naite sureśā ṛṣayo na caite
tvam eva bhāsīśa bhid-āśraye ‘pi
sarvaḿ pṛthak tvaḿ nigamāt kathaḿ vadety
uktena vṛttaḿ prabhuṇā balo ‘vait
Translation
Lord Baladeva said, “O supreme controller! These boys are not great demigods, as I previously thought. Nor are these calves great sages like Nārada. Now I can see that You alone are manifesting Yourself in all varieties of difference. Although one, You are existing in different forms of the calves and boys. Please briefly explain this to Me.” Having thus been requested by Lord Baladeva, Kṛṣṇa explained the whole situation, and Baladeva understood it.
Purport
Inquiring from Kṛṣṇa about the actual situation, Lord Balarāma said, “My dear Kṛṣṇa, in the beginning I thought that all these cows, calves and cowherd boys were either great sages and saintly persons or demigods, but at the present it appears that they are actually Your expansions. They are all You; You Yourself are playing as the calves, cows and boys. What is the mystery of this situation? Where have those other calves, cows and boys gone? And why are You expanding Yourself as the cows, calves and boys? Will You kindly tell Me what is the cause?” At the request of Balarāma, Kṛṣṇa briefly explained the whole situation: how the calves and boys were stolen by Brahmā and how He was concealing the incident by expanding Himself so that people would not know that the original cows, calves and boys were missing. Balarāma understood, therefore, that this was not māyā but Kṛṣṇa’s opulence. Kṛṣṇa has all opulences, and this was but another opulence of Kṛṣṇa.
“At first,” Lord Balarāma said, “I thought that these boys and calves were a display of the power of great sages like Nārada, but now I see that all these boys and calves are You.” After inquiring from Kṛṣṇa, Lord Balarāma understood that Kṛṣṇa Himself had become many. That the Lord can do this is stated in the Brahma-saḿhitā. Advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam: although He is one, He can expand Himself in so many forms. According to the Vedic version; ekaḿ bahu syām: He can expand Himself into many thousands and millions but still remain one. In that sense, everything is spiritual because everything is an expansion of Kṛṣṇa; that is, everything is an expansion either of Kṛṣṇa Himself or of His potency. Because the potency is nondifferent from the potent, the potency and the potent are one (śakti-śaktimatayor abhedaḥ). The Māyāvādīs, however, say, cid-acit-samanvayaḥ: spirit and matter are one. This is a wrong conception. Spirit (cit) is different from matter (acit), as explained by Kṛṣṇa Himself in Bhagavad-gītā (7.4-5):
bhūmir āpo ‘nalo vāyuḥ khaḿ mano buddhir eva ca
ahańkāra itīyaḿ me bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā
apareyam itas tv anyāḿ prakṛtiḿ viddhi me parām
jīva-bhūtāḿ mahā-bāho yayedaḿ dhāryate jagat
“Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and the false ego — all together these eight comprise My separated material energies. But besides this inferior nature, O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is a superior energy of Mine, which consists of all living entities who are struggling with material nature and are sustaining the universe.” Spirit and matter cannot be made one, for actually they are superior and inferior energies, yet the Māyāvādīs, or Advaita-vādīs, try to make them one. This is wrong. Although spirit and matter ultimately come from the same one source, they cannot be made one. For example, there are many things that come from our bodies, but although they come from the same source, they cannot be made one. We should be careful to note that although the supreme source is one, the emanations from this source should be separately regarded as inferior and superior. The difference between the Māyāvāda and Vaiṣṇava philosophies is that the Vaiṣṇava philosophy recognizes this fact. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s philosophy, therefore, is called acintya-bhedābheda — simultaneous oneness and difference. For example, fire and heat cannot be separated, for where there is fire there is heat and where there is heat there is fire. Nonetheless, we cannot touch fire, heat we can tolerate. Therefore, although they are one, they are different.
Importance of Disciplic Succession:
Here we find the Supreme personality of Godhead revealing his mind to the Supreme personality of Godhead. See how wonderful the Srimad Bhagvatam is manifesting, the most illuminating subject matter. Here we find the discussion on what God is speaking to himself. Lord Balaram, the original expansion, who is the original Guru, is humbly inquiring from Krishna. This is why Balaramji is the original Guru because in this transcendental lila we find that he is humbly inquiring from Jagad Guru Krishna, which shows us very clearly that even on the highest level the bonafied spiritual master is one who is coming in his descending chain on Parampara. In fact Srila Rupa Goswami explains that whatever mantra, whatever knowledge we get, if it is not coming from the authorized parampara it will not have that transcendental potency to deliver our hearts and that is why the great acharyas stress this system of parampara very very much. That whoever claims to be Guru must be one who has submissively inquired and rendered service to that Guru who is representing Sri Krishna in Disciplic succession. If someone is not, they may have great power, they may have great knowledge, they may have extra ordinary characteristics but the intimate grace of God which surcharges the soul and invokes pure Bhakti; unalloyed service, is coming through those humble saintly persons who are receiving and delivering the message of disciplic succession.
Mood of the Original Spiritual master:
So Balaramji is inquiring, “O Supreme controller” although Balaram is the Supreme controller in the role that we perceive him as original spiritual master, he is accepting Krishna as the Supreme controller. That is why we call him the original spiritual master. Spiritual master never claims to be God. Spiritual master claims to be the servant of God always eternally. Now-a-days it is a fashion for so called Spiritual masters to claim the position that they are God, that they are the incarnations of Krishna. That means they are putting themselves in a higher position than Balaram. Can you imagine? Balaram himself is accepting himself as a servant and accepting Krishna as the Supreme controller. Lord Nityananda, Balaramji, in his most merciful expansion, in his most merciful manifestation as the associate of Sri Chaitanya was also like this although, he was the Supreme Personality of Godhead with all opulences in full. Balaramji as the original spiritual master never told people to worship Him.
bhaja gauranga kaha gauranga
laha gaurangera name
ye jana gauranga bhaje
sei amara prana re
Wherever you chant the name of Gauranga, remember Gauranga, serve Gauranga and anyone of you who does this becomes my life and soul. This is the mood of a real Vaishnava. Simply trying to bring everyone to Krishna and anyone who takes to Krishna consiouness becomes the life and soul of a real Vaishnava. This is love. The spiritual master sees every disciple as his life and soul. Each God brother sees other God brothers, God sisters as their life and soul. This is the mood of Nityananda Prabhu. That anyone who takes to the mercy of Sri Gaur Hari, anyone who chants his name, remembers him and worships him becomes our life and soul. Nityananda never said worship me, I am God although he was the source of all other incarnations, all the ten avatars except Krishna Himself. The Purusha avatars – Karanodakshyai Vishnu, Garbodakshyai Vishnu, Ksirodakshyai Vishnu, Narayan of Vaikuntha, Shankarshan, Aniruddha, Vasudev, Pradyumna all of these most great powerful manifestations of God are all emanations from Balaram and yet Balaram is approaching Krishna as Supreme controller, acting as his servant. And similarly when Nityananda Prabhu appeared with Sri Ram as Laxman, what was his role then? Servant. Laxman never wanted glory or credit, he just wanted to serve. You are the Supreme controller Ram, you are my Lord, you are my life. This is why Balaram is called the original spiritual master because He is the Supreme Personality of Servitor Godhead. He is always immersed in devotional service to Krishna. In this way, although we are insignificant Jiva tattva’s, we gain some powers, some knowledge and we start claiming that I am God. I am that person, that Balaram, that Lord Laxman, that Lord Nityananda is worshipping. This is ridiculous.
The most complete explanation of the absolute truth – achintya abeda abheda tattva:
Therefore the real acharyas, their life, their soul is simply to glorify Krishna, to glorify the supreme personality of Godhead. So Balaramji here is inquiring from Krishna and it is explained that, Krishna explains to him and He understood it. And what is this that is been inquired? “My dear Krishna, at first perhaps I was thinking that these may be great mystic yogis or may be demigods or may be even demons” indicating that Yogis, demons and demigods, they can perform all wonderful mystic feats. But Balaram explained, “I can’t believe it could be them because they could not bewilder me. I can see through all these people. Therefore it must be You. How is it that you are manifesting yourself in so many expansions and remain one? Srila Prabhupada is explaining this is a very essential difference between the Advaita philosophy and the Vaishnava philosophy which is very important to understand. Because in many cases people appear to be Vaishnavas, people appear to be worshipping Radha and Krishna or Sita Ram or Laxmi Narayan and they perform puja and they chant japa and they have kirtan and bhajan. It is just like what we are doing. But in the final analysis they are Brahmavads or Mayavads. In the sense, that they do not have the information and the understanding that although God is one, He can expand himself infinitely and still remain one as the source. But the manifestations and the expansions eternally remain simultaneously inconceivably one and different. To say that God is the one source of everything “aham brahmasmi” everything is Brahman, I am Brahman. That is true. But do not understand the eternal differentiation is only partial understanding.
This material world is material energy it is coming from Krishna. Krishna is the source. Therefore it is Krishna but it is not Krishna. This is Vaishnava philosophy. It is Krishna because it is all composed of what is coming from Krishna. There is no element separate from Krishna. But at the sametime it is an emanation, it is not the source of the emanation. Srila Prabhupada is using the example that there is fire and heat they are inseparable. They are one but they are different. When it is cold out you like to come very close to the heat. The heat gives you warmth. But if you touch the fire you will be burnt. In the Northern countries houses are heated and when it is very very cold in the winter everyone loves the feeling of heat. The whole house is just filled with heat. When the house if just filled with heat it becomes such a wonderful place to be. But if what the house is filled with fire? It’s not a very wonderful place to be. People evacuate and the fire department comes and they try to put it out. So there is difference between fire and heat there is a difference between the energy and the energetic source. Similarly the sun, the sun rays are everywhere and giving us wonderful heat but the sun planets still remain separate; one and different. The philosophy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu “achintya abeda abheda tattva”. According to the Shastras is the most complete explanation of the absolute truth.
The perfection of self-realization – through Bhakti:
The Jivatma is Krishna, is sat-cit-ananda vigraha. So the advaitavads, they consider if the jivatma is Krishna there is no difference. We are God. We are the supreme enjoyer and this material universe it is all God. Everything is God. We will serve and we will perform our pooja and we will chant the holy names to purify our consciousness, to realize this oneness that there is no differentiation on the absolute platform. Differentiation can only take place in the realm of illusion. Therefore the spirit of eternal servitor ship cannot be within such a philosophy, such a way of thinking. Jivera svarupapoir Krishnair nitya das. The Vasihnavas they are aspiring for eternal service because they understand the supreme truth is although the jivatama is emanating from the paramatma it eternally remains a separate individual entity as an eternal servant. Eternally a fragmental part.
mamaivāmśo jīva-loke
jīva-bhūta sanātana
manasasthānīndriyāni
prakrti-sthāni karsati
And for that eternal part to revive its natural relationship with its source, that is the perfection of self-realization. And that can only be accomplished through the process of Bhakti. Through other processes of Yoga, we can understand the Supreme oneness of everything which is a part realization. We can understand many many deep esoteric truths of this material existence and various concepts of spiritual reality but to enter in to the eternal constitutional position of the soul can only be accomplished through Bhakti.
bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ.
bhaktyā tv ananyayā śakya
aham evam-vidho ‘rjuna
jñātum drastum ca tattvena
pravestum ca parantapa
Because it is only through process of Bhakti the linking process of devotional service that there is the true understanding and the true aspiration to enter in to the realm of eternal servitorship.
ye yathā mām prapadyante
tāms tathaiva bhajāmy aham
mama vartmānuvartante
manusyām pārtha sarvaśa
Krishna says as you approach me I reward you accordingly. If we approach Krishna as the Supreme master, the Supreme Lord or Supreme worshippable object and that we are eternally his servant and aspiring only for the service of his servants of his servants of his servants, through that process Krishna reveals himself as the Supreme personality of Godhead. Through all other processes he reveals himself through various less inclusive manifestations who will not reciprocate divine love.
The past time that narrates spiritual exchange of divine love & of complete surrender:
How wonderful it is here to see in the pure spiritual abode of Vrindavan, Krishna has become each cowherd boy, each calf and whatever Krishna does is perfect and complete from every point of view. One of the opulences of Krishna is he can perfectly fulfill many purposes through one action. Even in this material world, a person who can do this is considered a very great person. You can do one thing and perfectly fulfill many many different purposes. So here we find the Gopi’s, they are praying to Goddess Katyayani Durgadevi. We want Krishna as our husband. Not only do they want Krishna as their husband but they are willing to do great tapasya to have him. They fasted for one full month ‘Katyayani vrata’ – where they went to the bank of Yamuna and they worship the murti of Katyayani and during this time they were praying, “Please Goddess we want to serve Krishna as our husband because you see the wife has such a wonderful opportunity that really she can abandon every other responsibility and just can put her full concentrated attention on serving her husband. So this is why the Gopi’s wanted this relationship with Krishna because there would be no one else in their life on any level. They could just give one hundred percent of all their time and energy simply for the pleasure of Krishna. This is their desire. So for this reason they wanted this relationship with Krishna. They fasted on this type of Kichri without salt, without spices once a day. To this day Gaudiya Vaishnavas often times when they go to a holy place like Vrindavan and they make a vow not to travel, not to go anywhere for the chaturmasya and they follow in the footsteps of Gopi’s and they just take once a day little bit of this unspiced unsalted rice boiled in Moong beans.
At the end of that month, Krishna wanted to fulfill their desire. You have been to Chir Ghat on the bank of Yamuna and there when the Gopi’s were bathing with their clothes on the banks of Yamuna, Krishna came and he stole their clothes. He stole their clothes and climbed up that Kadamba tree and then he called out to them, “Gopi’s you want your clothes, you come get them. You must come with folded palms and one by one I will give them”. “But we are without any clothes? This is not proper. How can we come before you naked?” Krishna said if you want your clothes, this is the only way you can get your clothes. “We will tell Nanda Maharaj or may be we will report this misbehavior to Kamsa”. “Nanda Maharaj, he is an old man, what can he do to me?” By this time they were very cold and it was becoming late. They repeatedly requested Krishna. They were having wonderful dialog for long time. Dialog of love. So finally they realized that there is no possibility of convincing Krishna. So we might as well go out and get our clothes. But as shy young girls they were using their hands as clothes. But Krishna did not like that. So he said to them, do you know Varuna the God of the water? He is been offended. You have been exposing naked bodies to him in his waters and their will be very bad reaction, unless you offer your obeisances to Varuna by putting your hands folded above your head like this. So they were so innocent and simple they immediately, “Oh Varuna dev” then Krishna was very happy. In Vrindavan these people go to these trees and they like to hang clothes on that tree and what it really means is that the soul is now covered by the dress of the false ego, the mind, the intelligence and earth, water, fire, air and ether. To give up your false ego automatically and give up all the other dresses. But if you keep your false ego automatically you must be dressed and covered by all of these other material ingredients. Therefore what this symbolizes is that the Gopi’s renounced, they gave up all separate desire, they gave up all egoistic conceptions to let their souls shine naked before God to enjoy. It has nothing to do with material lusty activities, this is a pure spiritual exchange of divine love, of complete surrender, of giving of one’s heart and one’s soul but it is manifesting and expressing through this wonderful pastime.
Multi-tasking Krishna’s style:
So in this way it is said that a woman is never before anyone accept her husband without clothes. Now I personally don’t have any experience of these matters. But this is what scriptures say. So in this way, Krishna accepted the Gopi’s as his wife each and every one of them. But still that satisfied them temporarily because they had to go home. So by Krishna manifesting himself as all the cowherd boys, as has been explained that year, Krishna convinced Nanda Maharaj to have all the Gopi’s married to cowherd boys and in this way all those cowherd girls who worshipped Katyayani literally got to marry Krishna. Although they didn’t even know he was Krishna, they just taught he was Abhimanyu or some other cowherd person subal, some other cowherd boy but actually it was Krishna and they loved their husbands as they loved Krishna. So this is one way Krishna fulfilled all the desires of the Gopi’s at the same time all the motherly Gopi’s, the older Gopi’s and the older Gopas they loved Krishna so much they were so happy just assisting Nanda and Yashoda in their service to Krishna. They loved Krishna as their own son. So Krishna allowed each older cowherd men and cowherd women to have the loving exchanges of directly being the father and mother of Krishna. So he fulfilled all their desires ultimately completely. And all the cows, the older cows, their life and soul, their everything is only Krishna. How much they longed to just give everything to Krishna. So they were allowed to have Krishna personally as their own calf and exchange that same ecstasy of love 24 hours a day. So in this way Krishna fulfilled desires of everyone in Vrindavan in full. This is perfect and complete and at the same time, to Brahma on another level and to all living entities for all time to come he wanted to teach a lesson, that however great you may be, we may have a family, we may have a few workers under us, we may have some factories or we may have an office or we may have little piece of floor in Brahmachari ashram, we all have our domains. We have not seen Hridyananda, we have tattvas Sanat kumar everyone has their bed. One has a big nice house, hundreds of factories, thousands of workers. The other has little piece of floor space and bead bag and a coupon.
Brahma bewildered:
But everyone is a controller to some extent. We all are controllers of something. Brahma he is the Supreme controller of this universe. He controls over demigods. We may have good manager we think oh I have a good manager. But Brahma has people like Indra and Vayu and Varuna under him they are good managers, very top managers. He is the boss. Not only does he have a nice house, he has Brahmaloka. In Brahmaloka he lives for the expanse of the entire creation, such a long life. He has such beauty. He has such power. He never grows old. He never gets diseased, he never has to see doctors and he lives in this Brhamaloka and we read in Bhagavtam discriptions of Brahamaloka; the most fabulous, incredible wealth in all of creation. Even Indra’s palace is nothing significant compared to the abode of Brahma. What to speak of anything in this earth planet. So here he is controlling all the affairs of this material universe not just the world but the universe. With all of his deputed agents in all various parts of the universe. Sometimes we are proud we have nice family big family. We like to have grandchildren, great grandchildren, we think Oh! If I can live to have great grandchildren then I am very successful in life. But Brahma he has great great great great we can’t even say how many greats greats, greats he has as far as grandchildren goes. We are all within this universe his great great great etc grandchildren. Such a successful powerful controller, so wealthy, such a family, such potency and yet Krishna wanted to show Brahma that before him in reality Brahma is nothing. All big great people in whatever circles of society they may be in, they like to demonstrate their prowess. They like people to know who they are? What they have? What they can do? Their influence. So Brahma wanted to do like this. He wanted to show all the other demigods, he wanted to show everybody what I can do? He stole all the calfs, all the cows, that’s one reason. Another reason, he just wanted to know what is this Krishna? Who is he? But then what Krishna did is he expanded himself as all these cows and calfs and cowherd boys. And we are about to read tomorrow when Brahma came back to see what kind of mischief he is done. He wanted to see through his prowess and influence what he had? How much anxiety he had put others in to? What type of phenomena was taking place under his control? He saw that nothing changed. And then ultimately he was bewildered.
Brahma’s realization:
Brahma wondered, did they leave they cave where they were sleeping or not. He went back to the cave and then back. No they are still here. Going back and forth he was completely bewildered, he could not figure it out? And ultimately when Krishna revealed what had been done then Brahma understood. In the darkness of ignorance, a fire fly thinks that he is giving off a lot of light. Other fireflies think Oh! This firefly is giving off a lot of light. All the other insects in the sky, the mosquitoes they look at the firefly and say oh just see it lights up the sky. And the firefly is thinking, “Yes! Yes! See the power I have”. See what I can do? Brahma said, “I am like that firefly and you are like the sun. In the darkness of my ignorance, I was thinking, I am very powerful, I am a controller, I am influential, I am doing so much but when the sun of your divine mercy rises then I realize that what is a firefly next to the sun? Insignificant”. Srila Prabhupada, when one of his very foremost disciples said, “Prabhupada, I am the most fallen” and he was thinking Prabhupada would be very pleased with him for saying like this and Srila Prabhupada could understand that this is an another type of ego. He said, “You are not the most anything”. This was Brahma’s realization that he was not the most anything. He was simply insignificant that’s all. Having realized this he said, “Krishna you are supremely significant, therefore I surrender to you, wholesale surrender”. That means we don’t keep anything back everything is Krishna’s. Whatever power we have, whatever influence we have, whatever energy we have, whatever we are, it is Krishna’s. It is Krishna’s grace, it is Krishna’s mercy.
Ideal understanding and response to one’s praises:
Yesterday someone was asking me after the class how is it that if someone praises you and says nice things about you, what should you be feeling? And how should you express yourself? If someone says you are so wonderful and you have done this and that then we should simply be truthful. We should simply be honest that, I didn’t do it. It is not my doing, it is by the mercy of Krishna and mercy of Gurudev that it is been done. That is true humility to simply give credit where credit is due. If God does something and you take credit for it, you are lying. He said I have done this. You are a liar. You are rascal. You didn’t do it, God did it. God did it through you. That is his mercy that he has chosen you that, he has allowed you this service, that is his causeless mercy and it is Guru’s mercy that the service you are rendering is vowed to be connected back to God. So this is real humility. Just to be honest. “O! Sanat Kumar, you have so brilliantly organized the permits for the Janmastami festival”. “Yes yes, I have a degree in law and therefore I am qualified”. He will never hear him saying like this. He will say, “No no, Krishna has done it. Gurdev has done it. I am just so fortunate to be part of all of this”. If someone says, “Ah! Devmarita you are such a good temple president look how nice orgainized people are and everyone is coming and they are so happy to be at this temple”. “Yes yes, I resign from the standard chartered bank with all qualifications therefore yes I am a proper president. I have master’s degree; I am coming from Saraswat Brahman family. Yes of course what do you expect from someone like me”. You will not hear him saying like this. You will hear, “No no, it is all Guru’s work, it is all God’s work, I cannot even open my eyes, I cannot even make my heart beat without their mercy. We cannot breathe without their mercy. It is all their work; I am just so caught, so fortunate to receive their causeless mercy, that I am allowed to be part of all of this”.
Srinathji, he is the managing trustee of the Lady North Orphanage. “Yes, by my mercy you are here. I have manipulated things in such a way because after all, my father was a great business magnet and I have lot’s of influence, lot’s of everything and therefore who else could be a better managing trustee than me?” No he will not say like this. “It is all Guru and Krishna’s mercy. They are so loving and kind and causeless that they are allowing me to be a part of all this. They are allowing me to do some service in this wonderful mission”. Shigalim, is writing so many wonderful books. “Yes, of course I am literary man. I have read so many thousands of scriptures, so I am qualified”. Never will the Vaishnava think like this. That it is by the mercy of Gurudev, that I am allowed to repeat his words under this paper. Every Vaishnava should take the example of Lord Brahma in this story. That whoever we are, however great we may be, before God we are insignificant. And Lord Brahma when he realized his insignificant position, he gave up all his idea that I am controller, I am the master, I am the Lord and he simply became the humble servant of the servant. It is this Brahma who has humbly heard from Gurudev Sri Krishna and who is always selflessly executing the order of Sri Krishna, this concept that we worship as the original Guru of our Sampradaya. So in this way, Krishna has revealed to the whole world because everyone likes to think that look what I have done? Look who I am? So Krishna wanted to take the topmost as an example for all the rest of us for what we all are in relationship to God. To be Krishna conscious means to be conscious of our relationship with Krishna. So how wonderful, how Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. How he could simultaneously curb the pride of Brahma, give the supermost instruction to all living entities who want to aspire on the path of Bhakti for all time to come and at the sametime fulfill all the innermost desires of the Gopi’s who performed tapasya to the cowherd boys, to the cowherd ladies, to the cowherd men everyone. Krishna in this pastime, is serving, every possible purpose for everyone but he serves another purpose by acting in such a way that is so attractive that ultimately anyone who hears this story with a submissive heart, the natural love of our heart will be drawn closer and closer and closer to the lotus feet of Krishna.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare,
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Question and Answer session:
Question: Considerthe relationship between the spiritual master and the disciple, in which the spiritual master gives his causeless mercy to the disciple and he get’s the full nectar by the causeless mercy of the spiritual master. Now after the process, if the disciple due to his past conditioning or due to his bad association or something falls down or something goes wrong with him, then after that what will be the attitude of the Spiritual master for the disciple? Will he try to reject him or what will he do or how to see to it that the disciple again gets the same causeless mercy as he was getting before?
Answer: Due to previous conditioning if a disciple falls prey to sinful activities once again and thus leaves the association of devotees to aspire for sense gratification, the Spiritual master who cried within his heart and sometimes with his eyes will cry for that disciple, pray for that disciple and pray that by Krishna’s grace he will learn his lesson and come back. As soon as that disciple comes back with jubilation the Guru will just embrace that disciple and say welcome home. Just like for instance one wonderful devotee he helped Prabhupada in many ways, in the very beginning of the movement but he left for some time. While he was out Prabhupada was always praying, he was always asking for his welfare. He was always trying to bring him back because he had a sincere and faithful heart to his Guru but he was just overwhelmed by the modes of material nature. Hayagriva was one such devotee who left for some time because of his previous conditioning for some inconceivable reason. He was Prabhupada disciple and Prabhupada was always asking about Hayagriva. When will he come back? He would repent that his poor Hayagriva could not control his senses. But there was yet another disciple who came to Prabhupada and asked Prabhupada for permission to go to another Guru who is teaching something higher than Prabhupada was. Prabhupada said, “I give you my permission to go to hell. Because this offense is so bad, Krishna’s going to send you to hell and I can’t stop you”. Prabhupada encouraged all the devotees to try and to bring Hayagriva back while for this person he said not to go near him as he was a black snake. Therefore it depends on how a devotee goes away. If a devotee goes away in humble spirit, the Guru will always be right there with love and devotion trying to bring him back. But if out of pride we become unchaste, unfaithful and offensive towards the Spiritual master, Prabhupada said the relationship is finished there is no more connection of Guru Disciple. Even though Hayagriva was gone for many years the connection of Guru Disciple was still intact hundred percent. But with this other man there was no more connection. I didn’t break it Prabhupada had said he has broken it. So as long as we are faithful in our hearts, however fallen we may be, the Guru simply cries and prays, trying to bring us back. But if we leave in an offensive way, minimizing the position of the Guru Parampara, then by doing that we cancel the contract, we break the relation and there is nothing there anymore.
Question: Maharaj this is in reference to Krishna and Krishna’s holy name. We often hear that there is no difference between Krishna the person; the Supreme Personlity of Godhead and Krishna’s name? Now my question is this that we know Krishna is full of six opulences unlimitedly and also he is full in 64 qualities as stated in Bhakti rasamrita sindhu particularly last four qualities nobody else has. In which way would Lord Krishna’s name have the same last four qualities and these six opulences, I am not clear on that?
Answer: Krishna is non-different than his name in all respects. All of the 64 opulences are fully contained within the name of Krishna. The name of Krishna is identical to Krishna himself and that is why there are many names of God. And all the names of God are one. They are all absolute but this is how we understand what is said in the Chaitanya Charitamrita that a thousand names of Vishnu is equal to one name of Ram and three names of Ram is equal to one name of Krishna but they are all infinite. And what’s three times infinity? What’s thousand times infinity? It’s all infinity? So from the absolute point of view they are all one. But from the point of view of Rasa within that absolute realm, there is a difference between the name of Vishnu, the name of Ram, the name of Krishna, name of Allah, the name of Jehovah and the name of Christ. They are all absolute, they are all transcendental and they can all bring us beyond the material realm to Vaikuntha, to the name Om, to the Spiritual stratum. But still the name of God possesses in full the particular rasa of that particular conception of God. So the name of Krishna possess in full his naam, rup , guna, lila and jana. Jana means the devotees like Vishnujan, Krishnajan, etc. So in this way the name Krishna possesses the beauty of his form, which is rupa, his unparallel qualities, characteristic guna which includes the playing of his flute and jana his devotees, the unparallel unpresidented rasas in relationsip that Krishna has with his devotees and what else his lila; the sweetness and wonder of his lila. So all of these four opulences, that Rupa Goswami explains, that not even Narayan possess are all fully contained within the name of Krishna. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. And therefore we encourage all people of all religions to chant any names of God. But still we understand that even on the absolute realm there is simultaneous oneness and difference. Therefore the devotees are very much attached and attracted to the names of Radha Krishna. Also the dham of Krishna is fully contained within his name. Within the name of Krishna the whole of Vrindavan is contained, everything is in the name of Krishna and if we chant as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has taught us,
trnād api su-nīcena
taror iva sahisnunā
amāninā māna-dena
kīrtanīya sadā hari
When we chant in that spirit, then all the opulences of the name are revealed to us according to the jivas capacity to perceive.
Question: Maharaj you said that in different sampradayas people followed different norms right from chanting the names of God to deity worship. You just explained the potency of chanting Lord’s name. There are many people who chant the Lord’s holy names but still they are on Advaita or Mayavadi path. Does that mean chanting of the name itself is not enough to purify one person?
Answer: The name reveals according to how we approach the holy name. Krishna is also in the deity. Some people see the deity as stone some see the deity as God. Only if you approach the name with proper service attitude will you understand the true essence of the name. If you approach the name as something material the name will just be so. Gradually it will purify him very very slowly and gradually. But according to your service attitude the name reveals its true opulence. The name approaches you and reveals itself according to how you approach him. We are chanting the holy names unconsciously without proper spiritual training then the holy name will just appear like some mundane word. If you are really trying to be attentive and really trying to be good servant then you will actually start to feel the sweetness in the spirituality of Krishna’s name.
