[BG 5.7]
yoga-yukto viçuddhätmä
vijitätmä jitendriyaù
sarva-bhütätma-bhütätmä
kurvann api na lipyate
Synonyms
(yoga-yuktah — engaged in devotional service; visuddha-atma — a purified soul; vijita-atma — self-controlled; jita-indriyah — having conquered the senses; sarva-bhuta — to all living entities; atma-bhuta-atma — compassionate; kurvan api — although engaged in work; na — never; lipyate — is entangled)
Translation:
One who works in devotion, who is a pure soul and who controls his mind and senses is dear to everyone and everyone is dear to him. Though always working, such a man is never entangled.
Purport:
One who is on the path of liberation by Krishna Consciousness is very dear to every living being and every living being is dear to him. This is due to his Krishna Consciousness. Such a person can’t think of any living being as separate from Krishna, just as the leaves and branches of the tree are not separate from the tree. He knows very well that by pouring water on the root of the tree, the water will be distributed to all the leaves and branches or by supplying food to the stomach, the energy is automatically distributed throughout the body. Because one who works in Krishna Consciousness is servant to all, he is very dear to everyone. And because everyone is satisfied by his work, he is pure in consciousness. Because he is pure in consciousness, his mind is completely controlled. And because his mind is controlled, his senses are also controlled. Because his mind is always fixed on Krishna, there is no chance of his being deviated from Krishna. Nor is there a chance that he will engage his senses in matters other than the service of the Lord. He does not like to hear anything except topics related to Krishna. He does not like to eat anything which is not offered to Krishna. And he does not wish to go anywhere if Krishna is not involved. Therefore his senses are controlled.
A man or woman of controlled senses can’t be offensive to anyone. One may ask, “Why then was Arjuna offensive in battle to others? Wasn’t he in Krishna Consciousness?” Arjuna was only superficially offensive because as has already been explained in the second chapter, all the assembled persons on the battlefield would continue to live individually as the soul can’t be slain. So spiritually no one was killed on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Only their dresses were changed by the order of Krishna who was personally present. Therefore Arjuna while fighting on the battlefield of Kurukshetra was not really fighting at all. He was simply carrying out the orders of Krishna in full Krishna Consciousness. Such a person is never entangled in the reactions of work.
One who works in devotion, who is a pure soul and who controls his mind and senses is dear to everyone and everyone is dear to him. Though always working, such a man is never entangled. [End of Purport]
In the sixth chapter of the Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna that renunciation is not for one, who does not work, nor lights no fire . But real renunciation is for one who performs his prescribed duties in devotion to Him. This devotion awakens within the heart through the association of the Lord in His devotees. How do we associate with the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead? We have many deeply rooted propensities. We must dovetail those propensities with Krishna in the center. And Krishna, being the all merciful father and mother of all living beings, is again and again and again providing facilities by which we can always keep Him in the center of our lives.
Krishna’s Pastimes: Food for our Soul
One of the greatest and deepest propensities within every living being is to find some excitement through the process of hearing. How much money is spent? How much time and energy of human lives goes to going to cinema houses, watching the television? Seeing dramas and plays, listening to music, reading books, reading novels, gossiping, telling rumors? Ah? How much of your life is spent in this way? For an average man or woman practically, all of his entertainment is coming from this. The propensity to find excitement within our minds and our hearts through the process of hearing is innate within all of our hearts. Therefore the Lord is so kind that He personally descends within this world to perform the most extraordinary, unbelievable and transcendental activities that are simply wondrous and amazing to the mind. And by hearing these wonderful activities, not only do we find entertainment for the senses but we water the very root of our existence by giving the highest pleasure to our very soul. Therefore it is said in the Srimad Bhagavatam,
shrinvatam sva-kathah krishnah
punya-shravana-kirtanah
hridy antah-stho hy abhadrani
vidhunoti suhrit satam
[SB 1.2.17]
That one who takes great pleasure in hearing the pastimes, the glories and the teachings of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, more than anything else, this gives pleasure to the Lord, who within the heart reciprocates by completely purifying all the impurities within you and establishing irrevocable love of God.
nasta-prayesv abhadresu
nityam bhagavata-sevaya
bhagavaty uttama-sloke
bhaktir bhavati naisthiki
[SB 1.2.18]
One who regularly hears the glories of the Lord as is described in the Bhagavad Gita and Bhagavatam and one who renders service to those who are surrendered to chanting the glories of the Lord, such a person becomes free from the clutches of all sufferings and attains the highest liberation of Prema, pure love of God. So the Lord, again and again and again, out of His causeless mercy, gives us a chance to hear His glories. It is said in the Gita, you all know the verse,
Paritranaya sadhunam vinashaya cha dushkritam.
Dharma sansthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge
[BG 4.8]
Krishna descends to perform incredible and wonderful pastimes
Krishna says in the fourth chapter that in order to annihilate the miscreants, to protect the pious and to re-establish the principles of religion, I descend, I advent myself, again and again and again. But He does not require adventing Himself to annihilate the miscreant. Within a moment, He can just send a stone from the sky and destroy any demon, however powerful they are. He is within the heart, even of the most rugged. With His Sudarshan Chakra, all He has to do is cut one vein of the heart from within and the person will drop dead immediately. He does not have to come. To protect the pious– He can do that by His divine energy; and to reestablish the principles of religion–He can do that through His devotees, He can empower the great saints. Externally these are the reasons He comes. But internally the real reason is to perform such wonderful, such incredible pastimes that will attract the minds of all the world for all time to come.
Importance of Today
So today is a very sacred and special day. Today is the day when the Supreme Personality of Godhead descended into this world in one of His ten most celebrated and important of all incarnations. Amongst those who follow the Vaishnava Sanatan Dharma, this is one of the great holy days of the year. Jaydev Goswami in his Geet Govind, has written an introduction called the Dashavatar where he describes briefly ten most important incarnations of the Lord Narayana. And in one verse he ends it,
Kesav drita, sukar rupa, jai jagdish hare, jai jagdish hare, jai jagdish hare
Ah! This is the day when the all merciful personality of Godhead, the creator of all creations, the source of everything that exists, the cause of all causes and our ever well wishing friend of all living beings descended in this world in the most magnificent form of a boar. The story goes something like this. It is described by Maitreya Rishi to Vidura in the Srimad Bhagavatam. And actually this story has a very relevant message for what is going on today in the world. And I think you will all discover this message as we relate the summary of the story.
How Hiranyakshya and Hiranyakashyapa were born
So at one time, two great Asuras were born in this world. They were born of the wife of Kashyapa muni, Diti. How they were born is very important to understand also. You see, Diti was feeling a very great impulse to enjoy with Kashyapa muni, to have union with him. They were in the forest at that time and Kashyapa muni said, “No no! It is not an auspicious time, we should not do it. We should wait for some auspicious time.” but she was not very inclined to wait. So she, I don’t know exactly how they do it, but somehow rather, she turned up the volume of her charms and he agreed. And then, Kashyapa muni being a great saint, told her, “because this was done not in a spirit of devotion but in the spirit of passion, without consideration of time or place, very evil, wicked, inauspicious person will take birth in your womb.”
In civilized society everything is done with control. Everything is done in spirit of devotion. Nothing is done simply by the wimps of immediate demands of our senses. If we engage in those activities, we can expect a very very painful reaction.
Asuras worship God or Demigods for material and demonic activities
So as a result, Hiranyakashyipu and Hiranyakshya were born. And they performed great great tapasya. And they were worshippers of the demigods. They worshipped Bramha and Shiva respectively. They both got great benedictions from Lord Bramha. Sometimes we see that demoniac people, they worship God or the demigods who they claim to be God. And then we think, “He can’t be all bad if he worships god.” But Hiranyakashyipu and Hiranyakshya, they worshipped Bramha with great devotion. And in the Ramayana we find that Ravana was very very good devotee of Lord Shiva. He had a beautiful temple and everyday several times a day, he would go into that temple and worship. But what was his goal for worshipping? Not unmotivated, uninterrupted service, but power, prestige, and control over others’ lives. So they worshipped God but for the wrong reason. But by the worship of these demigods, they gained tremendous strengths. They had bodies, they were so big, and they were like mountains. They were insurmountable and indestructible. And they conquered the entire universe. Today even the biggest Asuras, they can hardly conquer their next door neighbors without causing a big fuss. But these are real, really great demons. They conquered the entire universe and there was nobody who could challenge them. Even the UN sub committees could not declare war on this these great Asuras. They were the undisputed controllers of this universe.
Exploitation of the earth by Hiranyakshya
And Hiranyakshya, it is described that he exploited the earth to such an extent for his sense gratification. You see, when you exploit the earth of its natural resources, the earth loses its balance. In those days the greatest wealth was gold. There was nothing more valuable and precious for the economy than gold. Therefore they were mining and mining and mining, and usurping and exploiting for evil selfish uses, so much gold that the imbalance of the earth took place and it is described that the earth fell into the Garbhodakh Ocean.
Now, do you know what the gold is for this day and age? Black Gold. In America, it is sometimes called black gold or Texas Tea, which is oil. Oil is the gold of today. And if we pump the earth of its own natural sources of oil, more and more and more and more, for evil purposes of sense gratification, without consideration of service to God which the earth is meant for, then we can understand there will be tremendous imbalance in the earth and there will be very very painful repercussions.
Terror of Hiranyakshya
So Hiranyakshya was drilling the oil for the gold of the earth. And therefore the earth was cast into the ocean of Garbhodakh. And then he was just going place to place, neighbor to neighbor, country to country, planet to planet, challenging everyone to fight. And before even he would get there, they would run for their lives and hide. So he found that even Indra was nowhere to be seen. So he (Hiranyakshya) dove deep into the ocean, and he attained the abode of Varuna, the Vibhavari. And in a very cynical and arrogant way he fell at the feet of Varuna dev and said, “I challenge you, please I beg, fight me. I want to fight.” Varuna was a very peaceful and saintly person. “What is the use of this fight? Unnecessary fighting for what? You already have more than you need.” But those who are materialistic by nature, they are always ready for another fight because they always want more, never satisfied. Hiranyakshya conquered the whole universe with his brother and they still were not satisfied because if you can’t control your senses in God Consciousness, senses will never be satisfied. Bhagavad Gita explains, “Senses burn like fire. Don’t ever be satiated by more fuel. They will only grow harder and burn.”
Demigods approach Lord Bramha
So Varuna, he said, “I’m an old man. I can no longer fight. If you are really so brave, if you think you really so are, I’ll tell you who you should fight.” Now while this was going on, something else took place. All the great saints and sages, all the demigods, they approached Lord Bramha. To Lord Bramha they said, “The earth is submerged; we have no power to lift it. Do something.” So Lord Bramha, he understood, even though he was the greatest person in the universe, he had no power. So began to meditate on Krishna, Vishnu. “My dear Lord, You know what must be done. And ultimately we are all helpless.” Ultimately we are all so weak that from Bramha down to insignificant ant, we are all exclusively dependent on the mercy of the Lord at every moment for our very survival.
Real Knowledge: Being in the Service of Krishna
So therefore the great personalities, however popular, however wealthy, however important they are in this world, they always remember that they are totally dependent on the mercy of God. And they always gratefully reciprocate with the Lord by engaging in humble devotional service. You may be a rich man or a beautiful woman; you may be well educated with Ph.D. You may have everything in your life in order, all your bills paid, you may be highly recognized by your friends and associates, and you may think, “I’m doing well on my own.” But compared to Lord Bramha, you are an invalid insect. And even the great Lord Bramha at every moment realizes that I’m completely helplessly dependent on the mercy of Krishna and everything he does is in the service of Krishna. That is knowledge. To forget that is the source of all sufferings. It is the cause of all bondage, Ignorance!
Appearance of Varahdev
So Lord Bramha began to meditate on the Supreme Lord, “Please my Lord, do what You feel is required.” And at that time on the anniversary that takes place on this day, something extra ordinary took place. A little creature came out of Brahma’s nose. He was of size of the tip of a thumb. And he floated into the sky. And everyone was thinking, “What is this?” and that little creature began to grow. He was in the form of a boar. And soon, he grew to the size of a large mountain. And everyone who witnessed this, they were arguing among each other, “who is this? What is this? ” and then Lord Bramha began to speculate, “It must be the Supreme Lord Vishnu himself. Who else could do like this?” As far as, could Vishnu, could Supreme God do like this? The answer is, why not? He can do what he likes. He is Swarat. The meaning of God is fully independent. That will be done, nothing is impossible for the Supreme source of all creations. And then Lord Boar, just to encourage all of them, he roared. He roared like a mountain, it filled the entire sky. And then He smiled and He cast His mercy for glance upon all of His devotees.
Lord Boar saves earth
And then they all began to chant, “Jai ho Varahdev!” and then He dove into the ocean. And He lifted the earth with His tusks. So you can imagine how big He became. And it is described by Jaidev Goswami that when He was moving about in ocean with the earth in His tusks, it looked like the moon with two scars on it.
Hiranyakshya Challenges Varahdev
Meanwhile Varuna explained to Hiranyakshya, “If you are so arrogant about being a great fighter, then you go and fight with Varahdev, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Do you think you are so great? Haha! You fight him and soon you’ll be falling on ground, food for jackals and dogs.” And of course, he has described in Srimad Bhagavatam that Asuras, they are so proud that whatever power they have, that they become so foolishly intoxicated, that they think, “no one can defeat me, even God Himself. How could He possibly defeat me?” So they are not afraid to declare war or a challenge any adversary even if they are millions of times, billions of times more powerful. This is the nature when the ego becomes too much inflated with the intoxication; you lose all your intelligence. So Hiranyakshya dove into the ocean. There he met Lord Varahdev and he challenged, “Oh amphibious beast, I challenge you do a battle, let’s have a war. Today your head will be severed by my mighty maces and you will be the food for jackals and vultures!” Meanwhile Lord Varahdev was like a mother, taking care of the earth planet. And He was thinking, it will be in danger, the mother earth if I fight with this man. So first I have to take care of her and He just went by. And Hiranyakshya began to insult, “you coward! What sort of a person is you, running from the battle?” And it is described that these words were like shafted arrows that cause pain to the heart of the Lord.
Lord Varaha’s Tolerance to save the earth
Srimad Bhagavatam explains that the Lord is a person. He is ancient but He is supreme. He has unlimited, infinite power of each one His senses. But when His own children and everyone is His children, insults Him and abuse Him with their words, He does feel pain and when He is glorified, He feels great great pleasure. This is the nature of the supreme Lord. But He was willing to bear that pain to protect the earth, which is a great lesson to be learnt. In the discharge of our service, we should be willing to bear any difficulty, any reversal. Srila Prabhupada explains in this connection that when devotees go to chant the holy names of the Lord to propagate God consciousness, which is really the same as the Lord lifting the earth from the depths of the ocean, when the devotees go out to assist their spiritual master in a compassionate mission of mercy, what they are doing is they are going out Lord Varaha to take the hearts of the conditioned souls who are in a suffering condition of darkness and lift it out of the ocean of nescience. And in the process of doing that just like Lord Varaha, you can expect you’ll be insulted, you will be abused and you will be attacked.
Beginning of the Battle
But Lord Varaha, tolerated all of these abuses and then He put the earth and floated it on top of the ocean. And then He turned to Hiranyakshya and told, “Now! Meet your death!” and they both looked at each other. And the war began. They both had mighty maces and as these maces they were pounding on one another, the noise of the these heavy metal weapons, pounding against each other made it all impossible to even hear anything else in all directions. And then they began to bludgeon each other’s bodies. And both bodies were covered with blood and the smell of the blood simply increased the rage of each other’s anger.
At one point, Hiranyakshya struck the Lord’s club with such force, that the Lord dropped His mace. And all the devotees, all the saints and all the demigods, they were thinking, “Oh my God! The Lord, He was going to be killed.” And Hiranyakshya at that time, he lifted the Lord’s mace and said, “Take it back, let’s fight fairly.” Actually it seems like he was righteous but in reality, he was simply insulting the Lord. But, he did a little service unknowingly, that is his good fortune. Then they began to fight. And the Lord knocked the mace off the Hiranyakshya’s hands. And the Lord picked up the mace and said, “Here it’s my friend, take It.” and Hiranyakshya was, “Ah! I can’t take it from you. It’s an insult.” So picked up his trident and hurled it with such force and Lord Varahdev took it His Sudarshan chakra and completely destroyed the mighty trident of Hiranyakshya. And the battle went on very fiercely.
When all weapons fell, Hiranyakshya took his mighty fist and began to pound it on the chest of the Lord. But it had no effect. The Lord stood there unfazed, smiling. Then Hiranyakshya understood that it is becoming very difficult. Night was coming; the devotees and the demigods began to warn Lord Varahdev that after the sunset, the demons become extremely powerful. It is explained in the Shastras that from the noon to sunset is the time that is most conducive for victory for the pious. But after sunset, the demoniac forces become very very strong. So Lord Bramha began to call out, “Kill him now! Kill him now!” and Lord Varahdev simply smiled.
Hiranyakshya disappears
At that time, Hiranyakshya disappeared and raging winds began to flow throughout the atmosphere. And dark dark clouds, and from these clouds razor edged, mountain like stones began to shower from the sky. And then tridents and swords and bludgeons began to shower from the clouds with great force. And then, coming in all directions, blowing at incredible speeds in the winds, were stool, urine, dongs and blood and puss. And then naked demonesses with tridents in their hands began to scream. And yakshas and rakshashas came and started howling great obscenities.
Lord takes His Sudarshan Chakra
Then it looked like a hopeless situation. But Lord Varahdev simply took His Sudarshan Chakra and as soon as it appeared, the light from it completely destroyed the entire illusion created by Hiranyakshya. The darkness of illusion cannot stand in the presence of god.
Krsna surya sam maya hoy andhakar
At that time Hiranyakshya desperately went to embrace the Lord and crush Him with his mighty arms. And as he put the Lord between his arms, as he started to squeeze the Lord, Lord disappeared and appeared outside. And again with his fists, he began to pound the Lord on all parts of His body. And then Lord Varahdev thought, “The game is above time to end.”
Lord kills Hiranyakshya with His hoof
Effortlessly He took His hoof. Boars don’t have hands, they have hoofs I think. So took His little hoof and very gracefully, gently touched Hiranyakshya behind his ear and Hiranyakshya felt that such a blow that his eyes bowled from their sockets, his hair stood on end. He began to pass stool and urine simultaneously and like a tree struck by a whirlwind, he felt on the ground, dead. And then everyone began to shower flowers and words of praise upon the Lord. Of course, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He could have killed this demon in a second. But the Lord fulfils everyone’s desire to a certain extent. The demon wanted to think that he could kill the Lord. So He let him think for some time. Just like a cat, when it goes to kill a mouse, it’s no fun if it just kills it. He’ll catch it and let it go and then catch it and let it go and catch it, let it go. And every time he lets it go the mouse is thinking, “Aaha! Just see, I tricked this cat.” And then the cat catches it, it says, “Ohh!” and then he lets it go and it thinks, “Ah! How powerful the cat can’t keep me.” and ultimately when he gets tired of playing, he just jaws it. So in this way the Lord effortlessly killed the great demon.
Lord Ascends into the sky
And then after this took place, Lord Varahdev ascended into the sky, for everyone to see. And everyone began to chant beautiful, all saints and sages, beautiful prayers glorifying His supreme mercy upon all. His unlimited opulence and the Lord being pleased with their prayers, He cast His mercy for glance upon them and then, He ascended higher and higher and returned to His eternal abode vaikunth.
Gloris of this pastime
Sukhdev Goswami explains how Maitreya muni, as he was describing this pastime to Vidura, he gave a benediction that anyone who with a sincere and submissive heart hears this most wonderful narration of the appearance of Lord Varahdev, will find the presence of the Lord eternally manifesting within his life. And even if one has committed the most horrible of all sins, even if a man has killed a saintly Brahman, by submissively hearing this narration, one is liberated from all sinful reactions of all previous lives and attains the supreme position of unmotivated, uninterrupted service to the Lord.
When will we get liberation?
So why is it that we hear these stories again and again and we are still not liberated? We are still constantly being crushed by the reactions of our past sins. And as far as love, it seems so far away. The Bhagavatam explains,
Suus su show sachatanasya vasudeva katha ruchi
shaynag maha sevaya rati praajnatyi sevnat
That the true eagerness and desire to hear what the sincere and submissive heart only awakens when we accept the positions of the humble servant of the great saints. When we hear from them, and when we serve them, with an honest and faithful heart, through that process, the propensity to truly hear the Lord’s glories with a sincere heart awakens. So this is the great opportunity that is at hand of each and every one of us. And on these auspicious days, such as today which is Varaha Dwadashi, we should take advantage by coming to the temple of the Lord, by associating with the devotees of the Lord, by seeking our pleasure and life in hearing these beautiful stories and by reciprocating, by engaging in devotional service. And most important of all service in this age of Kaliyuga is to chant the holy names,
Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna Hare Hare|
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare||
Thank you very much.
