Jaya Om Vishnu-pada paramahamsa parivrajakacharya ashtottara-shata Shri Srimad Srila Bhatisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura Srila Prabhupada ki Jai
Ananta-kotivaishnava-vrinda ki Jai
Namacharya Srila Haridasa Thakura ki Jai
Premse kaho Shri-Krishna-Caitanya, Prabhu Nityananda, Sri Advaita, Gadadhara, Shrivasadi-Gaura-bhakta-Vrinda ki Jai
Sri-Sri-Radha-Krishna Gopa-Gopinatha, Shyama Kunda, Radha Kunda, Girigovardhana ki Jai, Sri Vrindavana-dhama ki Jai, Sri Navadwip Sri Mayapur Dham ki Jai, Sri Jagannatha-puri dhama ki Jai, Sri Mathura Dham ki Jai, Sri Dwarka dham ki Jai
Ganga Mai ki Jai, Yamuna Mai ki Jai, Bhakti Devi ki Jai, Tulasi Devi ki Jai
Samaveta-bhakta-vrinda ki Jai
Gaur Premanande Hari Hari Bol
All glories to the assembled devotees, All glories to the assembled devotees, All glories to the assembled devotees
All glories to Sri Guru and Sri Gauranga!
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya, Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya, Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya
tvam mayaya tri-gunayatmani durvibhavyam vyaktam srijasy avasi lumpasi tad-guna-sthah naitair bhavan ajita karmabhir ajyate vai yat sve sukhe ‘vyavahite ‘bhirato’navadyah
tvam mayaya tri-gunayatmani durvibhavyam vyaktam srijasy avasi lumpasi tad-guna-sthah naitair bhavan ajita karmabhir ajyate vai yat sve sukhe ‘vyavahite ‘bhirato’navadyah
tvam mayaya tri-gunayatmani durvibhavyam vyaktam srijasy avasi lumpasi tad-guna-sthah naitair bhavan ajita karmabhir ajyate vai yat sve sukhe ‘vyavahite ‘bhirato’navadyah
tvam — You; mayaya — by the material energy; tri-gunaya — made up of the three modes of nature; atmani — within Yourself; durvibhavyam — inconceivable; vyaktam — the manifest cosmos; srijasi — You create; avasi — protect; lumpasi — and destroy; tat — of that material nature; guna — within the modes (goodness, passion and ignorance); sthah — situated; na — not; etaih — by these; bhavan — You; ajita — O unconquerable Lord; karmabhih — activities; ajyate — are entangled; vai — at all; yat — because; sve — in Your own; sukhe — happiness; avyavahite — unimpeded; abhiratah — You are always absorbed; anavadyah — the unimpeachable Lord.
O unconquerable Lord, You engage Your illusory energy, composed of three modes, to unleash, maintain and devastate the inconceivable manifest cosmos, all within Your own self. As the supreme superintendent of maya, You appear to be situated in the interaction of the modes of nature; however, You are never affected by material activities. In fact, You are directly engaged in Your own eternal, spiritual bliss, and thus You cannot be accused of any material infection.
PURPORT
The word durvibhavyam is significant here. The ultimate cause of the creation, maintenance and annihilation of the material world is certainly inconceivable even for the greatest mundane scientists, who waste their lives in useless and fruitless speculation. Yet Maha-Vishnu, who is the secondary expansion of an expansion of the Supreme Lord, Krishna, sees the entire cosmos to be like an insignificant atom. So what hope is there for foolish so-called scientists who try to understand Krishna by their ridiculous experimental power? Thus the word anavadya is used. No one can find fault or discrepancy in the body, character, activities or instructions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Lord is never materially ignorant; therefore He never exhibits cruelty, laziness, foolishness, blindness or material intoxication. Similarly, because the Lord is never polluted by material passion, He never exhibits material pride, lamentation, yearning or violence. And since the Lord is free from material goodness, He never attempts to peacefully enjoy the material world with a sublime materialistic mentality.
Lord Krishna, as stated here (sve sukhe ‘vyavahite ‘bhiratah), is eternally busy, day and night, in His transcendental abode, relishing the inconceivable loving devotion of His innumerable associates. The Lord is being embraced and is embracing. He is joking and is hearing the joking of His loved ones. The Lord is walking through forests full of fruits and flowers, playing in the nectarean river Yamuna and taking part in His most confidential transcendental loving affairs with the cowherd girls of Vrindavana. These pastimes in Krishnaloka and on other Vaikuntha planets are eternal, faultless and an ocean of spiritual happiness. The Lord never descends to the dry platform of relative material happiness. The infinite Personality of Godhead has nothing to gain from anyone; thus fruitive activity cannot possibly exist within the Lord.
Oṁ ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā
cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena tasmai Srī-Gurave namaḥ
Srī-Caitanya-mano-‘bhīṣṭaṁ sthāpitaṁ yena bhū-tale
Svayaṁ rūpaḥ kadā mahyaṁ dadāti sva-padāntikam
Vande ‘ham Sri-Guroh Sri-yuta-pada-kamalam Sri-Gurun Vaisnavams’ ca
Sri-Rupam sagrajatam saha-gana-Raghunathanvitam tam sa Jivam
sadvaitam savadhutam parijana-sahitam Krsna-Caitanya-Devam
Sri-Radha-Krsna-padan saha-gana-Lalita-Sri-Visakhanvitams’ ca
Hey Krishna Karuna Sindhu dina bandhu Jagat Pathe, Gopesha Gopikakanta Radha Kanta namostute, Tapta Kanchan Gaurangi Radhe Vrindavaneshwari, Vrishabhanu Sute Devi Prana mami Hari Priye
Vancha-kalpatarubhyash cha kripa-sindhubhya eva cha patitanam pavanebhyo vaishnavebhyo namo namaha
Sri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhu Nityananda Sri Adwaita Gadadhara Srivasadi Gaur Bhakta vrinda
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare
We are reading this morning from Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 11, Chapter 6 entitled ‘The Yadu dynasty retires to Prabhasa’ text number 8. In Bhagavad gita Krishna tells janma karma ca me divyam evam yo vetti tattvatah tyaktva deham punar janma naiti mam eti so ‘rjuna, one who understands the transcendental nature of Krishna’s appearance in this world and activities, never takes birth again in this world but attains to Krishna’s abode. This is the principle that is especially highlighted in this section of Srimad Bhagavatam, the Lord’s transcendental nature or leading into Krishna’s pastime of His apparent disappearance from this World. In this particular verse, Lord Brahma along with the Prajapatis and his, his confidential associates, Lord Shiva and his confidential associates including many different types of beings, Lord Indra, the various devatas, demigods, they have all come to Dwarka, to have darshan of Lord Krishna.
We read in the Vedic literatures, the grandeur of the abode of Indra and far beyond that is the abode of Brahma, comparative whatever apparent wealth in material opulences may be on this little earth planet are utterly insignificant. Really even the most expensive homes in this little planet of earth compared to Indraloka are like ghettos, they are uninhabitable. But still we think we are so comfortable and we become very proud. But above Indra-loka is Mahar-loka, Jana-loka, Tapa-loka where everyone is performing Tapasya. Great saints and sages are living very simple lives and the happiness that they experience living in their simple lives of meditation, chanting God’s names, performing Yagyas, the happiness, the fulfillment, the unity makes the happiness of Indraloka utterly insignificant, like a prison house and above that is Brahma-loka, where everything is there, the meditation, the self-realization, plus the grandeur of Brahma, ā-brahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino ’rjuna mām upetya tu kaunteya punar janma na vidyate– Krishna tells us in Bhagavad Gita, from the highest planet in this material world Brahma-loka down to the lowest Patala-loka and everything in between they are all essentially places of misery because ‘Dukhalayam ashashvatam’, everything is temporary, our bodies are temporary, our family members are temporary, all of our wealth is temporary, for that matter the sun, the moon, the oceans, all planets are temporary and everything on the physical level must die and on the emotional level when we are attached to these physical things we have to suffer.
So no one can escape suffering of this world, no matter what we do, no matter what we have, no matter what we know. But daivi hy esa guna-mayi mama maya duratyaya mam eva ye prapadyante mayam etam taranti te. This Maya Shakti which Krishna calls in this particular verse from Sri Bhagavad Gita, My divine energy consisting of the three modes of nature is very difficult to overcome. The little Jivatma, in a conditioned state, it is like that little ocean, that little sparrow trying to dry up the ocean with its tiny little mouth and beak. How can we possibly cross over this ocean? How can we possibly dry up all the potential miseries, birth after birth after birth? The one who takes shelter of Me, Krishna says, can easily cross beyond it. What does it mean, by easily cross beyond it? Because, it seems, not so easy. The process of learning how to take shelter is not so easy because we’ve been habituated. As in a severe accident or crash break their bones in so many ways, then when you try to learn to walk again, it’s really difficult. Bhaktivedanta Hospital, we have Physiotherapy Department, I have seen, even I have done, when something is out of place, to start walking again, to start using your arms and shoulders and back again, very difficult, very painful, because somehow or other, we’ve, we are in this unnatural condition. But once we are restored, then it’s easy to walk. Then it’s easy to sit, get up and all these things.
Mayadhyaksena prakrtih suyate sa-caracaram, Krishna tells, I am the controller of Maya, of this material energy, aham sarvasya prabhavo mattah sarvam pravartate iti matva bhajante mam budha bhava-samanvitah, I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds, everything emanates from Me, the wise who know this perfectly, engage in My loving service and worship Me with all their hearts. So when we take these verses very seriously, we take shelter of Krishna. Taking shelter, is proportionate to the degree we humble our self before the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When we understand with conviction and we apply to our life that conviction that I am helpless without Krishna’s mercy, time is taking everything away from me. Krishna says, time I am, destroying everything and everyone in this material platform. Why does God do that? When we understand the dimension that the soul, the true self of every living being is sac-cid-ananda eternal, full of knowledge, full of bliss, and that all these changing circumstances and experiences are coming and going like winter and summer seasons.
As we connect with our true self, Krishna tells we see honor and dishonor the same, happiness and distress, pleasure and pain. We see the clump of dirt and the large clump of pure gold, we see it the same. They are both coming and going, they are just different combinations of the same material ingredients and we give certain values to it according to our particular state of consciousness. But Yogis who are living in caves, great devotees who are living on the bank of the Yamuna in Vrindavan or great devotees who are preaching the glories of the Lord all over the world, such people, they see everything very differently. A yogi in a cave sees the little rocks in his cave more valuable than a palace. A devotee sees a Tulasi bead, a little wooden Tulasi bead as more precious than the most exquisite diamond necklaces because the perception of our hearts is based on our realizations. It’s important that we hear Srimad Bhagavatam, Bhagavad Gita, Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita, these great scriptures regularly, Nashta prayeshu abhadreshu, so that we can understand from great personalities how they see the world, how they see the exact same things that we see but premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena, they are seeing through the eyes of love. So they understand what actually is of value.
Nasato vidyate bhavo nabhavo vidyate satah, great persons understand that the, that the real truth, what is of real value is those things that have no beginning or end, they never perish and people who are lost in the dense fog of ignorance, they put great value in the temporary flickering ye hi samsparsa-ja bhoga duhkha-yonaya eva te ady-antavantah kaunteya na tesu ramate budhah. Krishna calls the pleasures of this world, He doesn’t call them pleasures, He calls them sources of misery. That’s a very different conception but that’s the way the great souls see it, because they see it as it is, it gives you pleasure, you become attached to it, its ripped away from you beyond your control and you suffer, you suffer to the degree you are attached. But ananda mayo bhyasat, as part of Krishna we are looking for pleasure so how can we be detached from pleasure? Krishna tells in Gita, by attaching our self, param drishtva nivartate, to a higher pleasure, truth, what gives pleasure to the eternal self is Krishna, forever. We chant every day, Ram, Hare Rama, Krishna is the reservoir of all pleasure, not just the reservoir of some pleasure. In this material world, the greatest things that we sacrifice our lives for are just insignificant muddy puddles of apparent pleasure but Krishna is the pure limitless reservoir of all pleasure, forever. When we see Krishna we can find that highest pleasure. Krishna’s beauty is the source of all beauty, not only the source of all beauty, the infinite never ending darshan of beauty.
Rupa Goswami gives that beautiful verse, if you are attached (sound)..special effect to help you contemplate whether you are attached. If you are attached to the beauty of the people around you, to your wealth, to your family, to your prestige, to your youth, if you are attached to all of these things or any of these things, Rupa Goswami says, do not go to Kesi Ghat. Because Kesi Ghat in Vrindavan on the bank of the Yamuna river where Govinda Dev is standing, playing His most confidential associate the flute, Venu, Vamsi. He is playing upon His flute with His beautiful lotus like eyes. When we see Him, when we realize His beauty and all the beautiful things in the world we just see as little tiny particles of reflections of His beauty. We are no longer attracted. We are not attracted at ignorance. During that famous morning walk where the sun was setting over the Pacific ocean and devotees said to Prabhupada, “isn’t this a beautiful sunset?” Prabhupada taught us how to appreciate beauty on a transcendental level. He didn’t say its Maya, it’s actually ugly. Don’t you know with every sun set you are one day closer to death? That’s true, that’s true for you know every different school of, of religion and philosophy that with every rising and setting of the sun we are one day closer to death and we should see it that way but Prabhupada was seeing it deeper than that. He was saying, he said, “If you think the art is beautiful, you should see the artist.” In other words if we see things beautiful in this world, if they remind us of Krishna, if we actually can see Krishna in it then we are actually seeing the beauty of Krishna even in this world.
Srila Prabhupada gave that example of when the Japanese were bombing Calcutta and everywhere uh ah uh ah uh ah, there was these bomb warning sirens going off and people were running to underground places and Prabhupada was just in his little room cooking puris. Everyone was saying Abhay Abhay the bombs are coming and Prabhupada even made this sound of the bombs when he was telling this story. I can’t do it like Srila Prabhupada but, because he was there, uhhhhhhhbrhroommmm, uhhhhhhhbrhroommmm. All around him, buildings around were being destroyed, the bombs were dropping, people were screaming, sirens were blaring, people were running scared, confusion in all directions, Srila Prabhupada is making Puris. They said, Abhay Abhay! come, come, come, the bombs are dropping. Prabhupada knew the bombs were dropping. He said, he said, “I saw that Krishna has appeared in these bombs”, so he was making puris for Krishna. For one who sees Me everywhere and everything in Me, for that person I am never lost, nor are they ever lost to Me. This is Bhagavad Gita. To see that all, that Krishna’s beauty is behind everything, Krishna’s mercy, His love is inherent in every particle of existence and our suffering is when we are disconnected from that awareness, we are disconnected from awareness that we are eternal souls, we are part and parcel of Krishna.
Mamaivamso jiva-loke jiva-bhutah sanatanah, raso ‘ham apsu kaunteya prabhasmi sasi-suryayoh pranavah sarva-vedesu sabdah khe paurusam nrsu. Krishna teaches us in Gita, how to see Him, I am the taste of water, everything you eat, whatever flavor is from that water element that’s in the food, everything you drink, that water, that pure element of water, Krishna says I am the taste of water. I am the light of the sun and the moon, I am the sacred syllable ‘Om’ in the Vedic Mantras and I am the ability of all people. When somebody does something better than us our tendency is we become envious or we become depressed, why can’t I do that? Or if somebody does something not as good as us we, we can become very arrogant, just see what I can do and we want to show how we can do it even better. But Krishna, if we understand things in truth, Krishna is the ability in everyone, whether I do it or somebody else does it we are really happy to see that Krishna is doing it and how we love Krishna is the greatness of our life not what we accomplish physically.
Bhagavad Gita teaches us we have to really try our very best to do in harmony with Krishna’s will. Arjuna wasn’t after Bhagavad Gita just saying, Oh Duryodhana is such a good fighter, it’s all Krishna and he was just sitting there watching. He had to do his duty but yet he was seeing the ability as Krishna. Duryodhana, he misused that ability. He was taking Krishna’s property and Krishna’s shakti in the form of what he knows and what he can do for his own, for his own envious, greedy, selfish purposes. And Arjuna, he saw, Krishna is giving Duryodhana those things and he is ruining his own life and creating so much suffering in the world and he used his abilities in Krishna’s service. Samsidhir Haristoshanam, our success is how Krishna is pleased, that’s all. The influence of material conditions in this world is we become so caught up and distracted by the way materialistic people think. But when we naṣṭa-prāyeṣv abhadreṣu nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā, when we associate with people Bhagavats, we see the way they live, we hear their words and we read the Srimad Bhagavatam according to their realizations, we have another perspective. We actually see every situation as an opportunity to celebrate Krishna’s beauty and Krishna’s love.
So here are the Demigods like Lord Brahma and Indra and Vayu and Varuna and Lord Shiva, they are all coming to Dwarka together because they want to see the infinite beauty of Krishna and here in these particular chapters of Srimad Bhagavatam it tells when all of these great Demigods were standing before Krishna seeing His beauty, seeing His glory, they were gazing upon Him, they couldn’t even blink their eyes. The Gopis, they, they were limitlessly greater than the Demigods because of their love although they were simple cowherd girls churning butter, putting cow dung on their floors, doing simple chores, making flower garlands like ladies are doing in the back, but when they would gaze at Krishna, they would curse Brahma, not exactly curse him but criticize him. For a simple little cowherd girl to criticize Lord Brahma, you have to be quite fearless to do that because when the Gopis do something, Brahma is watching, he is listening, he is. Brahma is not a good creator because he put these eye lids on our eyes. Yuga-yitam nimo-shena Chakshusha pravrisha-yitam Shunya-yitam jagat sarvam Govinda-virahena me. Even this, this little moment about a twelfth of a second that it takes for the eye lid to involuntarily blink, the Gopis are saying it seems like more than a Yuga to us, that the vision of the beautiful form of Govinda has been interrupted.
So the Devatas, they have mystic powers, they don’t have to blink; they were unblinking gazing upon Lord Krishna. In the Srimad Bhagavatam Shukadev Goswami tells that their vision of Krishna, they were, insatiable joy they were receiving just in seeing Krishna, their eyes were insatiably gazing at Krishna. In the Shanta Ras, really greater than entering into the eternal limitless Brahman effulgence or Moksha, to see the form of Govinda. In Shanta Ras, you can have ever increasing happiness for the rest of eternity doing nothing else than just sitting and looking at Krishna. Krishna is ever increasing ‘Nava Yauvanam Cha’ and our joy is ever increasing. We don’t want to go anywhere, we just, this is fine, we just look at Krishna forever, our eyes never have to blink. But then the higher Ras is, is when we want to reciprocate more and more, Dasya Ras. We want to please Krishna not only by just giving our full hearts seeing Him and being seen by Him but we want to in, in a spiritual form actively serve Him and please Him.
Sakhya Ras, being His friend. You see in Dasya Ras, Sakhya Ras, Vatsalya Ras, Madhurya Ras they are in more each, each Rasa, each relationship with Krishna is higher than the previous because it includes the previous and they are all based on the principle of giving pleasure to Krishna, not just experiencing the ecstasy of being in the presence of Krishna but giving pleasure to Krishna. Whether I suffer or not that’s not important, what can I do for you Krishna? That’s a higher manifestation of love. The Gopas as Krishna’s friends, they are telling jokes and they are dancing and they are playing limitless types of games and they are helping Krishna herd the cows and everything is simply for Krishna’s pleasure. And Yashoda Mai, Nanda Maharaj, they’re willing to, they’re willing to go through any type of suffering jubilantly if it gives Krishna pleasure. And the Gopis, in that well known story, they were willing to go to hell for the rest of eternity if it gives Krishna one second of pleasure, giving the dust of their feet to put on His head, without, without reservation, without a second thought. Yes we are happy to go to hell but Krishna has a headache please bring our foot dust to, to relieve that headache. They are so intoxicated with an ecstatic love to make Krishna happy.
Ashlishya va pada-ratam pinashtu mam adarshanan marma-hatam karotu va yatha tatha va vidadhatu lampato mat-prana-nathas tu sa eva naparah. This is prayer of Gopis. This is their love. Not Krishna, I am just so happy to see you, not Krishna I am just so happy to exist in the eternal nature of Brahman, infinitely higher and deeper. It’s interesting how Bhakti is described. It’s the highest and it’s the deepest. Deepest usually means down and highest usually means up so anyway you go, it’s the best because it’s complete, it’s full. It’s the highest and the deepest. But Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is giving this prayer, that Krishna if You like You can embrace Me, if You like, You can trample upon Me, if You like You can break My heart by being, not being present before Me. Do anything You like, I am Your servant unconditionally. Marobi rakhobi jo iccha tohara nitya dasa -prati tuwa adhikara. Thakura Bhaktivinoda gives the same message. Krishna if You like You can protect me, if You like You can crush me, You can destroy me, kill me, it’s all the same to me. I am Your servant unconditionally, do as You like. Krishna’s pleasure ‘Samsiddhir Haritoshanam’ becomes the object of my pleasure. What will make You happy Krishna and to the degree we have that unconditional love for Krishna ye yatha mam prapadyante tams tathaiva bhajamy aham, Krishna reciprocates and when Krishna reciprocates, He reveals to us within our hearts within our very souls, he reveals to us His love for us and then we feel so insignificant, our love grows for Krishna and then Krishna reveals more love for us and this goes on forever in the spiritual world through the active dynamic environment of Leela or transcendental pastimes.
So the greatest of the Demigods, the greatest of the sages, they all come down together to Dwarka and when they saw the beauty of Krishna, they just insatiably gazed upon Krishna. While they were gazing on Krishna, they weren’t thinking about their abodes or the apsaras or any of these other things. Everything is insignificant in the presence of Krishna and here they are offering beautiful prayers. Happy but painful prayers. Happy because it’s an offering of their love, painful because the content of it. They have come to inform Krishna in a beautiful prayerful way after glorifying Him, they are giving Him the message, especially Lord Brahma on behalf of all the Devatas, after they all offered prayers, we are reading those prayers today. Brahma says, “we invited You to come into this material world to protect Bhumi Devi, mother earth from all the unwanted demoniac persons who were traversing her and exploiting her and exploiting her children but You have re-established the true principles of religion, You have given protection to the pious. You have fulfilled everything that You have descended to do. Now, if it is Your wish, You may please go back to Your eternal abode and wind up Your earthly pastimes.”
The Demigods are telling Krishna to go back home back to Godhead. That You have done everything we asked You to do, there is no need for You to be at this time. At this time there is no need for You to remain in this material existence. And Krishna responds by telling, “Yes I have come here to do whatever you wanted Me to do, whatever you asked and I have completed all of that so now I will go.” Krishna presents it that He has come as, I have come as your servant and I have served you, and now you are telling, you asked Me to come, I came, you are telling Me to go, I go.
Tumi sarvesvaresvara, brajendra-kumara, Krishna is the controller of the controller of all controllers, Ishvarah Paramah Krishna, He is the Supreme Controller, yet He is, He is the servant of the Demigods and in Vrindavan He is the servant of all of His devotees. Krishna is forever serving everyone through material nature on the material platform, He is serving everyone by giving all the resources for us to survive and on the spiritual level all the devotees they just want to serve Krishna. Na dhanaṁ na janaṁ na sundarīṁ kavitāṁ vā jagad-īśa kāmaye mama janmani janmanīśvare bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī tvayi, I don’t want anything. I just want to serve You unconditionally, birth after birth if it’s Your wish. That is a devotee’s desire. Yet, the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the spiritual world, everything that exists through His Shakti, through Baladev, through Vrinda Devi, Vrindavaneshwari, through His Hladini Shakti, everything that’s there is provided and facilitated by Krishna to make us happy making Him happy. Our happiness is making Him happy but the whole spiritual world exists to give us happiness in feeling Krishna’s love. So Krishna is eternally serving everyone, fully thoroughly totally. And He just wants us to taste the sweetness of of Prema, of love, which means according to our insignificant little capacity we want to serve Him. Srila Prabhupada gave the example you take water with your palms from Mother Ganga and you say Ganga Mata please accept this water. And she, Ganga Mata, if it is offered with love she will forever be grateful for that one little palm full of water because she is Krishna Shakti. She is the manifestation of Krishna’s divine merciful potency.
So here we have in Dwarka the demigods, in this particular verse as they are making the prelude to telling Krishna, You could go now. Thank You very much, You’ve done everything we wanted, please go now, hopefully we’ll do what You want now. But the Demigods are very authoritative because they are controllers of how things work in this material world. They are explaining that My, My dear Lord, You are unconquerable and this world, this material world, it conquers everything and everyone within material existence. Who is not conquered by time? Queen Kunti, she was, as time You are destroying everything, even fear personified is afraid of You. Arjuna was such a great warrior, when he saw Virat Roop, the universal form, he was trembling. He offered some prayers and then, Krishna please become Krishna again my friend, I can’t look at You anymore like this. The form of devastation, imminent.
The Demigods understand, they know how difficult Maya is to overcome and only through, proportionate to our surrender to Krishna, to our genuinely seeking shelter of Krishna, by actually humbling our self before Krishna can there be any relief, true relief from this material existence. Srimad Bhagavatam tenth canto there is an explanation, that material existence, this Maya Shakti, it’s like a limitless ocean and trying to cross over with our knowledge, with our wealth, with our influence, with our abilities or even with everybody else in the world who has these things, it’s like trying to cross the ocean on a boat made out of stone. (phone ringing) That’s what happens when you go on a boat made out of stone. You go trrrrrr. You are effortlessly sinked. There’s nothing you can do about it. But those who take shelter of the lotus feet of Lord Sri Krishna, the, the ocean reduces to the amount of water contained in a hoof print of a calf. And he says, when we take shelter of Krishna and we take shelter of the lotus feet of those who have taken shelter of Krishna, Gopi bartu kamala yur das das das anu das, then when you go on the, on the, on that boat of the lotus feet of the Lord and His devotees, then we just walk across the boat and you are on the other side of the Spiritual World. Content of the, the quantity of the water reduces.
So the Demigods, they are telling how a proper understanding we need of Krishna’s pastimes. He is never under the influence of the material nature. He is the source of material nature. Tribhir guṇa-mayair, He is, three modes of material nature can never touch Him. Material qualities of goodness, passion or ignorance can never touch Krishna. His body, His form, His name, His pastimes everything about Krishna is transcendental, absolutely completely pure. So anything Krishna does in His Leela has to be understood in this content, otherwise people, Avajananti Maam Mudha, we think Krishna is just a regular type of person or maybe a great person in this world. It’s foolish. Nāhaṁ prakāśhaḥ sarvasya, to understand that Krishna is sac-cid-ananda, whatever He does, His pastimes with the Gopis, His being chastised and punished by Yashoda Mai, His apparently telling lies to Yashoda Mai, even the great wars He fights in Mathura and Dwarka against so many Asuras, they are all completely transcendental because He is only doing it for everyone’s well being. There is never selfishness in Krishna’s heart. He comes to this, He, this beautiful purport which is taken from the commentaries of great Acharyas like Srila Vishwanath Chakravarti Thakura, in Krishna’s abode the Demigods know, that transcendental abode Krishna is simply sharing the highest ecstasies of divine love with all living beings.
So what is the reason for Krishna come to this World? He doesn’t need anything in this world. We are born, birth after birth after birth because we are in the illusion that we need something of this world to be happy. And as long as we think we need something of this world to be happy, we keep taking birth again and again and again and according to how we act to fulfill our needs, there’s eight million four hundred thousand species of life and in each species of life there’s limitless ways to enjoy and suffer. It’s an ocean. But when we understand I don’t need anything of this world to be happy, I just need to make Krishna happy. Then we go back home back to Godhead because in the spiritual world that’s what everybody is, is thinking, feeling and willing, that let us make Krishna happy and Krishna’s forever thinking, let Me make My devotees happy. So why does Krishna come to this world? He has 16,108 wives, now usually you get married because you want to be happy. Why does He have so many wives? It’s just His mercy on one level.
On the spiritual level they are all His divine associates from the spiritual world like Goddesses of fortune who have descended into this world to assist Him in His pastimes. But on a wordly level, Bhaumasura, he kidnapped all these princesses, 16,000 and he kept them imprisoned for his enjoyment. And Krishna, just to save them from their condition, He descended and He delivered Bhaumasura and it’s interesting because Bhaumasura is His son, Narakasura. When Varahadev descended into this world, He lifted up the ocean, he lifted up Bhumi Devi, Mother earth from the ocean. And when He did that, He impregnated Mother Earth with His own child, his name was Bhauma, son of Bhumi and he was a really nice personality, son of Krishna but so many lessons to be learnt, how important association is. That even though he is the son of Krishna, he is the son of Bhumi Devi, who was an expansion of the Goddess of fortune Lakshmi, due to association with Bana, Banasura, he got influenced and he became demoniac. He was so powerful, he was conquering everybody and exploiting so many and he had all these princesses, 16000 and more that he was exploiting.
So, so to protect His devotees and the innocent, Krishna was willing to kill His own son, of curse there’s no death but He liberated him from his body and then all the princesses were released and they said to Krishna, that now that we have been taken by this other person, nobody is ever going to marry us. We are just like, we are just like waste. People will think that because we spent this time here, we’re polluted. As Kshatriyas, we are, we are just garbage now. But we have given our heart to you because we have no one else and we don’t want anyone else either. So here are these ladies who were flung down to the lowest platform where the people of their own community they were, they were discarded, they had no future. But Krishna gave them the highest position in creation; He made them His own queens. He built magnificent palaces, each palace was inconceivably more wonderful than Indra’s and He expanded Himself, 16108 forms so He was with each one of them personally, almost constantly.
So whatever our situation in this material world, we should remember we are all actually eternal servants of Krishna. Krishna is Dina bandhu, Dina Dayal, He is merciful, He is the best friend even of the most fallen. Its not that these princesses were fallen but they were in fallen condition and Krishna brought them up to be His own eternal, His own queens, the highest position of His leela in Dwarka and similarly, you know we’ve… the Bhaumasura of the false ego has captured us but if we just take shelter, if we just give our hearts to Krishna He can lift us up to the highest position, that is Krishna’s power. So Krishna in His original form of Govinda, He simply has pleasurable pastimes in the spiritual world, He has no connection the material world. He expands Himself so many times, expands Himself as Baladev in the spiritual world, He expands Himself a little in the, in the spiritual sky as Sankarshan, Pradyumna, Anirudha,Vasudev, He expands Himself as Narayan in Vaikuntha planets and then He expands again as this quadruple form and then from Sankarshan the secondary quadruple form He expands as Maha Vishnu, then He creates the whole cosmic manifestation and activates it, impregnates it with all living beings by His glance. Then He expands as Garbodakashayi Vishnu, the, Maha Vishnu is the supersoul of the entire cosmic manifestation, Garbdakashyi Vishnu is the supersoul of each particular universe, then He expands as Kshirodakashayi Vishnu to be the supersoul in the heart of every living being. And then He expands Himself as the Guna Avataras, Brahma Vishnu and Shiva to enact all the functions of this material Universe by supervising the three modes, Goodness, passion and ignorance.
So this is all done by the agents of the Lord. But Krishna Himself as Gopinath, He remains in the spiritual world playing. He is Kshirodakashayi Vishnu and all other expansions but that’s Krishna’s inconceivable potency. So the Demigods here are appreciating this in their worship of Lord Krishna that You are eternally having the most sweet loving leelas in the transcendental spiritual world but yet You expand yourself to facilitate out of Your mercy this entire creation and then You personally re-incarnate to re-establish the truth and especially the demigods say, You perform the most wonderful pastimes when You descend into this world that anyone for the rest of eternity that hears these pastimes and glorifies these pastimes will become purified and go back home back to Godhead just by hearing and chanting the glories that You establish when You descend into this world. With a sincere heart, our original love ‘prema’ is awakened, this is Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s message. Nitya-siddha krsna-prema ‘sadhya’ kabhu naya” |”Śravaṇādi-śuddha-citte karaye udaya, that pure love for Krishna, Krishna prema is inherent within the heart of every living being by hearing about Krishna as He reveals Himself when He comes to this world, by hearing about Krishna, by chanting the glories of Krishna, by chanting the names of Krishna in the association of devotees of Krishna, that love is awakened, that is the Supreme Dharma. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare.
Is there any questions?
I called on him because he is sitting where you usually sit. You are in a different place today, so.
Devotee – Maharaj thank you very much for the wonderful wisdom where you were mentioning that how by ‘Shravanam’ the perceptions are, right perceptions are developed as we hear how the great souls are seeing this world and how I am seeing this world, so that you know the, all the complications reduce and experience of suffering is because of the wrong awareness of this world so I just wanted to clarify for myself is that as we progress in bhakti, there are, we also start doing some kind of Kirtan in terms of , in whatever our services are so about hearing Srimad Bhagavatam class, I wanted to ask that there is a tendency in us which comes that I now have some kind of right perceptions so now it is not so, ok, so now I have, I am speaking also, so my question is Maharaj that there are some very genuine reasons also that I have something else to do during Bhagavatam class also which is my responsibility. So, so how much we should, as a Brahmachari I am asking doing service from the last six seven years, how much we should give importance for hearing Srimad Bhagavatam class keeping in mind that we are doing Kirtan also and keeping in mind we have responsibilities which are also very important and should be taken care so that we can follow Maharaj?
Guru Maharaj- You should attend Srimad Bhagavatam class and with a very eager and sincere heart hear, with a will to apply these teachings and these examples in our own lives through our service and being a Brahmachari, Brahmachari means there is discipline that you are happy to accept, if you are not happy to accept discipline then Brahmachari Ashram is not the right place for you. We want everyone to be happy. So if your, those who are in leadership positions, if they ask you to do something else during Srimad Bhagavatam class then you do that otherwise you should be eager to come to Srimad Bhagavatam class. I remember, it was in 1972, I believe, one of my God-brothers, he wrote a letter to Srila Prabhupada, because he was at New Vrindavan and he was in charge of plowing the fields to grow crops and he was utilizing horses and oxen, and during the summer months which is, coz during the winter you can’t just plow fields because everything is ice and snow and it’s like the Himalayas. So there is only a few months you can do that and he said its so hot that the oxens and the horses, they, they can’t, they really suffer during the hot times of the day so the only time that I can plow the fields with the oxen is in the early morning just at the time of sunrise and you know, I …by ten in the morning it’s too hot and the evening so I am missing Srimad Bhagavatam, I am missing, he said I am missing Bhagavad Gita class. He didn’t say I am missing it, he said, the only way I could plow the fields like this effectively is I’ll have to miss Bhagavad Gita class. So what should I do? He inquired, he didn’t just decide, he inquired. And Prabhupada said, by your plowing the fields, you are living Bhagavad Gita. Haribol! So that’s what it means to be servant of the servant. We have these inquiries, we should inquire from those who are engaging us in service and then we should be happy to do, and if we are not specifically asked to do something else, we should be very eager to come to Srimad Bhagavatam class. Does that answer your question?
Devotee-sometimes we feel that we’ll do this service and later on we can hear audio lecture during the day, surely we will make it. So, some, these kinds of thoughts come in our contaminated mind.
HH Radhanath Swami Maharaj- But as a Brahmachari, we should appreciate the fortune of hearing Srimad Bhagavatam, Bhagavad Gita in the association of devotees. You know everyone came to the bank of the Ganges together to hear Srimad Bhagavatam from Shukadev Goswami. They weren’t saying, well we will go somewhere else and we’ll listen to the audio recording because there is a certain potency and certain charm of being together hearing. That’s, that’s our tradition. So if there is a necessity to do something else then yes we listen to the recording and we’ll get the same benefit because there was a necessity but if the opportunity is there to be in the association of other devotees to eagerly hear, we should understand that, that’s our process. It’s a great blessing. We shall end here. Thank you very much! Srila Prabhupada ki Jai!
