and then the government changed. This is reality and when the government changed, the government decided we don’t want these Indians around anymore and whay should they have all this money and all this wealth, its all ours. And they literally took everything away. Everything! Alll the property that they worked for generations to achieve they just took away their property took away their homes took away everything they had in bank, governments have the power to these things and governments have the power to do these things. And they said if you wnat to live get out and all you are allowed to do is take your airline ticket. There are people who are millioners whoke family come to London with nothing. And those who stay there are constantly under the subjugation of the whole world.
Or before the world war 2, people were living peacefully in their homes and all of a sudden the German armies come marching withtheir tanks and their bombs and their very highly trained soldiers and ammunitions and weapons. And they just come into your country and say belongs to me now get into the train we are shipping you to concentration camps and you will have to work according to what we say and if we want you to die you will die. Work hard or oyu die. You are a prisioner, multi millioners the next day are like this because they have been subjugated like this. Can you imagine how painful that is how disrupted it is to a persons life, Thats what is happening here in the srimad bhagavatm, the demigods all their planets and properties have been occupied by the asuras whio are their enemies, who have taken everything away from them. Now if they are really asuras, Bali may be a respectable person, but the peope under him may not. And thye are all doing wild things. Imagine how it might be raping the demigoddess and all kinds of other stuffs. Because they have the rule they have the power. The demigods are hiding they are refugees, and its very difficult for a person who is born and raised in such opulence all of a sudden to be a refugee with nothing. They are directors of universal affairs and now they are have nothing to do except run and hide. So Krishna knows all this, but he knows the intention too. Some of the demigods they are praying to the lord, because they are uncomfortable they are humiliated. They all want their abodes aback, they all want their wealth back they all want their powers back, they want their influence back. They are all devotees, but some of them have very materialistic motives, karma mishra bhaktas others have philanthropic motives that under the asuras the people of the world are going to suffer, i need to help them. We have a philanthropic idea we can make them happy and peaceful, the asuras are just exploiting them. So their goal is not selfish, its unselfish, but is still material. And other demigods are feeling that its my service to god to protect the citizens of the universe, from my particular position that my service to god, and now the service is not being done properly. For krishna’s pleasure, “for your pleasure Krishna, for your sake, if you allow let me do that service for you.” People are suffering in this world, so few devotees they preach because they want to become famous preachers. Others preach because they feel they can physically help people to just be more peaceful. And others say the same words to same people because they really want to be instruments of god’s grace to connect people to the divine. So like us the demigods every single one is unique, every single one of them has a particular intentions, their motives their goals, for praying to the lord. Some are pure devotees, there are demigods were pure unalloyed devotees who are here praying to the lord others are very selfish and egoistic and the lord’s in everyone of their hearts and hearing their joined prayers. He is hearing the individual prayers and he is hearing the heart of one who is praying.
So Srila Prabhupada in this beautiful purport he writes, Since He is the witness of everyone’s body, nothing is unknown to Him. He knows what we need. Our duty, therefore, is to execute devotional service sincerely, under the direction of the spiritual master. Srila Prabhupada one’s told us the best prayer the culmination of prayers is how can i serve you. That is a prayer of love. Love means to serve, how can i serve you my lord. And to serve according to our own particular whims and and our own particular preference is not a very high level of service. To serve menas, “what do you want”, so Prabhupada said if you ask for water and some body brings milk and you think milk is better than water , but that person many be allergic to milk. So are we really doing that person some service, that person says, “No, please give me water”, you say, “No no, milk is better that water, drink this milk.” We may be thinking this is service but real service is we have to understand who we are serving and why and what is the objective, and what our service really wants?
Tat vignananrtham…
That is why a guru is required, even sadhu and sashtra. The guru is considered as the external manifestation of paramatma or the super soul and is speaking according to the scripture and is according to the rules of the Supersoul. As has been understood by great sadhus and saints throughout the history. So there should not be a confusion regarding what Krishna wants, with in our mind we could have so many ideas of what Krishna wants. It may be what really Krishna wants, it may be what we want in the name of Krishna or it may be all kinds of confused conglomerations of our minds imagination,which is usually what happens. Some people do horrible things and say this is what Krishna told be do, god told me to do and they if go to psychiatrists, the psychiatrists will say that this person is 100% convinced that he heard the voice of God and this is what He wants him to do, although it was cruel, envious and horrible. Of course, that is an extreme example.
We can say, today is Gaur purnima, and Lord Caitanya definitely wants me to make Him pizza. That may be your favourite food. And that voice may be your own tongue speaking. And you may think, “O this is Mahaprabhu speaking through me.” So, we have to be very careful. No doubt, if pizzas made with love and devotion, Lord Caitanya will be happy. But we learn from Guru and the scriptures, not from our tongue. So, we understand what Krishna wants, by Krishna. We cannot hear Him clearly from within our hears because of our minds contaminated state just like if there is a beautiful diamond in a pot of water and its lying at the botoom, a very rare diamond. If the water is absolutely clear we can see the diamond clearly, but if the water is muddy we cant see the diamond. God is in our heart, he is the supreme diamond, if our mind is clean we can see the lord with in our heart face to face. According to how He wants to reveal himself we may see him in separation or in person as well. But we can see him and esperience him. But if the mind is muddy, you go and all sorts of desires – selfishness, they can’t possibly see. There may be a piece of lead that we accumulated with all the other dirt that’s in bottom, or that floats to the top. And we think there is the diamond. I am self realized, I see it now. But it’s not!
Similarly for those you who have cellular phones, you can hear someone’s voice if there is a clear reception. Well, if you are going under a bridge, one of those bridges on the way to Pune, you may lose your connection. And all of a sudden, (maharaj makes some sound) and you are screaming, “What, Can you hear me. Can you hear me.” And the other person is screaming, “Can you hear me. Can you hear me.” And the other person says, “Can you hear me. Can you hear me.” And all you hear is, (maharaj makes sound). So, you can’t hear with good reception. Even worse than that is when you partially hear. (maharaj makes sound) And you hear, “O he is telling me turn left.” But actually he said, “to right.”
So, if the mind is pure, then we can hear the paramatma, we can see the paramatma, according to how paramatma wants to reveal Himself to us. But if our mind is not perfectly clear, we understand exactly without interpretation, or confusion what the paramatma wants to say through guru, sadhu and sastra.
tad viddhi praëipätena paripraçnena sevayä
Krishna is jagadguru, He is the supreme guru. And in the Bhagavad Gita, He quotes from the Vedas to authorize what he is saying, as is an example. This is what a guru does. He doesn’t need to, He is the author of the Vedas.
vedaiç ca sarvair aham eva vedyo vedänta-kåd veda-vid eva cäham
still, for our purpose. So, we understand what Krishna wants, from Krishna through this via medium.
But then there is another quality. That’s not enough. Srila Prabhupada explains two specific qualities which are so essential. We have to execute what we hear with sincerity. Sincerity means without an ulterior motive – with a genuine desire to please the Lord, to please the vaisnavas, to please the guru. I really really just want to please them. From the path of Bhakti, sincerity means –
na dhanaà na janaà na sundaréà
kavitäà vä jagad-éça kämaye
mama janmani janmanéçvare
bhavatäd bhaktir ahaituké tvayi
We can define sincerity from one perspective with this verse. This is what we are striving for. We may not be on this platform. If we are on this platform, we are paramahamsas. We are not paramahamsas. But this is our motivation. I don’t want to be doing my service to accumulate wealth. I may have thse desires, but I don’t want them. Nor do I want the pleasures of the senses, because it is a reward of my service. Nor do I want fame or distinction and prestige and followers. Nor do I want liberation from suffering. If Krishna wants me to suffer, then, that’s what I have to go through. Let me just serve You through that situation. We may not be on this platform. But it is our goal, it is our ambition to be on that platform. And we are striving to attain that platform of not having ulterior motives. And honestly and earnestly, we are trying to please the Lord, trying to do the Lord’s will. That is sincerity.
And as Srila Prabhupada has written in Sri Caitanya Caritamrita, pure devotional service is very rare, but if one is sincere, serious to execute his or her duty, and does not have ulterior motives, really, genuinely just wants to do good, and please the Lord, “I really want to serve the devotees. I really want to make the devotees happy according to the Lord’s direction. I really want to bring people to understand and love Krishna. Because that’s what will please Krishna. And that’s what pleases them. That’s my wish. I may have so many other desires and motivations and conceptions swirling with my mind, with my intelligence, this is what I really want, this is why I am doing it.
The only position we want is to be the servant of the servant of the servant. If that means being the sweeper of the temple, if that means being the garland maker, pujari, head pujari, temple president, that means I have to give Srimad Bhagavtam class on Sunday morning. Whatever it may be. If it means I am going to give a donation. What is our motive? To be the servant of the servant of the servant. It means being a mother or a father or a student, or farmer. Positions are not important, they change. Distinction and hour comes and goes like the waves in the ocean of material existence. Pleasure and pain, honour and dishonor, happiness and distress, success and failures, all these things are like waves in the ocean of material existence. They appear, they disappear, they appear and they disappear. Our motivation through it all, whatever may happen I am the servant of the servant of the servant. And in Bhakti servant means I want to please Krishna and I want to please those connected to Krishna. Krishna already knows everything. We don’t have to send Krishna complete report about the situation. Yes! We don’t have to send Krishna a whole financial audited report about our economic problems. Yes! He knows exactly how much money is in your account. He knows how much you owe, he knows how much you are in debt, He even knows debts that haven’t come to your awareness yet. He knows your legal implications. He knows the legal implications that may come upon you in future that you don’t know yet. Yes! He knows about your wifes co-operation or non co-operation or your husbands negligence. Krishna knows everything. For Brahmacharis Krishna knows if you are having some silent cold war battle between the brahmachari whose locker is next to yours. You offer obeisances doing “vancha kalpa tarubhya ca..” but your mouth is saying it, but your mind is saying something else. “Vancha kalpa…” You want a “puncha kalpa” (Everyone laughs). You want to punch him for the rest of the kalpa. So Krishna knows all these things, so you don’t have to explain to him this scenario. What is important is that we, like the devatas, we accept his supremacy and we take shelter.
Krishna in this situation, I need your help, there is major anarthas that are destroying my spiritual life making me cause offences to others. My family is in destitution, everything is at risk, you know the situation. Krishna, I want to serve them. Please according to your wish help, I always need your help. Draupadi didn’t just cry out for helpbecause she didn’t want these non sense, abusive Kurus to see her body naked. Draupadi was a advanced devotee, she understood that her body was temple of Krishna. It was not her body, it was Krishna ‘s body. Everyone of us, Krishna is the supreme proprietor of all bodies and she dedicated her body to Krishna. And she did not want Krishna’s body to be defiled by being seen and abused mentally by people by seeing her in that state. Where they would be exploiting her, abusing her, with theirs lusty intentions. She was crying out for Krishna to save her by saving the sanctity of her service to him. To protect his property, it was a pure cry. If it was not a pure cry Krishna would not have come. If it was just a matter of her prestige, than Krishna might have not come. But it was something more deeper and more profound than that. We understand all the scriptures from the perspective of Bhakti, pure Bhakti. So this is how the demigods and the Srimad Bhagavatam, is teaching us to approach the supreme Lord. Its not that we give a report of what are problems are and than a wish list of what we want from God. That’s alright, that’s better than forgetting Krishna. But what we should be striving for is Krishna I am willing to accept of whatever you do but this is my predicament please help. You know my predicament, Please help me. You know my predicament to be an instrument of your will. In the Christian path this is perhaps the highest expression to god. When Jesus knew that the next day he would be crucified, God knew everything. He prayed my lord my wish is if you take this cup away from be , that means the burden of persecution but then he said the ultimate prayer, let thou will, not my will be done. What you desire let that be and let me just cooperate and be a part of your plan. Nobody wills to go through difficulty, we can’t artificially say i like difficulties. Kunti said it after all the difficulties are over, vipadasantu tah sasvat….she said let the difficulties and the calamities come again and again. But we never heard that prayers while they were happening but we heard that after they were over. Because she had a realization though it all. She was ready to go through it all again because she understood it is what that made her turn to Krishna. She was turning to Krishna she was grateful to Krishna even in the calamities, but the calamities are not what she wanted. So unexpected things there may be difficulties there may be tragedies, its the way the world is. But in that situation “how can I be an instrument of Your will”, it may be my own karma, don’t blame Krishna for the things that have happened. It may be Krishna’s direct arrangement or it may be our own karma and Krishna is just letting the river of karma go according to the natural current in our lives. But the prayer, what is your will, what do you want me to say how do you want me to serve you in this situation. It is that consciousness that brings happiness, because that is the consciousness of pure love, it is that love that we are all longing, yearning and searching for. Usually we are on places, but it is right there within us, all we have to do is say, “Krishna I am yours”, how can I serve you in this situation. If we sincerely and seriously without ulterior motives offer that prayer the devatas we may say I want to distribute a lot of books today Krishna, or i want to make a fortune so that I can offer it to devotees Krishna, we may be thinking so many things or before a lecture please give me something to say, so i want to serve these people. That’s good, the demigods want their property back so that they can serve people properly. They all have different motives. So what is our motivation what is our intention? Ultimately our intention should be to serve the will of Krishna.
Citraketu maharaj, the bhagavat is of high standard, of course jesus was willing to be crucified for the will of Krishna, that is very intense, citraketu is willing to go to hell and be a demon and he was grateful and happy, if this is the way you want me to serve you Krishna let me be an instrument of your mercy in that situation. And he was, vrtrasura, one of the greatest preachers in history. When i was reading about the vrtrasura nad Indra they are both devotees and Vrtrasura’s are gigantic really ugly demon and indra is the most beautiful man of the hevens and he is on the right side. But when you read Bhagavatam, you really want Vrtrasura to win. Does any of you has had this experience, you don’t want him to die because his preaching and qualities are so divine and you don’t want him to die you just don’t want to kill him and Indra is doing all crazy things let him die, sorry Indra. You don’t want anyone to die but if it comes between Vrtrasura and Indra…but Vrtasura, “I am happy to die if that’s what Krishna wants to happen. I’ll go back to godhead. I am happy to become a demon if thats what you want parvati devi. Let me just in whatever situation, heven or hell, let me serve the Lord. Let me do the Lord’s will. If we have that consciousness whatever the lord gives or takes away we can always be peaceful, we can always be happy we can be peaceful and happy while crying in agony deep down inside. Things happen in this world and we’re affected in a certain way and this is not a problem. We are not made of stone, but deep down inside there is love for God. And we are transcendental, that’s happiness. Not the happiness of getting things our way, that doesn’t last. Its all flickering, deep down inside its all flickering and that is love. In whatever situation that may come, i am trying to make things nice. But whatever may come i am the instrument of your grace, i am just trying to serve and do your will. If we have that consciousness then we are always stable. If we have that consciousness, it’s the environment in which prema, love, the ultimate goal the essence awakens from within.
Thank you very much!
Question and Answers session
Question: Raghunath Das Goswami was instructed by Mahaprabhu, in his first meeting, to go back and live a life of a materialist, but in heart of heart worship Krishna. He always presented himself as low and fallen, yet never justified it as lords instruction. How to can we develop this consciousness?
Radhanath Swami: You are so sincere and through that sincerity Krishna will give you the proper understanding. It is that sincerity in which we can go deeper than the external appearance of things. As we become spiritually purified we develop these qualities of feeling ourselves very inadequate. Prabhupada was a scholar who was translating into English the crest jewel of all vedic literatures, Srimad Bhagavatam and Prabhupada is praying “I am an insignificant beggar. I have no power to help anyone please give me the words Krishna.” We may be properly executing the order of Guru or Krishna, but if we fell that it is the power of my abilities and my words that is going to make things successful then we don’t really be empowered. But we understand that we are very low and very helpless. In order to cry out for Lord’s mercy we have to fell ourselves very low. We have to feel ourselves very helpless otherwise how can you cry out for mercy and that crying out for mercy is what that connects you. It opens you us for being empowered, otherwise ahankara vimudhatma…we just think that we are the doer even if we are in Krishna’s service. This is the mood of great acaryas,
Raghunath Das Goswami from the core of his heart was feeling this way. And his prayer is practically identical to haridas thakur, when he approached the lord. Lord caitnaya calls Haridas Thakur the crest jewel of all personalities in the entire universe. God is thinking about him like this. And Haridas Thakur is feeling from the core of his heart that he is the most abominable among the human race. That he is from a low family he is addicted to sinful activities. He was thinking like this, the lord was thinking he was the crest jewel amongst all the people in the world, namacarya. Raghunath Das Goswami was the prayojanacarya of the highest revelation of love of god, the gopis love for Krishna, he is teaching the world that. He is presenting himself as so low and fallen and he is feeling it. That’s the ecstasy of their love. But despite they having incredible virtues, despite them perfectly following the lord’s will, the Lord’s instruction exactly as been told to them. They are feeling themselves inadequate, thats not some psychological complex thats humility. Its the type of humility that empties you of all ego that Lords grace can fill you from the top to bottom of your heart, your mind, your body, your words everything becomes filled with god;s grace when you are humble. And its that grace that is our power, its not about me its about Krishna its anout Lord caitnaya, thats the way theyare feeling. We don’t feel that way, with our intelligence we must cultivate thinking that way because its reality. Does that answer your question. Thank you. One more question.
Question: How does one get fixed up in one’s sadhana?
Radhanath Swami: Some degree of humility is required, that I need it. I really need it. I need to be connected. I have made my promises and following these promises sincerely is what is going to connect me. And I need that connection. Life is empty without that connection. All my endeavors are insubstantial and unsatisfying without that connection. Medicine may not taste according to our presets. Yes! If you have jaundice, sugarcane juice tastes bitter. But you don’t drink it, because it is good. It cures you. It takes time. But if you don’t drink it, you won’t get cured. Yes!
Just the effort of trying will please Krishna and attract His grace in your whole life. Krishna wants to give everything to you. He wants to liberate you from all suffering forever. He wants to remove all the mountains and oceans and planets and universes of karma that you have created in this life and past lives. He just wants to delete it forever and bring you back to Godhead, to the eternal world of love. That’s what He wants to do for you right now in this life. All He is asking from you is to reciprocate with His kind gesture of the willingness to do this by doing something for Him, some reciprocation. He is giving you an unlimited portion of love, He just wants a little something from you. And He wants us to express His way. Because that’s what love is. And this is one of the ways He wants us to express it.
He has come within His name. He has come with His scripture. “Can’t you put this time aside for Me?” He is asking you, He is not telling you. Because you have your choice. He is not forcing you. “Can’t you take this time aside for Me to chant my names.? Can’t you take this time aside for Me to read the books that I have descended to give you, for 5 minutes a day?” Its an expression of love to do it, even if you don’t like it. How many things that you have done that Krishna didn’t like. And it has been bad for you. Krishna is asking you to do few things you may not like. But it is good for you. Is it so difficult? The mind makes it seem so hard. But if you just see it in its proper perspective, its so simple. Such a small price, but such a great reward. Does that answer your question?
Question: Hare Krishna Maharaj, you spoke about prayer, how we should pray to the Lord. We always approach the Lord asking for something. You mentioned that Prabhupad said that our consciousness should be ‘how to serve the Lord.’ Our consciousness should be how to please the Lord, please the vaisnavas. Even when we are doing our devotional service, philosophically, theoretically we know that we are doing devotional service for the pleasure of devotees, but our actual, practical, real consciousness in to consider our service as a duty. We chant, read and o service mechanically. Hardly ever does the thought come in our mind that this is for the pleasure of the Lord and vaisnavas. We are so far away from that. Will we, in this life time, ever come to that point that we are doing it for the pleasure of vaisnavas, much further that it will actually please the vaisnavas and the Lord. How do we deal with that situation?
Radhanath Swami: It is dealt! You are doing what you are supposed to be doing. But when you are asking this question, and this is your prayer, its no longer mechanical. Its real bhakti. Just asking this question is the answer to the question. We do it what we are supposed to do. And when we are not very advanced, we do it, to one degree or other in a mechanically. Because, we know we are supposed to. And that’s good. Doing it because we are supposed to is an act of surrender.
But when you are asking this question, when will I come beyond this mechanical platform and actually do it with love, if we just have that prayer and have that question, what we are doing mechanically, that is no longer is mechanical. Because your intention is to attain that state. And therefore Krishna will definitely… just go on apparently mechanically doing your duty, but keep asking this question. “My motive is to love You, Krishna. I don’t want to be mechanical.” And you will achieve the highest goal of life, in this life. Just perform the duty with this prayer. Krishna will be there with you. Prabhupada promised, “Just sincerely chant Hare Krishna, in this life, you will go back to Godhead.” That promise is Absolute. Whne Krishna told, Kaunteya pratijänéhi na me bhaktaù praëaçyati, Krishna has promised in the Gita, man-manä bhava mad-bhakto mad-yäjé mäà namaskuru. Always think of mr, become My devotee. You will come to Me without fail. I promise. When Krishna wants to be even increasingly absolute, its possible, He says, “Arjuna, you declare it, you promise that my devotee will never perish.” Because Krishna loves His devotee so much that if the devotee promises, then Krishna has to support that promise. Prabhupada promised us. How grateful we should be to serve sincerely, chant sincerely. And Krishna will give you everything else to fulfill Prabhupada’s promise. In this way we chant the holy names.
Hare Kåñëa, Hare Kåñëa, Kåñëa Kåñëa , Hare Hare/ Hare Räma, Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare
Srila Prabhupada ki Jai!
Sri Sri Radha Gopinath ki Jai!
Sri Gaur Nitai ki Jai!
