By that confidential knowledge, I could understand clearly the influence of the energy of Lord Sri Krishna, the creator, maintainer and annihilator of everything. By knowing that one can return to Him and personally meet with Him.
By devotional service or by the most confidential knowledge, one can understand very easily how the different energies of the Lord are working. One part of energy is manifesting the material world. The other superior part of His energy is manifesting the spiritual world and the medium energy is manifesting the living entities, who are serving either of the above mentioned energies.The living entities serving material energy are struggling hard for existence and happiness which is presented to them as illusion, but those who are in spiritual energy are placed under the direct service of the Lord, in eternal life, complete knowledge and perpetual bliss. The Lord desire as is directly said in the Bhagavad Gita that all conditioned souls rotting in the kingdom of material energy come back to Him by giving up all engagements in the material world. This is the most confidential part of knowledge, but this can be understood only by pure devotees and only such devotees enter the kingdom of God to see Him personally and serve Him personally. The concrete example is Narada himself, who attained the stage of eternal knowledge and eternal bliss and the ways and means are open to all, provided one agrees to follow in the footsteps of Sri Narada Muni. According to Shruti, the Supreme Lord has unlimited energies without effort by Him, and these are described under three principal headings as above mentioned.
We are reading this evening from the Srimad Bhagavatam, in which Narada Muni is explaining to his disciple Srila VedaVyasa, how he came to Krishna consciousness as a small child, the son of a maidservant. He had the good fortune of associating with devotees. In that association he would regularly hear what he is describing as the most confidential knowledge.
There are two types of knowledge as Krishna explains in Gita, gyan vigyan tripta atma There is the
confidential knowledge of the absolute truth, which is theoretical, which we hear and which can only be properly received from those genuine devotees who are humble in spirit and who have submissively heard themselves from great Acaryas of a proper disciplic succession of Parampara and who simply repeat that message as a deliverer of the truth, not desiring anything for themselves but simply offering the highest gift for the benefit of other living beings. One who has these attributes can actually and truly deliver the truth.
A professional reciter or a person who has ulterior motives may speak very specifically through quotations, the scriptures, verses, with so many elaborate explanations, But unless they an genuinely blessed by the great souls to deliver this message with humility and devotion, the potency of that transcendental knowledge cannot be disseminated and in order to realize the truth we must engage in the application of that knowledge which is, humble service, for the pleasure of Krishna; and for the pleasure of His devotees,
One who wants to know the truth must hear submissively from a genuine spiritual master and then must render service.
So Sri Narada Rsi is here describing how he heard that confidential knowledge but along with hearing
from them he became their menial servant. In fact he became the servant of the servant because it was his mother who was directly serving them and he was simply assisting his mother in their service and by performing this act he pleased them and when you please a great devotee of the Lord, that devotee becomes favorably disposed towards you.
That is really the meaning of a blessing. Sometimes people approach a sadhu and say, ‘Please give me
your blessings’ and they expect some mechanical process by which that sadhu release some energy from his palm into your head and then all of their bills are paid and your wife gets along with you and you become healthy from all your diseases and everything is just according to the way you like it. We think that is blessing. But that is something cheap.
When we get the favors of a sadhu, by pleasing that sadhu through our humble efforts, that disposition of being pleased upon you is really the blessing of the sadhu. ‘yasya prasada bhagavd prasado yasya prasada na gati kuto pi’ – When you please the sadhu you please Krishna ‘sadhavo hrdayam mahyam sadhunam hrdayam tv aham mad-anyat te na jananti naham tebhyo manag api’ . Krishna says that the sadhu, has given up everything for me, therefore I am willing to give up everything for him. The sadhu only knows me, therefore I only know my devotee. Krishna also says in the Gita, “vedaha samatitani vartamanani carjuna bhavisyani ca bhutani mam tu veda na kascana”. He says, I know all that has happened in the past, all which is happening in the present, and all things that are yet come. I also know all living beings, past, present and future.
So on one hand Krishna is saying, He knows everything and everyone at all times and another place Krishna is saying: “I only know my devotee; I only know the sadhu.” What does the mean? Is this an apparent contradiction? Krishna knows everything, everywhere, but He only want to know; He is only favorably knowing and pleasingly knowing to His devotee, who is always thinking of Him and is doing everything for Him, And by pleasing such a devotee we please Krishna and by displeasing such a devotee we displease Krishna.
So to actually receive the blessing of a sadhu, the sadhu has nothing to give you of himself; his blessing is when he delivers the mercy of Krishna to you. Because after all Krishna is the source of everything. A real Sadhu is simply surrendered to Krishna and is simply Krishna’s agent delivering His mercy, and when we please him and when he is favorably disposed towardsus then automatically Krishna is pleased and Krishna’s supreme most blessing and mercy comes through that person into our lives. And sometimes that blessing will fulfill all of our desires and sometimes that blessing will frustrate all of our desires. Because a real sadhu, he does not appear in this world to fulfill our material desires by which we become further entangled in attachment and bondage. Srila Prabhupada said, sadhu means to cut. It doesn’t mean that he just cuts jokes or just chops everybody up with harsh words. It means whatever he says, through his encouraging sweet words or through his chastising words, whatever it is only meant to cut us free from material bondage, by keeping us closer to Krishna.
So the blessing of a great soul sometimes causes chaos in our material life and sometimes it may create all prosperity, whatever is best for us and who is the decision maker? Not the sadhu, but Krishna. The sadhu simply offers us his prayers and his good feelings and through that Krishna comes through. In this case Sri Narada Muni is explaining that he was a little child and he heard from these great saints and because he rendered humble service to them and not only that but he took the maha maha Prasad that was on their plates and with permission he ate it. And that humble activity of taking the remnants of great souls and hearing from them and serving them, he became so much blessed by Krishna. And what was the sign of that blessing? That in his heart awakened a very very deep intense desire to surrender to Krishna, to offer his life to Krishna, awakened within his heart a thirst, an unquenchable thirst for Krishna’s love.
But then part two of that blessing is his mother went out to milk a cow and she was struck by a serpent and she died. And she was a widow and he was the only son and they were living in the forest. So who was there to take care of him? He was a small child and now he was without father, without a mother, without any aunties or uncles. He was alone and he had no money and he had no home, he had nothing! Is this the type of blessing that you ask for? Hari Bol!
Narada, this small child, he did not ask for that; he just asked, “Krishna. I am yours. Do the needful.” And when all this took place around him he became ecstatic. We can assume the naturally he felt very sad that he was losing the association of his mother, because from the material point of view she was providing everything. She was so kind, and from the spiritual point of view it was through her that he received the blessings of all these great Bhaktivedantas, his great devotees. So there was such an obligation but yet Narada understood that his mother had received special mercy; that she was certainly going to a higher destination, but simultaneously he was free. He had no longer any material obligations. He could dedicate his full concentration without any second thought and searching for Krishna and that he did. He searched through towns, through village through cities, through agricultural fields, through forests, deeper and deeper and deeper into the forest. He was experiencing so many of the varieties of this world and seeing the various forms of the Lord’s energy and everything he was seeing and everything he was hearing was only confirming the confidential knowledge that he heard from the great devotees and throughout every part of his life he was deepening and deepening his realizations and this should be also our aim in whatever we do to deepen our realizations.
Whether we are in a family with a wife, or husband, children or with job or whether we are Bramhacharis living in a temple or whether we are Sannyasis living in a forest, whatever ourparticular occupation may be or status of life, we should always be seeking through our endeavor deeper, more sublime realizations of Krishna consciousness and that is possible if we have strong sadhana, if we have pure association. It gives us a foundation of spiritual stability by which we can keep Krishna always in the forefront of all our endeavors and this is required. He was a small child, but how he persevered, how much determination, and ultimately he received the darshan of Lord Narayana and Lord Narayana gave him a brief darshan only to increase the intensity of his lobham, of his greed, of his hankering for Krishna and only for Krishna. We must cultivate this type of hankering for Krishna.
It is explained that one who attains the Brahman platform, the spiritual platform, such a person hankers for nothing and laments for nothing. But then the next part of the verse is – “and this state he engages in devotional service”. You cannot engage in devotional service unless you are motivated. That means to the degree we are intensely greedy for Krishna to that degree we lose all greed for the selfish pleasures of this world.
Therefore we must simultaneously fix our mind on Krishna by chanting His holy names.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare And by hearing His message from Bhagavad Gita. His glories from Srimad Bhagavatam, Caitanya Caritamrita and other such scriptures; by engaging in the nine processes of devotional service; and simultaneously we must restrain our senses from those activities which a unfavorable for the discharge of devotional service. But if we are engaging our senses in the purifying acts of Bhakti, automatically our senses are restrained from materialistic activities.
So therefore, the secret of success for spiritual progress is to always be busy, always be engaged in Krishna conscious or devotional activities. Because the idle mind is a devil’s workshop. Another words if we give Maya a moment, she will take us away for that moment and one moment always leads to another moment. And if you are not giving your consciousness, if you are not giving your God given energies to Krishna, in the service of Krishna, then that moment will be stolen by Maya.It is not that you can keep it somewhere. It is not that you can give your moments of your life to a bank, to save for you for another time, because every moment is being lost. Immediately as a moment comes it is lost and it comes and it is lost and you cannot buy back one of those moments for all the wealth in the world.
Whether you are a multi billionaire or you are a peasant on the street, we all have the wealth of time and each moment is being taken away. And who is it being taken away by? Where is it going?That is the question. Either it is going to Krishna or it is going to Maya. It is not going nowhere. It is one of the two. So how are you utilizing your moments? That is the sign of intelligence. How we utilize each moment of our life. They are so precious.
To understand what is the material energy and what is the spiritual energy and what is the marginal energy, which is the position of the soul, the jivatma, the source of life within everyone’s body. It is explained here by Srila Prabhupada that the jivatma is the marginal energy. That means it is always situated in a place called the tatastha sakti which is between the material energy and the spiritual energy, and when we completely take shelter of the spiritual energy in full pure consciousness, we become eternally immersed in the spiritual conception of life and that is called Vaikuntha or for the Gaudiya Vaishnavas, our supreme aim is Goloka Vrindavan, the eternal abode of the Lord. And when we turn our attention away from that spiritual energy, then we are captured by the material energy of Maya, the material existence; and we are bound by the three modes of material nature, and forced by those ropes to act in so many ways that further bind us and complicate and implicate us.
So we must learn this confidential knowledge, so we know what is to be done and what is not to be done. But then we must apply it to our lives, moment after moment. So Sri Narada here is explaining that after the Lord appeared to him and disappeared, it increased his desire for Krishna consciousness and for Krishna’s service and he spontaneously spent the rest of his life longing for Krishna and in his next birth he became the son of Brahma, the great saint and Rsi Narada, muni who was instructed by his father in all transcendental subject matters and then spends the rest of his eternal life simply travelling from place to place, enlightening all other beings who will accept his transcendental message. He instructed Pralhada and Dhruva. Pralhada, when he was just in the womb of his mother, Dhruva when he was only five years old. He instructed Valmiki Muni who was a hunter and Mrigrari, who was a terrible terrible murderer and by his divine association, by his humble service they all became purified. They all became Paramhamsas, liberated devotees of the Lord. He is explaining here in this verse that when we understand this confidential knowledge, when we understand the energies of the Lord and how to always think of Krishna and engage in his service, then without a doubt, Krishna Himself, who is the creator, maintainer and annihilator of everything, He will take us back to Him and we will personally meet Him and that is the Supreme perfection of life. And we must always strive for that perfection.
Of course there are so many alternatives that the world will offer us but as we saw in the play last night conducted by Tattva and Priyavrata and Nimai and Arjuna; Dronacharya he had all of the Kurus and the Pandavas as his disciples. He was teaching them the martial arts and all of the sciences connected to that and he wanted to teach them a particular lesson which was essential; the message of one-pointedness.
Krishna says in the Gita,
That those who are on this path, the path of truth, they are resolute in determination and their aim is one. Those whose minds are irresolute, their intelligence become many branched.
So Drona he had made a clay model of a bird and he had placed it in the tree and first he asked Duryodhana, “I want you to shoot your arrow through the eye of that bird”. Duryodhana said, “Yes”.
He said, “Aim”. He asked, “What do you see?” “I see the eye of the bird. “Do you see anything else?” “I see the bird; I see all its feathers. I see the forest and the tree and all the fruits and the berries and everything else.” He said, “You go away. You are not fit to shoot”. And then he called so many others. He called Yudhishthir Maharaja. He called Bhima, Nakula, Sahadeva. “What do you see?” Yudhishthir said, “I see the eye of the bird”. “Do you see anything else?” “I see the head of the bird.” “Then you go away.” And then Arjuna stepped forward and he aimed his arrow and Drona said, “What do you see?”. He said, “I see the eye of the bird”. He said, “What else do you see?”. He said, “Master, I see nothing else except that eye, because you told me to aim for the eye of the bird.” Hari Bol Hari Bol! Hari Bol!
And Drona replied, “Shoot Arjuna”. And he shot through the eye of the bird. We must have one vision in our life, one perfection and one goal.
That those who are truly intelligent, the great devotees of the Lord, they keep their goal and vision in life always the spiritual world of Vaikuntha. Whatever they do, they do it to advance in devotional service. They always keep their goal, Krishna. They never make any single goal in their life in this world of material existence where there is danger at every single step ‘dukhalayam asasvatam’. A place which is so temporary, so flickering, so fleeting, that we do not know what will happen at the next minute in our life or even if we will have this life. Why should we make our goals in such an existence? So one may ask, “Well, if I have such a mentality, the what will motivate me to go to work and labor in my job, nine to five, just to bring some money home, to give some food to my wife and my children and buy some clothes and pay my rent Because after all if you have a family. You cannot neglect this responsibility. But so did Arjuna had several wives. He had many children. He had more wives and children than anybody in this room. I hope! (laughter) But yet he was fixed in consciousness. Because he considered my wife is not my wife. My children are not my children. My home is not mine, janasya moho ‘yen, a ham mameti. Not like that. Everything is the property of Krishna, sarva loka maheswaram. And I am offering it all to Krishna. And therefore by maintaining it, I am actually maintaining what I am offering to Krishna. Therefore it is devotional service. But you have to offer it to Krishna! If you are saying everything belongs to Krishna and whatever I do is for Krishna, but then you try to enjoy for your own selfish, personal interest, Krishna will not believe you and neither will Maya.
When we put Krishna as the center of our home and we bring our family to the satsang and we chant together and we dance together and we take Prasad together and we have kirtan together and. we maintain our homes, our families whatever for the purpose of advancing together in Krishna consciousness, that is one pointed. That is how Arjuna lived. That is how Yudhishthir Maharaja lived. Pralhada Maharaja, when he was five years old, you know how he was one pointed in Krishna consciousness. In the drama last night, two of them, we saw Pralhad’s fixed determination. His father, the most horrible powerful and vicious man in the entire universe was blaspheming bin threatening him, insulting him, trying to murder him and Pralhada was preaching to him that you should give up this attachment to your material home and you should go to Vrindavan and surrender to Krishna, by hearing and chanting, and remembering His glories always.
And because of that fixed determination, Krishna was always protecting him and even the most powerful demon in the world with all of his armies and all of his mystical powers, hecould not harm Pralhada and ultimately he was torn to pieces by Lord Narsimhadev. Narsimha Bhagavan Ki Jai! So Pralhada, by his one pointed devotion, attracted the Supreme Personality of Godhead to appear in such a wonderful, amazing form that no one has ever seen. And Lord Narsimhadev coroneted Pralhada to be the king. He sat on the throne of his father. But to be the king he had to perform the responsibilities of the king, which means he got married and he had children’s and he had responsibilities. Do you know what type of responsibilities it takes to run the kingdom of the universe? Of course he gave most of it back to the demigods, but he was the king of all the asuric societies. Taxation, mobilization of armies, passing policies and laws, executing them maintains ministers, maintaining his wife, maintaining his children. You think you have so many responsibilities in this world, in your work? Nothing as compared to Pralhada. But yet he maintained the same fixed consciousness that he had when he was being persecuted by Hiranyakasipu, as five year old bramhachari why? Because he was always humbly remembering and serving what he had heard from his spiritual master, Narada Rsi.
And Srila Prabhupada explains that Visvanath Cakravarti Thakur gave us the purport for this verse of fixing your mind in Oneness, irresolute determination on Krishna. He said it means to make the order of your Gurudev as your life and soul. And that’s what Pralhada did. When he was Bramhachari and when he was a Grihasta, he was the same because he performed all of his duty the execution of the order of his guru. And he was always remembering Krishna and he was always chanting His holy names.
Prahlad Maharaj Ki Jai! Narsimhadev Bhagavan Ki Jai! Nitai Gaur premanandi Hari Hari Bol!
The energy or the grace of Krishna that Pralhada received from Sri Narada muni. Narada muni received it in the same way from his spiritual master and in the association of these great devotees of the Lord. This is the precious understanding of disciplic succession – Parampara. In essence Parampara means that we are the humble servant of the servant of the servant of the servant of the Lord. Always anxious to inquire submissively and to render service. And even when great Acaryas; speak with all authority, in their hearts they are simply submissively allowing their spiritual master to speak through them. That is their secret. As long as you think you have something to give someone then that false ego will be like a blockade between that person, you and the truth. But when we actually come in the true spirit of being the servant of the servant of the servant, our heart becomes so submissive that we simply submit ourselves to the higher authorities of the pervious acharya and our Gurudev and by repeating their words with our good intelligence that guru has given us, by repeating those words we are simply submitting ourselves to allow Gurudev to speak through us and ultimately Gurudev has received from his Gurudev and we are allowing Krishna speak us, through the Acaryas. And when we really and truly understand that principle that type of humility and that type of service attitude, then only do we truly become divinely empowered. And that is the greatest goal of our life. To be such a submissive instrument in Lord Krishna and the great devotee’s hands, to do their work of compassion in this world of suffering. In this age of Kali Yuga, Sri Caitanya Maha Prabhu and His divine associates, they have come to teach us how we can give the greatest charity, the greatest wealth, the greatest knowledge to whoever we meet and offer the greatest service of love and that is by personally practicing in our own lives the proper method by which we can humbly chant the holy names:
And through our noble activities and our honorable words we inspire others to also take shelter of the proper method of chanting the holy names:
Thank You Very Much
