Om Namaho Bhagavate Vasudevaya!
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.1.20)
tatra gatvā jagannāthaḿ
deva-devaḿ vṛṣākapim
puruṣaḿ puruṣa-sūktena
upatasthe samāhitaḥ
Translation
After reaching the shore of the ocean of milk, the demigods worshiped the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Viṣṇu, the master of the whole universe, the supreme God of all gods, who provides for everyone and diminishes everyone’s suffering. With great attention, they worshiped Lord Viṣṇu, who lies on the ocean of milk, by reciting the Vedic mantras known as the Puruṣa-sūkta.
Purport
The demigods, such as Lord Brahmā, Lord Śiva, King Indra, Candra and Sūrya, are all subordinate to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Aside from the demigods, even in human society there are many influential personalities supervising various businesses or establishments. Lord Viṣṇu, however, is the God of gods (parameśvara). He is parama-puruṣa, the Supreme Being, Paramātmā. As confirmed in the Brahma-saḿhitā (5.1), īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ: “Kṛṣṇa, known as Govinda, is the supreme controller. He has an eternal, blissful, spiritual body.” No one is equal to or greater than the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and therefore He is described here by many words: jagannātha, deva-deva, vṛṣākapi and puruṣa. The supremacy of Lord Viṣṇu is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (10.12) in this statement by Arjuna:
paraḿ brahma paraḿ dhāma
pavitraḿ paramaḿ bhavān
puruṣaḿ śāśvataḿ divyam
ādi-devam ajaḿ vibhum
“You are the Supreme Brahman, the ultimate, the supreme abode and purifier, the Absolute Truth and the eternal divine person. You are the primal God, transcendental and original, and You are the unborn and all-pervading beauty.” Kṛṣṇa is ādi-puruṣa, the original Personality of Godhead (govindam ādi-puruṣaḿ tam ahaḿ bhajāmi **). Viṣṇu is a plenary expansion of Lord Kṛṣṇa, and all the viṣṇu-tattvas are parameśvara, deva-deva.
We have to turn to Krishna from the core of our heart
In the Mahabharata, Krishna, in His discussion with Maharaja Yudhishthir was asked, why His devotees who sacrifice everything of the world with His loving service and in whom He promises all protection by a time He puts a distressful condition and takes all their wealth, all of their prosperity and even all of their prestige away from them.. And of course Maharaja Yudhishthir was speaking from his heart because he was in exactly such a situation to the greatest extent.
Krishna replied, when I want to show my kindness to my devotees I protect them by fulfilling whatever desire they have by granting them whatever their needs and whatever their wants maybe and by protecting their situation. But if I want to show my supreme compassion to my devotees I take everything away and turn everyone against them so that, that devotee has no one and nothing to turn to accept me and it is a time when we really turn to Krishna with urgent desperation not simply as a matter of religiosity, not simply as a matter of performing a particular ritualistic ceremony, not simply for the purpose of the continuation of our vows and our regulation, but when we truly from the core of our heart know that we need Krishna.
Sanatan Goswami in his literature repeatedly uses the example that one must turn to Krishna with the same desperation as a fish turn to water if it is taken out of that water. You can imagine a fish when is put on the dry land that how much its simply longing, every cell of his body with every particle of his consciousness longing for that water. The fish out of water is not thinking is impossible to think of anything else in such an intense need is simply meditating on getting water. So in the same way we must learn how to thirst for Krishna and therefore Krishna explains that such person who thirsts in this way with no love except Me, for them I incarnate and I appear and I advent myself within their minds, within their hearts, and within their life.
Have complete faith in God and the Holy Names
The children of Israel at a certain time in their history for many many generations were put in slavery they were simply subordinate to the slave drivers called task master, who would force them to engage in so much toiling and hard words represents these material world the attachment of material life the task master are mind in and senses we are all slaves working and toiling in this world simply to serve task master of our mind and senses. But it is explained by the grace of God He spoke to ….. who was the guru, the acharya and he the representative of God brought them out of the land of bondage Egypt, with the promise of God that He was going to take the promised land, the promised land represent the kingdom of God vaikuntha the spiritual world. But before they could enter into the kingdom of God they have to spent first 40 years in the wilderness representing the purification a place of toil, a place of tapasya, a place of great renunciation, a place where they have to prove their faith to God under all circumstances and of course there are hundred and thousands of such people and those of you who have some understanding of that part of the world, the Bedouins, they have to travel through the desert where nothing grows and there is no water, what are they going to do for 40 years? Hundreds and thousands of people when there is no provision for food or water and they knew what they are walking into, and they knew they are walking into the desert but they have faith, they have faith they were willing on the basis of the word on God to risk their life, their wife, their children and everyone because God has ordered us to do these and how is He ordering us through the mouth of our guru. We must accept even though there were slaves in Egypt they had their homes, they had 3 meals a day, and they had all needs of the life the dignity of freedom from slavery. Were they wasting their life simply serving wicked people, just as we are wasting our life by serving the wicked mind and senses and was a great austerity to surrender to their guru and Krishna. When He told to leave it all behind turn to …. But almost with blind faith they just left and there they were nothing and sure enough they were all starving and they were all thirsty and they did no what to do. And then God sends a substance called Manna. Manna was a celestial food. Every morning at a certain time they would be covering the ground and was the type of food that fully nourish one’s consciousness, and fully nourish one physical and mental state is the perfect food and it is explained that there would only grow one time of the day and God told them if you try to save it for another time, it will turn rotten and spoil and make you sick. We just have to eat it when you have a complete faith that God will provide you again a next day. And if you want nothing else except that, it will taste like the sweetest most nectarines of all foodstuffs. But if you desire any of the food that you left behind in Egypt it will taste tasteless or terrible.
Real spiritual nourishment comes from the Holy Names
This manna is like the holy name it is that which nourishes our consciousness, it nourishes our entire being but although which is sweetest of all nectar if we are still attached to the pleasure of this world the holy name will taste either tasteless or terrible. But we are seeking for the nourishment only in the name of holy name and detach our self from the so called nourishment of the pleasure of the world, then as Rupa Goswami has explained, I do not know how much nectar this two syllables Krishna have been put in. In the holy name, Krishna dances upon my tongue and I desire many millions of tongues and what enter into my ears I desire millions and millions of ears and enters into the courtyard of my heart it conquers my senses and mind and become nourish. This sweetness of the holy name what is that verse…….that is the most important part…
Seek refuge in the Holy Name
So on this occasion we must put our faith and seek our refuge in the holy name as Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur has said I have seen and considered all the 14 worlds and come to the conclusion that without your holy name my Lord there is nothing that can save me, he stopped considering anything else. As long as we are still considering something else we will not really taste the sweetness of the holy name. So in the same way just as Krishna advents within the holy name, just as Krishna advents within our heart when we like the children of Israel completely dependent on His mercy except that whatever purification before we enter into the Brahmas land which means kingdom of God within our own mind, within our own heart.
Mother Earth was captured by evil demons
We find in Lord Sri Krishna’s divine advent and the same thing is taking place because Kamsa, Jarasandh, Banasura, Bhumasura, Trinavrata, Putana, these very powerful demons they came together they united for mutual exploitation and they conquered most of the world and subjugated the Brahmins and the pious and devotees and even the demigods themselves were fearful. It is explained that all the residents of the earth who were all pious and devoted to God they were all put in terribly terribly persecuted situation they knew not to turn they were hopeless, they were helpless they could not come back such powerful rakshashas each one of them who is might greater than ten thousands of elephants who are cruel hearted and simply wanted to control in order to manifest there own arrogance and lust.
The Demigods chanted the Holy Names out of helplessness
So it is explained that they cried out for help and mother earth in the form of a cow approached Lord Brahma, and Lord Brahma with all of the other demigods, the devatas they were all in the helpless condition of mind. And in that condition they all came to the ocean of milk turning into the direction of supreme planet of Setadvip and there they all began to chant the holy name of the Lord. It is described here that they specifically chanted the purusa sutra prayers. But they didn’t just chant as a regulation they have lost everything, they have lost everyone, they had no other hope except Krishna.
The Lord appears only when one calls Him in a desperate condition
You will find in all the incarnations of Godhead He does not appear until everyone is in hopeless, helpless, and desperate condition, then He comes. When they all are crying out His name with no one else and no where else to turn, then He comes. Isn’t that the situation here? Total of all God consciousness is taking place by Kamsa and the devotees felt like the little insect compare to his big elephant like strength, they are crying out for help. Then on the basis of their cries Krishna appears.
Similarly when Ravana conquered the heavens, and conquered the earth the same thing took place, the demigods the devotees in a helpless condition they simply cried out Krishna save us we are hopeless, and Ram came. And in the incarnation of Vamanadev what happened was, Bali Maharaj conquered the earth, conquered all the universe and they all prayed to Lord Vishnu please come and save us we lost everything we cannot worship you in this situation please we need you. There is nothing else in our life except you at this time. They were desperate, and ofcourse the rakshasha army of Hiranyakashipu they conquer all direction. The Brahmans could not perform any religious activity. Even great saints and sages to the point of Narada muni had to be the humble servant of Hiranyakashipu. And they were all crying for God Narayan save us and Prahlad maharaj is desperate condition was simply calling out:
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Lord Nrsimhadev appeared. And Lord Varahadev the same thing Hiranyaksh conquered the world, conquered the universe. Even Varuna had to give up his abode with this he subjugated all living beings and they all approach Lord Brahma praying please Lord Brahma you are our guru, you are the original spiritual master approach Vishnu and come and save because we have nothing, everything is taken away. And in any moment we will smashed and kill away by Hiranyaksh. And Lord Brahma, the spiritual master began to meditate and a little boar emanated from his nose went into the sky and came down and get great pleasure to His devotee by killing the demon reestablishing the principal of religion and of course protecting the Vaishnavas, the Brahmans, the innocent.
Similarly Lord Kurmadev when they were churning the ocean of milk with the Mandara Mountain, the mountain started to sink and crushing everyone. They were crying out Vishnu save us and then Kurma appeared as a giant turtle whose back was 800,000 miles wide to be a support of mountain. So we find in all of these great great incarnations the Lord appears when the devotees are calling out of helplessness out of dependence with great urgency. Not only this is historical but this is greatly symbolic.
Approach Krishna through Guru
It is not simply how many times we chant but the quality with which we chant. And of course through all of these wonderful wonderful appeals to the Lord we find that devotee never approaches God directly but they always approach through guru. When the demigods want to called out to Krishna in there helpless state, in there urgency they always go through the Lord Brahma, who is the guru of all the demigods. This is very instruct, whatever our situation is a like we must understand that how we are dependent on Krishna.
Glories and Prayers of Bhakti Vinod Thakur
Bhakti Vinod Thakur, he was a big big court magistrate and he was a wealthy man. He had a dozen children and he was maintaining all of them wonderfully. Some of you have one child, two children, three children and we know how difficult it is providing maintaing children. He had a dozen children, and they were all well nourished, well fed, well clothed, they all lived in a nice house. He had great recognition and prestige, power, he was healthy, he was strong, and he was learned. He had all these things but if you read the beautiful prayers he has sung. He is always crying out Krishna I am nothing with out you. This is all Maya without you. It is not that Krishna has to take everything away from him to bring him to the state simply by his good intelligence by the purity of his desire he was in the same situation. When he is chanting the beautiful prayers to Gopinath, he is just calling out; I am nothing without you my Lord. I am a victim of lust and pride and I am simply been torture by the condition of life please save me Gopinath. Please come into my life and of course he is chanting with the remembrance and grace of the spiritual master. So in this way he is showing that in every situation of life whatever we are in we must learn nothing has any meaning except it connection to Krishna. That everything is an illusion without connection to Krishna. And when we learn to call out to Krishna with this sincere approach, then Krishna advances within our heart; Krishna advances within our life. Then we can truly experience the sweetness of this holy name.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Are there any questions?
Srila Prabhupada is clearly explaining how Krishna is the supreme Bhagavan. Iswara parama Krishna …….is the supreme absolute person purushotamma and even the greatest of all personalities they are all insignificant part and parcels, the eternal servants of Jagganath, the Lord of universe. Whoever we are, whether we are Brahma, Shiva, Indra whoever we are up to that level we should always know that we are the insignificant servants of Sri Krishna. And ultimately He is the only one who can provide for us, He is the only one who can protect us. And to understand this Krishna says that this is the way to …. (unclear)
So are there any questions? Yes?
Question : Unclear
Maharaj : In the history of the children of Israel residing in the desert for 40 years, many times because of the great austerity they had doubts and they longed to return to Egypt and God became very displeased with them because they did not trust His words as He was speaking through and ultimately because they had so many times doubted. None of them were allowed entrance into the promised land; but the children were allowed entrance because they were innocent and they had no doubts. God made so many sings to reconfirm there faith and He spoke so many words through guru to them to reconfirm their faith.
So in the same way we should understand the nature of the mind of the senses just to try to find the easy way and the spiritual path is not the easy way that’s why Krishna says that out of thousands of men hardly anyone endeavors on the spiritual path; they just want to walk along the easy way surrendering to the slave mate to the mind and senses. And those who take spiritual path hardly anyone knows the truth but anyone can be that one. If they simply want it, we have to reconfirm our faith everyday by hearing that is why associating with sadhus is the first and most important principle given by every acharya and by all the scripture because the tendency of this world is to bewilder us and frustrate us. And the tendency of the mind and senses is to always lean back the attachment that we have left behind. Therefore by hearing from the sincere souls the word of God regularly which reconfirm our faith we put our mind again in the proper direction back to Krishna, and we have to practice what we hear. When we hear from the sadhus, when we hear from the shastra, when we hear from the guru, guru sadhu shastra not only to get nourishment of the fuel of our spiritual conviction but also we have a way of life to protect our faith, to protect our consciousness again merging into the shelter of worldly things. That is the way we follow the four regulative principles to keep our mind aloof from the addiction that we left behind. That is why we chant the holy name of the Lord regularly to keep our mind in connection to Krishna which gives us the strength consciousness to refrain from the temptation of this world. That is why we are told when we hear from the sadhu how to engage our mind and senses in the service of the Lord, because if the mind and senses are not engaged in the service of the Lord then they are entirely engaged in the service of Maya. Because our constitutional position is that we are a servant we cannot stop serving for a second, dharma means to serve.
There is maya dharma and sanatan dharma. If you are serving maya or you are engaged in eternal natural position of serving Krishna, but in order to have conviction to engage in devotional service to this known process it is essential that we must hear regularly in the company of devotees. You see throughout the worldliness it is a difficult situation, God is constantly speaking through…… to give them direction in faith without Him they would hopelessly lost, because in the situation of worldliness so many things were coming upon them that they did know why, why do I deserve this? We were doing for God what’s happening? Sometime diseases will come upon them, sometimes there is no water, sometimes no food, sometimes severely cold, sometimes bitterly hot, sometime it appear that they are all going to die. But in every situation God spoke through ……. to tell them what’s happening and why? It’s all after the purification all necessary. So another verse they were only able to continue their journey because they have the association of sadhu and they were hearing from him regularly and they were talking the shelter of his instruction. ‘Tad vidhi prani patena’ We approach His spiritual master, we approach His representatives, we approach the Vaishnavas, inquire submissively that means to hear, inquire doesn’t mean to ask question, if you have question you should ask, but if you have no question specifically simply to hear, just to inquire submissively and to render service that means to act upon that instruction. That is the only process which will keep our mind and senses on the spiritual path, and keep us following into the bewilderment which will naturally be prone to fall unto time to time, we have to keep holding arms. If we let go, we will drown in the ocean of illusion we have to hold on desperately by seeking out the association of devotees and hearing from them, with a very open mind and open heart longing for Krishna to enter into our mind and into our heart through a sound vibration of their words. If we long that way Krishna will enter into your heart. If we simply come to class because of scheduled time and I have to, you will get minimum benefit. But in the mood of Maharaj Parikshit, you thirst to hear about Krishna and Krishna will advent in the sound of His message.
Question : Any other question?(Unclear)
Maharaj : There were many science, one I explained when they were hungry there was food everyday, but first God spoke……… there would be and how to take it. Another time when they were all thirsty and they could not tolerate the thirst and there was no water for days and days and days, God through mouse spoke and told him that, I will hit this rock with my stick and water will come out, and He touched the rock with the stick and water came out. So many things like that, and as far as we are concerned what is the science. According to the acharyas the science of God miracles were upon us always, we simply have to open our minds to open our eyes to see the shining of the sun is not that of a shine did we create the sun? Can we create the sun? The air that we breath, the food that is provided, really God did not provide in His science anything that is basic necessary that they didn’t recognize and telling with out them, right, they had no food so they recognize when He provided food and He is providing food for us, why don’t we just recognize it?
They recognize when He provided water, when there was no water we have water, why don’t we just recognize it. If we hear how it is coming from God we will see His signs everywhere and every moment. And when we see people life being transformed from sins to Vaishnavas isn’t that a sign? Just like they ask Srila Prabhupada that can you show me a miracle? They wanted to see a sign, produce some goal, produce some ashes they wanted to see a sign make water come out of rock. Whether water comes out of rock, whether water comes out of a drinking tap, water is water. Whether you produce food from your hand or you get food from the grocery store food is food. Whether I produce gold with my bare hand gold of my……… there is no trigger or whether you go to market to get the gold, gold is gold. Prabhupad says that this signs are for less intelligent people. The children of Israel because they were so faithless they kept doubting and turning against guru and Krishna, they were less intelligent, therefore God showed these very physical signs. Srila Prabhupad said that the miracle that I want to show is through me look at this young boys and girls, a few years back they were addicted to illicit sex, intoxication, gambling, they were eating meat from the day they began their in there mothers womb. And they knew no other way they were Godless, ignorant, unclean and now they are strict purified Vaishnavas, following all the regulative principles, chanting the holy names of God and engage in devotional activities through out the day. This change of heart is supreme miracle and why don’t we just look at our own lives, how many of us were perfect even though we may not be perfect now, how much have we changed. Even here in Indian till people come to Krishna consciousness, people were smoking cigarette, taking alcohol, eating meat, doing all nonsense things watching cinema, watching television, simply performing rituals without any understanding what they are doing and when they meet a bonafide spiritual master, and they come in contact with scientist how their life get transformed is that not a miracle, is that not a sign and when we see in other, is that not a sign? The signs are there 24 hours a day but if you don’t want to see you will not see, and if you want to see you will see it everywhere Krishna’s miracle. Just like for instance Duryodhna, Krishna just entered right into his court and Duryodhna sent his soldier to arrest Him and put Him in prison and right in front of Duryodhna’s eyes Krishna manifested the universal form, did He not? He became brilliant like millions of suns, it was most miraculous thing that could possibly be seen, and that was awesome. But because Duryodhna didn’t want to see, even though it was the most incredible sign displayed right before his own eyes, he couldn’t understand what it was. He was still envious, he still wouldn’t accept Krishna, and he still wouldn’t want to be His servant and give up his manipulative mind and we find with all the great demons, Krishna warn practically all of them of His greatness by showing them signs but because of their hard hearts they couldn’t see. Krishna is showing us all signs right now, but because of our hard hearts we can’t see but if we look at this signs with a humble heart we will see them. Krishna will reveal that He is performing miracles all the times every moment, everyday.
