Srimad Bhagavatam 09.10.50
Ram Rajya
Iskcon Noida
30-01-2024

Hare Krishna. Thank you for saying Hare Krishna and also for your coming here. There is that hope that NIDC, temple presidents and managers may be present here. I see some are here, and some are on their way and I am thinking that they will be here and you all will be here, and you will have to stay. Thinking like this I have come back from Ayodhya.

(Shouts of Haribol)! I have come from the installation ceremony of Ram lala ki jai! This is why I have chosen the fiftieth verse from the tenth chapter of canto nine, so let’s see what happens. Most definitely there will be mention of lord Rama and his reign over the world. The leaders of our Iskcon are also kings in one way.

They are warriors in their form as managers and they have to manage their zones and their own temples and this verse I have chosen for them as it will give them inspiration in their duties and so lets see what happens. There is a concept if time as there always is and lord Rama is called the lord of controlled mannerisms, Maryada Purushottam, and time also has its limits, and needs to be managed.

Keeping this in mind, we will start the recitation of the eternal Srimad Bhagavatam. Do you have the verse? Anyway,

agrahid asanam bhratra
pranipatya prasaditah
prajah sva dharma nirata
varnasrama gunanvitah
jugopa pitrvad ramo
menire pitaram ca tam
(Srimad Bhagavatam 09.10.50)

Translation
Being pleased by the full surrender and submission of Lord Bharata, Lord Ramacandra then accepted the throne of the state. He cared for the citizens exactly like a father, and the citizens, being fully engaged in their occupational duties of varna and asrama, accepted Him as their father.

People love Ram rajya, the state run by lord Ram, do they or not? Prabhupada says so but I just wanted to confirm. and even today politicians sometimes form a party called Rama-rajya, but unfortunately they have no obedience to Lord Rama. They want the kingdom of God but without God. This is because people are thinking, ‘I am God, I am the enjoyer.’ Such an aspiration, however, is never to be fulfilled. Good government can exist when the relationship between the citizens (cut).

Hari Hari. Should I speak or not speak about Ram Rajya, the kingdom of lord Rama? Rama and his citizens are called his people and what was the relationship between the people and lord Rama? As soon as you say his people, we can understand what the relationship is. Lord Rama would look after them and see to their every need. This being said, the lord would do this in the same way in which a father looks after his sons and own family members.

Actually they are because lord Rama is Aham bija pradah pita, he is the supreme lord and father of all living entities.

sarva yonisu kaunteya
murtayah sambhavanti yah
tasam brahma mahad yonir
aham bija pradah pita
(Bhagavad gita 14.4)

Translation
It should be understood that all species of life, O son of Kunti, are made possible by birth in this material nature, and that I am the seed-giving father.

Lord Krishna said this in Bhagavad gita but who is Krishna? He is the same Rama. In Treta Yuga Rama and Lakshman became Krishna and Balaram in Dwapara Yuga. And in Kali Yuga they are the same Gaura Nitai ki jai! We must understand these principles and knowledge of the supreme lord which most people do not understand. Lord Rama is certainly the supreme lord and alongside this he has become a King and a warrior.

Amongst all other warriors and Kings he is leading in an exemplary way for not only the Kings of his time but for the future warriors. Their ideal is Jai Sri Rama! How must one look after his citizens? A King should understand them to be his own people, part of his family. This intimate relationship is full of love also and so Hari Hari.

Prabhupada has written here and we have also read that people like the idea and arrangement of Rama Rajya. Lord Rama looked after and ruled his kingdom for around one million years and so when people think of their country and it’s leaders, what do they say? If there should be a King, he should be like Lord Rama. And if there should be a country, it should be like Rama’s kingdom.

So I would say that even in Iskcon what sort of management should there be? Like Lord Rama. You can say Rama Rajya, or Krishna Rajya or Chaitanya Rajya. The King of Kali Yuga or the form of lord Rama or Krishna came as lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Kali Yuga. This current time span belongs to whkm? Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ki jai!

In this dark age we will not only be able to have Rama Rajya, the kingdom of God but also there will be much more in this Chaitanya Rajya. Hari Hari. In Rama Rajya there is some questioning of what occurred and during the period of lord Rama there were many Yagna’s taking place and therefore dharma samsthapanarthaya -Rama descended,

paritranaya sadhunam vinashaya cha dushkritam
dharma samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge
(Bhagavad gita 4.8)

Translation
To protect the righteous, to annihilate the wicked, and to reestablish the principles of dharma I appear on this earth, age after age.

The Lord descends to protect righteousness and this Lord Rama and Lakshman have performed this work. Who had come to get them? Vishvamitra had come saying, ‘give me Rama and Lakshman.’ Their father answered, ‘what are you saying? You want to take my Rama and Lakshman?!’

Rama and Lakshman were both the same age because they were both born on the same day. So it isn’t just Rama Navami, it is also Lakshman Navami and Bharata Navami and also Shatrughna Navami. We do not understand this because we do not realise that Lakshman is also the supreme lord, as is Bharata and Shatrughna. They are Vishnu Tattva and this is known only to the Gaudiya Vaishnava’s.

Some others know also and they should know this. Because of Srila Prabhupada we are also in knowledge of this principle. ‘So Dasharatha was shocked and he spoke. ‘My boys are only un shodhasa varshia.’ What does this mean, how old are they? Shodasha means sixteen and un means one. So they were one less than sixteen and so Dasharatha said ‘my sons are only fifteen years old.’

So this is not the time for Katha and so Rama and Lakshman established Yagnas and protected the principle of performing Yagna. The king of Kali will have to protect the yagna of that age and this is also a Yagna. Krishna has said yajnanam japa yagno ’smi

maharshinam bhrigur aham giram asmyekam aksharam
yajnanam japa yajno ’smi sthavaranam himalaya?
(Bhagavad gita 10.25)

Translation
I am Bhrigu amongst the great seers and the transcendental Om amongst sounds. Amongst chants know Me to be the repetition of the Holy Name; amongst immovable things I am the Himalayas.

Krishna says in the 10th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. What is Japa? It is the best of Yagnas and Krishna says that of all Yagnas, I am the Yagna, the sacrifice of chanting Japa. There are many types of sacrifices and so Krishna says, ‘out of all these, I am the sacrifice of chanting Japa.’

‘yajnanam japa yajno ’smi,’ the lord says. And of all sacrifices, the sacrifice of chanting Japa and that too, the chanting of

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

This is the best of all Japa. This is also Yagna and it is called Sankirtan Yagna. So the Kings of Kali Yuga including the Kings of Iskcon who are called the Governing Body commissioners are the Parampara, the managing successors, the GBC’s, the zonal secretaries and regional secateurs and the temple presidents and managers, they are all part of the disciplic succession. Evam Parampara-praptam.

evam parampara praptam imam rajarshayo vidhu
sa kaleneha mahata yogo nashtah parantapa
(Bhagavad Gita 4.2)

Translation
This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. But in course of time the succession was broken, and therefore the science as it is appears to be lost.

All these Kings come in the succession and they are all administrators and of all these administrators, Sri Rama established religious principles that were relevant in his time, in that yuga.

krte yad dhyayato visnum
tretayam yajato makhaih
dvapare paricaryayam
kalau tad dhari kirtanat
(Srimad Bhagavatam 12.3.52)

Translation

Whatever result was obtained in Satya yuga by meditating on Visnu, in Treta yuga by performing sacrifices, and in Dv?para-yuga by serving the Lord’s lotus feet can be obtained in Kali yuga simply by chanting the Hare Krsna maha mantra

As there are four Yugas, ages of time, accordingly the paths of religion are laid out in terms of the time and circumstance of that particular Yuga. There are different practices for each age and therefore Lord Rama established the religious practice of the Yuga he had appeared in and he protected those practices also by making sure everyone was living in accordance to the religious rituals of that age.

The Kings in Kali Yuga, just like there are kings in Iskcon, who are administrators, they need to establish the religious principles of this age. What is that? The Sankirtan dharma, the chanting of the holy names. Kali kalera dharma krsna nama sankirtana

kali kalera dharma krsna nama sankirtana
krsna sakti vina nahe tara pravartana
(Chaitanya Charitamrita Antya 7.11)

Translation
The fundamental religious system in the Age of Kali is the chanting of the holy name of Krsna. Unless empowered by Krsna, one cannot propagate the sankirtana movement

Hari Hari. There is a purport to this verse but if I read the whole purport now then time will run out and that is why. This verse in question has been discussed and Lord Rama accepted the throne when he saw Bharata’s complete surrender unto him. Hari Hari. Here we see that Bharata was reigning the Kingdom in place of Lord Rama very well.

The astonishing thing is that he was not even eager or wanting to do this. He was not at all interested in having the seat, which seat? The seat which would give him power. Of course Bharata is Rama’s Bharata and therefore he was not power hungry. They had an argument, lord Rama and Bharata, ‘no I dont want to be King, you be the King, no,no you be the king.’

There is so much devotion and love is shown here between Rama and Bharata and this should be studied by us. We must learn from this encounter. Bharata becomes the citizen of Lord Rama and of course he is Rama’s younger brother anyway and he can also be counted as a citizen. Lord Rama love for Bharata and also Bharata’s love for Rama, sad vidham priti lak?a?am.

dadati pratigrhnati
guhyam akhyati prcchati
bhunkte bhojayate caiva
sad vidham priti laksanam
(Nectar of instruction 4)

Translation
Offering gifts in charity, accepting charitable gifts, revealing one’s mind in confidence, inquiring confidentially, accepting prasada and offering prasada are the six symptoms of love shared by one devotee and another

Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhupada has written about what sort of relationship there must be between Vaishnava’s. That is the relationship of love and attachment. One must establish this relationship of love and affection by following these six principles of giving gifts and receiving them and so on. Those who are the leaders in Iskcon, the administrators and temple presidents, they should also have this relationship with the temple congregation members.

Just like Rama had with Bharata and with everyone actually, the lord loved all his citizens like he did Bharata. ‘No you come back and you look after all the affairs of the kingdom.’ As Bharata spike like this, at the end Rama gave his slippers to Bharata. Bharata took the lord’s slippers considering them to be non different to Rama himself.

He installed these slippers and he was thinking ‘lord Rama is ruling through these slippers and Rama is the one sitting on the throne.’ In this way our administrators and temple managers should have the same feelings and understanding that Bharata had. They should feel Dasosmi, Dasosmi or Das anu Das, they are the servants and the servants of the servants of Srila Prabhupada.

our position actually gets higher this way. The more people we put above us the more higher our position gets. When you become a servant of the servant you have a high position. So when you are a servant of the servant if the servant then what happens? That is a even bigger position and so what must you do if you want a bigger position? You must become the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant.

This is amanina manadena. The congregation on the temple and the devotees should respect their authorities and what else should happen? What do the authorities need to do? They also need to act in a certain way towards the devotes and the congregation members. What is that? Amanina manadena, this is the instruction of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Bharata had said, ‘Prabhu Prabhu, oh my lord Rama, you will now say you will mit come back until the fourteen years are over, and although I am not happy I will agree to what you say. But you will have to come back before the time is over or at least on time. If you are even a moment late then you may as well not come because you will mot find me alive.

After the fourteen years were over, Rama left very swiftly. The lord had walked to Lanka but if he was to walk back then many more months would pass. Do you know why he went back on the flying chariot? The Lord was remembering his promise to Bharata, ‘i’ll be back on time or actually before time.’ That is why the Lord was hurrying on the flying chariot to reach back to Ayodhya.

At that time, the respect and welcome there was in place for lord Rama, Jai Sri Rama! That is the exact same welcome that happened just now on the 22nd January when lord Rama came back to Ayodhya! Mahatma Gandhi especially had this dream and he used to think that when Bharat, India would become independent, India, Bharat will establish Rama Rajya.

But seventy five years had passed and some years ago there was a movie that came to the cinemas and the name of the movie was Ravan Rajya. I know ow you would not have seen this movie, or maybe you did. Along with opening of Rama temple and the installation of Rama Lala in Ayodhya, you can say he is the King also, Modi Raja.

There is Rama Raja, and then there is Modi Raja and this King promised something he went on to fulfil. Along with the opening with the temple, the mood and exemplary acts of Rama Rajya have also been put there. Haribol! ‘Good days will come now.’ Do you remember those promises?

Maybe you don’t understand, but this is what Sir Modi used to say, he would assure us that good days will come. But good days can only come when there is the kingdom of lord Rama. Srila Prabhupada ki jai! When I was in Ayodhya in between all the ceremonies of the opening of Ram lala temple, I was seeing that all the leaders who were present there, including many saints, they were all dancing and singing the glories of Modi Raja, Kimg Modi.

They weee also speaking about the bright future of Bharat, India and about how they would make India the Viswaguru, the global teacher of the whole world. So all these talks were going on, and I was listening to all this, and at the same time, I was also thinking, ‘fifty years before this, Srila Prabhupada was the one who had started this Rama Rajya or Chaitanya Rajya.

According to the order of his spiritual master, Prabhupada had started building temples. Okay, because Ayodhya is the place of Lord Rama, they have built a temple there, but Srila Prabhupada had built a temple of lord Rama many years ago in Delhi. And England is such a big name, that England that ruled over so many places and countries, the British Raja.

In London, Srila Prabhupada installed lord Rama at Bhaktivedanta Manor, a huge property given to Prabhupada by George Harrison. We all know about the influence of America upon the world, and in that America, in Washington DC, Srila Prabhupada bought lord Rama there. (Shouts of Haribol)!

This is not all, and Modi was speaking something about the next thousand years to come and he was speaking about the great things he wants to achieve. You can call this his devotion to lord Rama, or you could call it, nationalism, a Hindu nationalist. So this is his vision for the next one thousand years, and he was speaking about great things he wants to do.

But Srila Prabhupada had a plan for the next ten years and that vision was Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s vision actually.

Prthivite ache yata nagaradi grama
sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama
(Chaitanya Bhagavat Antya 4.126)

Translation
In every town and village throughout the world, said Lord Caitanya, the chanting of My holy name will be heard.

And wherever the chanting of the holy names will reach, in that place people will join together to perform kirtan. There will be some Nama hatta, where people can come to chant and there will be Bhakti Vriksha’s, small temples where there will be structured sanga’s. Then one day what will happen?

Will, there not then be opening of a Temple in these places? Of course they will! Wherever the holy name reaches, people come together and then a temple is opened. So these ten thousand years, to come are called the golden period. This has been prophesied by the Sastra’s and Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu himself.

So whatever has been said, or prophesied will certainly come true. At that time, in ten thousand years, how many temples will there be? How many? There must be a limited number. So as many towns and villages there are in each country, that many temples there will be, and there will be congregation in all of the places.

I think we should clap now upon hearing this, and that is if you want to. So Srila Prabhupada has become Viswaguru, the guru of the whole world and books are the basis, Srila Prabhupada’s books are being distributed throughout the whole world. People come across the Hare Krishna Mahamantra and then they join Harinama and take Prashad.

It could be that someone came across one of Srila Prabhupada’s books, or they came to a festival like Rathayatra and in this way he becomes a devotee, or he is becoming a devotee. We already have millions all over the world, devotees of Rama, devotees of Krishna or lord Chaitanya, and in this way they are becoming Gaudiya Vaishnava’s.

Srila Prabhupada introduced the four regulative principles based upon the teachings of the Bhagavatam. ‘No meat eating, no intoxication, no illicit sex and no gambling.’ These are the principles of Iskcon and it’s beauty. People have become ready to follow these principles, and this is true even for people in China. Patran puspam phalam toyam, no
mutton-am chicken-am or biryani.

Patran puspam phalam toyam
yo me bhaktya prayacchati
tad aham bhakty upahrtam
asnami prayatatmanah
(Bhagavad Gita 9.26)

Translation
If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water, I will accept it.

Radha Govinda deva ki jai. And in this way

Om Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah
Sarve Santu Niraamayaah
Sarve Bhadraanni Pashyantu
Maa Kashcid Duhkha Bhaag Bhavet
Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih
(Upanishads)

Translation:
Om, May All be Happy,
May All be Free from Illness.
May All See what is Auspicious,
May no one Suffer.
Om Peace, Peace, Peace

Rama was always making sure that everyone was happy and the same for Srila Prabhupada and all his followers. What is are goal? Sarve sukhina bhavantu, eveeyone should be happy. That is why Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s movement is not limited to Hindus or India and that is why Srila Prabhupada named this movement the international Society of Krishna consciousness.

These are such important words, and thats why Prabhupada did not say international temples, no he said an international society. This means that as many people there are this earth and wherever they may be, for them this international society has been created. This has been down so that these people can become Krishna conscious, Rama conscious, or Chaitanya, conscious.

This society is also called Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the whole world is one family). What happened recently in India in the G20 summit? It was a G20 convention and what else could happen better than what Srila Prabhupada has done and what Iskcon is doing? In Iskcon the whole world is one family.

One world, one family. Therefore they say that you must walk the talk, that means that some people are talking big but Seila Prabhupada didn’t just talk, but he did what he proposed. In Mayapur festival which takes place, there are devotees from around the whole world from fifty, sixty or seventy countries. From how many countries do devotees gather?

Devotees come from more than seventy countries and when we all come together, we all stay like one family. It’s like one kitchen, one family. There is one kitchen only and some people are still just thinking to propose these things or they are just talking about it and they cannot do anything more than this. Apart from imagining these things, they cannot do anything more.

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ki jai! That Rama becomes even more merciful, and how could he be Rama if he was not merciful? So Rama was always merciful and Krishna Krishna

he krishna karuna-sindho dina-bandho jagat-pate
gopesa gopika-kanta radha-kanta namo ’stu te
(Sri Krishna Pranam)

O my dear Krishna, ocean of mercy, You are the friend of the distressed and the source of creation. You are the master of the cow herd men and the lover of the gopis, especially Radharani. I offer my respectful obeisances unto You.

So Rama and Krishna are very merciful but even more merciful than them is Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ki jai! The people of this age were more fallen and so the lord had to descend as more magnanimous than other incarnations of the lord. Rama cannot do this because when he comes as Rama or as Krishna, the lord has to play a befitting role according to time and circumstance.

The role of lord Chaitanya is the most magnanimous because he comes to liberate the most fallen souls. I’ll just say this one last item and then i will stop. Mostly all people know lord Rama and they know Krishna also but although Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is that same Rama and he is the same Krishna, still people do not know him.

I was feeling that way, especially in recent times where the Ayodhya temple is opening and everyone is chanting ‘Rama Rama.’ Rama is known and called everywhere is Ayodhya and in Bharat but amongst all this lord Chaitanya is missing. He is the missing link and so it is our job to bring back that which is missing, which is lacking, we must bring Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as we are feeling his absence.

This is the job of Iskcon devotees, the administrators, managers and the governing body. It is the work of all of us and that is why Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has said

yare dekha, tare kaha ‘krsna’-upadesa
amara ajnaya guru hana tara’ ei desa
(Chaitanya Charitamrita Madhya 7.128)

Translation
Instruct everyone to follow the orders of Lord Sri Krsna as they are given in the Bhagavad gita and Srimad Bh?gavatam. In this way become a spiritual master and try to liberate everyone in this land

So continue giving this message of lord Krishna to the whole world and become Guru’s in this way. If you cannot become Viswaguru then at least become the Guru’s of your household members. Become the Guru of your neighbourhood or your town and townspeople.

Try and make bigger this sphere of influence. In this way all the Iskcon devotees around the world should spread Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s mossion. We must tell everyone who is Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and so on, so on. We must especially introduce the chanting of

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

As you do this, you can remember Srila Prabhupada and understand that you are indebted to him. Are we indebted to him or not? Who here understands that we are indebted to Srila Prabhupada? (Shouts of jai)! Srila Prabhupada was having a casual conversation once with some of his disciples. His disciples were telling Srila Prabhupada, ‘Prabhupada, we are indebted to you.’

Prabhupada said, ‘yes, that is ture. You are indebted.’ So the disciple asked, ‘is there anything we could do to become free from this debt?’ So Prabhupada answered ‘there is nothing you could do.’ Then Prabhupada paused and then he said, ‘yes yes, you could do one thing.’ They asked. ‘What is that Srila Prabhupada?’ He answered’ You do as i did.’

He was saying that whatever he had established, they should continue that and also expand his teachings to further places. ‘By doing that, you can get free from this debt to some extent.’ Who here wants to try and do this? (Shouts of haribol)!

Srimad Bhagavatam 4.24.26
ISKCON Hyderabad
11-06-2023

So you can get the book in Hindi. It is not required, they have had already. So I was told to read from Srimad Bhagavatam canto four, chapter twenty four and text twenty six, is that right? Someone is getting Hindi Bhagavatam. Please repeat after me.

sa tan prapannarti haro
bhagavan dharma vatsalah
dharma jnan sila sampannan
pritah pritan uvaca ha
(Srimad Bhagavatam 4.24.26)

Translation
Lord Siva became very pleased with the Pracetas because generally Lord Siva is the protector of pious persons and persons of gentle behavior. Being very much pleased with the princes, he began to speak as follows

Maybe some of you could recite. Okay purport by Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada ki jai! I think something is missing here? Something is not on the screen.

Purport
The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Visnu, or Krsna, is known as bhakta vatsala, and herein we find Lord Siva described as dharma vatsala. Of course, the word dharma vatsala refers to a person who lives according to religious principles. That is understood. Nonetheless, these two words have additional significance. Sometimes Lord Siva has to deal with persons who are in the modes of passion and ignorance. Such persons are not always very much religious and pious in their activities, but since they worship Lord Siva for some material profit, they sometimes obey the religious principles. As soon as Lord Siva sees that his devotees are following religious principles, he blesses them. The Pracetas, sons of Pr?c?nabarhi, were naturally very pious and gentle, and consequently Lord Siva was immediately pleased with them. Lord Siva could understand that the princes were sons of Vaisnavas, and as such Lord Siva offered prayers to the Supreme Personality of Godhead as follows.

sa tan prapannarti haro
bhagavan dharma vatsalah
dharma jnan sila sampannan
pritah pritan uvaca ha
(Srimad Bhagavatam 4.24.26)

Translation
Lord Siva became very pleased with the Pracetas because generally Lord Siva is the protector of pious persons and persons of gentle behavior. Being very much pleased with the princes, he began to speak as follows

When I read the Sloka only, I had not yet read the translation and I was thinking that the description was about and that it was speaking about Krishna. This is the first time i am reading the translation and purport to this verse so I found out just now that this is not a description of Krishna, but it is in fact a description of lord Siva. He is prapannarti haro, one who drives away all kinds of danger.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Visnu, or Krsna, is known as bhakta vatsala, and herein we find Lord Siva described as dharma vatsala
(Purport)

We see here that the qualities of Visnu are seen also in the lord’s devotees and so what is the principle here? Achintya bhedabheda. Bhedabheda refers to the inconceivable oneness (bhed) and difference (abheda) of the Supreme Person and His energies. Therefore there are qualities of the lord that the devotees can attain and there are also qualities that the lord possesses which the devotees can never attain. If other devotees can gain these qualities, then what to speak of lord Siva? He is the topmost devotee and topmost Vaishnava. It is said vaisnavanam yatha sambhuh purananam idam tatha.

nimna ganam yatha ganga
devanam acyuto yatha
vaisnavanam yatha sambhuh
purananam idam tatha
(Srimad bhagavatam 12.13.16)

Translation
Just as the Ganga is the greatest of all rivers, Lord Acyuta the supreme among deities and Lord Sambhu [Siva] the greatest of Vai??avas, so Srimad Bhagavatam is the greatest of all Puranas

Srimad Bhagavatam is the greatest of all Puranas and nimna ganam yatha ganga, nimna ga, nimna means under and ga means to go so that which goes underneath. What goes under the Earth? Rivers go underground so nimna ganam, of all rivers the Ganga is the greatest so in the same way, devanam acyuto yatha. Of all the deities, demigods, Acyuta lord Krishna is the greatest. In this way of all rivers Ganga is the greatest, of all Puranas, Bhagavatam is the greatest and in the same way out of all Vaishnava’s, lord Siva is the greatest.

Lord Siva ki jai! It is also mentioned elsewhere Sambhutam gatah, lord Krishna himself becomes Sambhu, lord Siva and also lord Siva is one of the incarnations of the lord. He is a Guna Avatara, the incarnation of the Tama Guna, mode of ignorance. Who is the incarnation if the mode of goodness? It is Visnu and the incarnation of the mode of passion in Brahma. But although lord Siva is the incarnation of the mode of ignorance, he himself is not in the mode of ignorance.

He is in charge of the mode if ignorance, he is not in the mode of ignorance. There are some sinful people who are in the mode of ignorance, and the go to him to ask for material benediction. This is also the job of the demigods, to fulfil the desires if the materialists.

kamksantah karmanam siddhim
yajanta iha devatah
kaipram hi manuse loke
siddhir bhavati karma ja
(Bhagavad gita 4.12)

Translation
Men in this world desire success in fruitive activities, and therefore they worship the demigods. Quickly, of course, men get results from fruitive work in this world

Krishna has spoken this in the Bhagavad gita and the lord says that those who want success in fruitful activities approach the demigods who quickly give them what they want and so lord Siva did the same for those in the mode of ignorance. Hari Hari. Lord Siva is one of the most misunderstood personalities and most people do not know or recognise him.

Okay so we know that he is in charge of the most of ignorance and so he is the one who destroys the whole cosmos which is his duty. This is called Pralaya, bhutva bhutva praliyate.

bhuta gramah sa evayam
bhutva bhutva praliyate
ratry agame ’vasah partha
prabhavaty ahar agame
(Bhagavad gita 8.19)

Translation
Again and again, when Brahma’s day arrives, all living entities come into being, and with the arrival of Brahma’s night they are helplessly annihilated

These materialists have so many different desires, who was it Vrkasura? There are so many like Vrkasura.

kamais tais tair hrta jnanah
prapadyante ’nya devatah
tam tan niyamam asthaya
prakrtya niyatah svaya
(Bhagavad gita 7.20)

Translation
Those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires surrender unto demigods and follow the particular rules and regulations of worship according to their own natures

Krishna says in the Bhagavad gita that those who are so materialistic, prapadyante ’nya devatah. They worship the demigods and take shelter of these demigods and whilst the lord is speaking this, he is most probably not happy with this fact. ‘What is this? They should not be doing this!’ But they still do this, why? Kamais tais tair hrta jnanah. Because their intelligence has been stolen by material desires. Their intelligence is stolen due to their vast material desires and then these materialistic persons go to the demigods to fulfil their material desires.

This is exactly what Vrkasura was like and to please lord Siva he held a fire sacrifice, ‘swaha swaha.’ We have heard that – actually Radha Govinda Maharaja was saying and it must be true that Vrkasura wanted Parvati but if course he could not get her till lord Siva was still there. That is why he had already devised the plan to kill lord Siva. So he was putting offerings into the fire sacrifice and this offering was none other than the flesh of his own body and he was chanting ‘swaha swaha.’

The whole point in all this was to kill lord Siva and so he wanted the benediction that ‘whoever’s head I put my hand upon, that person’s head will be cut there and then and he shall immediately die.’ Quite some time had passed while he chanted ‘swaha swaha’ but lord Siva was still not pleased with his efforts. But then at some point lord Siva became appeased and appeared on the scene. He asked ‘what do you want?’

‘I want that whoever’s head I touch, that head your break into pieces and he dies. Give me this benediction.’ There is also a problem with lord Siva which is that he is Ashutosh. He is satisfied very quickly and therefore he granted the wish of this demon. As soon as this Vrkasura gets this benediction, what will he do? He wants to trial his benediction, ‘is it actually true or not?’

He wants to test it out but there was nobody else there and so he was just about to test it out on lord Siva. ‘I wish ti touch your head sir,’ he said to lord Siva and lord Siva knew that he had actually granted the wish of the demon and so he knew that it would come to pass if the demon touched his head. ‘If he touches my head, then I will also die.’ So then lord Shiva started to run very fast and this Vrkasura was following him.

This is the character of the devotees of the demigods and lord Siva, just look. So lord Siva was running and Vrkasura was running after him and so lord Visnu or Krishna kahnaiyalal ki jai! The lord noted that lord Siva is in troubled, that there is a problem and lord Visnu also understood what the problem was. Lord Visnu then appeared on the scene and he stopped Vrkasura by saying ’hey what’s happening? Who are you running after.’

So the demon explained that he had gained a benediction from lord Siva and that he wanted to touch the head of lord Siva so that he would die and in this way he would get Parvati and he could become her husband. Then there is some discussion between the lord and Vrkasura and we know that the lord is the most intelligent and so the lord said, ‘lord Siva has given you a benediction? Dont take this benediction seriously because actually he has given no benediction.

This is because he does not have the power to give such a benediction. If you touch anybody’s head, I can assure you that their head will not break at all.’ But he was convinced, ‘no, no he has given me this benediction.’ Then lord Visnu said, ‘okay, if you really think you have got this benediction then try it. On who? Try it on yourself.’ Then this foolish demon did just this and as soon as he did so, his head exploded and he died.

In this way lord Siva’s life was safe and so he who saved lord Siva’s life, he who is lord Siva’s protector is none other than Krishna. Krsnas tu bhagavan svayam.

ete camsa kalah pumsah
krsnas tu bhagavan svayam
indrari vyakulam lokam
mrdayanti yuge yuge
(Srimad bhagavatam 1.3.28)

Translation
All of the above mentioned incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Sri Krsna is the original Personality of Godhead. All of them appear on planets whenever there is a disturbance created by the atheists. The Lord incarnates to protect the theists

If someone does recognise lord Siva then it is only the Vaishnava’s who can recognise him as to what his actual identity is and he is also Sadasiva. There is devi dham and then which is the other dham? Mahesh dham and then there is Hari dham. Devi dham is this material world where we are, where Devi is in charge and whoever holds material desires approaches the family of lord Siva for fulfilment of these desires.

Someone may approach Parvati, Durga and someone else may go to Ganesh to aak for a material benediction. In one place, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur writes about the Pancha Upasana, the five deities who are worshipped.

aradhyo bhagavan vrajesa tanayas tad dhama vrndavanam
ramya kacid upasana vrajavadhu vargena ya kalpita
srimad bhagavatam pramanam amalam prema pumartho mahan
sri caitanya mahaprabhur matam idam tatradaro nah parah
(Caitanya matta manjusa commentary on Srimad Bhagavatam by Srinath Chakravarti)

Translation
It is the conclusive opinion of Lord Chaitanya that the most worshipable form of the Lord is that of Sri Krishna, the son of Nanda Maharaja. Vrindavan-dhama is the topmost worshipable abode. The highest and most pleasing type of worship of Krishna is done by the Vraja gopis. Srimad bhagavatam is the spotless authority on everything. And krsna prema is the fifth and highest goal of life

There is the mode of worship which follows the footsteps the gopi’s and then there is the other mode of worship which is the Pancha Upasana. There is worship of the sun, then there is worship of Ganesh and then Parvati, lord Siva and so now who is left? Ganesh, did i miss him? So these are three personalities from the same family, lord Siva, Ganesh and Parvati. Then there is the sun and finally? How can I miss lord Visnu?

But worship of lord Visnu is done by the non devotees with the feeling of material desires and to fulfil them and so this is Pancha Upasana, worship of five personalities. The family of lord Siva is a big part of this but these worshippers do not actually understand lord Siva. So there is one Sadasiva who’s abode is not Mahesh dham because half of lord Siva’s abode is in the material world and that is a part of Devi dham, the lower part, not this higher part.

The higher part if lord Siva’s abode is in Vaikuntha and it is just like Vaikuntha and it is indeed a part of Vaikuntha. There lord Siva is known as Sadasiva and the lower part called Mahesh dham is where is form of Kala Bhairava resides. There is Siva Sivani and Bhava Bhavani, the energy if lord Siva and so the lower part of lord Siva’s abode is where his form of Kala Bhairava resides in Mahesh dham.

He stays in contact with the material nature there but Sadasiva is the one who appeared and Advaita Acharya. Sri Advaita was Maha Visnu and also and Sadasiva because actually Sadasiva is an expansion of Maha Visnu also. We can say Advaita Acharya expanded from Sadasiva or we could say he expanded from Maha Visnu, it is the same thing. So lord Siva is Sadasiva and so Advaita Acharya has appeared do this means that Sadasiva has appeared.

His work was as an advanced party you could say, because he made his appearance before Gauranga Mahaprabhu who had sent him before he took his birth. This is so that Advaita Acharya could do some study of what the situation of the world had come to. Lord Siva studied this situation and what did he find?

yada yada hi dharmasya
glanir bhavati bharata
abhyutthanam adharmasya
tadatmanam srjamy aham

Translation
Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion-at that time I descend Myself

There was such a great decline of religion practice and so Sadasiva as Advaita Acharya cried out to the lord to make his appearance and his cries reached Vaikuntha dham and so the lord appeared, hearing his cries. When someone calls out to the lord in this manner, the lord immediately appears in that place. So Gauranga Mahaprabhu made his appearance and in this way Advaita Acharya became the reason why the lord made his appearance.

So whoever takes shelter of the supreme lord in a distressed condition, lord Siva directly takes away all the distress of the devotee if he does it through Gauranga Mahaprabhu. So that is why the lord is called Hari, he who takes away. Gaurahari! Why is he called Hari? Harati means take away and so he takes away the distress of the devotee who approaches him.

I was listening to Srila Prabhupada and he was saying that the lord’s devotees do the work of the lord. The lord takes away people’s distress and is therefore called Hari and the same work is also done by the lord’s devotees, the Vaishnava’s. The lord’s devotees, the Vaishnava’s give the lord himself to the distressed people of the world and upon getting the lord from the Vaishnava’s, the lord then takes away their distress. Krsna se tomara, krsna dite paro, tomara sakati ache.

krsna se tomara, krsna dite paro,
tomara sakati ache
ami to’ Kamgala, ‘krsna’ ‘krsna’ boli’,?dhai tava pache pache
(Ohe vaishnava thakur 4)

Translation
Krsna is yours. You have the power to give Him to me. I am simply your servant running behind you shouting, “Krsna! Krsna!

‘I am running after you because I have hope that you will give me Krishna! I am penniless, I have nothing. We have empty pockets, we are corrupt, not corrupt, bankrupt. So you can give us the supreme lord.’ So when one is asking like this and then he attains the lord in this way, even if he is bankrupt, he becomes a rich man. What should we do?

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

In this way the Vaishnava’s give the supreme lord to others and then what does the lord do? He does his work of taking away all one’s past sins. And then what does Harinam do? Ceto darpana marjanam bhava maha davagni nirvapanam

Ceto darpana marjanam bhava maha davagni nirvapanam
shreyah kairava chandrika vitaranam vidya vadhu jivanam
anandambudhi vardhanam prati padam purnamritaswadanam
sarvatma snapanam param vijayate sri krishna sankirtanam
(Siksastakam 1)

Glory to the Sri-Krsna-Sankirtana, which cleanses the heart of all the dust accumulated for years and extinguishes the fire of conditional life, of repeated birth and death. This sankirtana movement is the prime benediction for humanity at large because it spreads the rays of the benediction moon. It is the life of all transcendental knowledge. It increases the ocean of transcendental bliss, and it enables us to fully taste the nectar for which we are always anxious

What does the holy name do? Ceto darpana marjanam, marjan means to clean, so it cleans our heart of all the dirt in it and then what? Bhava maha davagni nirvapanam. Davagni is the fire of material existence which has spread in the whole world and this Harinam extinguishes this fire of material existence and gives cooling rays. Just like Harinam takes away this fire and gives everyone cooling rays and therefore takes away their distress, the Vaishnava’s act in the same way by taking away the distress of the conditioned soul.

The spiritual master acts in this way and that is why everyday in the morning what do we sing?

samsara davanala lidha loka
tranaya karunya ghanaghanatvam
praptasya kalyana gunarnavasya
vande guroh sri caranaravindam
(Guru astaka 1)

Translation
The spiritual master is receiving benediction from the ocean of mercy. Just as a cloud pours water on a forest fire to extinguish it, so the spiritual master delivers the materially afflicted world by extinguishing the blazing fire of material existence. I offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of such a spiritual master, who is an ocean of auspicious qualities

Just like it is mentioned in Siksastakam that the holy name extinguishes this fire of material existence and gives cooling rays, bhava maha davagni nirvapanam, in the same this dava, fire is mentioned in the forst verse of Guru astaka. Samsara dava nala means as a cloud pours water on a forest fire to extinguish it, so the spiritual master delivers the materially afflicted world by extinguishing the blazing fire of material existence.

The spiritual master does this by his merciful glance and this glance extinguishes the fire of our material existence which is burning us and killing us. By doing this, the spiritual master releases us from the net which has captured us in material existence. This is why the lords work is done by the lord’s devotees. And of all these devotees, the greatest is lord Siva, he is the number one Vaishnava. Lord Siva ki jai.

When the churning of the ocean was going on, before the jewels and other gifts came out, what came first? Poison came out and so now how to be saved from the effects of this poison? The demigods then went to lord Siva, ‘help help help!’ Lord Siva felt great compassion because the gods did not get the nectar they had gone to so much trouble for, instead they only got this poison. This poison would have to be taken away somehow and so what dis lord Siva do?

He drank up the poison and not just a bottle full of it, no. He drank a whole ocean full of poison because this poison had filled up the whole ocean and so he drank it all. Where did he keep this poison? In his neck and that is when he got the name ‘Nil kantha,’ the blue throated one. Lord Siva’s followers drink all sorts of nonsense forbidden drinks and drugs like Ganja but they do not keep this in their throats like lord Siva did.

It reaches their stomachs or hearts and then they die because they try to imitate. Okay then lord Siva became the resting place of the Ganges so that the demigods would then attain nectar at the end. There was a time when Ganga was staying in the heavenly realms only but she was called down by King Bhaghirath for the liberation of his ancestors by their bathing in her waters. Bhagirath tried so hard and nobody in this whole world had tried as hard.

When we mention the names in history of all those persons, who is remembered first? Bhagirath, and that is why Ganga has one more name and what is that? Bhagirathi, and why is that? Because of the efforts of Bhagirath, the Ganges was called and she came on this Earth. Finally Ganga was ready to come, ‘okay I’m coming down but I will come with such quick speed from the heavens that there must be someone who can stop me or slow me down.

Otherwise the Earthly planet could go out of orbit due to my force so please make some arrangement.’ So she was ready to come ‘but first make arrangements.’ Then King Bhagirath approached lord Siva, ‘could you help out?’ And for sure lord Siva was ready and what did he do? He put her on his head whilst she was coming with great force from the heavenly planets to Earth. From there she also flows in different directions and lord Siva then got the name Gangadhar, one who holds Ganga.

So if lord Siva had not agreed to hold her force by taking her upon his head, Ganga would not be able to come on this Earth. And as we know, her waters are in itself nectar and so we would not be able to purify ourselves and and become immortal by bathing in her waters. This is all possible now because of lord Siva. He is one of the factors for sure. Hari Hari.

In this way we see that lord Siva is also taking away the distress of people, Hari. He is the most misunderstood or you could say he is not understood and actually what kind of Vaishnava is lord Siva? He is a Vaishnava in Gopi bhava, the highest bhava. In Vrindavan his bhava is Gopi bhava and that is why in Rasa lila, only two types of personalities are allowed to enter. Two things are for sure.

Do you want to dance in the Rasa lila with Krishna? Okay, yes you could do so but what must there be? One is the bhava of the Gopi’s, their feelings of love for Krishna and secondly, one must have the form of a Gopi. Lakshmi does not like this because she is so attached to her own beauty and form that she has feelings of pride, ‘I am Lakshmi.’ That is why there is a forest in Vrindavan which is called Srivana and she is there since many years and she is performing austerities there but she still is not about to gain entrance in the Rasa lila.

This is because she does not want to take on the feelings of the Gopi’s and nor does she want to take a form like the Gopi’s. So like this at one time lord Siva also wanted to enter the Rasa lila to dance with Krishna and so he reached Vrindavan from his abode Kailash. He found out where the Rasa dance was about to take place soo he went there and he must have rung the bell. Some Gopi’s must have been there as gatekeepers at the door.

‘Hey where are you going? The Rasa lila, in this state? Look at your hair in locks and your drum! You have a trident with you and there are snakes hanging on your neck! Then you are wearing a garland of skulls and there are scorpions on your ears as earring’s. There are ashes all over your whole body.’ Lord Siva is a renunciant and therefore he does not look at his face in the mirror.

You want to go to join in the Rasa dance but you can’t just go there like that! No this is not possible.’ What to do then? Then he was told that there was a kunda, a lake nearby that was called Mansarovar. ‘If you take bath there, you will attain a form like the Gopi’s and the feelings of the Gopi’s and then only you may go to join the Rasa dance, you are welcome.’

Then lord Siva went to take part in the Rasa dance, this is the great position if lord Siva. Ei nivedana dhara, sakh?ra anugata koro.

ei nivedana dhara, sakh?ra anugata koro seva adhikara diye koro nija dasi
(Tulasi kirtan 4)

Translation
I beg you to make me a follower of the cowherd damsels of Vraja. Please give me the privilege of devotional service and make me your own maidservant

This is the feeling of anugata, privilege, which it certainly is to enter in the Rasa lila amongst the Gopi’s to be able to serve them. And another thing is to be a follower and that is what Lakshmi did not want to do, she did not want to follow anyone. That is why lord Siva has another name, Gopeshwar Mahadeva ki jai. He loves Krishna very much and there are many pastimes of his.

Just like when he goes to Nandagram to take darshan of Krishna’s baby form. He went to Nanda bhavan and probably he would have knocked on the door and Yashoda opened the door. Lord Siva was standing there, ‘hey, what are you doing here, what do you want?’ ‘Oh I want to take darshan of Kahnaiya.’ Yashoda answered, ‘if my Lala takes darshan of you he will become afraid. No, no! Go!’ So poor lord Siva has to leave that place and he goes to Nandagram in meditation.

So anyway there is this pastime. From the time mother Yashoda sent lord Siva away, since then lord Krishna started to cry and he is crying and crying, he is not looking to stop crying no matter what. ‘Here take this toy, how about a rasagulla? Have this, lets give you that.’ No, he kept crying and crying and so some older Gopi’s came from the neighbourhood and they are asking, ‘since when has he started to cry?’

‘Some baba came early, he had matted hair. I quickly sent him away but since then my Lala is crying on and on.’ So then they all started to think that there is a connection, ‘if you have sent lord Siva far away then now call him back and see if Lala stops crying, bring him back.’ When lord Siva was called back, Kahnaiya was bought outside to take darshan and immediately his crying stopped.

So we can see that lord Siva has a deep connection with lord Krishna, and not only with lord Krishna. He is a part of Krishna lila but also when lord Rama appeared, even there he is present. And when lord Krishna appeared as Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, lord Siva is present there also. In Mayapur lord Siva is everywhere, in Navadwipa and all the Dwipa’s are connected to lord Siva in some way.

There is one Dwipa, island, what is that, Godrumadwipa? There lord Siva is presiding even now. Godrumadwipa is famous for kirtan because in all nine Dwipa’s, there are none different forms of devotional service in each one. In one Dwipa there may be Sravanam, listening and so like this is Godrumadwipa there is kirtan. It is compared to Varanasi and Varanasi becomes Maha Varanasi and that is part of Godruma. Varanasi is in Godrumadwipa and what does lord Siva do there?

He is constantly performing kirtan and Panchananda Tala is there also. One form of lord Siva has five heads and that is why Pancha ananda. Just like there is Dashananda, do you know anyone like this, with ten heads? Ravan was called Dashananda. So lord Siva has five heads and how many eyes are there on each face? Three, that’s why he is called Trilochan. He has five faces and each face has three eyes each and from each eye he is taking darshan of lord Krishna and Gauranga Mahaprabhu, and from each mouth he is singing the glories of the lord.

brahma bole chatur mukhe krishna krishna hare hare
mahadeva pancha mukhe rama rama hare hare

Translation
Brahma sings “krishna krishna hare hare” with four mouths and Siva ecstatically sings “rama rama hare hare” with five mouths

The first Dwipa is which one? Seimantadwipa, this island was bought down by lord Siva. He was at one time performing a wonderful kirtan in Kailash and he was dancing in such a fascinating way ‘Gaura Gaura Gaura Gaura!’ And lord Siva was dancing also which he is famous for. Krishna is of course famous for his dancing also and therefore he is called Natwara and lord Siva is called Nararaj. So both lords are Nata’s, which means Nata Nati, they are actors.

One is Natwara, the best and Nataraj is also the best. Lord Siva was dancing and then he bought Parvati from Kailash to Simantadwipa and there both of them performed austerities and worship. Then what happened was that Gauranga Mahaprabhu appeared there upon the scene and Parvati took the dust of the lord’s lotus feet upon her head.

That is why the parting of the lady’s hair is called simanta, where there is Kumkum. In this dwipa we have a Jagannath temple and recently Iskcon have installed a deity of mother Parvati. She is called Simantini because she is a resident of Simantadwipa, which is the name of the place. There is also a Rudradwipa, named after lord Siva and this is one of the nine dwipa’s and back to Godrumadwipa, there is a temple of Hara and Hari.

They are both there in one deity form, half in Hara and the other half is Hari, Hari Hara. Lord Siva holds a very high position and he is not an ordinary Jiva, he is Siva. He has own category, he is one of a kind and he is the only one is this category because there is nobody like him. We are all Jiva tattva, the marginal energy of the lord and Visnu tattva is the supreme lord. Included in the Visnu tattva are all the incarnations of the lord.

Lord Siva is not a Jiva so what is he? He is lord Siva, he is Siva tattva, he has his own tattva, principle. He is not full fledged Visnu but he is certainly not an ordinary Jiva also. Having said this, he is not supremely independent also and so to think that he is independent and a competitor of Visnu is a great offence. This is the second offence.

To consider the names of demigods like Lord Shiva or Lord Brahma to be equal to or independent of the name of the Lord Vishnu
(Offences of the holy name 2)

I think this has to be understood clearly by us all otherwise we will definitely commit this offence. Mattah parataram nanyat
kincid asti dhananjaya

mattah parataram nanyat
kincid asti dhananjaya
mayi sarvam idam protam
sutre mani gana iva

Translation
O conquerer of wealth [Arjuna], there is no Truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread.

This is certainly true because could be on par with Krishna, on an equal level with him and so they can certainly be nobody who is higher than him. In our country there is always a competition between the followers of Siva and the followers of Krishna or Visnu. They try to prove ‘hey Siva hey Visnu!’ They try to compete and tussle and then there is friction, but this is all out of ignorance.

Visnu has his place but lord Siva is no less! He is somebody who is a very big personality. Lord Siva cannot be independent from the supreme lord. So he has become pleased, upon who has he become pleased? Upon the Praceta’s. Why has he become pleased upon them? Because the Praceta’s were the knowers of Dharma, religious principles.

sa tan prapannarti haro
bhagavan dharma vatsalah
dharma jnan sila sampannan
pritah pritan uvaca ha

Translation
Lord Siva became very pleased with the Pracetas because generally Lord ?iva is the protector of pious persons and persons of gentle behavior. Being very much pleased with the princes, he began to speak as follows.

They were also silavan which means when a person is religious, he or she is a person of character and that is what sila sampannan means. A person is known as having his character when he reads Chaitanya Charitamrita or Ram Charita or Krishna Charita. Now times have changed better one time all mothers and fathers would recite the pastimes of the lord to their son and daughters or to their grandchildren.

Because these children were constantly listening to the pastimes, activities and the character of the Lord himself, they would also become people of good character. Then what? Pritah, the lord would become pleased with all these boys and girls who were of good character. This is what is being said here, that lord Siva was pleased with the Praceta’s and by meeting them. Do we also want the Lord become pleased with us? How many of you want this that the Lord becomes pleased by us?

So what will we have to do? We will have to become religious and knowers of true religion. This means we must discover ourselves and this is to know our selves and to understand ourselves and to understand the lord also. By doing this one automatically becomes a knower of the scriptures also, tasmac chastram pramanam te karyakarya vyavasthitau.

tasmac chastram pramanam te
karyakarya vyavasthitau
jnatva sastra vidhanoktam
karma kartum iharhasi

Translation
One should understand what is duty and what is not duty by the regulations of the scriptures. Knowing such rules and regulations, one should act so that he may gradually be elevated

Bhagavatam and gita are scripures and one who knows these is called a knower of sastra. Normally material people think that one who knows, sastra knows Galileo or this one and that one, Darwin- actually not him (laughter). He’s not on that list. So one who knows sastra is a scientist, sastrajna. This is spiritual science because both are science but out of both sciences, of course the superior science is the spiritual science.

Both constitute knowledge, but one is higher knowledge and one is lower knowledge.

raja vidya raja guhyam
pavitram idam uttamam
pratyaksavagamam dharmyam
su sukham kartum avyayam
(Bhagavad gita 9.2)

Translation
This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed

Whoever has done the Bhakti Sastri course and has taken the knowledge of this course by understanding it has become a knower of the Bhakti Sastras, books of devotion. Our Acharya’s are all knowers of the Sastras, just like Ramanujacharya and Madhvacharya. Then there is Srila Prabhupada. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada ki jai. What was Prabhupada? He was in knowledge of Sastra and if you read his books you can also become a knower of Sastra.

Murari Shyam Prabhu is a knower of Sastra also this can be said so easily. With ease one can say this, there are no if’s and but’s about this statement. And there are so many others, Anandamaya Prabhu is a Sastrajna as is Vedanta Chaitanya. He was here and he is Sastrajna. The Praceta’s were knowers of Sastra and knowers of Dharma. One is knowledhe of Sastra, Jnana and the other is Vijnana which is the practical application of that knowledge.

It is not enough just to be a knower of Sastra, one must be practically applying this spiritual science. First there is knowledge of dharma, religious principles and then one becomes sila sampannan, a person of good character. When we become of good character then Pritah, the lord becomes pleased or here lord Siva has become pleased. Here he is mentioned as the lord and this is a fact because he is also the lord.

He possesses all six opulences although lord possesses these opulences to the greatest degree. The six opulence are

aisvarasya samagrasya
viryasya yasasah sriyah
jnana vairagyayos caiva
sannam bhaga itingana
(Visnu purnana 6.5.47

Translation
Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is defined as one who is full of six opulence, ie, who has full strength, fame, wisdom, wealth, beauty and renunciation

These are the six opulences and Krishna has them to the greatest extent, samagrasya, total, complete. But others also have the six opulences but less is quantity to lord Krishna. Just like the lord’s incarnations have these six opulences because they are the supreme lord and so lord Siva has these sox opulences because he is known as the lord. Sukadeva Goswami is also known as the supreme lord as is Narada Muni.

Also all of you are also the lord to greater or lesser degrees, yes yes. You are the lord because having knowledge means to be the lord. Bhag, whoever has this bhag means he possesses this and that means Wan, to possess. So whoever has knowledge to whatever degree, he is a lord to that degree. If one is renounced he is the lord, if one has some strength he is a
Lord. Hari Hari. So now lord Siva has become pleased, pritah pritan uvaca ha.

Pritan, unto such personalities who were abiders of religion and who were therefore of good character, being pleased with the activities of these great souls, lord Siva was pleased and therefore started to speak as follows. Lord Siva said, what did he say? We will speak on that tomorrow so it is to be continued. Thank you very much.

So now there is one question, when will Prashad be served?

(Audio cut) Sacinanandan Maharaja or Bhurijan Prabhu, I don’t know. Usually on a regular basis we are observing this just like is Somanadwipa Iskcon have installed a deity of Parvati and everyday they perform arati to the deity and there is also a Sivalinga there and they perform arati to this also. The temple is Mayapura in a place called Rajapur and you can do this also, there is no objection.

So your question is that is it true that lord Siva is Hari’s ish, worshipable lord? This talk goes on in Rameswar, ‘who is the supreme lord, lord Rama or lord Siva? Ye yatha mam prapadyante tams tathaiva bhajamy aham

ye yatha mam prapadyante
tams tathaiva bhajamy aham
mama vartmanuvartante
manusyah partha sarvasah
(Bhagavad gita 4.11)

Translation
All of them- as they surrender unto Me, I reward accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Prtha

These words are very mysterious where the lord is herein saying, ‘ye yatha, whoever surrenders unto me accordingly, I also think of them to tie extent of their surrender to me.’ If you want to take it literally, then this is what the lord is saying. Ye means those people, yatha means accordingly, mam means me and prapadyante means to come to his shelter. ‘Tam bhajami aham, I worship them.’

The lord worships his devotees and of course the lord’s devotees are always worshipping him continuously. This is the relationship of the lord and his devotees, they both worship each other but in Vrindavan nobody worships him. Sadhavo hrdayam mahyam sadhunam hrdayam tv aham

sadhavo hrdayam mahyam
sadhunam hrdayam tv aham
mad anyat te na jananti
naham tebhyo manag api
(Srimad bhagavatam

Translation
The pure devotee is always within the core of My heart, and I am always in the heart of the pure devotee. My devotees do not know anything else but Me, and I do not know anyone else but them

Krishna says that the pure devotee is in his heart and ‘I am always in everyone’s heart.’ The lord is saying here ‘my devotees do not know anything else but me, and my state is the same because I do not think about anything apart from my devotees.’ Hari Hari. That is why we must respect the devotees and treat them with high esteem, even to the point of worshipping them. We must serve the devotees because even the lord worships his devotees.

That is why the lord came as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to know his devotees and he became a devotee also for this same reason. Panca tattvatmakam krsnam
bhakta rupa svarupakam

panca tattvatmakam krsnam
bhakta rupa svarupakam
bhaktavataram bhaktakhyam
namami bhakta saktikam
(Chaitanya Charitamrita Adi 7.6)

Translation
Let me offer my obeisances unto Lord Sri Krsna, who has manifested Himself in five as a devotee, expansion of a devotee, incarnation of a devotee, pure devotee and devotional energy

This is Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who has taken the mood of Radharani, the devotees and the gopi’s and then the lord has himself become a devotee. We want to become the lord ourselves and in our country there are lords wondering about, this lord and that lord, here and there. He was a Swami yesterday and Narayana today, Swami Narayana. Then someone else becomes some other God and someone else another but Krishna wants to become a devotee and he does become a devotee.

You can call this the glory of a devotee but it is also a special position of the lord’s devotee, a status. The lord has also said, ‘whoever says that they are my devotee are not my devotee, no no. This must be another person, not my devotee. But one who says that he is a devotee of my devotee, aahh then you are my devotee.’ If one says like this that ‘I am a devotee of your devotee, oh lord’ ‘then you are my devotee’ the lord says.

Where is my lord Siva worships the supreme lord and in the same way, the supreme lord worships lord Siva. Okay what else is happening here?

Srimad Bhagavatam class
7th May 2023
Iskcon Ujjain

Gaura Nitai ki jai.
Srila Prabhupada ki jai.
Chaitanya Charitamrita ki jai.

Actually the time now is for Nityam bhagavata sevaya, it is time for Bhagavad katha, Bhagavatam class. Today we are not reading today’s verse but we will still certainly have bhagavatam class. There is a Gaura bhagavad also. Hari Hari. In Navadwipa there is also a Naimisharanya and there is another Naimisharanya near Lucknow and this place is called Sitapura. There was a katha on Gaura bhagavad but I dont want to take time speaking on this.

Srimad bhagavad and Gaura bhagavad is the same and in the same way Navadwipa and Vrindavan is the same. In fact you can say they are the same or you can also say they are two separate parts because Vrindavan in Goloka and there is Vrindavan within Goloka, Goloka Vrindavan. And Goloka also means that Dwarka is a part of it and Mathura is also within Goloka. This is the land of cows, Goloka and it is so named because of the cows.

Whether that be Goloka or Gokula or Govardhan and there are the Gopa’s also. These are all named after the cow, Go. Just like Gopa means those who care for cows, Go means cows and Pa means to maintain and protect them. And the Gopa’s daughters or wives are called what? Gopi’s. The Vrindavan part of Goloka has two divisions. One is Vrindavan and the other is called Swetadwipa or Navadwipa.

It is not that five hundred and thirty seven years ago that Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared for the first time and then he made his appearance. This is not the case because in Goloka the lord is always present in his form as Gauranga Mahaprabhu. He is always there and so there is one Goloka which is known as Vrindavan where Radha and Krishna are. And the Navadwipa or Svetadwipa which is the other part of Vrindavan, you can call it a part or a division or the land, well

Sri Krsna caitanya radha krsna nahe anya
(CC Madhya 25.271)

Translation
“Radha and Krsna combined together are Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu.”

So over there we have only Radha and Krishna and over here just Chaitanya Mahaprabhu but he is not just Chaitanya Mahaprabhu because he is Krishna himself.

radha krsna pranaya vikrtir hladini saktir asmad?ekatmanav api bhuvi pura deha bhedam gatau tau
(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita: Adi-lila, 1.5)

Translation
The loving affairs of Sri Radha and Krsna are transcendental manifestations of the Lord’s internal pleasure giving potency. Although Radha and K???a are one in Their identity, previously They separated Themselves. Now these two transcendental identities have again united, in the form of ?r? K???a Caitanya.

Krishnadas Kaviraj has written this in his Chaitanya Charitamrita and he says that Radha and Krishna are one identity, ekatmanav api. They are one and having said this, bhuvi pura. This was said very long ago and we are not to question ‘oh how long ago was this told?’ What happened? Deha bhedam gatau tau. Ekatmanav, that one identity, what happened? Deha bhedam gatau tau, from one identity they became two.

Radha Krishna are two but when they become one, they are one in Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. They are also both simultaneously residents of Goloka. In this way Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is eternally present in Goloka and yesterday night we were having discussion in Vrindavan that there is Rasa lila and dancing of Rasa dance in one part of Vrindavan.

What happens in the other part of Vrindavan? There are some pastimes there also, pastimes meaning some games and playful activities, and there is dancing there also. The dancing there in that part of Vrindavan is not Rasa dance but is the dancing of Sankirtan and there is a lot of this dancing just like there is in the Navadwipa in Goloka in the spiritual sky. The pastimes which happen in the Vrindavan which is on the banks of the Yamuna, that too is

golokera vaibhava lila karila prakash karila

Translation
The pastimes of Goloka Vrindavan were manifested in Gokula by the Lord

This means that the Lord manifested his unmanifested pastimes in Gokula and in the same way lord manifested his pastimes of Svetadwipa in Mayapur. Hari Hari. Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Radha Krishna also along with Vrindavan dham ki jai! Vrindavan dham is very dear or you can say that the dham itself is the supreme lord. It is the form of the lord and so Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has been addressed

Aradhyo bhagavan vrajesa tanaya tad dhaman vrndavanam

Translation
And what is the best kind of worship for Krsna?

Radha Madan Mohan ki jai. So worship should be for the son of the king of Vraja, Maharaja Nanda’s son, and alongside this, worship of Vrindavan should also be conducted. So Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu practically showed what the love of the residents of Vrindavan is like. He was always remembering Vrindavan and wanted to go to Vrindavan. He took Sannyasa initiation, are you all ready to take?

So he was thinking next, ‘oh now I should go to Vrindavan.’ He would ask ‘where is Vrindavan?’ He took first initiation, Harinam initiation in Gaya, and he took Sannyasa in Katwa. Then Iswara Puri gave him the Maha Mantra, as soon as he started to chant, Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu became maddened and ecstatic. It was instant revival of Krishna consciousness on the spot. So it was instantaneous and then Chaitanya Mahaprabhu started to run towards Vrindavan.

With much difficulty he was stopped and the devotees bought him to Navadwipa. Finally at one time Chaitanya Mahaprabhu started his journey for Vrindavan, are you all okay? I am speaking peacefully so you all are resting peacefully (laughter). Hari Hari, sit properly. Prabhupada used to say this, have you heard? In a Japa recording Prabhupada is saying ‘sit properly.’ Like a Yogi, not like a Bhogi. Whenever Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would give a suggestion for his going to Vrindavan, the devotees of Jagannatha Puri would refuse.

‘No, not now. Go after Dola Yatra. At the moment it is very cold there in Vrindavan.’ Like that. At one point the lord was leaving to go to Ramakeli where the lord met Rupa and Sanatana and gave he them initiation also. Their previous names were Dabira Khasa and Sakara Mallika and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu gave them the names Rupa Goswami and Sanatana Goswami. So there was a name giving ceremony also.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu then went straight from Ramakeli to Vrindavan but when the devotees found out that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was going to Vrindavan, they say ‘we shall come too. There will be so many crowds of people following behind you oh lord.’ Lord Rama was leaving for the forest as a Vanavasi, someone who goes to the Vana (forest) to make his Vasa, stay. So when lord Rama was leaving Ayodhya to go to the forest, what happened? Not only did all the residents of Ayodhya want to go with lord Rama to the forest but they actually did go!
This happened, right? And all of Ayodhya was empty, deserted.

There is one bhajan in Marathi where it is said ‘how are you going and leaving us behind? How can Rama leave us and go to Vrindavan?’ Not Vrindavan, Rama is going to just a Vana, a forest. So this is exactly what the trees of Ayodhya were thinking at that time. ‘Poor us, we are still and we cannot even move from this place. If we were like the people of Ayodhya then we would also follow Rama to the forest. Poor us non moving trees. Hari Hari. When Krishna and Balaram- anyway this is, no.

Okay so there is some Hari katha happening here and some talks on bhagavatam. When Akrura went to Vrindavan, when we speak of going, we dont just speak of taking a plane and reaching Vrindavan. Akrura went to Vrindavan, finished. Kamsa sent Akrura to Vrindavan and in this one sentence it’s all over. No, it cant be like that. The whole chapter is spoken by Sukadeva Goswami on how Akrura went to Vrindavan and what he was thinking during his journey.

Hari Hari. Prabhupada used to say that if one wants to go to Vrindavan then how must he go? Like Akrura went. Then one must find out how this is, he must listen about the journey of Akrura and read bhagavatam. We can listen and understand this pastime which is coming from the lotus of Sukadeva Goswami about how Akrura went to Vrindavan. What feelings of love and what desire for devotion! Mora ei abhilasha, vilasa kunje dio vasa.

mora ei abhilasha, vilasa kunje dio vasa
nayana heribo sada yugala rupa rasi
(Tulsi Arati 3)

Translation
My desire is that you will also give me a residence in the pleasure groves of Sri Vrindavana-dhama. Thus within my vision I will always behold the beautiful pastimes of Radha and Krishna

Akrura was successful in his mission to go to Vrindavan and on the way he was thinking ‘today I will meet Krishna Balaram. He is breathlessly going on his way and Akrura is going to Vrindavan but
we are going from Vrindavan to Mathura. So Akrura has reached and he stayed all night at Nanda Bhavan. So the next morning at dawn Akrura reached Nandagram and Krishna Balaram had just got ready. They had recently taken bath, abhishek. They were proceeding towards the Goshala to milk the cows.

They saw Akrura Ji approaching, ‘Akrura uncle has come, Akrura uncle has come!’ Both of them started shouting like this. So Akrura had been thinking that ‘today I will see Krishna and Balaram!’ He had just passed the place called godhuli bela at dusk. Bela means time and what time is it referring to? When the cows walk there is a big dust storm created from their hoofs. The dust of Vraja is very fine and light, not like Udaipura. There are then clouds of dust formed from the cows walking and Yashoda can see this from Nandagram.

Then she finds out ‘hey he is five kilometres away. Now he’s three kilometres away.’ Krishna Balaram cannot be seen but the dust can be seen. The cows are walking along and so are the cowherd boys. It was at that time when Akrura saw the fresh footprints of Krishna as Krishna had just past the place where Akrura reached. Whilst he was driving his chariot, Akrura suddenly saw Krishna and Balaram and he fell down like stick.

Akrura then touched the dust of Vraja which had touched the lotus feet of the lord, and as he did so he started rolling in that dust. Romanca kampasru taranga bhajo vande guroh sri caranaravindam

mahaprabhoh k?rtana nrtya gita ?vaditra madyan manaso rasena?romanca kampasru taranga bhajo?vande guroh sri caranaravindam
(Guru astakam 2)

Translation
Chanting the holy name, dancing in ecstasy, singing, and playing musical instruments, the spiritual master is always gladdened by the sankirtana movement of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Because he is relishing the mellows of pure devotion within his mind, sometimes his hair stands on end, he feels quivering in his body, and tears flow from his eyes like waves. I offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of such a spiritual master.

dadarsha krishnam ramam ca vraje go-dohanam gatau
(Srimad Bhagavatam 10.38.28)

Translation
Akrura then saw Krishna and Balarama in the village of Vraja, going to milk the cows

Krishna Balaram were standing in the courtyard of Nanda Bhavan. They were going to milk the cows and how were Krishna Balaram? Pita nilambara dharau. One had yellow clothes on and who was that? Krishna Kahnaiya lal ki jai! And the other had blue clothes on. And what are they both? Kisorau, they are in the age group of Kishore, youths. When Akrura went to get Krishna and Balaram, both lords had just turned eleven years.

kisorau syamala-svetau
sri niketau brhad bhujau
su mukhau sundara varau
bala dvirada vikramau
Srimad bhagavatam 10.38.29)

Translation
One of those two mighty-armed youths, the shelters of the goddess of fortune, had a dark-blue complexion, and the other’s was white. With Their fine-featured faces They were the most beautiful of all persons.

They had been in the Pauganda age group and now they were in Kaisora. Kisorau syamala svetau, what was their complexion like? One was syam, dark and the other was svetau, whitish in complexion. Sri niketau brhad bhujau, their arms were mighty. It could also mean that they both had strong and long arms which we know they have. Ajanu lambita bhujau and Krishna Balaram’s arms reach their knees. Do your arms reach so far? Well your arms are reaching even further than your knees.

And what are their faces like? Su mukhau, fine featured faces. Everything is ending in ‘au au.’ When this happens it means it is plural, in this case two in number just like Rama means ome Rama and Ramah means two Rama’s. Or it could be Rama Krishnau, one Rama and the other Krishna, so two altogether. Sundara varau, both these lords are Vara, meaning best of all persons and Sundara means most beautiful of all persons. They are also Nata varau, best of all dancers.

barhapidam nata vara vapuh karnayoh karnikaram
bibhrad vasah kanaka kapisam vaijayantim ca malam
(Srimad bhagavatam 10.21.5)

Translation
Wearing a peacock feather ornament upon His head, blue karnikara flowers on His ears, a yellow garment as brilliant as gold, and the Vaijayanti garland, Lord Krsna exhibited His transcendental form as the greatest of dancers

dhvaja vajrankusambhojais
cihnitair anghribhir vrajam
sobhayantau mahatmanau
sanukrosa smiteksanau
(Srimad bhagavatam 10.38.30)

Translation
Those two exalted personalities beautified the cow pasture with the impressions of Their feet, which bore the marks of the flag, lightning bolt, elephant goad and lotus.

There is a description of Krishna like this. Dhvaja vajrankusambhojais, on their lotus feet there are different marks on the soles of their lotus feet. Their lotus feet are filled with these different impressions and when they walk, one can see the details of these marks on their lotus feet. In this way one can tell if these lotus feet belong to Krishna or to another ordinary person.

When the Gopi’s were searching for Krishna, as they kept searching they saw some footprints and they gave some attention to detail. Them they said ‘hey, these footprints belong to Krishna.’ There is a description of the marks and here it is written dhvaja vajra, ankusa, ambhojais. There are eight or is it eleven on one foot and eight on the other? Have you seen this? Have you taken darshan of the lord’s lotus feet?

Who here had seen the painting if these different symbols on the lord’s lotus feet? Someone must have taken a photograph of the lord’s lotus feet and so accordingly it was painted. As the Gopi’s went on searching, after a short time they began to see that along with Krishna’s footprints there were another set of prints beside his. ‘Hey, whose footprints are these? These other ones are Krishna’s but what about these ones besides his?’

Another Gopi then answered, you silly girl, whose would they be apart from that one Gopi? Do you not even understand this much? It belongs to her who worships Krishna, anayaradhito nunam. For certain these footprints are Radharani’s footprints. But look here! Only Krishna’s footprints are visible here at this spot and they are very deep in the ground. And where are Radha’s foot impressions here? Where are they?’

Then they guessed, ‘here in this soot Krishna must have carried Radharani on his shoulders and so because the weight on the ground os of two persons, the footprints of Krishna are deeper in the ground.’ When a heavy vehicle goes into a farm, there will be a certain impression on the land and the mud. If a lorry goes there then there will be deeper markings as
it is a heavier vehicle.

‘Look here, Krishna’s lotus feet is not wholly marked on the ground, it is only half the marks of his lotus feet. What must have happened here?’ Then the Gopi’s themselves answer that ‘here Krishna must have jumped to pick flowers from the tree and that is why his whole foot is not marked upon this ground. And if we look here we can see where he threw flowers on her and the lord sat behind Radha who then sat in front.

Krishna himself put flowers in Radharani’s hair and he decorated her and put ornaments on her and like that. Hari Hari.

udara rucira kridau
sragvinau vana malinau
punya gandhanuliptangau
snatau viraja vasasau
(Srimad bhagavatam 10.38.31)

Translation
The two Lords, whose pastimes are most magnanimous and attractive, were ornamented with jeweled necklaces and flower garlands, anointed with auspicious, fragrant substances, freshly bathed, and dressed in spotless raiment

Akrura is seeing that Krishna Balaram are there in front of him and vaijayantim ca malam, what sort of garland is the lord wearing? Vanamala, a forest garland made of forest flowers. There can also be some leaves in this forest garland. Punya gandhanuliptangau, what is on their limbs? All over their limbs there are auspicious fragrances and sandalwood paste. Punya gandha also means that Krishna’s limbs are fragrant and that fragrance is auspicious.

When Jatila comes to search for her daughter in law and Krishna finds out that she is near, he takes off, he leaves that place. Then as Jatila arrives, she asks Radha, ‘what are you doing over here?! You came here to meet Krishna didnt you?’ ‘No no I didnt come here to see Krishna. I never meet Krishna and I did not meet him today also, no.’ Then Jatila asks, ‘where did this fragrance come from?’ Krishna had left the place long ago but he had left behind his sweet fragrance. Jatila knows that this fragrance is Krishna’s.

Snatau viraja vasasau, vasa meaning clothes. Vasamsi meanings many clothes and so there is not just one set of clothes here but there is talk of two sets of clothes. Vasasau, both loads have worn garments but what sort if garments have they worn? Clothes which do not have any dust on them, there is no dirt which means they are clean and freshly washed. When the lord goes to the forest there is so much dust everywhere, on his clothes and on his body and here and there.

So he has just arrived home and has taken bath and so the lord has now worn white clothes, along with Balaram.

pradhana purusav adyau
jagad dhetu jagat pati
avatirnau jagaty arthe
svamsena bala kesavau
(Srimad bhagavatam 10.38.32)

Translation
They were the primeval Supreme Personalities, the masters and original causes of the universes, who had for the welfare of the earth now descended in Their distinct forms of Kesava and Balarama

Pradhana purusav adyau, both lords are what? Pradhana Purush, primeval supreme personalities and are adya, the original supreme person. Govindam adi purusham. Avatirnau jagaty arthe, both of these lords have descended for the welfare of the earth. Bala kesavau, so who is Bala? Bala means Balaram and Keshava is Krishna.

diso vitimira rajan
kurvanau prabhaya svaya
yatha marakatah sailo
raupyas ca kanakacitau
(Srimad bhagavatam 10.38.33)

Translation
O King Pariksit, They resembled two gold-bedecked mountains, one of emerald and the other of silver, as with Their effulgence They dispelled the sky’s darkness in all directions

diso vitimira rajan, wherever Krishna and Balaram darkness goes away swiftly from that place.

krsna surya sama; maya haya andhakara
yahan krsna, tahan nahi mayara adhikara

Translation
The Lord is just like the effulgent sun. Consequently, whenever the Supreme Personality of Godhead is present, there cannot be darkness or ignorance.

Wherever Krishna and Balaram are present, in that place darkness cannot exist. Yashoda used to suggest to the elder Gopi’s ‘why do you not keep the butter in a dark place where my boy cannot see it? Wherever you keep the butter which is stolen by Krishna, instead you should keep the butter in a dark room where Krishna and Balaram will not enter. They will not see the butter there so put it there.’

The Gopi’s had come to mother Yashoda to complain and everyday they shout ‘hey Yashoda!’ The whole place was filled with complaints and then Yashoda would protest, ‘my lala stole butter from your house? No this is not possible. But if you are insisting that he has done this then there has to be some evidence of the theft. Why do you not bring him to me once you catch him stealing?’

One day there was an incident with a Gopi named Prabhavati who caught Krishna stealing butter in her home. Yashoda had told this Gopi to also bring Krishna to her after catching him stealing butter. So she was doing just this, she had caught Krishna and was dragging him from her home to Nandabhavan. She had kept her face covered with her veil which is naturally the way, the Brajabasi Gopi’s do this.

So as she reached Nandabhavan she began to call ‘hey Yashoda please come and see! Just see the activities of you lala. Today I have caught him red handed.’ Do you understand this red handed? Instead she said ‘i have caught him white handed.’ Meaning there was butter in his hands which he had stolen. ‘That butter is still there on his hands, come and see.’ Yashoda comes from inside and Prabhavati from outside and she is pulling Kahnaiya.

As she reaches the door of Nandabhavan she declared ‘take a look! Here is your naughty butter thief!’ As Prabhavati then put the thief forward to show Yashoda, instead of Krishna it was Prabhavati’s own son who was present there. Yashoda said ‘hey, take your veil off your face and see! Whose son is this, your son or mine?’ Then that shameful Prabhavati stood there. She had thought ‘today my name will become famous.

I am the one who has caught this butter thief Kahnaiya. It will be on the front page of Mathura times and my photo will be printed with the thief.’ In this way the poor woman was heading back towards her home and on the way she met Kahnaiya. ‘Hey, today I became your son but if you catch me again I will become your husband! So be aware of this!’ Hari Hari. So Yashoda had suggested that the Gopi’s put there butter in a dark place and the Gopi’s tried to do this but the stealing of butter did not stop.

The Gopi’s began to tell mother Yashoda ‘we are keeping our butter in pitch dark places but when Krishna and Balaram come they can still see it. Wherever they go, they can see any place because they are possess koti surya samaprabha. The limbs of their bodies radiate an effulgence, bha means light.

Bahu koti candra jini’ vadana ujjvala, so their bodies have this ujjavala, light.

bahu koti candra jini’ vadana ujjvala gala dese bana mala kore jhalamala
(Gaura Arati 6)

Translation
The brilliance of Lord Caitanya’s face conquers millions upon millions of moons, and the garland of forest flowers around His neck shines

This effulgence of the lord’s body is called the Brahma jyoti. By this effulgence all darkness goes away and there is light in all directions. So Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu wanted to take darshan of the lord in Vrindavan and go there but at the moment this was not going to be possible. But Chaitanya Mahaprabhu always used to be eager and anxious to go to Vrindavan and take darshan of Vrindavan.

Finally when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu started for Vrindavan, how many people started to follow him there? Hundreds of thousands of people. At that time there was a Brahmacari called Nrsimha Brahmacari. In his mediation, Nrsimha Brahmacari reconstructed all the pathways that the lord would be taking on his way to Vrindavan. He would renovate and decorate these roads for the lord just before the lord would reach that path and he was also planting trees so that the lord would have shade from the heat of the sun.

He would plant fragrant flowers and he was doing this construction in his meditation very fast. He made these paths in his mediation for hundreds of miles but as he was doing this in his mind he reached a place called Kanai Natashala. This is a place on the border of Bihar, Bengal. Although he wanted to do so, Nrsimha Brahmacari’s could not mediate further than this place and plan the paths for the lord to traverse.

He tried very hard and all the material for the construction was ready but the construction could not take place no matter how hard he tried. Then Nrsimha Brahmacari came to a conclusion and said, ‘the lord will not go further than Kanai Natashala.’ And that is exactly what happened, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu went as far as this place and then he changed his mind. ‘I will go to Vrindavan right now. There are so many people, no I wont go with so many people.’

So Chaitanya Mahaprabhu returned to Jagannath Puri although he did not stop thinking about going to Vrindavan and then later he went to Vrindavan. The same thing happens, it is always the case with lord Rama or lord Krishna and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Whenever they want to go somewhere the whole world wants to go with them.

This is exactly what happened with lord Rama and at least on the day he left for the forest, the whole town left with him and stayed for one day and at night they were also with the lord for the overnight stay. They took rest in the open fields in the forest and when they all the residents of Ayodhya were asleep, Rama woke up. Actually Rama had not even fallen asleep and especially Lakshman also who would not sleep at all for the next fourteen years.

He also would not eat and all he would do is serve lord Rama day and night. So in the middle of the night lord Rama left the residents asleep and left. Who was the chariot driver? Sumanthra. So Rama said ‘Sumanthra get ready.’ Then they quietly left that place. In the same way when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu wanted to go to his South Indian tour, all the residents of Jagannatha Puri wanted to go with him but the lord refused. ‘No. Stay here.’

When Krishna and Balaram were leaving for Mathura, some of the residents of Vrindavan were also invited by Kamsa to go to Mathura with them. Krishna’s friends were also going although they would be going separately from Krishna and Balaram who would go with Akrura on his chariot. The rest of then would go in bullock carts but the poor Gopis were not able to go. There is a bhajan in Marathi which describes how the next morning Akrura decorated his chariot and requested Krishna and Balaram to sit on it.

The lord left all the Gopis in Vrindavan and he left for Mathura. Just before the lord was about to leave, the Gopi’s tried their level best to stop Krishna from leaving. They took Akrura by the collar ‘ei! Who has given you this name Akrura?! You are Krura, cruel so why is your name just the opposite, Akrura? But nevertheless Krishna and Balaram left for Mathura but as they were leaving they left a message to tell the Gopi’s that they would come back very soon.

We’re just now coming, we’ll be back soon.’ The poor Gopi’s were losing their very lives which the lord was taking with him, Prananatha. He was the lord of their lives as he was Radhanath, Gopinath. They became lifeless like statues and just stood still in their places. Some of the Gopi’s fell over and some turned to go back home. The lord had told them that he was just now coming back but Krishna did not come back to Vrindavan but stayed in Mathura.

The lord went from Mathura to Ujjain and then of course he returned back to Mathura from Ujjain and he kept battling with Jarasandha for eighteen years. He still dod not return back to Vrindavan but instead went even further and was called Ranchod because he gave up the battlefield (Rana) and ran away (chod). He then arrived in Dwarka and made his residence there.

Slowly he became busy in different activities and made arrangements for marriage and he got married not once or twice or five, ten times or even a hundred times? How many queens did the lord marry? Sixteen thousand one hundred and eight. Then the lord became Dwarkadhish and so he was very busy and the residents of Dwarka kept him busy. Then finally Krishna made a plan and went to Kurukshetra at sunset with Balaram, Vasudeva, Devaki and all the queens.

All of the residents of Dwarka went to Kurukshetra and there is a Surya Kunda there and at sunset they all took bath in this lake. Before they had left for Kurukshetra, they had sent hand written invitations to Vrindavan, letters of communication. The lord write ‘I am coming to Kurukshetra so you may like to come.’ As soon as all the residents of Vrindavan got these invitations, they all got ready to leave for Kurukshetra and there took place the meeting between the residents of Braja and Dwarka.

Basically all the residents of Vrindavan met Krishna Balaram. There was a festival of meeting together. Hari Hari. Gaura prem anande haribol. We were talking about the meeting and now that the meeting has taken place we can now be relaxed. Hare Krishna.

Srimad Bhagavatam 7.15.46
Iskcon Vrindavan
13.10.2022

All glories to the assembled devotees, you understand this, yes? All the devotees who have gathered together just like in the battle of Kuruksetra all the warriors had come together, samaveta yuyutsavah.

dhrtarastra uvaca
dharma-ksetre kuru-ksetre
samaveta yuyutsavah
mamakah pandavas caiva
kim akurvata sanjaya
(Bhagavad Gita 1.1)

Translation
Dhrtarastra said: O Sanjaya, after assembling in the place of pilgrimage at Kuruksetra, what did my sons and the sons of Pandu do, being desirous to fight?

The Pandavas were there and some others were there but in that way we say all glories to all the assembled devotees. Prabhupada used to often call out like this in the pranam prayers and he would certainly say what is translated as ‘all glories to the assembled devotees’ Hari Hari. What is the turn out today? Fifty? Forty six, okay.

We are reading from the Srimad Bhagavatam seventh canto, fifteenth chapter verse forty six

nocet pramattam asad indriya vaji suta?nitvotpatham visaya dasyusu niksipanti?te dasyavah sahaya sutam amum tamo ‘ndhe?samsara kupa uru mrtyu bhaye ksipanti
(SB 7.15.46)

Translation
Otherwise, if one does not take shelter of Acyuta and Baladeva, then the senses, acting as the horses, and the intelligence, acting as the driver, both being prone to material contamination, inattentively bring the body, which acts as the chariot, to the path of sense gratification. When one is thus attracted again by the rogues of visaya — eating, sleeping and mating — the horses and chariot driver are thrown into the blinding dark well of material existence, and one is again put into a dangerous and extremely fearful situation of repeated birth and death.

Anyone wants to repeat? Fine, okay I alone will recite the sloka with word meaning which you can repeat after me. Are you all listening? We are listening to Prabhupada as he has written this so that is why you please listen with careful attention to the purport.

Without the protection of Gaura-Nitai -Krsna and Balarama – one cannot get out of the dark well of ignorance in material existence. Can they come out? No they cannot. This is indicated here by the word nocet, which means that one will always remain in the dark well of material existence. The living entity must get strength from Nitai-Gaura, or Krsna-Balarama. Jai Baladeva! Without the mercy of Nitai-Gaura, there is no way to come out of this dark well of ignorance. There is no other way, no other way, no other way. Kalau nasty eva nasty eva nasty eva gatir anyatha

harer nama harer namah
harer namaiva kevalam
kalau nasty eva nasty eva
nasty eva gatir anyatha
(Chaitanya Charitamrita Adi 7.76)

Translation
‘For spiritual progress in this Age of Kali there is no alternative, there is no alternative, there is no alternative to the holy name, the holy name, the holy name of the Lord.’

This has been said in this way:

vande sri krsna caitanya
nityanandau sahoditau
gaudodaye puspavantau
citrau sandau tamo nudau

(Caitanya caritamrta (Adi 1.2)

Translation
“I offer my respectful obeisances unto Sri Krsna Caitanya and Lord Nityananda

Are you also offering obeisances? There should also be some feeling when offering obeisances. We mustn’t just say that you are offering obeisances but within our minds we must do what? Actually offer obeisances in our hearts and minds.

They who are like the sun and moon. They have arisen simultaneously on the horizon of Gauda to dissipate the darkness of ignorance and thus wonderfully bestow benediction upon all.” This material world is a dark well of ignorance. The fallen soul in this dark well must take shelter of the lotus feet of Gaura-Nitai, for thus he can easily emerge from material existence. Without Their strength, simply attempting to get out of the clutches of matter by speculative knowledge will be insufficient.

Hari Hari. This chapter is called ‘instructions for civilised human beings’ you can call this instructions for civilised human beings or you can say they are instructions to become civilised human beings. And the one who is giving the instructions is Narayana himself, who is this? It isn’t lord Narayana but rather he who is always chanting ’Narayana Narayana.’

He is the one who gives Narayana to everyone, that Naradji is speaking and this is the conversation which happened between King Yudishthira and Narada Muni in the seventh canto. Here King Yudishthira was listening and now we are listening. Who are we listening to? Narada Muni and his instructions have been repeated to us by Srila Prabhupada which we can speak about and translate also.

When Sri Krishna Balaram were installed, the next day on the morning walk Srila Prabhupada was saying ‘I have given you Krishna Balaram and therefore whatever problem you may have, you can go in front of Krishna Balaram and speak to them saying ‘sir! This is my difficulty. This is my problem and my you be able to resolve my dilemma.

Prabhupada has written here that Gaua Nitai and Krishna Balaram are the real protectors and in actual fact Krishna Balaram are Gaura Nitai and they are Rama and Lakshman of the Treta Yuga. In Dwapara Yuga they are Krishna Balaram and so in Kali Yuga they are here as Gaura Nitai ki jai! So they are the same personality and in each Yuga

paritranaya sadhunam
vinasaya ca duskrtam
dharma samsthapanarthaya
sambhavami yuge yuge

Translation
In order to deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I advent Myself millennium after millennium

Krishna is therefore the only solution to all our problems and we keep emphasising upon this point that the Bhagavatam has the solution for every problem, the lord has the solution to whatever problem there may be. Whatever problem, this one or that one, you name it, each and every problem’s solution can only be solved by the lord, even the fear of death.

I have spoken on so many things already and so when our senses become out of control, they have been compared to horses. How are our senses? Like horses. The whip is compared to the intelligence and because there must be a chariot for all this to take place the material body is taken to be the chariot. yantrarudhani mayaya, we living entities are the passengers.

Ishvarah sarva bhutanam hrid deshe ‘rjuna tishthati?bhramayan sarva bhutani yantrarudhani mayaya
(B.G 18.61)

Translation
The Supreme Lord dwells in the hearts of all living beings, O Arjun. According to their karmas, He directs the wanderings of the souls, who are seated on a machine made of material energy

We have been seated on this machine of the material body and when there is talk of a machine then it is said ‘oh this is a forty horsepower engine or a twenty horsepower engine.’ So in the same way our body which is an engine, yantrarudhani mayaya, how much horsepower does it take? How many? Five horse powers and our five senses and the five horses, horsepowers. These horse continue to pull the body, or the chariot and our control over them becomes weakened.

The driver is sleeping or his intelligence is not working, he is dull minded. There is no power of discrimination which is the job of intelligence to determine what is right and what is wrong. Sometimes the senses perform the right type of work, good work, and then they perform bad deeds.

dhyayato visayan pumsah sangas tesupajayate
sangat sanjayate kamah
kamat krodho ‘bhijayate
(BG 2.62)

Translation
While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises.

Krishna has said that if one is attached to the senses, visaya dasyusu niksipanti, the senses are there and they are likened to the horses are there and they are walking towards the sense objects, or rather they are running towards the objects of the senses. Then what happens? Dhyayato visayan pumsah, one is meditating upon the sense objects and the mind is there also, so Krishna is saying ‘sangas tesupajayate.’

Tesu means become attached to the senses, then sangat sanjayate kamah. By becoming attached to the sense objects, lust develops. When lust is not satisfied, what happens? kamat krodho ‘bhijayate. Anger then arises in us. Krodhad bhavati sammohah, then one becomes bewildered.

krodhad bhavati sammohah sammohat smriti vibhramah?smriti bhranshad buddhi nasho buddhi nashat pranashyati
BG 2.63)

Translation
Anger leads to clouding of judgment, which results in bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, the intellect gets destroyed; and when the intellect is destroyed, one is ruined

What happens thereafter? Smriti bhranshad buddhi nasho, the intelligence is destroyed and after this? pranashyati, everything is ruined. Like this one is always aftaid and this is our actual situation. Then uru mrtyu bhaye ksipanti, the living entity is constantly in fear of death. This is our situation so it is important to see where our concentration is set.

Is it in Maya or is Krishna the object of our senses? That would make all the big difference like that between the earth and the sky. visayan pumsah sangas tesupajayate sangat sanjayate kamah. If one becomes attracted to the objects of the senses in this material world, if one is thinking of these objects, then lust develops, and then what happens to a person? This then turns into anger, krodhad by which one becomes blind.

The lust, kama is the first thing to make the living entity blind, as does anger. When one becomes angry what happens? He can do anything, who knows what a person in anger could do next? He could do anything. So no trust can be put into a lusty man or an angry man, they are the two enemies of the living entity. Altogether there are six enemies of the living entity.

So these six are kama lust, krodha anger, lobha greed, moha delusion, mada pride and matsarya miserliness. Are they all listed? These are our enemies and they make us blind. Then the power of discrimination and to be wise, which is the work of the intelligence becomes bereft of intelligence, foolish. Then the living entity is trapped in illusion of life and then

punarapi jananam punarapi maranam punarapi janani jathare sayanam,?iha samsare bahudusare krpaya’pare pahi murare
(Bhaja Govinda 21 Adi Sankara)

Translation
Being born again, dying again, and again lying in the mother’s womb; this samsara is extremely difficult to cross over. Save me, O destroyer of Mura, through your infinite compassion.

This prayer of Sankarachrya is also very intelligent. So he prayed to the lord, ‘prabhu prabhu. Help help help!’ First he told the lord what the problem is,

punarapi jananam punarapi maranam punarapi janani jathare sayanam,?iha samsare bahudusare krpaya’pare pahi murare

So this same problem is being spoken of here in different words and here Sankaracharya is using Sanskrit to explain the same problematic situation. At the end in this prayer he is saying’krpaya pare pahi murare. Protect me, protect me, help help help!’

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

This is how we cry for help, we do not separately shout ‘help help’ but when we chant ‘Hare Krishna Hare Krishna’ what are we saying? We are crying out for help help.

ayi nanda tanuja kinkaram?patitam mam visame bhavambudhau?krpaya tava pada pankaja ?sthita dhuli sadrsam vicintaya
(Siksastaka 5)

Translation
O son of Maharaja Nanda (Krsna), I am Your eternal servitor, yet somehow or other I have fallen into the ocean of birth and death. Please pick me up from this ocean of death and place me as one of the atoms at Your lotus feet.

When we chant Japa this is what we are saying, Hari Hari. What are you doing (aside)? We don’t have time to solve this, but we have time for Prashad. When we call the name of Krishna we are constantly praying. Where is my song book? I’m sorry I’m not organised. I thought I had it with me here.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

Okay so I wanted to share this story with you, that when Krishna had his name giving ceremony, what did Gargacharya say that day when Krishna and Balaram had their name giving ceremony? Gargacharya said to Nanda Maharaja, do you want to hear? Shouts of Haribol!

esa vah sreya adhasyad
gopa gokula nandana?
anena sarva durgani
yuyam anjas tarisyatha
(SB 10.8.16)

Translation
To increase the transcendental bliss of the cowherd men of Gokula, this child will always act auspiciously for you. And by His grace only, you will surpass all difficulties

So this great fear that the living entity has of death, here this has been described as sarva durgani. Durga, when leaving the body becomes difficult, this also called Durga. When one makes a castle, the castle fort is called Durg and whoever is inside this fort, it is very difficult for them to come out of it and that is why it is called Durga.

To pass this place and to come out is very difficult, Durga. Anena sarva durgani, so many difficulties are there and there are so many obstacles in the way. This is what Gargacharya is saying, sarva durgani
yuyam anjas tarisyatha. ‘This child Krishna,’ he is saying ‘gopa gokula nandanah, whenever there may be some difficulties this child will help you overcome the difficulties.’

Puranena vraja pate, he is saying whenever those who were honest, sadhu the saints were harassed by thieves and aggressors, he is the one who raksymana, protected them. He is the protector of the devotees and the saints.

puranena vraja pate
sadhavo dasyu piditah
arajake rak?yamana
jigyur dasyun samedhitah
(SB 10.8.17)

Translation
O Nanda Maharaja, as recorded in history, when there was an irregular, incapable government, Indra having been dethroned, and people were being harassed and disturbed by thieves, this child appeared in order to protect the people and enable them to flourish, and He curbed the rogues and thieves

na me bhaktah pranashyati, Krishna is saying ‘my devotee can never perish.

kshipram bhavati dharmatma shashvach chhantim nigachchhati?kaunteya pratijanihi na me bhaktah pranashyati
(BG 9.31)

Translation
Quickly they become virtuous, and attain lasting peace. O son of Kunti, declare it boldly that no devotee of Mine is ever lost

Rakhe Krsna Mare Ke Mare Krsna Rake Ke
(teachings of Queen Kunti purport)

Translation
He whom Krsna protects, no one can kill, but if Krsna wants to kill someone, no one can give him protection

If Krishna wants to protect somebody then nobody can even touch a hair on that person’s head. So Gargacharya is saying visnu paksan ivasurah.

ya etasmin maha bhagah
pitim kurvanti manavah
narayo ’bhibhavanty etan
visnu paksan ivasurah
(SB 10.8.18)

Translation
Demons [asuras] cannot harm the demigods, who always have Lord Vishnu on their side. Similarly, any person or group attached to Krsna is extremely fortunate. Because such persons are very much affectionate toward Krsna, they cannot be defeated by demons like the associates of Kamsa [or by the internal enemies, the senses].

So that’s it. All we have to do is join the side of Vishnu. Vote for the team of Vishnu, vote for who? Who will you vote for? When you join Krishna’s party and become part of his team, then raksymana. Krishna will protect us from our enemies and he will sort them out. Because, whenever there are any problems, the Lord’s devotees shout ‘oh my God, help help!’

The problem is that everybody is remembering the Lord when they are in problem or in misery, but once that very same person finds some happiness, he forgets the Lord very easily. Although this is a great problem, there is also a solution to this problem. In happiness we must also always remember the lord and by doing so we become more inclined towards him and his devotional service.

This is why queen Kunti is wisely saying ‘oh my lord, please keep sending the calamities, keep sending them one after another!’

Vipadah santu tah sasvat
tatra tatra jagad guro
bhavato darsanam yat syad
apunar bhava darsanam

Translation
I wish that all those calamities would happen again and again so that we could see You again and again, for seeing You means that we will no longer see repeated births and deaths.

‘Whenever there is any problem I will run to you and I will be able to take your darshan. After taking you darshan what will happen? Apunar bhava darsanam, the problems will arise and I will run towards you and say to you

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

So you will hear me crying out to you like this, because whenever your devotee calls you, you reach that place at once.’

asnaty anantah khalu tattva kovidaih
sraddha hutam yan mukha ijya namabhih
na vai tatha cetanaya bahis krte
hutasane paramahamsya paryaguh
(SB 4.21.41)

Translation
Although the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ananta, eats through the fire sacrifices offered in the names of the different demigods, He does not take as much pleasure in eating through fire as He does in accepting offerings through the mouths of learned sages and devotees, for then He does not leave the association of devotees

Wherever the devotee may be remembering the lord and chanting his holy names, the lord in one moment reaches that place at once. ‘He Govinda He Krishna!’ Who cried out like this? Draupadi cried out like this and Krishna went there at once? How much cloth for her Sari dod the lord supply? More than a mountain.

Why does the lord not come? Because we do not call him in the same way Draupadi did, that is why the lord does not come to us. If we could cry out to the lord like Draupadi did or like queen Kunti did or Prahlad Maharaja, Druva Maharaja and all these kings like Srila Prabhupada Maharaja. They have prayed, the way in which they have called the Lord, the Lord will certainly come.

dehapatya kalatradisv
atma sainyesv asatsv api
tesam pramatto nidhanam
pasyann api na pasyati

Translation
Persons devoid of atma tattva do not inquire into the problems of life, being too attached to the fallible soldiers like the body, children and wife. Although sufficiently experienced, they still do not see their inevitable destruction

Sukadeva Goswami is saying that the attachment to all these persons if false attachment. You have set your guards outside your home to protect yourself and you have kept dogs also for your defense. There are so many arrangements just like staying in the joint family and there is this and thatx but Sukadeva Goswami is saying that this army we have gathered is useless. Don’t depend upon them!’

When Yamaraja comes, will the guards at the gate be able to stop him? Or when the dogs start barking, will that barking be able to stop the servants of Yamaraja? No! They will leave only when they have done what they have come to do. Once, this person was driving his car, very fast with a lot of speed and suddenly his phone started to ring. Actually, you are not supposed to answer the phone when you are driving the car.

Anyway he still answered the phone and the person on the other side was saying ’I would like to see you, I want to make an appointment to see you.’ That person driving then said ‘no no, I am busy at the moment. Not now, not now.’ Just as he said this, because he was already driving the car with a lot of speed, the car was about to fall the cliff.

Just as the car was about to go down the cliff the person on the other end of the phone said ‘this is Yamaraja speaking. The person who had initially requested the appointment had been Yamaraja but this person had said ‘no no, I don’t even have time to die! Next time, not now I’m busy.’ Busy doing what? I’m working, I have some work.’ Kaam, has two meanings- work in Hindi is kaam but the word also means lust.

So how does one perform his work, kaam? By becoming kaami, lusty. I am busy (kaam means lusty also) and this kaam (lust) is keeping me very busy.’

prakriteh kriyamanani gunaih karmani sarvashah?ahankara vimudhatma kartaham iti manyate
(BG 3.27)

Translation
All activities are carried out by the three modes of material nature. But in ignorance, the soul, deluded by false identification with the body, thinks of itself as the doer.

We keep saying ‘me me’ but the work is actually carried out by material nature. Gargacharya has said a very beautiful thing and actually everything he has said is beautiful. He is saying

ya etasmin maha bhagah
pritim kurvanti manavah?narayo ‘bhibhavanty etan?visnu paksan ivasurah
(SB 10.8.18)

Demons [asuras] cannot harm the demigods, who always have Lord Visnu on their side. Similarly, any person or group attached to Krsna is extremely fortunate. Because such persons are very much affectionate toward Krsna, they cannot be defeated by demons like the associates of Kamsa [or by the internal enemies, the senses].

Those who are very fortunate, who are they?

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva
guru krsna prasade paya bhakti lata bija
(CC Madhya 19.15)

Translation
According to their karma, all living entities are wandering throughout the entire universe. Some of them are being elevated to the upper planetary systems, and some are going down into the lower planetary systems. Out of many millions of wandering living entities, one who is very fortunate gets an opportunity to associate with a bona fide spiritual master by the grace of K???a. By the mercy of both K???a and the spiritual master, such a person receives the seed of the creeper of devotional service.

Kona kona bhagyavan jiva means who is that fortunate living entity? He who guru krsna prasade paya bhakti lata bija. He is fortunate who gets the opportunity of devotional service theough the mercy and association of the spiritual master and Lord Krishna. Also what is the other eeason of their being fortunate? Previously it was said ‘pritim kurvanti.’

They are fortunate because of their love for the supreme lord. There is no love in the material world, over here it is just lust but here Gargacharya is saying that one must replace that lust with pure love. One must bring out that love, or awaken that love that he has dormant in his heart for Krishna. Krishna prema pradaya te, lord Chaitanya has come and has manifested himself in this world for what reason? To show, and to distribute Krishna prema.

namo maha vadanyaya
krsna prema pradaya te
krsnaya krsna caitanya
namne gaura tvise namah
(CC Madhya 19.53)

Translation
O most munificent incarnation! You are Krsna Himself appearing as Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu. You have assumed the golden color of Srimati Radharani, and You are widely distributing pure love of Krsna. We offer our respectful obeisances unto You.

We can replace this lust into love by chanting

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

What is this, this is Prema, pure love golokera prema dhana, hari nama sankirtana. By chanting and hearing this Sankirtan and the holy name, what will happen? You will be able to remember Vishnu and Krishna. Krishna Balaram ki jai. Gaura Nitai ki jai. Ahen we remember the lord, when we remembered Rama and Lakshman and when we call them by chanting Hare Krishna, what are we saying?

We are saying ‘He Krishna, He Rama!’ And we say Radharani before Krishna and in this way the whole sixteen names which consist the maha mantra, each of these names is an sambodhan. You understand this word? It is an address and we are addressing, we are calling out to ‘Hare’ which means ‘oh Radhe’ and Krishna meaning ‘oh Krishna.’ In this way we call out eight times to Radharani and eight times to Krishna and then to Rama.

This Rama is also Lord Krishna, the next Hare Rama Hare Rama is speaking about Rama or Krishna as Rama. So pritim kurvanti means those who love the lord, that is a wonderful thing. And those who do this, love the lord unconditionally, narayo. Ari means enemy and there are many words like this. Narayo ’bhibhavanty etan, no enemy in this material world, including the greatest six enemies lust, anger greed and so on.

Pakistan are not our enemy and Ukraine’s enemy is not Russia, Russia’s enemy is not Ukraine. The real enemies are this lust, anger and greed. This greed, this greed keeps us so busy, there is never solution to the problems in life, there is never any solution. In English they speak of their needs and Mahatma Gandhi also used to speak of the needs of the living entity.

This means the least minimum we need to survive, this is called one’s needs and this is fine, to have our basic needs is our right. But when in the place of our needs, we put our greed, then there can be no solution to the problems created due to this mentality. He will be dead and gone in that condition of greediness. That is why the six enemies are very dangerous and so Gargacharya is emphasising that we must love Krishna and Balaram.

This is the same thing which Srila Prabhupada is saying, ‘love Krishna Balaram, love Gaura Nitai!’ Then no enemy will be able to harass us and we will be saved from our enemies which means we will certainly be saved from death. If we are saved from death then we wont have to have another birth by attaining the supreme lord. So we pray.. yes there is that as well

namo deva damodarananta visno
prasida prabho duhkha jalabdhi magnam krpa drsti vrstyati dinam batanu grhanesa mam ajnam edhy aksi-drsyah

(Damodarastakam 6)

Translation
O Supreme Godhead, I offer my obeisances unto You. O Damodara! O Ananta! O Vishnu! O master! O my Lord, be pleased upon me. By showering Your glance of mercy upon me, deliver this poor ignorant fool who is immersed in an ocean of worldly sorrows, and become visible to my eyes.

We are singing this everyday in the month of Kartik and here jalabdi magnam means drowning in an ocean of sorrow. We are singing this and we remain happy although we are drowning in this ocean in this material world. We are drowning and dying and dying and then drowning and on and on. That is why what should we do?

O Damodara! O Ananta! O Vishnu! O master! O my Lord, prasida – be pleased upon me and be merciful to me.

Krpa drsti vrstyati dinam batanu grhanesa mam ajnam edhy aksi drsyah. Oh Lord Damodara, please shower me with your merciful glance. Jai Damodara! So continue your devotional activities in this month of Kartik, wherever you may be. You can spend the whole month of Kartik In Vrindavan, that is the best. Who out of all of you are going to spend the whole month of Kartik in Vrindavan?

Very good. You must be intelligent because only foolish and dull people do not come to Vrindavan. The devotees of Krishna may be busy so that is different but they are certainly intelligent. So continue in this way and may the lord give us all, including myself some intelligence. In this way we, the drivers may go inwards in our journey. Life is a journey actually, as they say and there are other things too like the body being the chariot and the horses.

The soul is the passenger and what is the intelligence? Yes, the driver of the chariot is the intelligence. So on this journey, who has got the most important role to play? It is the driver or the pilot. Sometimes the passengers may go to sleep, and this is fine, but if the driver was to go to sleep during the journey then finished. So we must remain alert at all times and take help of the intelligence.

So that’s why we pray that the lord give us all the proper intelligence and just like he has given the promise

bhajatam priti purvakam
dadami buddhi yogam tam
yena mam upayanti te
(BG 10.10)

TRANSLATION
To those who are constantly devoted and worship Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.

So who is being referred to as ‘aham?’ Krishna himself is saying ‘aham, me myself. I will give the understanding and intelligence. And then after I give the right intelligence, how must this intelligence be used? For what purpose? Yena mam upayanti te, that person who I give intelligence to should use that tight intelligence to come to me.

To reach the place where I am, one must his his intelligence given by me, mam upayanti, yanti means to go. So
I live in this place, goloka eva nivasaty akhilatma bhuto, you may then come back there.

ananda cinmaya rasa pratibhavitabhis
tabhir ya eva nija rupataya kalabhi?
goloka eva nivasaty akhilatma bhuto
govindam adi purusam tam aham bhajami
(Sri brahma samhita 5.37)

Translation
I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, residing in His own realm, Goloka, with Radha, resembling His own spiritual figure, the embodiment of the ecstatic potency possessed of the sixty-four artistic activities, in the company of Her confidantes [sakhis], embodiments of the extensions of Her bodily form, permeated and vitalized by His ever blissful spiritual rasa.

So the lord also has a desire and goal to bring us back to his abode. We have already reached his dham, Vrindavan dham ki jai! The lord has bought the pastimes of Goloka here to Gokula so there is no difference. So here we can experience that we have returned back to the lords abode, back to godhead and if we can become a part of these pastimes then that is the best.

Prayers of Kunti Maharani
ISKCON Noida
31/8/2015

We were talking about Kunti Maharani. She is sarvajna. She knows the Lord. One should understand the lila of the Lord through His tattva. Those who are the personal associates of the Lord they know the Lord’s tattva. They are tattvavetta. There are many prayers and glorifications of the Lord in Srimad Bhagavatam. And the very first prayers in the Srimad Bhagavatam are that of Srimati Kunti Maharani.

There are many others but this is the first

namasye purusam tvadyam isvaram prakrteh param
alaksyam sarva-bhutanam antarbahir avasthitam [SB 1.8.18]

That is how Kunti Maharani is praying. The Lord is in front of her and she is praying. After the war at Kuruksetra, Lord had spent lot of time at
Hastinapur. Pandavas were staying at Hastinapur and Dwarakadhish Sri Krishna was residing at Dwaraka. So it was time to leave for Dwaraka and
so the Lord was sitting in the Chariot. He was about to start when Kunti Maharani comes near to the Lord. Bhagavan is sitting in the chariot and
she was standing in front of Him. While taking His darsana Kunti Maharani offered her prayers to the Lord. We also pray in front of the deity of the
Lord. Pratyaksha – prati -aksha –in front of her eyes, the Lord was there in front of her eyes in Hastinapur. She was saying,
namaste purusham – Govindam adipurusham -tvamadyam ishvaram –

I offer my obeisances unto you. I offer obeisances again and again. How are you whom I want to offer my obeisances? Like “barambara pranam hai.”

loota loota dadhi makhan khayo aise bhagavan ko pranam hai

I offer my obeisance unto that butter thief . Does anybody bow down to a thief? But to this thief the whole universe bows down again and again. The
thief is also not from this universe. And He is the great thief, not an ordinary one. He is shiromani, the head of all the thieves. So Kunti Maharani is offering her obeisances. You are the origins of all the Gods, adi devam ajam vibhum. Arjuna also specified it during the Gita upadesh
and you are beyond the material nature. Lord is beyond the modes of material nature. Bhagavan is not from this material world. Material world is
called as prakrti. Bhagavan is beyond this material world – aprakrit world – unmanifested world. The Lord is present there in the natural world. The
world which we live in is artificial.

Lord says,
paras tasmat tu bhavo 'nyo 'vyakto 'vyaktat sanatanah [BG 8.20]
Translation: Yet there is another nature, which is eternal and is transcendental to this manifested and unmanifested matter.

Dhama where I stay is called sanatana dhama. Kunti maharani says prakrteparam – you and your dhama are beyond this material world and you yourself are beyond this material world because your form is not material. It is satcidananda. The material bodies are made of earth water fire air ether –pancha maha bhuta. All the bodies of the 84 lakh species are made of this pancha maha bhutas. But the Lord’s body or form is made of a different tattva and it is called sat, cid, ananda. Beyond prakriti.

alaksyam sarva-bhutanam antarbahir avasthitam

You are like that antar bahir avasthitam. Sarvabhutanam, you are inside everybody and also present outside. And even though you are like that you are alakshyam not visible to anyone because of their ignorance. They are many things even in the darkness.

Yesterday night one bhagavan in shahadara was saying, he is still wearing yesterday’s tilak. It was in the drama. The scene was of the courtroom of the Lord. And Lord is saying to Nikhil. When there is darkness there are lot of things around but we cant see them but when you lighten that area by switching on the lights or put a candle or torch then you can see everything. Everything is existing but one cant see because there is darkness. One can claim or declare that there is nothing here but it is only due to ignorance so alakshyam.

One cannot see the Lord. You are situated avasthitam but alakshyam (cant be seen). That’s why we say “om ajnana timirandhasya jnanajana shalakaya” Timir is darkness so the G uru will give the knowledge to see.

Premanjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanenasantahsadaivahrdayesuvilokayanti

Premanjana, so he gives prema in the eyes. Then they can see in the courtyard of their heart. yam shyama sundar achintya gunaswarupam Lord who is alakshyam can also be seen with the help of

Jnananjanpremanjan.
maya-javanikacchannam
ajnadhoksajamavyayam
nalaksyasemudha-drsa
natonatyadharoyatha [SB 1.8.19]

Kunti maharani further says that Bhagavan is everywhere but cannot be seen. Yato yato yami tato narasimha wherever I go there the Lord Narsimha is present. But this darsana is only possible by Premanjana and jnananjana.

bahir narasimha hrdaye narasimha.

Whether you call Him Bhagavan Narsimha, Rama, Krishna has many names and forms. Bahir Narsimha He is outside as well as inside.
Those who pray to Lord Jagannath, they say,

Jagannath swami nayanapathgami bhava tumi
Stay in the path of my eyes. In the path of my eyes meaning in whichever
direction I see , I should be able to see you, get your darsana. Directions of
the eyes is always changing from here to there. So wherever I see
Chaitanya mahaprabhu says-

sthavara ja?gamadekhen? dekhe t?ram?rti sarvatra haya nijaista-deva-sphurti

When a person sees, a devotee, a vaisnava he sees a form he sees sthavarajangama but he is not concentrating on their forms he just passes besides it. Lord Buddha also must be in this mood. So one person came and asked whether he had seen a lady who passed this way? They said yes I saw but don’t ask me whether it was a women or a man but I have seen someone passing this way.

But in this material world they see differently. If it’s a women they keep staring at her turning their faces taking photos and they will take a serious note on who she is how she is what she is etc. So Kunti Maharani says maya-javanika cchannam Javanika means curtain. The curtain of maya has covered the conditioned soul and the Lord has also hidden Himself. Lord says in the Gita

naham prakasah sarvasya
yoga-maya-samavrtah
mudho 'yam nabhijanati
loko mam ajam avyayam [BG 7.25]

Translation: I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I am covered by My eternal creative potency [yoga-maya]; and so the deluded world knows Me not, who am unborn and infallible. I also cover Myself with Yoga maya. So that which is hidden by maya, Adhokshaja – the one who is beyond the perception of our sense whether it is Lord’s darsana or touch or shravan.

atah sri-krsna-namadi na bhaved grahyam indriyaih?
sevonmukhe hi jihvadau svayam eva sphuraty adah?[Padma Purana]

Translation: One cannot understand the transcendental nature of the name, form, quality and pastimes of Sri Krsna through one’s materially contaminated senses. Only when one becomes spiritually saturated by transcendental service to the Lord are the transcendental name, form, quality and pastimes of the Lord revealed to him. Lord is there and His body is fragrant. In future we will discuss about it. How is the Lord’s body? Fragrant forever fragrant. Our body smells bad always . the gates of the body – navadwara- something or other is coming out of it

nalaksyasemudha-drsa

Just like in the drama company some actor is playing a role then the same actor will be playing a different role in another drama and in 3 rd so on . All the roles are completely different from one another, whether it is makeup, uniform, clothes, style, even hair style so those who are watching a movie, after 5 to 10 minutes, they say oh that’s Devanand. Hey that’s the one. The actor is one but he is displaying his art in different forms like in his costume or body language or walk or different circumstances then many times we don’t understand. We don’t recognize the actor – this is the one, this is the same actress actor.

Just like we can’t recognize the ordinary actors sometimes so what can be said about the Supreme Lord. You sometimes come as Narsimha, sometimes Varaha and sometimes tortoise. So much changes. In this material world the actors will be having 2 legs, 2 hands etc so many things in common and so many differences might also be there. But when the Lord comes sambhavami yuge yuge that time it’s very difficult to recognize the Lord.

kesavadhrita narasimharupa
kesavadhrita varaharupa
kesavadhrita rama sharira

Kesava is only appearing in those forms like 10 avatars. There are many avataars- advaitam achyutam anadi ananta rupam. But among that this is
a list of 10 avatras. In that Jayadeva Goswami says or prays about those 10 avataras– kesavadhrita– meaning that form which has been taken up by
Kesava. He became a mina –fish, kesava dhrita kkachchapa rupa, kesava dhrita varaharupa, shukara rupa like that. Kesava only becomes like that.
Kesava is the actor who takes up these forms. Same way nato nattya dharo yatha in different roles and different dramas He takes part

tatha parama hamsanam
muni nam amalat manam
bhakti-yoga-vidhdnartham
katham pasyema hi striyah [SB 1.8.20]

Translation: You Yourself descend to propagate the transcendental science of devotional service unto the hearts of the advanced transcendentalists
and mental speculators, who are purified by being able to discriminate between matter and spirit. How, then, can we women know You perfectly?

The specialty of a swan (hans) is that if you mix water and milk in a cup and give them to drink, it will only drink milk and leave the water. Their wing despite being in water do not get wet. Swans are hence consider to be pure, clean in contrast with them we have crows. Wherever we have the
municipality dustbins we will find crows whereas we find swans only in the manas sarovar where the water is very clear and we find lotuses blooming.

parama hamsanam muni nam amalat manam

Means the people whose soul does not have any dirt. Their minds are pure

sarvopadhi-vinirmuktam
tat-paratvenanirmalam
hrsikenahrsikesa-
sevanambhaktirucyate

You have to free yourself from the designation. One who is free from all designations that are related to the body they are nirmal. bhakti-yoga-vidhanartham [SB1.8.20] You Yourself descend to propagate the transcendental science of devotional service (Bhakti yoga). These paramhans or these param muni or amala atama will do bhakti and will establish bhakti.

dharma-samsthapanarthaya [BG 4.8]. They will establish the bhakti yoga, path of bhakti, Bhakti dharma and prem dharma.
Katham pasyema hi striyah [SB 1.8.20] “I am a woman , how can I know you when only paramhansa can know” says queen kunti.

krsnayavasudevaya
devaki-nandanaya ca
nanda-gopa-kumaraya
govindayanamonamah [SB 1.8.21]

Translation: Let me therefore offer my respectful obeisances unto the Lord, who has become the son of Vasudeva, the pleasure of Devak?, the boy of Nanda and the other cowherd men of V?nd?vana, and the enlivener of the cows and the senses. This is the prayer of Queen Kunti where she says:-
Let me therefore offer my respectful obeisance’s unto the Lord, who has become the son of Vasudeva, the pleasure of Devaki, the boy of Nanda
and the other cowherd men of Vrndavan, and the enlivener of the cows and the senses.

Go means senses. The one who gives pleasure to the senses therefore govind. Go means cows. The one who gives pleasure to the cows is known as govind. Go also means mother earth. The one who gives pleasure to mother earth is govinda. These are not only names but also the feeling. As there was Indra who has also asked forgives for his pride as Krishna lifts up Govardhana during maha-pralaya as he could not do any harm to Vrndavan. During the great storm; the clouds are special and reserved for this purpose only. When the entire creation has to drown in rain a particular set of clouds named Samvartak clouds had to dispatch. When indra released these clouds and sent them to vrindavan to drown the village and the people in the village. As a response to Indra Krishna lifts the Govardhana mountain to give them shelter. When Indra had gotten tired of pouring down rain over the village for 24 hours but still could not affect the life of the people of Vrndavan. The villagers had a better life than before for
these 24 hours as they could see Krishna only for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening before whereas now they had him for all 24
hours. The same is the state for the Gopi’s of Vrndavan. The time had been divided into 8 division where Krishna spent time with different people like on for the parents and one for the gopi’s. In the particular division one would be for vatsalya bhava, sakhya bhava for the gopa’s and a division for madhurya bhava gopis. Even Krishna’s parents were like “Why do you have to go to the forest you can just stay at home.” Even in the evening the gopas’s were not happy as Krishna had to go back to his home and the friends had to go back to their home. But due to the rain everybody has 24 hours with Krishna.

Finally when Indra was not listening to Krishna, he got a metaphorical kick and then he came to his sense and asked for forgives to Krishna and gave
abhishekam to Krishna and the place all the water of the abhishekam had gotten collected is called govindakund. When you go for govardhan
parikraama you will find this Govindakund and this water was brought by Airavatha from heaven.

namahpankaja-nabhaya namahpankaja-maline
namahpankaja-netraya namastepankajanghraye [SB 1.8.22]

Translation:  My respectful obeisances are unto You, O Lord, whose abdomen is marked with a depression like a lotus flower, who are always decorated with garlands of lotus flowers, whose glance is as cool as the lotus and whose feet are engraved with lotuses. Queen Kunt iprayes to Krishna as Pankaja nabhaya. Pankaja means the one who is born from a flower. Like the lotus that is born from the navel of the Lord over which brahma sits. The Lord’s navel is very large. The garland that the Lord is wearing is that made from the lotus flower. Krishna wears many garlands f different flowers so you will have to pray to the Lord depending upon which garland he is wearing, like if He is wearing a Vaijayanti flower garland then we cannot say namah pankaja-maline, sometimes he also wears vana-mala. The Gopa’s will take leaves and flower from here and there and make them into a beautiful garland out of love the we will have to say vana-maline. So first see the Lord on what garland he is wearing and the pray onto him. When Queen Kunti was praying the Supreme personality of Godhead was wearing lotus flower garlands. Namah pankaja-netraya; your eyes are also like the lotus petal.

When the lotus blooms, your eyes also brightens. When Vishvamitra came to take Ram and Lakshmana. King Dasharatha replied that they were unshodasa varshiya. Which means that Ram and Lakshman were 15 years.As it comes closer to evening the lotus tends to wither this is Rajiva-lochana. As the evening approaches Ram and Lakshmana eyes starts closing like a lotus. Dritarastra also added that in the evening the demons start appearing and Ram and Lakshman have to stand guard but these boys are Rajiva-lochana by 7’o clock just like the closing and the opening of a lotus flower. Namaste pankaj anghraye and the lotus feet which are as soft as a lotus petal. All the 7 limbs of the Lord has been compare to lotus Flower. Lords beauty is just as the lotus, he soft as the lotus and also as sweet smelling as a lotus.

Yathah rsikesa khalena devaki
kamsena ruddh aticiram sucarpita
vimocitaham ca sahatmajavibho
tvayaiva nathena muhurvipad-ganat [SB 1.8.23]

The Villainous Kamsa had locked Devaki for a long time in the dungeon. Devaki was filled with sadness and worry but as you freed Vasudev and
Devaki from their hardship and problems; you have also done the same for my children. She says to the Lord sitting in front of the Lord that you are the supreme Lord, the one Lord, Shri Krishna, Govinda, Jagannath, hey padmabha, hey Pankaja-maline. You have rescued us from the many difficulties and problems that we have faced.

visanmahagnehpurusada-darsanad
asat-sabhayavana-vasa-krcchrata?
mrdhemrdhe aneka-maharathastrato
drauny-astratascasma hare abhiraksitsh [SB 1.8.24]

Queen Kunti also goes on to specify some examples like the incident with poison or when they had to stay overnight at the wax house and were allowed to escape safely from there. Even during the war you have saved my children from all the weapons of the opposition’s great warriors. Even now you have saved King Parikshit from the brahma-astra released by Drona’s son Ashwathama.

You are the savior of all of them. You have sent us many problems and you only have saved us from all of them.

vipadahsantutahsasvat
tatratatrajagad-guro
bhavatodarsana?yatsyad
apunar bhava-dar?anam [SB 1.8.25]

Hey prabhu, please put me in more troubles prays Queen Kunti. Since the Lord is in front of her, Queen Kunti could have as well told “enough is
enough” or give him the list of the problems and asked him to stop But instead she told keep sending trouble my way. This is a very strange prayer. Would any of you ever ask for such a boon? I have lost for a job, I am not getting another job, I have also taken so many loans (Eduction loans, car loan, house loans) and even after all this would you ask that ”this is not enough please send more”. This is a very intelligent request to the
Lord. Only when we are in trouble we remember the Lord in every which way possible but when happy no one tends to remember. Only in trouble we come and your darsana. Only when we are in trouble again and again we will come and take darsana again and again. There is a play on the words on the last line on the shloka which means that when we take darsana again and again we will not take birth in the planet again and again we will come back to you.

janmaisvarya-sruta-sribhir
edhamana-madahpuman
naivarhatyabhidhatumvai
tvamakincana-gocaram [SB 1.8.26]

There are also people who will not come and see you these people can be typed ad the people who have pride in the house. Those who are proud of
their Money. There is a phrase in English “When popper is proud of his penny”, some has cycle but I have a motorcycle and another has a maruti 800 and then BMW.

If there is a pedestrian is walking by the cycle person will laugh at him and say that this person even doesn’t have a cycle but I don’t have a
motorcycle. The same with the motor cyclist he is proud over the person with cycle but regrets not having the Maruti 800. The maruti feels the same
way towards the motor cycle and The BMW and then there is a helicopter person also. People have pride over their richness, education, beauty. It is
because of these prides that when come to the temple and call out the Supreme Personality of Godhead he will not even try to look at the Lord.
He will be looking here and there as if there is nobody.it is because this pride increases and the person is not able to call out to the Lord with right feeling (Bhava).

We were inviting someone to have prasad in the old Delhi temple in greater Kailash. He replied that he just had prasad at the Hilton hotel and I am
returning, give this to some poor person. His feeling that this is for poor people and I am not poor. I am a person who eats muttonum and chikanum
(Mutton and chicken) and you are patram, pushpam, khichadi person.

Queen Kunti has told that tvam akinchana gocharam. Those who understand that they have nothing even if in reality they have everything and nothing which meas that these people have understood that everything belongs to the Lord. go means senses as mentioned before. Which means that the Lord cannot be known but dirty senses.

But only those who are nishkinchana (Knows nothing is his and everything belongs to the Lord) only their senses can see, smell, hear the Lord.

Hrishikena hrishikesha-sevanam bhaktir ucyate (BRS 1.1.12)

The owner of our senses is the Lord which is why he is known as Heishikesha. The senses are with us but the owner is the Lord. And our senses in the service of the Lord. Only then we can gain the knowledge from our senses.

namo akincana-vittaya
nivrtta-guna-vrttaye
atmaramayasantaya
kaivalya-patayenamah [SB 1.8.27]

My obeisance’s to you unto the property of the materially impoverished. Do you understand the meaning of the word akincana?

Isavasyam idam sarvam yatkinca jagat yamjagat
tena tyaktena bhunjitha magrdhah kasya sviddhanam [isopanishad verse 1]

Bhagavan is the Lord, I will only keep only that which is required and use the rest to serve the Lord and his devotees. I am not the master. In Gita
Lord has told that He is the Lord, He is the master. b

hoktaramyajna-tapasam
sarva-loka-mahesvaram
suhrdamsarva-bhutanam
jnatva mam santimrcchati [BG 5.29]

The one who knows this truth will know peace otherwise he will always be in the tension. Such a person is a thief and should be given death.

punarapi jananam punarapi maranam

Krishna is not the butter thief but is the Lord of all. We are the thieves. We are the trespasser’s. Just like it is written when you buy a new plot. When Sukadev Goswami spoke then till the end of the story the discourse will go on.

namah akinchana vittaya you become the property of the people who have understood that all belongs to you. Those who submit everything to you.
It is yours and we offer it unto you. People like this have nothing of their own but you become their property. I pay my obeisance’s unto you Lord.
You have become the property of those who have understood that everything belongs to you.

Venue: Sri Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir
Date: February 25, 2017
Speaker: HH Lokanath Swami
Subject: Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.10.15-17
Transcriber: Madhumati Priyasaki dd

Verse:

Sri-prahrada uvaca

varam varaya etat te
varadesan mahesvara
yad anindat pita me
tvam avidvams teja aiavaram

viddhamarsasayah saksat
sarva-loka-gurum prabhum
bhratr-heti mrsa-drstis
tvad-bhakte mayi caghavan
tasmat pita me puyeta
durantad dustarad aghat
putas te ‘panga-samdrstas
tada krpana-vatsala

TRANSLATION
Prahlada Maharaja said: O Supreme Lord, because You are so merciful to the fallen souls, I ask You for only one benediction. I know that my father, at the time of his death, had already been purified by Your glance upon him, but because of his ignorance of Your beautiful power and supremacy, he was unnecessarily angry at You, falsely thinking that You were the killer of his brother. Thus he directly blasphemed Your Lordship, the spiritual master of all living beings, and committed heavily sinful activities directed against me, Your devotee. I wish that he be excused for these sinful activities.

PURPORT
Although Hiranyakasipu was purified as soon as he came in contact with the Lord’s lap and the Lord saw him, Prahlada Maharaja still wanted to hear from the Lord’s own mouth that his father had been purified by the Lord’s causeless mercy. Prahlada Maharaja offered this prayer to the Lord for the sake of his father. As a Vaisnava son, despite all the inconveniences imposed upon him by his father, he could not forget his father’s affection.

LECTURE:
varam varaya, this is the prayer. I pray, aham varam varaya, I beg for benediction. te- to You unto You. Who are you? – vareshat. You are vareshat, vara eshat. You are the Master of the benediction, Maheshwara and Ishwar, the top most Ishwar, unto You I beg for benediction. Aham varam varaya, I beg for benediction. So, the Lord of course always hears the prayers of powerful, (curtain opens) Nrsimhadev bhagavan ki Jai!, He immediately gives darsana.

Then the Lord finally appeared in this age of Kali as Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu ki Jai!! and continued to give benediction. So, Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu, He got the benediction from his spiritual master as he went to Gaya and he was given this “Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare”. namo maha vandanyaya…maha vandanyaya, not only vadanya- magnanimous, or benedictor not an ordinary kind, but not only that mahavandanyaya very kind,

namo maha-vadanyaya
krishna-prema-pradaya te
krishnaya krsna-caitanya-
namne gaura-tvishe namah,

He is going to give prema-prada, giver of prema. Krsnaya Krsna Caitanya namne, now His name has become Krsna Caitanya, Krsna has become Krsna Caitanya and gaura-tvishe namah and his complexion is no more Shyam, ganashyam but Gaura sundar. Antah Krsna inside Krsna, bahir, outward, gaura, inside shyam complexion, but outwards he is guara,- Radharani outside and Krsna inside, “Radha bhava duti sa Lalitam naume Krsna swarupam”, that’s Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu. This is His lila. He is setting an example, i.e. “tasmat gurm prapadhyata”. You must have spiritual master so the Lord is accepting a spiritual master. When He descended He had brought the gift of the holy name “goloka eva premadhana harinam sankirtana” or even before he appeared on Gaura Purnima day. He appeared in the evening. But during the day, His chanting was already on. He started the benediction, benedicting the whole. He was little baby and He also started getting the ladies to chant Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna. One day He was crying and then Saci mata started “Hare Krsna Hare Krsna “ and the child stopped crying and enjoying the hearing and chanting and throwing the hands and legs, ecstatic, news spread around and ladies were very curious. Really this happens? When he cried and then the chanting starts and he stops crying? When he was not crying they tried pinching him to get him to cry and then they start chanting and then it worked, when they chanted, ah it worked! It’s working. He stopped crying!

What would the child do when he eventually grows big can be seen or observed when he is in the cradle. There is some symptom from which you could predict. This is what He would want to do when He grew older- chant and dance and benedict the world. So, he received the mantra and as Mahaprabhu returned from Gaya to Navadvip he was already chanting and dancing and by the time he reached Navadvip he was no more Nimai Pandit. He was a Pandit, scholarly, very grave you know as pandits are. He was a different person altogether. Everyone was wondering, what’s wrong with this Pandit and he is not Nimai Pandit any more chanting and dancing, gone mad.

Mahaprabhu in fact goes back to the spiritual master. He has another meeting with him. He enquires from him, “kiba mantra dila, gosani, kiba tara bala japite japite mantra karila pagala”,(CC-Adi:7.81) What kind of mantra have you given? Oh, Guru Maharaja. Japite japite karila pagal. Pagala, Pagala baba in one temple in Vrndavana, mad baba. What kind of mantra is this? It has so much power. This mantra has taken charge of me, and making me chant and dance and this happens and that happens to me. I cannot even stand. I fall and crawl and roll. Do your chanting and this is the result of pure chanting? Mahaprabhu’s chanting was pure chanting, offense less chanting.

Then the chanting started in the courtyard of Srivas Thakur. Kirtana started in Srivas Angan. Where did it start? Don’t say angam, it is angan, There is some pronunciation difference and angan means courtyard. Not Angam, means part of the body. Lots of devotees end up saying Srivas angam not angan. Srivas Angan, Angan. (Maharaja makes devotees repeat) Good, you passed the test.

So those nocturnal kirtanas, only pure devotees were allowed in. There is screening at the entrance and as soon as they enter some tinge of karma, jnana and siddhi. Immediately those things will beep, beep and be beeping out. So Mahaprabhu in the association of the purest of the pure devotees, the core group, was chanting and dancing. So, it was limited to Srivas angan and it was limited to the pure devotees only. But Advaita Acarya was not very happy with that program. Kirtana was nice, but it was indoors and not accessible to one and all. So Advaita Acarya approached Mahaprabhu and made a humble appeal, “ Lord please come out with this kirtana. I am the one, I prayed and you responded to my prayer and you are here. I was seeing the fallen condition of this world. I saw dharmasya glanir bhavati decline in religious principles. Then I wanted you to come and do dharma samasta apartaya, to establish the principle of religion once again, but you are not doing that. You are just… I didn’t ask you to come and dance in the midst of pure devotees. Impure, contaminated and fallen souls also should be benefitted.” Then Mahaprabhu heard that prayer and then kirtanas were happening all over Navadvip mandal. “… jage kelo nagara braje”. Early in the morning when the sun is rising in the east Mahaprabhu will gather so many, many devotees and non-devotees and He will begin his chanting and dancing.

Tatayi tatayi Hatayi hatayi …gana gana…(instruments are being played) preme…, Mahaprabhu with his raised arms and he has the bells tied around his ankles. Preme dola dola sonar anga- now it’s His anga form, golden form, swaying. Could go wild also, going round, going high, up and down all things would happen as He performed kirtana. Bhakti Vinod Thakur is saying note “carane nupura bhaje” yes, ankle bells. All the instruments are playing so wonderfully, tactfully, expertly, and these instruments allow the tinkling of the bells could also be heard. Those instruments are not even drowning the sound of the tinkling of the bells around the ankles of Gauranga. Must be really good drummers and mrdanga players otherwise we should hear, only hear mrdanga, not Hare Krsna Hare Krsna, what to speak of other instruments.

So, Mahaprabhu takes sannyasa because he wants dharma-samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge – to establish dharma in the age of Kali. So the Lord is going to take sannyasa and travel all over. He goes to Katwa and takes sannyasa – free, no more bonds, no strings attached and He is free to fly and move. He wanted to go to Vrndavana, but then He was tricked and brought to Shantipur. There were more kirtanas there. I just wanted to remember Mahaprabhu’s kirtana pastimes in different locations. Which different places did He chant and dance, going over the pastimes. It’s also our kirtana mela time here and it would be to inspire us to do kirtana, keep doing kirtana. And what is making us chant and dance? Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the cause of all that we are doing now.

Because Mahaprabhu chanted, we are chanting or He is making us chant. That’s his kindness. And because he danced, one of the dances of Mahaprabhu, even one of the kind of kirtana is called uddanda, uddanda kirtana. A kind of normal kirtana, everyday affair, but sometimes there was uddanda kirtana. Uddanda1 He would really be mad, and His ecstasy would become so very intense and He would really fly high in the sky. That was also happening at Shantipur and once He is up in the sky, He would drop, coming crashing down and hitting the ground. Sacimata was watching those kirtanas. That kind of uddanda kirtana, landing on the ground kind of kirtana. She was praying to mother Earth, “Dear Earth, please, please make sure my Nimai…. Although He was Sri Krsna Caitanya may be for the world He was Sri Krsna Caitanya, but for the mother, Saci He was her Nimai …. doesn’t get hurt. Mother Saci is praying to mother Earth, Please, could you kindly oblige.”

Then Mahaprabhu as per His mother’s desire heads to Jagannath Puri and temporarily forgets Vrndavana. That was his destination, but HIs mother wants Puri. So, Mahaprabhu arrives there and Mahaprabhu is always moving, whatever description that we get to read about Him, He is moving from place to place. There is no talk of His walking to any place. He never walked. He only danced. Every step is a dance and every word is a song. So, he is singing a song, Hare Krsna song. As soon as he sings the song, in kirtana, others are also singing. Those three brothers, Govinda Gosh, they were singing. Swarup Damodar is singing and Mahaprabhu listens. As soon as he listens, Krsna makes an appearance. As difficult as it is to say because He is Krsna, but Krsna makes His appearance. He becomes Krishna Conscious and all these symptoms are visible and in His personality.

nache kande gai, Krishna das Kaviraj Goswami says Caitanya Mahaprabhu is also nache- dancing, kande-crying and gai singing. These were the three things he was predominantly doing. Nache kande gai. As soon as the kirtana begins, He begins dancing. He is excited. In Jagannath Puri, kirtanas continue there and Sarva Bhauma Bhattacharya has been liberated. Mahaprabhu wants to begin his extensive travels. “Radha rabhave Gaura avatar. “Hare Krishna nama Gaura karila prachar”. He is in Radha Bhav. He has appeared in Radha Bhav to experience Radha’s emotions. He assumed Radha’s emotions and with that mood and mission Mahaprabhu leaves Jagannatha Puri and his Madhya lila pastimes, next 6 years from now he will come back and leave twice.

So, the South India tour begins and then He comes back and goes on an East India, Bengal and Bangladesh tour. Then he goes back. , He goes to North India on tour to Vrindavan through Jarkand forest.

On the South India tour he is chanting and continues. We always see Mahaprabhu, as soon as we say Mahaprabhu, Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu there is one image which always comes into our mind and what’s that image? Krsna’s image as soon as we see Krsna’s flute playing. With Ram it is immediately the bow and arrow. There are so many pastimes, so many other forms and darsanas, but then it is always bow and arrow Sri Ram. As soon as we say and remember Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu we immediately remember which form? (audience answer inaudible) Haribol! Haribol!!!

It means he is ready with the kirtana, braje rasa lila navadvipe sankirtana. Kirtana mela…braje rasa lila means flute playing. The flute appears as mrdanga. I heard or read that the flute from Krsna‘s pastimes appears as a mrdanga in Gauranga’s Sankirtana pastimes. So Mahaprabhu goes to South Inida and his chanting and dancing continues. He also chants Krsna Krsna Krsna Krsna Krsna hey. Hey means addressing, Hey Krsna. Krsna Keshava Krsna keshava Rama Ragahava Rama ragava rama ragahava rakshamam. This is also Mahaprabhu’s chanting, “Hariharaye nama Krsna yadavaya namah gopal govinda ram srimadhu sudan”. Different chants are there. These are some of the famous ones.

Hare Krishna mahamantra and Krsna Krsna Krsna Krsna Krsna hey, hariharaya are some of the mostly chanted mantras or names by Mahaprabhu and his associates. So even as Mahaprabhu is going from village to village and to the in between villages of course he is also doing padayatra. We could say or do little promotion of padayatra here Mahaprabhu is doing padayatra as a walking festival.

Taking all the trouble to connect with the souls to deliver his mercy benedicting the whole world. He is going on foot and practically knocking on the doors, “I’m here I’m here! jiv jago, jiv jago, gauracanda bole” is here wake up wake up. “kota nidra jao maya-pisacira kole”, so as he is going, he is not only chanting. stana asthana nahi vicar, “patrapatra-vicara nahi, nahi sthanasthana”, chanting the holy name anywhere and everywhere. So this is the right place, sthana or asthana this not the good place. He is not even considering that. Sthana Asthana nahi vicar. This is not the consideration. Patra, this party deserves to hear. These are not deserving candidates. There is no such discrimination. Anywhere everywhere and to anybody, everybody jare dako jare dhako tare kaho, so as he is going the people, the travelers, passersby, they were immediately, instantly attracted to Mahaprabhu.

Even before they hear His chanting, His beauty is the killer, all that demoniac nature is finished just by seeing Him. You are gone. Ajanu lambita bhujo. He was out of this world, not from this world. He was in this world, but not from this world, and of course He is not that He is the another person. The Supreme Personality of Godhead appeared with all His beauty and His 6 opulences. Those who looked at him, His one glance was enough, to arouse all the ecstatic feelings. They have become suddha bhakta, a pure devotee. Just look at him. He has become a pure devotee. Just one darsana, one glance at him and of course this must be the causeless mercy of Gauranga Mahaprabhu.

This is His arrangement. We are taking darsana, but he gives darsana, then you take darsana, right? But I am going for darsana! I’m going for darsana! Fine, you are going to go and take. If He gives, then you take, right? So, everyone gets a different degree or amount of darsana. Everyone doesn’t get the same darsana. Partial darsana “ye yatha mam prapadyante”, Lord is also doing calculation, normally he does this, “tams tathaiva bhajamy aham”. But here Gauranga Mahaprabhu looks at him, and He gives Himself fully, “Take Me! Have Me. I’m yours!” and He appears in their hearts.

Hryadaya kantare suratuva saci nandana. When would that day be mine? When would that day be mine? When would that day be mine? But Mahaprabhu, as he was travelling He was giving His darsana, and immediately they would want to go with Him. They would forget where their town is or what was their earlier destination. By seeing Mahaprabhu, and then hearing, chanting with him, just momentarily, they have just become His. Mahaprabhu would perceive Himself like a big magnet and all these iron particles being dragged behind. But no, no, no he would embrace them off, “ Please proceed on your way, I will go this way.” And then he will come to that day’s final destination. It is 9 ‘o’ clock . What happened? Gauranga!

We are not even half way through what I have. We need Brahmas night here. For evening programs so many people would come – there was no promotion, no advertisement, no billboards, no hand bills, Mahaprabhu will go to some village and that evening people would come from so many surrounding villages to that program. He is there surrounded by hundreds and thousands of people, because He is very tall like our Pancatattva Gauranga’s height. That’s the life size, actual size. He could be bigger or smaller also.

So all around Him, He would stand out, everyone is only up to his vest or shoulders and He would stand out and everyone could see Him and then he would raise his arms, ajanu lambita bhunjau …and then He would jump so everyone would see Mahaprabhu and He would inspire them to chant and dance and raise their arms. “You please chant also, Haribol, Haribol! Haribol!”

So He was like the puppeteer and all others were puppets. He is picking them and dropping them and all the others were jumping, dancing and by the end of one program they all have become pure devotees. (audience clap). They have become enriched, as their hearts become filled with premadan which is “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare”. So Mahaprabhu returns to Jagannatha Puri and the kind of kirtanas He would perform in Jagannatha Puri especially during Ratha-yatra time. Jagannath is in chariot He is Krsna and Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Radharani. His time has come. The private personal reason why He appeared, radha bhav and there is a dealing going on between Krsna and Radha and the kind of words he utters only Radha and Krsna knows. Except one more person found out also and he is Rupa Goswami and he wrote, Sri Krsna manobistam, able to access to the mind of Gauranga.

Those kirtanas during the Ratha-yatra were extraordinary kirtanas, a very special Ratha yatra mood. Then Caitanya Mahaprabhu ended up going to Vrndavana now. In Jarkand forest that kirtana was with all animals, tigers and deers and everyone around was chanting and dancing. The whole forest was transformed and it was no more Jarkand forest. Mahaprabhu saw a deer and tiger next to each other walking, rubbing shoulders and the next scene he saw was them embracing each other. Then they were kissing each other. Mahaprabhu says, “Hey this is Vrndavana! This is Vrndavana” Vrndavana dham ki, Jai! “I was on the way to Vrndavana, but this is Vrndavana”. The consciousness, no enmity, no envy. It’s like that. See the power of holy name. Only the Lord could do such a thing, He is also the personality of Godhead. He could even transform lower creatures into pure devotees.

Then Mahaprabhu ended up in Vrndavana and in Vrndavana Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami says, “on the way to Vrndavana his ecstasy grew hundred times, normal ecstasy became hundred fold or greater on the way. When he reached Mathura, it was one thousand times greater, and as he enters the forest of Vrndavana, it was one hundred thousand times greater, height and depth and vastness of that ecstasy.” So that’s how ecstatic the Lord was as He toured Vrndavana. On the way, he was greeted in Vrndavana “Our Shyamsundar is here!” Gaurasundar was there, but they all thought it is our Shyam sundar. The cows were coming, surrounding and liking his body expressing their vatsalya. The birds were there also pacamgay the 5th high pitched note. They were singing. Peacocks were dancing. Mahaprabhu was embracing the trees. The next tree will say, “Me too” and He had to run to that tree and embrace it. Like that He was passing tree after tree. Those trees were showering their flowers upon Gaurasundar. They didn’t have to buy flowers for pushpa abhishek. But pushpa were not coming from Singapore or Hawaii. They were right there – shaking and trembling in ecstasy and their fruits were being offered.

Mahaprabhu sees a peacock. He sees the neck of the peacock and the complexion resembles the complexion of Krsna. He collapses and starts rolling on the ground and the two Prabhus had a difficult time catching up with him. Finally they managed.

Mahaprabhu is circumambulating Govardhan hill, and with His tears hHe was doing the Abhishek for Giriraj. Many a times those who go on Govardhan Parikrama carry a pot with a hole, but they sit in the car with that so that it would last longer (laughter) one kilometre per liter.

Mahaprabhu was shedding His tears all around and bathing Govardhan hill and He was also chanting. One time while sitting on the banks of Yamuna and chanting, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare” His complexion changed. He was no more Gaurasundar. He was Shyamsundar. He became so much Krishna Conscious, that his real color manifested.

Then Mahaprabhu was on the way back, at Prayag he did also kirtanas. The waters were low, but it was described that Mahaprabhu flooded the Ganga with all his kirtanas. Varanasi also had special kirtanas and all Varanasi vasis became mad and there was a big crowd running after him and He finally returned. That’s where he remained and spent 18 years in ecstasy as he chanted and heightened. Swarup Damodar was singing and as he sings louder, Mahaprabhu will jump higher. Uddanda kirtana.

So, may that Gauranga, benedict all of us, the whole world that is our prayer. Prahlad Maharaja is praying to Nrsimha, “Please, I know my father offended You, but please excuse him, and give him a benediction.” So, likewise we could pray to Gauranga Mahaprabhu, even if you don’t pray, that’s His mission, causeless mercy. He is known for His causeless mercy. We could still pray. Pray for ourselves and pray for our family members, forefathers and people of the world so that Mahaprabhu’s benediction in the form of the holy name, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare” reaches far and wide.

Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu ki, Jai. Gauranga! Gauranga!

“yenaivaham bhagavato vasudevasya vedhasah
mayanubhavam avidam yena gacchanti tat-padam” (SB 1.5.31)

Translation: By that confidential knowledge, I could understand clearly the influence of the energy of Lord Sri Krsna, the creator, maintainer and annihilator of everything. By knowing that, one can return to Him and personally meet Him.

Purport: 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 via 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 in the spiritual energy are placed under the direct service of the Lord in eternal life, complete knowledge and perpetual bliss. The Lord desires, as He has 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 the 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 this 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 sruti, the Supreme Lord has unlimited energies (without effort by Him), and these are described under three principal headings, as above mentioned.

Wonderful proposal is here, that we could meet Him. Good news! We could meet Him!! Haribol!! If you are interested, if there is will then there is a way. No will no way, there is no way you will meet Him. If there is no will then there is no way, forget it.

But those who are interested meeting Him, it seems possible. This was the experience of those Bhaktivedantas. You were here, right for some days? They know what the story line is. You know who is speaking here? Narada Muni is speaking and he is speaking unto Srila Vyasdeva. Conversation between Srila Narada Muni and Srila Vyasdeva, the two very great great personalities. In fact, they have been listed in the list of incarnations. Krsna, the source of all incarnation’s chapter. These temple devotees have gone through chapter number three. And in there, you find the name of Srila Vyasdeva, You find the name of Srila Narada Munii. So know these two great souls, these two incarnations of the Lord, empowered incarnations of the Lord. They are meeting in Badarikashram, almost on the top of the Himalayan Mountain. Badarikashram is on the top, Himalaya ke godha mein. On the bank of Sarasvati they are meeting. Alakananda, the sacred branch of Ganga is also not far from there. One morning, one beautiful morning like this one today. Is this beautiful? This is okay, good one but more beautiful up there, where everything is so clear, no pollution, no car goes there. No, the cars are also allowed going but when they had this conversation, everything was clear. Not only the air was clear but the consciousness also, especially of Narada Muni. Srila Vyasdeva was facing some difficulty. His consciousness was bit polluted. And as a result, he was despondent. As Narada Muni arrived from above, from his travelling preaching mission and as he comes, Narada Muni is never quiet, never quiet. He is always chanting ‘narada muni bajaye vina radhikaramana namne’. Others say he is always chanting ‘narayana narayana’. But that is not the case, he does chant ‘narayana narayana’ but he also chants names of Radhika and Raman. He is very confidential devotee of the Lord, associate of the Lord. He has place in Badarikashram. He is worshipper of that Badri Narayana in this Bharata varsha. There is so many varshas, nine varshas? Yes? And one of them is Bharata varsha and the deity is Narayana and the worshipper is Narada Muni. So while chanting the names of the Lord, he was arriving, descending, landing there. And then he saw Srila Vyasdeva and he didn’t seem very happy. “Hey! What’s wrong with you? You are not a family man (Laughter) And these early morning hours also? You should be jolly.

“brahma-bhutah prasannatma na socati na kanksati’ (BG 18.54)

For realised soul there is no lamentation, there is no hankering, ‘prasannatma’ he is always blissful, “But look at you face.” And then Srila Vyasdeva, ‘guhyam akyati prachati’, he disclosed his mind in confidence what he was facing. He was having little hard time or in the terms that which are used these days. He didn’t have a job satisfaction (Laughter). He had compiled so many scriptures, Vedas, Puranas, Upanishads and Vedanta Sutra, Mahabharata. But still he was not happy with the job he has done for the compilation of all these texts. Here Narada Muni is the spiritual master of Srila Vyasdeva. So Srila Vyasdeva said, ‘Please I would like you to do the review of my books, book review. “So Narada Muni undertook the task and immediately came with the conclusion. ‘Yes yes certainly I could now see why you are not very happy.” ‘vasudevasya mahima hy anuvarnitah’ (SB 1.5.9). “Where is mahima of Vasudeva? You have compiled all these scriptures. Well, you have sprinkled few drops of here and there of some mahima of Vasudeva. But ‘hari sarvatra giyate’ Hari should have been everywhere on every page. In every line, every word, every single syllable. ‘vasudevam sarvam iti’ Vasudeva is all in all. But you have kept Vasudeva out of your all these books or just little touch. And that’s the reason you are not happy.” So as for observations and recommendations of Narada Muni, who was the spiritual master of Srila Vyasdeva, he undertook compilation of yet another scripture. And he compiled the final and the best scripture in existence. That was and that still is Srimad Bhagavatam ki jai!!!

So while they were talking, conversations continued after the book review, statements… ‘srnvanti gayanti grnanti sadhavah’ (SB 1.5.11). “You should compile a scripture that is very dear to the sadhus, the saintly person, saintly devotees of the Lord. So that they could do ‘srnvanti gayanti grnanti sadhavah abhiksanah’ all the time also. By reading that scripture, they will be purified. ‘te eva pasyanti achirena tavakam padambujam’. And if they study such scripture, Bhagavatam, then as person hears and chants and recites and remembers, the result is ‘te eva pasyanti’. They will be able to see. ‘achirena’ they will not take much time. What will they see, ‘padambujam’ the lotus feet of the Lord and then beautiful form of the Lord, beautiful face of the Lord.” So as they were still talking about e subject matter , Srila Narada Muni is talking about his previous life. In his previous life, he was son of a maid servant. Well, how did he get there or how did he end in becoming son of a maid servant. Then we have talk of his previous yet another life. In his previous life, he was a Gandharva. He was a very exalted person in a higher planetary system. And so many singers and reciters were invited and it was expected that they would chant the glories of Sri Krsna, ‘vasudevasya mahima’. But there were also many young beautiful girls in the assembly. So he lost the track. He was distracted, he lost his focus, forgot his mission. And he ended up chanting the glory of demigods. He forgot the Supreme Personality of Godhead and he was chanting ‘jaya durge, jaya ambe….’ (Laughter). As a result of that, he was cursed to become son of a maid servant in the next life. So in the second life as he was son of a maid servant, that is what he is talking about in the present third life that he has now achieved when he is talking to Srila Vyasdeva about his second life, middle life.

So that time he was very lucky although son of a maid servant. It was month of Caturmasya, the four months starting with shravan, bhadrapad, ashvin and kartika. These four months are called Caturmasyas. So some bhaktivedantas had come, some parivrajakacharya, the travelling monks had come. The exalted devotees of Sri Krsna had come. They had come just outside his village. I am going to make this long story short so that we could reach the conclusion or come to where we are now. This verse, we are way behind (Maharaj talking). So he had opportunity to associate with the saintly persons. His mother used to go so he also used to go behind the mother. He had no father, no brother. He was the only child, so he used to go with the mother. Mother busy in the kitchen washing pots, cleaning. She had several services. And the child is to be around the saintly person. “Hey boy, come here, come here. Bring some water. Bring some tulasi, bring some Ganga jal. Bring this, take this.” And the child was running happily doing this and that for the saintly persons and he would also listen to the message. And one important thing he did, he says ( This is Narada Muni infact, talking to Srila Vyasdeva how he came to Krsna consciousness. How he became devotee of Krsna). Like in our Back to Godhead magazines, we publish articles, ‘How I came to Krsna consciousness.’ That is the subject matter and Narada Muni is talking, how he came to Krsna consciousness. ” I had association of devotees. I rendered some service to those devotees. I listened to some messages but I also ate lots of prasadam. With their permission, I took lots of prasadam”.

As they were living, those bhaktivedantas were very kind to poor hearted souls. ‘krpaya deena vatsalah’, they were very very kind, ‘deena vatsalah’, the poor in consciousness. You have no money or empty pocket, then also you are poor. But there is another kind of being poor. Other way you could be poor in consciousness. Of the two, it is better to have no money but you are rich in consciousness. Every and each consciousness you have Krsna for you. In fact, that’s all you need. That’s all soul needs. “So these bhaktivedantas, they were very very kind to me.” Narada Muni says. “‘jnana guhyatamam’, they gave me most confidential knowledge.” One more time, they may have summarized all the Bhagavatam or something in essence, one more time, one more time most confidential. So Narada, he was not Narada Muni that time, he became Narada later on. One more time he heard. ‘yena’ in this verse, first word is what? What is the first word? ‘yena’ by which. ‘By which’, this refers to, by the confidential knowledge that he had, Narada Muni had received. I could understand clearly the influence of the energy of the Supreme Lord Sri Krsna. He could understand everything. He could understand the energies of the Lord, different energy of the Lord about which Prabhupada is talking in the purport. And by knowing that, one can return to Him, the Personality and meet Him personally.

So Narada Muni had received this knowledge and he did meet Lord personally. He is talking about what he has heard. But then, soon after this bhagavat recitation, most unfortunate thing happened to Narada Muni. He lost his mother. While she was going in the middle of the night to milk the cow and the snakebite and she was dropped dead there. Oh what to do? But he was prepared. Because he had all the knowledge. He was equipped with the knowledge. He was not lost, he was not bewildered. He was not confused, he exactly knew what to do under the circumstances. Well, certainly it was beyond him, the death of the mother. No child, no no, what to speak of a child wanting mother’s death. No, he had never ever thought of such thing. But he had no control over. He took that as Lord’s arrangement. So he did the final rites. He burnt two things. He burnt the body of the mother and he also burnt little house they had, little hut they had he also burnt. In fact, we heard that he brought the body to the house, to the hut. And he burnt the hut with that body of the mother also. Now he has no one in the world, no property, no relatives, but he had that knowledge. He had that confidential knowledge. And what is the purpose of that knowledge, ‘vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyo’ (B.G 15.15) ” I am to be known”. The knowledge that one acquires. Well then we have to understand which knowledge helps us to understand Him, the Supreme Lord.

‘raja vidya raja guhyam pavitram idam uttamam’ B.G 9.2). The king of knowledge, “adhyatma vidya vidyanam’ (B.G 10.32), ‘adhyatma vidya’ knowledge about the self. Who am I? ‘athato brahma jijnasa’. “Oh dear human being, oh, now finally and fortunately you have become human being. Become inquisitive, inquire, find out who you are, and what is this world all around you. And when you are no more, when you are dead, you would be wanting to turn left or right or go up and down. You should have all the plan. You should know everything. You should know vidya. You should also know avidya.” This is the advice of Isopanishad. Not only vidya, avidya also. So Narada Muni was equipped with this knowledge. As he had no one around him, he starts travelling, walking and walking, doing padayatra. Going through the towns, villages and industrial areas, the forest and the hills. And he comes to a very thick, forest was dark in the middle of the day. And the snakes were crawling and the owls making all the very scary sounds. Fierce animals were roaming freely; of course this was their home. In the midst of all that, there was little Narada, he was just a young boy. But he was not afraid of nothing. He was only thinking. He was remembering all that he had heard and read the Bhagavatam. He was thinking,as a result of thinking of the Lord, where is my Lord, where is my Lord? He was looking for the Lord. He was very hungry and thirsty. But all that he could see was there was a water body. So he quickly took bath and drank water. That’s all, no food, only water. He felt some relief then he sat underneath a tree and he started meditating upon the Lord in the heart. Looking, searching and searching and he was just fixed. He was fully focused, only thing he was seeing as per the description of the Lord and His beautiful form. He was fixing his mind on that Lord. He is Syamsundara, he was thinking of Syamsundara’s form. The pinkish lotus feet, the Lord’s ankle bells, Lord’s thighs are short and waist is like a lady, a thin waist Lord has. Lord’s navel, broad chest, long arms reaching His knees. Short neck, raised nose, reddish lips, lotus eyes, blooming lotus eyes. Broad forehead, beautiful curly hair and a peacock feather. ‘pitambara aravinda netra’, was wearing pitambara…like that. His palms were also pinkish and they were like a lotus hanging. He was not holding lotus but His hands were like a lotus. This part (Maharaj showing with his hand), was like a lotus flower. That part was pinkish, His fingers were like a lotus petal. And the hands were very fragrant also like a lotus, not because some powder was applied there. Naturally the Lord’s hands were fragrant.

So he had been hearing the description of the Lord. There is talk of seeing the Lord in today’s verse. So now he was seeing the Lord, Lord in his heart. And this was result of hearing about that Lord. He wanted to achieve that Lord. He wanted to see that Lord, meet Him personally. And that is what was going on here. He was meeting the Lord in his heart. He had interview with the Lord. He was seeing the Lord face to face. That darshan that audience with the Lord did not last very long. Lord disappeared and then he heard a voice. This is ahead appeal, you will be reading this in following verses and chapters. Then he heard the voice, “Yes, that is it boy. Next time I’ll give you darshan in the next life.” As he was not able to see the Lord, He was not in front of him within his heart anymore, that disturbed his darshan, his samadhi.

Then he had to wait till next birth when he became Brahma’s son. From Lord, Brahma took birth and then Narada Muni appeared. And he had lots of darshans of the Lord. Always taking darshan of the Lord, meeting with the Lord. Dancing with the Lord and everything, his life was just God centered, Krsna centered. So by that confidential knowledge, I could understand clearly the influence of the energy of Lord Sri Krsna, the creator, maintainer and annihilator of everything. By knowing that, one can return to Him and personally meet Him. And what about my life? I have to be engineer. I have to be doctor, I am already somebody. I have a job. Already 9.30 -10 o’clock I have to catch a bus. So this hearing about the Lord, making up the mind of finding the Lord, realize the Lord and finally meet the Lord, is this only for selected few or everyone should be doing this? What do you think? Well, if you are a soul, then you should have a goal of meeting the Supreme soul. Otherwise the whole thing is lost. Are we soul? Is everybody a soul? Everybody has soul? What do you think? Everyone has a soul? No? Some are thinking everybody has no soul. Some are convinced. Students are convinced. But atleast human beings, Christians say animals have no soul. So let us eat them. They are made for us to be exploited, to be enjoyed. Lets think that they are in ignorance, I would say and move on the human race. All human beings, there is a soul in their bodies. You cannot be living being if there is no soul.

Life comes from life, not from matter. Life comes from life and the Supreme life, lively Personality, Personality of Godhead. And he declares in Bhagavad Gita , ‘mamaivamso jiva loka jiva-bhutah sanatanah’ (B.G 15.7). All the living entities, they are My parts and parcels. We are the souls, we are not these bodies. I’m not this hand. This is my hand, I am not Mr. hand, I am not Mr. head, this head belongs to me and this is my chest and the belly. I am not Mr. chest, I am not the legs, legs belong to me. I am the proprietor, in other words I am the proprietor of the hands, head, belly and legs. This belongs to me. Right there with little logic, Srila prabhupada used to use this kind of logic. We could understand that there are two things. There is a ‘Me’ and ‘Mine’. This has been described in Bhagavatam as ‘aham’ and ‘mama’. ‘mi’ ani ‘maza’, ‘mein’ aur ‘mera’. So this mein’, this ‘aham’ this ‘mi’, that is me, that is soul and the rest is the body. And there is another kind of energies of the Lord, external energy of the Lord.

So need of the soul is looking forward to meet the Supreme Lord. Everyone is looking for the Lord. Even George Harrison said that. You heard of George Harrison? He is no more. But he was big big singer. His name was Harrison. He was follower of Srila Prabhupada. He used to chant “Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare”. And he did big great service to Srila Prabhupada mission in London by donating a big mansion which is known as Bhaktivedanta Manor. And he paid for the entire cost of the printing of the Krsna book long time ago. And in there, there is a George Harrison’s statement and he has signed also. So everyone, everyone is looking for the Lord knowingly or unknowingly. And he explains how everyone is looking for some rich persons. He wants to associate with the rich persons. He is attracted to the rich people or riches or the wealth. No one is exception. Everyone is looking for wealth, riches.

Where is money, where is money? “diva ca arthe haya rajan kutuba bharne nava”. As soon as they get up, Lakshmi Lakshmi Lakshmi. They are chanting the mantra. So they are looking for wealth. Krsna has that wealth, Krsna is full of that wealth, He is Bhagavan, He is dhanavan. He is Bhagavan meaning He is dhanavan. So if you are looking for wealth, that meant even to George Harrison, you are looking for the Lord. You are looking for most wealthy person. If you find someone wealthy, you will say, ‘Oh! he is not as wealthy as that one.” And you go find, meet him ad there is another wealthy person, I go to him like that. Why everyone is interested going to heavenly planets? Because there are even more riches than Tatas and Biralas . People will find Kuvera and other demigods very very rich. But then, there is someone even more richer than the demigods. That is the Supreme Lord. You will not be satisfied by meeting a person who has wealth. You will think, Oh there is another one, another one wealthier. And most wealthy person is Sri Krsna. So you are looking for that ultimate person, most wealthy person. So this is just the wealth part.

Let’s go for the beauty and, oh this person is more beautiful and you meet him. That one is more beautiful, like that. This is how we are changing bodies. Because we are looking for a beautiful person. This one is more beautiful, oh! This one is more beautiful. But the most beautiful is Sri Krsna. So that search that we are searching for a beautiful person, that search will end only when we meet our Lord who is most beautiful.
And knowledgeable, you may know so many knowledgeable people. You may be thinking, ‘My professor is very knowledgeable.’ Oh! But then I know someone else who is a noble laureate and he is more knowledgeable. But the most knowledgeable is again Sri Krsna. What He spoke only for 45 minutes, in the battlefield of Kurukshetra 5000 years ago, that still holds as the truth. Others knowledgeable persons are coming and going. And what they have to say is studied even and becomes popular for 50 years, few 100 years and then that is dumped until someone comes and proves that this is all wrong. Its all bogus, but what Krsna spoke 5000 years ago, so many scholars are trying to understand even today. So Krsna is most knowledgeable. Krsna is most powerful, He showed that, His power by lifting Govardhan hill. That’s nothing; His expansion Anantshesha is holding all the planets. Very very powerful, so He is most powerful. So these are different opulence of the Lord. So our search for the beautiful person, wealthy person, knowledgeable person, renounced person, famous person, strong person, Bhagavan.

“aisvaryasya samagrasya viryasya yasasah sriyah jnana-vairagyayos caiva”

These opulence are Krsna’s, God’s opulence. And the soul is looking for that person. And going for that person, another person, from one body to another, from one planet to another, one universe to another; this search will end only when we find the Lord of our heart. When the soul meets the Supreme soul, then we’ll be fully satisfied and not otherwise. Well, one could search or think of searching the Lord only in the human form of life, not in another species of life. ‘jalaja nava lakshani’ There are 9 lakhs varieties of species in the water. The Vedic texts are so precise. krimayo rudra-sankhyakah ‘ The germs and worms are of 11 lakhs of varieties. ‘pakshinam dasa laksyanam’- 10 lakhs varieties of birds and 20 thousands varieties of plants, 30 thousands varieties of animals. You have been adding? This is 80 lakhs and ‘manusyanam catur laksyanam’, the human species are 400,000 varieties, 4 lakh varieties. They are not all in this planet. Not necessary in this universe but wherever. This breakdown is there and of all the species the human species are most rare species.
Because this offers us the most rare opportunity of coming to the temple. Or coming to God or thinking of God or hearing about God. This dharma business, this religion business is only for human beings. I travelled long distance came from Pandharpur, not a cat has come. Not a dog has come. Only human beings have come. This is a proof that Bhagavatam is dharma, is Krsna. This chanting of the holy name , oh! This is only for human beings. Others can’t even think, it’s beyond them. Only human beings could think. So everyone, Prabhupada had said, is rotting in this material world. Everyone is rotting, suffering. I had to visit hospital in Nagpur few days ago. Terrible experience as I had to visit the Intense Care Unit. Wherever I could see, I don’t want even think …and then you die, Life is tough.

I was in New York; well I was in Nagpur few days ago. But few years ago, I was in New York. On the wall, someone wrote, some New Yoker he wrote his realization on the wall. He said, “Oh, life is tough, and then you die.” That was not all. He had another short line at the bottom. “Then you are born again. For another tough life, tough life, tough life”. Then you die and then born again and again and again and again. No one wants this, no one wants to die. Anyone here, when I had travelled and enquired in South Africa, I was there a few months ago. So, ‘No, I have not met one person, I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die.’ But everyone must die. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to suffer. But suffering is there. We were in Gaya just few weeks ago. Buddha was Siddhartha before? Siddhartha and He wanted to see the world. But His father would not let Him go. He had to stay within the palace compound. No going outside. But He insisted, ‘ No no father, I must go daddy no!’ ‘Okay boy go.’ So He was given a chariot and a chariot driver. They were going around and doing Bharata darshan. And what He saw was, you know. Someone was terribly suffering, lying on the footpath and flies…. He was very sick and what not.

‘Oh! What is wrong with this person?’
‘He is very sick, that’s why he is suffering.’
Siddhartha said, ‘Does everyone get sick?’ Sure. ‘Will I get sick also?’
‘Yes, one day sure no problem.’

And then, move on move on. Someone is struggling to cross the road. He was not only having two feet but another support stick. ‘Hey please help, help me to cross the road.’ He had trembling body. He was falling down and getting up. ‘Hey, what’s wrong with this person chariot driver?’
‘Oh, he is old man, he is weak, invalid and blind now. That’s why he is struggling.’
‘Does everyone get old?’
‘Oh for sure.’
‘What about me?’
‘You also, no problem you will also get old.’

And then he said, carry on carry on.
‘Oh what is this? Rama naam satya hai, Rama naam satya hai. Hey what is happening here? I see that one person is enjoying nice ride (Laughter). While everyone is walking in hot sun. One person is just… They are throwing flowers on him. He must be a special person. But everyone is saying Rama naam… but he is not.’
‘Oh, he is dead person.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘They will bring him to the ghat and going to burn his body.’
‘What!! Does everyone die?’
‘Sure.’
‘And what about me?’
‘No problem (Laughter), you will also die one day.’

So He had just little darshan as he was going around. Father didn’t want Him to see this. That’s why he was keeping him within the palace. So Siddhartha said, ‘ Okay chariot driver, it’s enough. I have seen the world enough, no more now I don’t want to see the world. Bring My chariot back to the palace.’ Chariot back to the palace and that night, very night…. He was young man, young wife, young son also, Rahul yes? That’s the name. He has a son called Rahul. So He took off in the middle of the night. He goes to Gaya. He becomes enlighten, he wanted to find solution. ‘Oh, I know the four problems. I have made list. Not 40, not 400 problems but My problems are four.’

‘janma mrtyu jara vyadhi duhkha dosanudarsanam (B.G 13.9)
He had made a list. ‘I have four problems that I will be facing. And if I don’t solve them in this life, I’ll have to come back again. Again those four problems and again if I don’t tackle them in that life, then another life and another. I want to put full stop to this suffering!’ So severe austerities and meditation and He becomes enlighten. He becomes Buddha. And then He wants to enlighten others. He was incarnation, one of the ten incarnations of the Lord, Buddha Dev. Don’t think He belongs only to the……. He is also our incarnation. So this Lord Buddha, He made this list for us. These are four problems. Krsna says this in Bhagavad Gita. Prabhupada is talking here. We are rotting here in this material world suffering. So, is there alternative to this suffering? The way out, is this only something that we scare people, so they have hard time even when sleeping at night? Do scriptures talking of only negative things and pointing out suffering of the world and humanity and individuals? No, that’s not the case. There is way out and that way out is realization. I am a soul, I am atma, I am atma. I am spirit soul. I am Krsna’s. I belong to God, I am His part and parcel and I must meet Him. There is so much knowledge about these matters. The soul and the Supreme soul and there is yet another kingdom of the Lord; spiritual kingdom of the Lord. No one knows about it, Krsna knows. And hundreds and thousands of pure devotees have confirmed this fact. Pure devotees, they have no tendency to cheat anybody. Narada Muni, Madhavacharya, Tukaram Maharaj, well just named few. There are thousands of them. Hundreds and thousands say the same thing over again and again and again. They only think of the welfare of others, these great personalities. And they are confirming these facts which have been said by Krsna in Bhagavad Gita or described in Bhagavatam.

Scientists do not know, of course well why should scientist know? Just because you are scientist, you should know everything? There was one honest scientist. He was again talking of only material knowledge, was Newton or Einstein or something. He took one particle of sand on the beach. He was on the beach. ‘I know only just one particle. I don’t know about all the particles around me. That much knowledge. There is so much more to know. I know only little bit, this tiny bit.’ We all have tiny brains, with the tiny brain how much could you know? All that people are knowing is about the matter. But there is so much to know about the spirit soul and the spiritual world. The Russian scientists came to conclusion, ‘Oh, if there is a matter, there must be anti matter also. Then is a complete combination.’ They came to this conclusion. If there is matter, there must be anti matter also. Well, you may know something something from this world. You wanted to become javan or kisan or doctor or engineer or some kind of professional. Well fine, we all do that. We know about this trade, that brands about the computers or constructions or cloth making or building, whatever different different things each one of us. But there is one thing that everyone must know about and that is the soul. About soul, everyone should have knowledge. About this world and worldly things, I may know something. And he knows another thing and he knows another thing. He is a science student, he is artist, he is biologist, he is a physicist, he is a geologist, he is a botanist. I am finished with the list. Cosmology, astronomy okay like that. There are so many departments of knowledge. And he belongs to this department, that department. But there is one department which is common for all the souls. There is one knowledge that everyone must study.

Prabhupada was taken on a tour of Boston University and he visited all the departments, 20-30 big tour. And at the end he said, ‘Where is that department that talks about the soul? You don’t have such department? It is incomplete.’ Where is the branch of knowledge? Where is the faculty that teaches about ‘Who am I’? I am studying everything else in the world but I do not know who am I. This is the cause of suffering. This sense of so called enjoyment is there on the surface level which does not last very long. ‘ehi samsparsah ja bhoga duhkha yona ya evate’ Anyone who is enjoying must suffer. This is the law also of this world. Those who wish to enjoy, we don’t stop you. Go ahead enjoy but be prepared to suffer. You may not want to suffer but you must suffer. You have to suffer. These two things go together. This is part of knowledge. This Gita will teach. Be prepared, be aware. You want to enjoy? Okay but you will be suffering. It is not possible to enjoy only. It is also not possible to suffer only. The complete package is two types of seasons. Sukha season and then dukha season. Every body’s life has these two seasons. But Krsna consciousness is talk about going above. No sukha, no dukha only anand which has origin in the soul and the Supreme soul. By nature we are blissful. We talked about God and soul and Bhagavad Gita, Bhagavatam.

“Oh, but is it accepted or proven by the scientist? Is this scientific? What you are talking, is this scientific?’ Of course, it is scientific. Krsna is Supreme scientist and many more could be said. So why science has to put stamp of approval on what Krsna has to say, what sadhus have to say, what Bhagavad Gita, Bhagavatam has to say, why? Is this scientific? Could you prove it scientifically? Could be proven, It is a science. To begin with this is a science, original science, the best science. Science of the soul, science of God, sastra.

‘yah sastra vidhim utsrjya vartate kama karatah na
Sa siddhim avapnoti na sukham na param gatim’ (B.G 16.23)

So anyone studying, continue your studies. Study physics, study chemistry, study this, study that. Study germs, worms (Laughter). So many persons, they take one germ and the whole life, they are focused on one tiny germ. The movements, the life span the tendencies, likings and disliking of that germ. Whether germ or something of that sort. We are studying whole life. Study little bit of that but lot of times we invested in studying who we are. Who is God? Where and how we exist and what is my relationship with Him? And once we have Him, we have everything.
Srila Prabhupada used to say so, one department, another knowledge, another property, this that. Different different zeroes. There is no ‘1’, then all these zeroes put together and one big zero. Okay I’ll stop. Any questions? Quick questions. There is so much to talk about. I am sure Radheyshyam prabhu, another prabhus have been talking to you and you have been discussing this. We are happy to see so many students from all over the planet. All over the country have assembled here. This is a rare opportunity for us to see such a scene. Young people, of course why should we wait for our body are rotten and then make an offering of rotten. The fresh flower, fresh fruits of this season. And you are the fresh fruits of this season, of this world. And all of you should be offered at the lotus feet of Sri Krsna.

Tamal Krsna Goswami Maharaj used to talk like this, a garland of jivas. ‘Prabhupada, we have come from the West and here are 108 new bhaktas.’ As if they are like a garland and they are being offered to Srila Prabhupada. Please offer them to Sri Krsna. Bring them to Sri Krsna, offer them garland of flowers or garland of fruits. So here we see nice offering. Why you should be serving Maya, you should be serving Krsna. This is the proposal of Krsna, this is the proposal of all the great sages and saintly persons and our ancestors have talked like this. Only when we started imitation of the West and as they made us the slaves for almost 1000 years by the Muslims and the Britishers and then the Dutch and French. Then we lost the track, we get distracted. Even after the independence. Okay we have independence so that we could have Rama raja. We’ll establish the principles of Rama, Krsna. This was the vision. but again forgotten as soon as we had the first Prime Minister of India. He said, ‘Oh this dams, the bridges and the factories, these are our temples. These are the places of worship or us.’ Although born in a Brahmin family, as he was born in a Brahmin family, but he was brought up and his education in the West, he was very much influenced by the West. He used to get his cloths ironed in Paris. And they used to bring his cloths to Delhi from Paris, ironed cloths. Then he would put on his cloths. He was influenced like that. He wanted his whole country like that. Again the modern science, we are modern scientific and industry and technologies, the way to go. So many promises made by technology and the industrialist civilization have been not fulfilled. And the ill effects of that modern technology and industrial lifestyles are about to… in front of us. 10% of all Indians are having kidney trouble. Well because I just happened to read this two days ago. One of every 10 Indians is having kidney trouble. And heart trouble, so many other kinds of troubles. Someone else kidney trouble, but someone else with some other kind of troubles. Soon Indians to be on the top of the list of HIV, the Aids we are leading. We are getting there, we’ll be number one. I was in Africa, the life span of south Africa has been reduced to 33 years. With more than half the population is suffering with the Aids. Shame! Matter of shame.

The most sick country in the world is America and the terrorism. We cannot have a sleep at night. You have nice bed, you could buy bed but not sleep. You could buy food but not hunger. There is no hunger, no sleep because of anxiety or so many things. This is the spirit of enjoyment. It is the result of enjoyment. Suffering is here catching up with us. We should wake up. If we cannot wake up everybody, we could start by waking up few people. I can see here, good gathering here, woken up or waking up. ‘tamaso ma jyotir gamaya’ Get out of the darkness, go to the light. Light of what? Light of Supreme Personality of Godhead is light. Krsna is ‘surya sam maya hai andhakar’. Light of Bhagavat, light of Bhagavad Gita, be knowledgeable. Know who you are then proceed. Stop, think and proceed.
So this is the proposal of International Society for Krsna Consciousness. This was what Prabhupada all life long, he was talking this language on behalf of Krsna. And in only 40 years ago, there was just him by himself. And you will be happy to know, I am sure you know. Already so many hundreds and thousands millions of followers… The Krsna Consciousness has reached 160 countries in 40 years. It’s good news or no? Haribol!! And it’s just the beginning. That means people around the world; Krsna Consciousness is in big demand. And it is the only alternative. There is no other way. There is no other way. There is no other way. Krsna is the only way, Krsna Consciousness is the only way. The holy name is the only way to get Krsna. So continue with your studies and whatever else you have been doing in your life. But add Krsna, know Krsna and spread this knowledge of Krsna around which is called Krsna Consciousness. This will do good to you, your family. This is good for your family. Because your family is also souls, family of souls. This will do good to our country, to the humanity. And all the living entities will be benefitted by this message of Bhagavatam. By knowing that, that refers to knowing Bagavatam, knowing Bhagavad gita, one can return to Him, return to Krsna and personally meet Him. That is what we said in the beginning. This is nice proposal, wonderful proposal of meeting with the Lord. And Narada Muni is speaking from his personal first time experience. Such meeting is possible and this is our birth right to meet Krsna.

Prabhupada’s spiritual master said, ‘This political freedom is not that important. More important is to make the soul free from the shackles of this bond of this material existence.’ That is why in 1922, Prabhupada was about to join Mahatma Gandhi’s freedom movement. He had already started wearing kadhi cloths and attending meeting. Also going to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, his underground meetings. And as he met with Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati, he said, ‘ No no, its more important to take up the mission of Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu seriously. And make people free from illusion. Free from ignorance. Ignorance is cause of suffering, make them knowledgeable.’ And Prabhupada took that instruction very very seriously. Thank God that this instruction was given by Bhakti Siddhanta and he took it seriously also Prabhupada. As a result, what is happening? As a result we are sitting here today. Someone is talking and others are hearing and others will also talk further about this. So it started in 1922 with Prabhupada taking this mission very very seriously; spreading the knowledge, making the people knowledgeable. I am sure you will like not to forget Krsna. We can’t forget. He is so wonderful, how could you forget Him. Forget everything else. It’s all rubbish, all temporary cause of suffering. Embrace Krsna, go for Krsna. Meet Krsna, personally meet Krsna, Start meeting, Radha Kunjabihari is Krsna. See Him, see with the knowledge what you have heard and stand before Him. And chant His glories, chant His holy names in front of Radha Kunjabihari. Take Krsna Prasad and every person that you care… I care for my parents. I care for my friend. I really want to care, do something useful. If you are thinking like this, please share this Krsna Consciousness with them. Then and then only you have done something tangible, substantial for them. Otherwise this ‘ahara nidra bhayam maithun’ business goes on. Don’t think this eating, sleeping, roti, kapra, makaan, everyone is provided.

Whether in the bird society, animal society. Just because they don’t have university, they don’t have parliament, they don’t have Super bazaar or big bazaar like in Pune; they have big bazaar now. Is this big bazaar going to make Pune happier? Don’t be in illusion. We guarantee Pune will be more suffering in years to come. Pune vasi show us hand and ask us, ‘Please give us your predictions.’ So we will say, you are enjoying? Yes yes. You want to enjoy? Yes yes. Material way? Yes yes. You will suffer!! (Laughter).

We don’t have to curse anyway. Why should we be cursing? But we could only speak the truth. We guarantee suffering. Well, I don’t have to do anything. It is all programmed. It is all planned. So curb down this enjoying spirit independent of Krsna. Of course there is so much enjoyment in relationship with Krsna. So much enjoyment. So much to enjoy. We are not inviting you to come and suffer with us. Radheyshyam is not inviting, he is going all over the country and bringing young people and preaching to them. So that they would nicely suffer (laughter) He is not envious. Don’t think he is suffering and he wants us also to suffer. In fact, he is enjoying and he wants to see that everyone else also will enjoy. Enjoyment all the way, only enjoyment. ‘pratipadam purnamrtasvadam svadhu svadhu pade pade’. We guarantee that kind of happiness for everybody. Whole humanity could be enjoying for following this path shown by Sri Krsna described in Bhagavad Gita and Bhagavatam. And could be realized by chanting Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

Questions:
Question by devotee: Hare Krsna Maharaj, please accept my humble obeisance’s. So many times we hear about this philosophy, we should love God. We should serve God. We will be happy. But at the time of chanting the holy name, we are not able to concentrate. We are not able to relish. It is like a burden for us. How can we improve in our process of hearing so that sufficient effect will be there?

Maharaj: There is nothing wrong in Holy name. The same Holy name that Narada Muni chanted has been handed down to us to this day. Same potency, ‘krsna caitanya rasa vigraha naam cintamani rasa vigraha’. Its full of juice and full of anand. How you apply is important. What is the other way? Okay, you are in a boat. The boat is in the ocean. Well, some difficulty with the boat or something. Should you be jumping in the ocean again? Is that how you will be saving yourself? Fix the boat, repair the boat or just… Something wrong with the boat. Just fix it. Then you will survive to cross over. Not that there is something wrong with the boat, so I’ll just jump off the boat. And then you will be in the deep trouble of the deep ocean. So having faith in chanting the holy name, that is also required. So anyone who could give us that faith, association of those faithful devotees.
Prabhupada gave the example of the jaundice. Someone has the jaundice, sugar candy is the way. The person eats sugar candy but he says, because of the sickness of the jaundice, the sugar candy even taste very bitter. He says, ‘No, get me another type of medicine.’ You want to be cured. This is the only medicine. And if the person goes on eating that sugar candy, then he will be cured. And as he is cured, he will also experience the sweetness of that sugar candy. And the time will come when he will say, ‘Hey get me more, get me more sugar candy.’ Its finished, “No no go buy it!’ So Holy name is very very sweet. There is list of ten offences in Nectar of Devotion one should be avoiding.
‘aparadh sunya hoi lao krsna nama’

So become free from aparadhs. Endeavor to become free from aparadh. Faithfully keep chanting to the Holy names of the Lord. Caitanya Mahaprabhu took to the chanting and He went mad. We will say same thing. Narada Muni was enjoying, Caitanya Mahaprabhu also was enjoying and He goes to His Guru maharaj. “The Holy name is so sweet. What kind of mantra you have given to Me? ‘japite japite mantra karila pagal’ I become pagla baba. I become pagal, mad man by chanting these Holy names. ‘kiba mantra dila gosani kiba tara bala’. (CC Adi 7.81) So much bala, so much strength, so much sweetness in this chanting. I have gone mad, I can’t just sit. I have to get up and dance. What is this?” So the same mantra. This chanting of the Holy name is same mantra deliver, very kindly delivered to us by Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu. The properties of the Holy name and the soul are very similar. They are of similar characteristics. They belong to same world, same family. They have eternal connection, relationship. So just push yourself, don’t stop. Keep going, keep chanting. You could discuss further. Maybe take advice what changes could be made in your some habits or some lifestyles, your dealings with other matters or of the world. The Holy name is potent and sweet. So we encourage everyone to chant. Don’t stop, success is not in stopping. Beg Holy name. “My dear Holy name, please I beg You. Please reveal unto me. Please forgive my offences. Give me intelligence oh Holy name so that I can avoid offences”. You could be personal with the Holy name. Because Holy name is Lord Himself. You could reveal your heart to the Holy name. And the Holy name is very very kind. He will listen to your sincere prayers.

One more question?
Question by devotee: Please accept my humble obeisance’s, Maharaj you talked about Lord Buddha. We know that God is God from eternity. Nobody becomes God. But still in case of Lord Buddha, we see that at a certain point of time He gets enlightenment. And He performs austerities…What is the purpose of His behavior in that matter, like He went out and sees things and then He performs austerity. He neither went to gurukul nor anywhere.

Maharaj: Maharaj laughing, Well, He is God. He doesn’t have to go to any gurukul. But on other hand, to become God realized, He is performing austerities, the penances and meditation. He is teaching by His example, ‘yad yada carati srestas’. Buddha didn’t go to gurukul and became disciple of spiritual master. And Krsna went to Ujjain and He became disciple of Sandipani Muni. It was not necessary. He is God, not necessary for Him to become disciple. He is source of all knowledge. Rama, He also became a disciple. Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu, He also had His guru. He found His guru in Gaya, in the same town. Caitanya Mahaprabhu had gone to Gaya. Buddha was enlightened in Gaya. Same Gaya Caitanya Mahaprabhu met His spiritual master. So They don’t need to accept spiritual masters. But they are playing these roles, setting examples so we could learn from that. But as a God, They may not sometimes follow the whole thing, all the steps, so in case of Buddha. Some formal acceptance of spiritual masters, other gurus also, who was it? 24 gurus, Dattatreya, He had 24 gurus. Even a prostitute, a child and a whole list, a pigeon, earth, water, fire like that… There are 24, so He is learning from them.

Caitya guru, Lord in the heart, paramatma in the heart is the first guru. In fact, because we do not listen to Him, Lord in the heart, then He comes out. Or comes in front of us in the form of spiritual master. Or Lord speaks His message through somebody through His pure devotee who plays the role of spiritual master. So Lord would like to talk to the soul. The soul and Supreme soul, they are sitting to each other. Katha Upanishad describes how this body is like a tree and on this tree there are two birds. One is atma, other one is paramatma. They are just next to each other, they are neighbors forever. In everybody the soul gets, embodied soul, the Lord is there. So He is speaking. But we are so dull headed and what not. So we do not listen to what He has to say. The same Lord is then trying to teach us through the agency of the spiritual master. And there are so many other agencies around that we could learn from. Lord Buddha did not accept the formal initiation. He is Lord, He doesn’t have to…for He heard the Lord in the heart. For what He saw, He came to conclusion. Those things, the dead body was His guru, made Him think seriously. Is that okay?

Question: What about the austerity? Like it appears that, if we follow Him then one need to perform austerity to get enlightened. Austerity in a different way.

Maharaj: Sure, without austerity you cannot achieve anything. One of the big big austerity in this world these days is to stay together. Staying together is a big austerity. The wife and husband, they don’t want to perform that austerity. Or so many other nations are getting broken into pieces. The big crowd, even brahmacari ashram is hard. That’s one austerity. There are varieties of austerities to be performed. By body, some by tongue, vaca, some by mind. Austerities one must perform in every Satya, Treta, Dwapar, Kali. There are different means to achieve that goal for purification. Austerity are there, with the austerity comes the purification.

‘tapo divyam putraka yena sattvam suddhyed
yasmad brahma sauthyam tu anantam’ (SB 5.5.1)

As one performs austerities, tapa, tapa. Brahma heard these two words in the very beginning. He didn’t know, what I should be doing. What is my goal. What is expected of me. And he was curious to know. ‘athato brahma jijnasa’. He heard two words, two letters ‘ta’ ‘pa’. And as he put those two words together, ta…pa, ta…pa, tapa while he performed austerities. He goes back to the lotus, he sits there and he performs austerities. So the very first and only being at that time in the whole universe, he starts his spiritual life with austerities. And that tapasya purifies one and with that comes the real anand, real bliss, real life. So tapasya is for cleansing, cleansing body, like to make our talk refined. It should be refined in our speech. Of course no vulgar language, no nasty dirty things. Speak the truth, this is austerity. Be kind, with the mind, of course whole thing starts with the mind. If the mind is not purified, through the word and body, we’ll be committing sin and offences. So the austerity of mind is there, of the speech, of the actions. Krsna describes this in Bhagavad Gita. So austerities that He performed, Buddha performed and we also perform. Chanting of Hare Krsna, this is tapa. This japa is tapa. This japa is yajna. This japa is archana, this japa is dhyan. Tapa is there,

“samo damas tapah saucam ksantir arjavam eva ca
jnanam vijnanam astikyam brahma-karma svabhava-jam” (BG 18.42) Krsna is talking.

Venue: Pune
Dated: 21/02/2011
So this is Canto 1, chapter 1, text number 20th.

“krtavan kila karmani saha ramena kesavah
atimartyani bhagavan gudhah kapata-manusah” (SB 1.1.20)

Translation and purport by Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!!
Translation:
Lord Sri Krsna, the Personality of Godhead, along with Balarama, played like a human being and so masked He performed many superhuman acts. Sri Krsna Balaram ki….…jai

Purport:
The doctrines of anthropomorphism and zoomorphism are never applicable to Sri Krsna or the Personality of Godhead. The theory that a man becomes God by dint of penance and austerities is very much rampant nowadays, especially in India. Since Lord Rama, Lord Krsna and Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu were detected by the sages and saints to be the Personality of Godhead as indicated in revealed scriptures, many unscrupulous men have created their own incarnations. This process of concocting an incarnation of God has become an ordinary business, especially in Bengal. Any popular personality with a few traits of mystic powers will display some feat of jugglery and easily become an incarnation of godhead by popular vote. Lord Sri Krsna was not that type of incarnation. He was actually the Personality of Godhead from the very beginning of His appearance. He appeared before His so-called mother as four-armed Visnu. Then, at the request of the mother, He became like a human child and at once left her for another devotee at Gokula, where He was accepted as the son of Nanda Maharaja and Yashoda Mata. Similarly, Sri Baladeva, the counterpart of Lord Sri Krsna, was also considered a human child born of another wife of Sri Vasudev.

In Bhagavad-Gita, the Lord says that His birth and deeds are transcendental and that anyone who is so fortunate as to know the transcendental nature of His birth and deeds will at once become liberated and eligible to return to the kingdom of God. So knowledge of the transcendental nature of the birth and deeds of Lord Sri Krsna is sufficient for liberation. In the Bhagavatam, the transcendental nature of the Lord is described in nine cantos, and in the Tenth Canto His specific pastimes are taken up. All this becomes known as one’s reading of this literature progresses. It is important to note here, however, that the Lord exhibited His divinity even from the lap of His mother, that His deeds are all superhuman (He lifted Govardhana Hill at the age of seven), and that all these acts definitely prove Him to be actually the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Yet, due to His mystic covering, He was always accepted as an ordinary human child by His so-called father and mother and other relatives. Whenever some herculean task was performed by Him, the father and mother took it otherwise. And they remained satisfied with unflinching filial love for their son. As such, the sages of Naimisaranya described Him as apparently resembling a human being, but actually He is the supreme almighty Personality of Godhead.

“krtavan kila karmani saha ramena kesavah
atimartyani bhagavan gudhah kapata-manusah” (SB 1.1.20)

Lord Sri Krsna, the Personality of Godhead, along with Balarama, played like a human being, and so masked He performed many superhuman acts.
Jaya Sri Krsna Balaram ki jaya!!

Radheyshyam prabhu said that we have just now returned from Vrndavana or Vraja Mandal. So this would be an appropriate topic. So this is his wish that becomes our command. Vrndavana is a playground of God. Bhakti Caitanya Maharaj published a book; ‘Vrndavana-the playground of God’. Like a song of God, Vrndavana is the playground of God. But because we know the name of God, so we do not just call Him God. We call Him Sri Krsna and we know more about God. What more is mentioned here in this verse by the sages of Naimisaranya,’ saha ramena, saha ramena kesavah’, it appears that they knew, they knew also. It was not just Lord Sri Krsna who performed ‘krtavan kila karmani’ activities of the Lord. What are those activities? ‘krtavan’ He performed, ‘kila’ what are those ‘karmani’ activities. Not alone but ‘saha ramena kesavah’ that Keshav performed ‘karmani’ activities along with Balaram and ‘atimartyani bhagavan’. Both Krsna and Balaram are ‘atimartyani.’ They are superhuman; they are not ‘martya’, among those who die. Lord has nothing to do with death. So They are beyond mrtyu, ‘atimartyani’, ‘jatasya hi dhruvo mrtyur dhruvam janma mrtasya ca’ (BG 2.27). This is the law not applicable to these Personalities of Godhead, ‘atimartyani’ and They are also Bhagavan. That Keshav, He has a brother. Well, relationship has not been mentioned, but we know from other sources Balaram is the brother. He is and Krsna is Bhagavan ‘atimartyani bhagavan’.
The Personality of Godhead, ‘gudhah’ but they cover themselves up hidingly. The translation of ‘gudhah’ here is masked. They put some other mask above them, around them. ‘kapata-manusah’ and present themselves to be some kind of ‘manusah’. They act like, they try to act like ordinary human beings but they are not. They are Bhagavan, why would sages be interested in, why would sages be interested in activities of some ordinary human beings? Their keen interest is in Keshav, Sri Krsna, His activities along with activities of Balaram. The brother Balaram, the bigger brother Balaram. Jaya Krsna Balaram!!

Krsna become, He became the eighth son of Devaki and Balaram is seventh son of Devaki. Even with Their birth, Balaram was in the womb of Devaki and He is transferred from Devaki’s womb to Rohini’s womb. They talk of heart transplantation but they have not talk about womb transplantation. Not necessary transplantation of womb but transferring child from one womb to another womb. So right there is ‘atimartyani’ this is the superhuman activity. They are in one womb and they take birth in another womb. Both are wives of Vasudev, Devaki as well as Rohini and they are wondering, what happen, how come? Rohini’s husband is in the prison and she gets pregnant and she delivers child. There was a big surprise and there was lot of rumors spreading around. Then Srila Vyasdeva and Narada Muni had to appear. They were very much curious to take darshan of Balaram. When they saw Balaram, immediately they bowed down to Balaram and they began offering prayers to Balaram. Later on it was revealed by them that, in fact, this is, He was in the womb of Devaki. And then God transferred for sake of protection, for safety reasons. And there they declared in Mathura, the word spread around as it was a miscarriage, a miscarriage. What happen? What happen to the seventh child? She was pregnant, now we don’t find the child, where is the child? So right there is the human activity, I mean superhuman, ‘atimartyani’ superhuman activity of Balaram. All these arrangements also were made by Lord Sri Krsna in His own abode. Lord had dispatched Yogamaya, ‘you go to Vraja and your task is this, this, this, that, you have to transfer’. And as He gets transferred, He would become known as Sankarsana.

Lord Sri Krsna had already named Balaram as Sankarsana. Yogamaya comes and she has a job description as per job description, she is performing all her activities. Later on, Krsna appears as son of Devaki. Yogamaya was asked to also take birth at the same time at midnight, take birth as the daughter of Yashoda. She is described as Krsna anuja, means another child had taken birth as son of Yashoda and then Yogamaya is taking birth. In fact, two Krishna’s are appearing at the same time, this is also another superhuman. Krsna is appearing as Devika’s son, Devakinandan and He is also appearing as Nandanandan. And Vasudev in prison house of Kamsa, Lord appeared as four-handed form as we read it here in the purport.

Later on, on the request of Devaki, ‘It’s very difficult to hide your Godhood Supreme Personality of Godhead, Godhood. If you have four hands, so could you hide the two hands please?’ Immediately Lord dropped His two hands and He becomes two-handed, ‘dvibhuja’ that is superhuman. Vasudev is very much tied with the shackles and chains. He is hardly able to move and then this little baby Krsna says, ‘could you bring Me to Gokula?’ And Vasudev probably said, ‘what? I cannot even get up, I cannot even move and You want me to bring You to Gokula?’ This must be first thought, ‘but okay if You wish I will do so.’ With that desire as Krsna, the baby Krsna, Bala Krsna was lifted by Vasudev. Immediately the shackles were broken into pieces. Haribol!! That’s another superhuman. The baby Krsna doesn’t have the cutters, the saw or welding, nothing. He is just baby, helpless child and all the shackles are broken into pieces. And this is what happens also as one accepts Krsna. Well or realizes Krsna as He is, Krsna as Supreme Personality of Godhead.

‘janma karma ca me divyam’ (BG 4.9), these sages are taking keen interest in knowing ‘krtavan kila karmani’. And Lord Sri Krsna says in Bhagavad-Gita, this is also season of Bhagavad-Gita jayanti mahotsava ki jaya!! So that Sri Krsna says, ‘janma karma ca me divyam’, My karma, My janma is divya, ‘atimartyani’ and ‘evam yo vetti tattvatah’. Anyone who knows My birth, My activities ‘karmani tattvatah’, what is outcome? ‘tyaktva deham punar janma, naiti mam eti so arjuna’ (BG 4.9). These sages are very much interested in knowing the Lord as He is. They know the science of God. They want to be realized, God realized, self realized. Well, they want to be Krsna realized, Balaram realized. One who realizes Krsna, Balaram and Their activities, Their appearances, ‘tyaktva deham punar janma, naiti’ no more births, no more death, what happens? ‘mam eti, mam eti’ they go. ‘tyaktva deham punar janma na eti, mam eti’ two ‘etis’ are there. ‘punar janma na eti’ they do not attain punar janma, ‘mam eti’, they attain Me. They come where I reside, where does the Lord reside? Goloka Dham, He resides in Goloka. He resides, well in another form resides in Vaikuntha. So they go, who knows whether they go or they don’t go. What is the proof? What is the proof that they go back to Vaikuntha or back to Goloka.

Life of Tukaram is the proof, Haribol!! Which you will see tonight, baap dakhava nahitar sraddha kar (Laughter). We say this in marathi. Show your father otherwise perform sraddha. So many people say, ‘could you show me God? And if you cannot show me, then He doesn’t exist!!’ So like that who has seen people going to God, going to Vaikuntha, show me. So Lord also shows sometimes. Lot of times it happens, aprataksyaha, aparoksyaha, para aksyah, beyond our aksha, beyond our eyes. But in case of Tukaram, there are other examples also, of Ajamila and Dhruva Maharaj and some other examples are there. Right in front of thousands of witnesses, they went back to Godhead as Tukaram did some 400 years ago.

When this ‘Loha gaon’ International Airport, is that the name? That did not even exist and there was no Air India or Air Canada or Air China. Air Vaikuntha (Laughter) appeared right next door from here. And they saw Tukaram boarding the plane and they saw Tukaram went as the whole witnesses, they heard what Tukaram had to say “ ami jato, ami jato amuca gava” Is that the name of the production? jau deva achiya gava, jau devachiya gava. Ami jato amuca gava, jao deva achiya gava, there he says jao deva achiya gava. Let’s all go…. I am going, let’s all go to gaon to the kingdom of Lord, so he went.

So as Vasudev lifted Vasudeva, Sri Krsna, he became freed from all the shackles, all the bonds. So as we accept Krsna within our hearts, He is there within our hearts. Well, we just don’t know Him, we don’t know Him that He is within our heart. So to become Krsna conscious meaning to realize that He may be everywhere, it doesn’t matter. What really matters is for me that He is within me. He is with me, that is more important for me than to know that He is everywhere. Gopis were not interested knowing that Krsna is everywhere. They wanted their Krsna to be with them. When Uddhava was trying to pacify, ‘Krsna is everywhere, Krsna is everywhere’, kan kan mein bhagavan. Gopis were not happy. ‘Oh, we did not know kan kan mein bhagavan, (Laughter), oh, now we know.’ They wanted their Krsna next to them. They wanted to be with the Lord. So when we realized that the Lord is in my heart, Lord is with me and that’s the end of everything. That’s the end of material existence and one goes back to Godhead, back to Krsna.

So then Vasudev took Vasudeva and he, well he doesn’t know what next. He does know that there are so many doors of the prison or gates and they are all closed with big locks. And there are lots of chaukidars with big guns and sticks. How is he going to manage? Does not matter, ‘my son wants me to bring Him to Gokula and that is what I know and I will do it.’ So he has picked up Krsna and he is proceeding. As he comes to the first door, first of all he is noticing that all the extraordinary, the security arrangements; because Kamsa knew that ‘one of these days, one of these days, the eighth child is going to be appearing. He is my killer and before He kills me, I want to kill Him!’. So this is his strategy so he had an extra chaukidars. But what did Vasudev noticed was, they were all fast asleep, uhrrr…..( gurumaharaj making the sound of snoring), all sleeping, okay that’s out of the way. All the security force are out of the way. What about the doors and the locks? As he comes to the door, all the locks are, they are dropped down and door opens automatically.

I had experience of this automatic business. First time I ever went to airport, anyway I don’t tell you all details. In 77 I had to, I was on a special assignment of bringing doctor. Srila Prabhupada’s friend doctor, he used to stay in Allahabad. So Srila Prabhupada sent me to fetch his friend doctor. So thus, that was in November maybe October of ‘77. So I went to Delhi airport with little bag and little card. As I came to the door, so I was approaching the door. I thought I have to open the door, so I parked my trolley and as I moved forward, door opened automatically (Laughter). I was scared, ‘hey! Some ghost here or…'(Laughter). I didn’t even touch the door, it opened automatically. So we are very proud of this automatic business. But we have to admit that we are only imitating 5000 years old system that existed. Automatic, the doors opened, door after door after door and through so many doors. Same thing, doors are opening automatically and there comes Vasudev out of the prison carrying his son Vasudeva.
And there, ‘saha ramena’ who was waiting for Krsna. Who was waiting for Keshava was Balaram. Balaram was waiting for Sri Krsna. In another form, Sankarsana form, Sheshnaga, Ananta Sheshnaga form to serve, to protect His younger brother. So that was the first meeting between these two brothers ‘saha ramena’. And from now on, for next 125 years, They are going to be always together. Most of the time, They are together and whenever They are not together, there are also instances when Balaram is not with Sri Krsna, Krsna gets into trouble. Some sort of troubles He gets into, when that ha “baandha ukhaddhala yala baandha ukhaddhala” (Marathi) ukhala bandhan lila took place, Yashoda tying Krsna to the mortar, Balaram was out of station (Laughter). As He returned, He saw His brother tied to the mortar, He cannot even move and Balaram became very furious. ‘Who has done this? Who is it, who is it?’
Kalia- Krsna, when Krsna was caught in the coils of Kalia and the news spread all over Nandagram. ‘Oh, but Balaram is here’, and they are noticing, ‘Oh! For sure because Balaram is not there, Krsna must be in some big trouble’. They were seeing some bad omens, so many symptoms, some trouble is awaiting us. What does this mean? What does this mean? And Balaram is not with Krsna for sure. He must be in some trouble and then they come looking for, where is Krsna, where is Krsna and they found Krsna caught up in the coils, tight coils of Kalia. The day Krsna’s friends and Krsna friends’ calves, calves- plural of calf were stolen. That day also Balaram was not there, again trouble. There was a trouble for He lost all His friends. Brahma stole all the friends of Krsna. Brahma stole all the calves of Krsna and His friends’ calves also. Much later, 360 days had passed, only 5, 6 days to go for completion of one year period. Then Balaram realized, He could not even realize, there was some ‘atimartyani’ some extraordinary activities were going on. Even Balaram could not understand what was going on there. Krsna had to, ‘hey come here come here, that day you were not there and this happened. You know Brahma….’ ‘And all this friends, who are these friends?’ This is Me. (Laughter) What could I have done? Was not possible for Me to return by Myself. There could have been so many inquiries. ‘Where is my, where is your this friend and where is my son and where is….and I also had to become the calves and…

The show went on for almost one year ‘atimartyani’. Every child, every child, son of Vraja was Sri Krsna. Every calf in every goshala, calves were Sri Krsna. The Lord is acting like an ordinary son or ordinary child.
Well, this is extraordinary that every boy, young boy in Vraja is Sri Krsna. Because all the mothers, elderly gopis want Krsna as their son. They want Krsna like son but there is no one else like Krsna and knowing their desires, Krsna becomes their son. The cows also are not interested that their milk, the milking happens and then into the pot and the boiling the milk and this spoon feeding. He is fed with that milk, He drinks the milk. Those cows were wondering, ‘could He not drink our milk the way our calves drink? Why can’t He come to goshala and drink directly from our udders? Will this ever happen?’ This was the desire of the cows and that was the desire of the mothers. Knowing this, what kind of pastime is being performed here. Indra is made instrument, ‘nimitra matram’, he has this idea of stealing. And he has reason for that stealing of friends and the calves. Then Krsna will be able to display this very ‘atimartyani’, very extraordinary pastime that every boy, every calf in Vraja is Sri Krsna.
Then what happens, you know what happens? You don’t know? Every day they are realizing more and more that this son of theirs, they were thinking this is our son. And this is son of that neighboring gopi and that son is another gopi’s son and that is Yashoda’s son. Gradually gradually gradually, this thought of ‘this is my son and this is someone else’s son and this is Yashoda’s son’, this thought started disappearing. With the every passing of the day and night, they were realizing more and more and more and more and the day was there. They saw my son, this lady’s son, that lady’s son. Yashoda’s son, they are one and the same! And they were one and the same! This is ‘atimartyani’. Each one of that boy was sacitananda vigraha. Although they were looking like boys, same boys, same complexions, same likes and dislikes, same heights, same 50kgs, not that too much may be for the boys (Laughter). But these days boys are 50 kgs or…. so all those differences were taken into account. And Krsna not only becomes looking like them but the mind and intelligence and their whole attitude and all their behavioral changes or differences, Krsna managed exhibiting all that for entire one year. Balaram ‘saha ramena kesavah’, then Lord Krsna Keshava disclosed this to Rama. ‘This is the matter brother, now you understand?’ ‘Yes yes, now I understand…’
So that Balaram was there to greet Sri Krsna and He was the first one to greet just outside the prison of Kamsa. Then he is going through Mathura town. What time was the night Vasudev going through the town? After midnight after sometime, prayers took some fifteen minutes (Laughter). The door after door, another twenty minutes and so they may be around 1 o’clock. 1 A.M He is going through Mathura town. Well this is Krsna Janmasthami talk, the moon that night asthami’s moon is supposed to be half moon. You could imagine right? That night, asthami night, Krsna paksha, asthami, moon rising is at midnight and moon rises half moon. But that night, the moon was delighted. ‘Oh! Lord has taken birth in my dynasty! He is becoming Chandravamsi Sri Krsna ki jaya!! Chandravamsi. He is Chandra, My Lord is Chandravamsi.’ He became so happy. He became so delighted, his face lit up

So that night at midnight, this never happened before, will never happen again. The full moon, moon rising was full moon. This is also not ordinary happening and then…. So some moon shine is there not much. So hidingly, Vasudev is hidingly going through Mathura town. He is very much scared of someone, someone reporting to Kamsa. Someone giving news of him carrying the baby Krsna across or to Yamuna and then towards to Gokula. So another arrangement we hear that all the dogs are fast asleep. So how does that help? Imagine if the dogs were not sleeping, what would they do? Their business is to bark and if they would bark, for sure so many and sometimes pack of dogs, so many gather together and they bark. They could have woken up people and someone noticing through the door. Hey look! Who is it? Who is it? Vasudev and immediately they would do mobileing (Laughter). Mobile, mobile Kamsa and Kamsa would run after…. So in order to avoid that, all the dogs made to sleep.

I mean, just see Lord is in the hands of Vasudev. He is acting ‘gudhah kapata-manusah.’ He is putting that show. He is wearing that mask and acting like ‘manusah’, some ordinary child, ordinary being, human being. So He is there in the hands. He is not able to even walk by Himself but He is able to put all the dogs to sleep and He gives impression, ‘I have nothing…no it’s not Me. It’s the dogs are sleeping. It is their choice’ (Laughter). As if He is neutral, as if He has nothing to do with it. But this is how the Lord acts.

‘yoga-maya samavritah, naham prakasah sarvasya, yoga-maya samavritah’ (BG 7.25)

I cover Myself with yoga maya or He acts through His so many energies and then declares, ‘mayadhyaksena prakrtih, suyate sa-caracaram’ (B.G 9.10). “I am ‘adhyaksh’, I am superintendent. Not even blade of grass moves without My sanction.” If there is anyone who could make such claim? That is Lord, thats Lord. But He is just in the hands of Vasudev and He makes a show that He has nothing to do whatever is happening around. So then he comes to…Vasudev comes to the banks of Yamuna. And it’s a rainy season in the month of Shravan Bhadrapada. This is varsha ritu, so rains and floods and the river is flooded. Yamuna is flooded and Vasudev is on the bank of that kind of Yamuna. ‘Now what happen, I am not a mystic yogi to walk on the water. I wish I was but I don’t have such feat.’ But he carries on; his mind is fixed on the mission. What is his mission? The child said. What did the child say? ‘Bring Me to Gokula.’ That all he knows that, ‘ I have to bring my child to Gokula for the safety reasons.’ So he is doing that.
So as he is on the banks of Yamuna and Yamuna has immediately taken note. Oh ! Yamuna knows that Vasudev is carrying the child and that child is not ordinary child. That child could not hide Himself from the vision of Yamuna like personality. Yamuna is not just Yamuna jal, just Yamuna water. Yamuna is a person. Yamuna is a personality and so is Sarasvati and so is Ganga and other rivers also. Just last night we were talking about bhagavat katha. Bhagavat katha was taking place once on the banks of Ganga. And four Kumaras were reciting Bhagavatam and in the assembly all the rivers were sitting. All the rivers had taken seat, not that there was a pond. Where is, which is this pond? (Laughter). No, she was Yamuna, she had an asana. She was sitting on an asana and Sarasvati was sitting on another asana and another river. Not only the rivers, all the dhamas, all the tirthas, they are also persons. They had taken their seats.

All the seventeen Puranas had come and taken their seats. 17 Puranas were hearing Bhagavat purana, this is beyond us, this is acintya. This is something that we do not see. Lots of things we do not see, limitations. So Yamuna has taken note, He is not ordinary child. He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and she immediately remembered that Supreme Personality of Godhead. Once He was at Rameshwaram on the banks of Indian Ocean. And He wanted to cross Indian Ocean to reach Lanka. That ocean was taking a little extra time, was not cooperative. Not prompt in coming forward and giving all his extends all the cooperation. Then Sri Rama, He got up with His bow and arrow. He was furious and with that there was the whole ocean was shaking up like a tsunami and all the creatures in that ocean were struggling, suffocating. ‘ Sri Rama has now come as Sri Krsna and His goal is also to cross, go across as Rama wanted to go across Indian ocean. This Krsna wants to go across my water Yamuna. And if I delay, He could do something very similar (Laughter) what He did to Indian ocean. I better help Him out! not protest or ignore or delay.’ So that was one thought, Yamuna was thinking like this. Yamuna knew this Rama’s pastime, she remembered that. She also remembered that, ‘when He grows up, ends up in Dwarka and as He would be looking for right match, marriageable age, I am supposed to be one of His wives. So if I do not cooperate, help Him out, when there will be time of the match, He would be remembering me. And that would not be in my favor, so this was another reason. Some acharyas are giving these commentaries. So thinking thus, Yamuna extended all the helping hand, all the cooperation.
So Vasudev was carrying Vaasudeva and entered water of Yamuna. Water was knee deep and waist deep and chest deep and He was trying to make sure that Krsna does not drown. At some point he noticed, the water was rising, Yamuna water was rising. And Yamuna’s goal was just to touch, just to touch the lotus feet of baby Krsna and then she would cleared the path. So this is what happened. Yamuna touched the lotus feet of Sri Krsna ki jaya!! Then she became ecstatic, happy. Then Vasudev was able to cross Yamuna. Well, this is ‘atimartyani’ also. Going across Yamuna, the way he managed doing and now he was on eastern bank of Yamuna on the way to Gokula. What time is it now? How much time crossing Mathura? Half an hour crossing Yamuna, another 15 minutes. It was like a two o’clock in the morning around that. Vasudev is now going towards Gokula, Gokula is some distance.

Here Vasudev’s Vaasudeva consciousness, Vasudev’s Krsna consciousness is visible, noticeable, his emotions, his feelings. So as he is carrying baby Krsna, sometimes he is going faster. Sometimes he is going faster thinking, ‘I better rush and bring the child to Gokula and leave Him there before Kamsa. If he somehow, he finds out, he may rush. He may try to catch up with me.’ So to avoid that, Vasudev is rushing, going faster. But the next moment he thinks, ‘but if I go with this speed, I’ll be in Gokula very soon. Then what will happen? I’ll have to leave the child there. I will be bereft of the child’s association and the transcendental touch that I have with the child. So I better take some extra time so that He will be longer with me.’ With this thought, then Vasudev would slow down. Sometimes he is in slow slow….. motion picture, that is slow motion. ‘But if I go slow like this, Kamsa may come and he begins running. But if I run like this, I’ll be in Gokula very soon. I will lose the child’s association.’ Then slowing down, going faster, slow fast, slow fast. He is going through different gears between eastern bank of Yamuna and Gokula.

Then finally, he has reached Gokula, big palace of Nanda Maharaj. And he has finally entered that chamber, that quarter where Yashoda had given birth to baby daughter. That was, Yogamaya was ordered to do so. So Yogamaya has taken birth as daughter of Yashoda. But there is a confidentially something that also had happened. Yashoda had also given birth to son. She gave birth to two children, one son followed by a daughter. So Vasudev took the daughter away leaving his son there and then what happen? The two Krsnas here, don’t tell anybody okay (Laughter). This is very confidential, it’s not common knowledge. Probably we have heard it before. There was a time also I have not heard. This is the fact of having two Krsnas. Then Krsna from Mathura- Vasudeva Krsna enters Vrndavana Krsna, Nandananda Krsna and two Krsnas become? Two Krsnas become one Krsna. Isn’t that ‘atimartyani’ also, isn’t that also very superhuman?

Could Radheyshyam merge with another boy and then….(Laughter). Krsna was one when Brahma stole all the friends. Immediately or very soon, as many friends were there, He expanded. For one year He was like that. When Brahma returned His original friends and they were sitting in the same place for lunch. In the same spot, each boy had a spot. The spot they had year ago, when they returned they were sitting in the same place. Krishna is returning after one year and meeting His friends. And His friends, ‘oh! You are so fast. We have not finished even our lunch.’ Although one year had passed, one year they were not there. In the middle of their lunch, on the bank of Yamuna Krsna said, ‘No, I’ll go and find the calves. You enjoy your lunch.

So He has returned after one year. So that time, they were as many friends, those many Krsnas were there and He had again wound up. From one He had become many and from many He had become again one Krsna. Krsna returned and when He returned, the dadhi bhatt. Because He had left in the middle of His lunch, He had not even washed His hands. After one year as He returns, His hand is wet. All the kheer and all the pickles he was holding between the fingers, they are still there as they were before one year ago. Then their lunch is over, some more pastimes and then they are returning to their respective homes.

Each home there is this talk of killing of Aghasura. Every home, the pastime of Krsna is being narrated. Every boy, he had seen all day, what he had seen, he shared. ‘Hey daddy, come here come here. Mummy! stop, come.’ And he is making the daddy and mummy sitting. Children are giving narration, Bhagavat katha (Laughter).’ Listen to this!’ So this is how the Krishna’s pastimes, their song they recited, remembered. This is how they spread all over Vraja. When of course, Pariksit heard this, ‘how come something that happen when Krsna was aged five, that became known when He became pauganda. He became six years old. How come this?’ So the pastimes that took place before lunch, year ago was narrated, shared by the friends year later.

So Balaram, we did not say much about Balaram. Balaram is always with Sri Krsna and Their activities. Whether stealing butter or Balaram is also part of that pastime. Calves herding pastimes, cows herding pastimes, Krsna and Balaram together. So after Gokula, They go to Vrndavana. When They are both ten eleven years old, They both together go to Mathura. They both together are wrestling with those giant wrestlers. Chanur was killed by Krsna and Mustik was killed by Balaram. There are five of them, two were killed by Balaram. Three were killed by Sri Krsna. Kamsa was killed by Krsna and Kamsa had eight brothers, Kanka and others. As they came forward, Balaram ..dishoom…. and He gave a boxing and….So They were sharing. ‘vinasaya ca duskrtam'(BG 4.8). Two brothers, so together They were sharing the task. And then They both had met Vasudev and Devaki. Then They both had gone to Sandipani muni’s ashram. They are both disciples of Sandipani muni. And They both had gone to find the son of Sandipani muni, Prabhasksetra. Then They both had to go to Samyamani, the abode of Yamaraj. They both returned to Avantipur where They were doing studies. They both returned there to Mathura.

By that time Jarasandha had come and They were both battling with Jarasandha together seventeen times. Eighteenth time, They both fled. They left Mathura and went to Dwarka. Then it was only Krsna, He came to Kaundinyapur alone. Next morning when Balaram woke up and realized, ‘oh! where is Krsna?’ And then, ‘ oh, He must have gone there to Kaundinyapur, Rukmini’s birthplace.’ Then Balaram rushed and caught up with Sri Krsna. So They were together in Kaundinyapur battling with Rukmi and others. And They both had returned to Dwarka and They are together of course. Balaram was married. His elder brother, His marriage has taken place first. And then Sri Krsna was married and They both are staying together.

Only Balaram goes to Vrndavana, Krsna stays behind, He was kept behind. Thinking if we send both of Them, then what is the guarantee of Them coming back. Let’s keep one of Them here. So they kept Krsna in Dwarka and let Balaram go. Then Balaram returned again. And like that in the battlefield of Kurukshetra, only Krsna was there. Balaram refused to take part in battle. He went on a tour of Bharat varsa for They were not together that time. Like that there are many pastimes They are together. The time of the marriage of Subhadra, there are differences of opinion between the brothers. They always do not agree, They agree to disagree with each other. So at time of marriage of Subhadra, one brother is in favor, one brother is not in favor of marriage and like that. Finally They are at Prabhasksetra and I think Balaram is the first one to wind up His pastimes. Some 125 years have passed and time to put a curtain on the pastimes, close the pastimes Nitya lila pastimes. So Balaram leaves and then soon Sri Krsna follows back to Goloka- ‘goloka eva nivasaty akhilatma bhutah’ (Bs 5.37). And then They continue their pastimes. So like that..

“krtavan kila karmani saha ramena kesavah
atimartyani bhagavan gudhah kapata-manusah” (SB 1.1.20)

Lord Sri Krsna, the Personality of Godhead, along with Balarama, played like a human being, and so masked He performed many superhuman acts.
‘nato natya-dharo yatha’ (SB 1.8.19) as Kunti Maharani prays ‘nato natya-dharo yatha’. Just like a nata, the actor he performs so many different acts. One person but he is in this film role and same person plays another role. You don’t even recognize him. Good actors are not recognized. You take some time you are half way and the you realize ‘oh! he is that actor, I didn’t know he is the same actor’. Or sometimes they play double roles also, they play two roles. Kunti Maharani as He is, nata, ‘nato natya-dharo yatha‘, making You, knowing You becomes more tough, more difficult. ‘Oh My Lord, so please reveal.’

So the sages were very much interested in this topic of Sri Krsna along with Balaram. Only ‘saha ramena’ is said but they could have said ‘saha radhaya saha’, ‘mitrena saha’, with the cows, with the friends, with the parents, with so many. Its Krsna, when it comes to performing pastimes, He needs others for dealings. So there are so many dealings and in those dealings, there are so many devotees. So there is so much variety also in those dealings, flavors in those dealings, different rasas in those dealings. So its a big subject matter. Thus, the sages are asking only six questions in this first chapter of the first canto of Bhagavatam. So based on those six or answers to these six questions is entire Bhagavatam. So the question is also in code language. Question is brief while answer is long answer. The speaker knows that this person wants to know this also, that also, that also. Or if I stop, saying something briefly, he is going to ask me another question. So before even he asks another question, I better give a longer answer. Lesser questions, more answers. Otherwise, more he is going to ask, what about this? what about that?…Okay so we could stop there. So any questions, comments anyone has?

Devotee (1): Hare Krsna Maharaj I wanted to ask, why Balaramji sided with Duryodhana?
Gurumaharaj: You are not happy? (laughter). That’s special relationship and They are brothers, that’s one thing. They are both, They are family members. They are both Kurus. ‘pasyaitan samavetan kurun’ (BG 1.25). Lord krsna says, “oh you wanted to see who has come, assemble here for battling? Please take note. You are kuru, they are also kurus” so same family”. But Duryodhana also had a special soft corner for Balaram. He was like a disciple or student of Balaram. Balaram is very expert in the club, this whole kala, whole art that comes with; how to use the club. One time Balaram was in Mithila. Both Krsna and Balaram had gone to Mithila in search of this Syamantaka mani. So they did not find Satadhanva, They were chasing after and he was killed. So Krsna returned to Dwarka. Balaram stayed on and Duryodhana was taking lessons, taking association of Balaram and taking lessons from Balaram. I Am sure there are many other instances how they were associating together and they had a very sweet relationship. That’s why Balaram choose not to be part of that Kurukshetra battle. That meant battling against Duryodhana. So He chooses pilgrimage, so They are two brothers, slightly different. Not exactly just copy or duplicate of two persons. They exhibit different mellows, different relationships.

Devotee(2): I request, can you please sing ‘sundar te dyana ubhe vitevari’?
Gurumaharaj: I think tonight this will come up. Sure this song is part of ‘jao deva achiya gava’, is it okay? You hear that tonight if you get the pass, one who is asking this question. It’s not a free, probably you have to pay some entrance fee. So it’s not a free song (Laughter). You have to pay some..
Devotee(3): In the song ‘ei baro karuna koro vaisnava gosai’, there is a line ‘darsane pavitra koro-ei tomara gun’. So can you please explain whether it means seen by pure devotee or even conditioned soul sees the pure devotee and he gets purified. Because in the first case if only by pure devotee’s glance conditioned soul will be purified. Then the chances of purification of the conditioned souls are less.
Gurumaharaj: In the beginning of the Bhagavatam, it says. The reciters of the Bhagavatam, the listener of the Bhagavatam and one who asks questions, one who inquires, one who gives answer, one who hears; they are all purified.

Like Ganga purifies residence of three lokas- svarga, mrityu loka, patala. There is a patala Ganga. So svarga Ganga, Ganga is here. So seeing a sadhu, ‘darsane pavitra koro ei tomara gun’. I would just say that, well we have to understand what this darshan is. A lot of time saying, ‘oh I am going for darshan of this maharaj or that maharaj or that sadhu or that saint. I am going for darshan. So darshan, what is darshan? Seeing is darshan but is that seeing just the seeing the sadhu or how is he looking like? When someone came to see sadhu and he was giving a talk. And the sadhu had a big beard and he was shaking. One person in the audience was very jubilant to see whenever the shaking of the beard took place. When he was inquired, ‘why are you so happy?’ And he said, ‘as your beard shakes, I am reminded of my goat! (laughter) when my goat walks. Sometimes goat has little beard like hair hanging. They shake also, I am happy, I am reminded of my goat. So it could be just physical seeing. Darshan, you will give me Krsna.

‘dhai tava pache pache, ami to kangala krsna krsna boli dhai tava pache pache’.
‘krsna se tomara, krsna dite paro tomara sakati ache’.

I am running after you or I have come to you for your darshan. Because I know, you are competent to give me Krsna. You have Krsna and you could give that Krsna to me. So how does sadhu give Krsna? He talks about Krsna. He shares his realizations of Krsna. That is how Krsna is transferred from person to person. Someone has Krsna and he talks about Krsna. He describes Krsna and sings glories of Krsna. Then that Krsna is transplanted from heart to heart. Then other person gets Krsna, to know Krsna, follow Krsna or follow the process that will help one realize Krsna. So more important than just seeing is hearing sadhu and this is darshan. Darshan is what he is showing you. With this torchlight of knowledge, he shows you. He gives eyes to see. ‘caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri-guruve namah’. ‘caksur unmilitam’, he opens your eyes and he gives you right kind of vision eyes so that you could see. So that is real darshan. That is darshan.

One time Bhaktisiddhanta he was giving a talk to some group of disciples. And one of the disciples, follower went away and returned after some time. So Bhaktisiddhanta, ‘where did you go?’ ‘Guru maharaj, I went for darshan of the deities’. Bhaktisiddhanta was not pleased with this response. He said,’ I was here to give you eyes to see so that you could see the Lord. And you preferred to see Lord on your own and you went to see the deity?’ Then he inquired, ‘so how was your, dear disciple, how was your eyes exercise? You went?’ Yes I went. ‘What did you do, you opened your eyes?’ Yes I opened. Closed, yes close. ‘Open close, open close, so how was your eyes exercise?’ So that seeing without knowledge, without direction, without whole process which we learn from sadhu or saint. Or when we take darshan from without hearing and guidance, you won’t see much. So, anyways there is a big pile of questions here.
Devotee(4): Will you tell, although Krsna performs really so many superhuman activities, still attraction is not there. Whereas other many common man does something, I get attracted to him.

Gurumaharaj: Yes, this is conditioning. We are conditioned to hear about mundane people, mundane activities, ordinary activities of ordinary people. So we have to get rid of this and by hearing and hearing and hearing. One time someone asked. ‘How do I become addicted to the chanting of the holy name?’ You understand addiction? Addiction to chanting. Then Prabhupada said,’ how does one become drug addict?’ How does become addicted to the drugs or drinking addiction? Initially you may not even interested. Then, reluctantly you drink. And another time and another time and another time and then time comes you cannot leave without it. You have become now drug addict or this addict that addict. So he said, chanting is also like that. Or hearing about Krsna and then eventually get attracted to Krsna is also like that. You hear once, you hear twice, you hear and you hear and you hear hear hear hear. For sure, if you are a soul (laughter). If you are a soul and this whole process of…There is also difference between hearing and hearing. If you adore shradha, beginning with the faith. ‘shraddha van labhate jnanam’ (BG 4.39). Krsna says in Bhagavad-Gita, ‘shraddha van labhate jnanam’. If you hear with shraddha, you will acquire knowledge, realize Krsna. You will get attracted to Krsna. ‘samsayatma vinasyati'(BG 4.40), but if you have doubt and questions, then ‘vinasyati’. You will not get attracted. You will remain what you are. Keep hearing the jaundice, Prabhupada gave that example. Chanting and chanting but no attraction. There is nothing else, there is no other solution. The jaundice, I have jaundice, so what is the cure? The sugar candy is the cure. And I tried to taste the sugar candy. How does it taste like? Very bitter.

So one may go to the doctor, ‘oh, that sugar candy is so bitter. Is there any other medicine?’ No other medicine. You want to be cured, then go on eating, go on eating. So as one follows that prescription, he eats. He is cured, he eats more, he is cured more. He eats, he cured more. Each time he eats, he also begins tasting the sweetness of the sugar candy. Then time comes when he is completely cured.. Then he demand, ‘is there more sugar candy? No no, do get it.’ Someone say, ‘it’s out of stock, finished’. No, go buy more. So he was saying, ‘no sugar candy is so bitter, how could….’. Likewise Krsna – His superhuman activity – no attraction ..Well, go on hearing, go on chanting, go on. Of course association of devotees, go on honoring prasadam. That’s the whole process, whole package.
Devotee 5 : Why we don’t discuss the disappearance pastimes of Lord Sri Krsna in detail. What is the specific reason?
Gurumaharaj: We do, that is also part of the Bhagavatam. 11th canto, there is a description how Lord…Well first all His associates, He made them disappeared by killing each other. When they were sent away or sent back, then there is a description. How He was sitting on the bank of Sarasvati. The way He was sitting, where, His thigh, right thigh on like that one of those. His four-handed is leaning against young banyan tree. Then the hunter, he thought that must be deer and shooting. Then he comes forward then the hunter begs for forgiveness. Finally Lord departs. Well yes, so both are there. The janma is always…of course there is no death. When we went in ’78 to Prabhasksetra, the exact spot where Krsna sat on the bank of Sarasvati. That place is there even now.
It was there in ’78 and is there for past 5000 years ago. So we read the sign that said ‘God died here’. I was travelling with another of my godbrother. He was from England, Ravi and he couldn’t stand. When he read the sign, he said, ‘Who is it? Who made this sign?’ He was trying to get into some ashram around there to find out who has committed this offence, calling that ‘Lord died here.’ Because Lord never dies. That was out of ignorance. So there is nothing like janma and mrityu. Lord’s appearance is transcendental. Lord’s disappearance is also transcendental. So we may not always dwell so much on the disappearance part because then one may feel separation. Oh, Lord left the abode, Lord left, Lord left. Then one may miss Him. So I mean not to become emotional and feeling vacant without him. Knowing that He departed, He left the world, He disappeared. So we talk little less and more of janma but not that we don’t know. Sukadeva Goswami has described appearance of the Lord and he has also described disappearance of the Lord.

Devotee(6): If the pastime of the Lord and the concept of the duality of soul and super soul is so dear. Then why there are so serious followers of advaita, who study same scripture but totally different philosophy.
Gurumaharaj: Well advaita is, you know dvaita and advaita. We are, this is dvaita, advaita, dvaita, vaishistadvaita are technically different names. Basically the vaisnavas and mayavadis or nirakarvadis and sakarvadis. They have existed simultaneously from the beginning or always. Lord appears in three features.
‘brahmeti paramatmeti bhagavan iti sabyate’ (SB 1.2.11).

He appears as Brahman, all pervading Brahman. He appears as localized super soul and He appears as Supreme Personality of Godhead. So some realize that impersonal Brahman and think this is it. I have realized everything. But this is blunder on their part. If they, ‘could I have realized this much Lord. Maybe there is more to know.’ So if they keep making progress, they know the super soul, they know the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That’s the way to do it. But some get stuck with the Brahman and then they are convinced like that. That is their misfortune but we know many examples also. Four Kumaras were impersonalist initially and then they come to Visnu temple. At the entrance they stood, they smell the nice fragrance incense and the flower and tulasi. Just by smelling that fragrance coming from the Personality of God. Or lotus feet of God, their all impersonalism was finished. Well our Sukadeva Goswami, he was kind of satisfied being advaita vadi, being impersonalist. As the result, he stayed in the womb for, how many years? 16 years as you chant 16 rounds. 16 years and then, “I am happy here. I don’t want to be troubled by the ‘brahma satya jagat mitya’. Or as impersonalist of Benaras, they say that.

“kaupinvantah khalu bhagyavanta
Vedanta vakyesu sada ramantah” (Sripada Sankaracarya).

We study Vedanta and they find their impersonal Brahman there. Oh! We are so fortunate, we are so fortunate, we are renounced. They are great renunciates, they are vairagis. So they like ‘kalau bhagyavanta, kaupin’. All that we need is ‘kaupinvantah, kaupin..’ ‘kaupinvanta khalu bhagyavanta, Vedanta vakyesu sada ramantah’. We are just happy with this Vedanta and impersonal – ‘aham brahmasmi, aham brahmasmi’. Caitanya Mahaprabhu was in Benaras and everywhere Caitanya brahma. All these mantra were being chanted, surcharged all that atmosphere with that. Then Caitanya Mahaprabhu starts there….

“Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare”

So one mantra is Hare Krsna, talks of Personality of Godhead. He has name also and qualities. ‘aham brahmasmi’, Brahman that is effulgence coming from this Maha mantra, coming from person. So Hare Krsna or Krsna is complete. Krsna means super soul also. Krsna also meaning Brahman, inclusive. But some goes for just one aspect and stuck and the like the jnana yoga and karma yoga, astanga yoga, bhakti yoga.
Some think the jnana yoga is complete in itself. Some remain karma yogis, some astanga yogis. But in fact they should, if they keep making progress, karma yogi, jnana yogi, astanga and come to the platform of bhakti yogis. Then they could become bhakti yogis from beginning to end. Some stops somewhere, some ladders, some level and jump to conclusion. Yes, this is it, we got it, we got it. It’s here, we realized it, but if they have patience, if they come in contact with vaisnavas, then they will make further progress. And we have seen that. We have seen impersonalist becoming personalist. But we don’t find any example in Bhagavatam of personalist becoming impersonalist. It is only one way tract.

[Devotee (7) asking question in Marathi and Gurumaharaj giving answer in Marathi]- Maharaj please tell any incident or pastime between you and Srila Prabhuapada.
Maharaj: There are many I have written a book you can read the book. I met Prabhupada in the year 1972, I had first seen in him on stage giving lectures but had never met him personally. In 1972 when we went all brahamacaris of Mumbai to Vrindavan in Kartik. Prabhupada was residing at Radha Damodhar temple, so we went to Radha Damodhar temple took darshan and we were searching Prabhupada . There was a small room where Prabhupada was staying, when we 10-15 devotees entered the room it was houseful. So Prabhupada was staying in such a small room like Goswamis. While going from Matura to Vrindavan we had seen the sunrise. Our leader Panchadravida prabhu started glorifying Prabhupada.
He said –“Prabhupada you are brilliant as the sun” when we meet our spiritual master we should glorify our spiritual master. Then after that Prabhupada was looking at us and listening to our report s of -book distribution, construction… when Prabhupada was looking at us it was like a camera – he was scanning us. When my turn Prabhupada’s glance would stop at me then again he would look at all of us. Next time again his glance stooped at me. That time I was thinking what is so special in me that Prabhupada is stoping at me (Laughter) either I have not put tilak or my button is broken (Laughter). I was thinking like that but I could not come to the conclusion why Prabhupada is stopping at me. Then Prabhupada said “Stop it” then I understood what I needed to stop. In those days I had a habit of shaking my thigh while listening, I was listening but was not aware that I was continuously shaking my thigh (Laughter). Then Prabhuapada said “Stop it”. Prabhupada said “stop it” since then its stopped (L aughter). Only when I have to demonstrate how I did it, I shake my thigh not otherwise. This is Prabhupada’s first order to me.
There are Vidhi- Do’s and Nished – Don’t, do this –don’t do this, so by this instruction Prabhupada told me to stop many things and then in 1972 in Radha Damodhar temple in kartik I got initiated and Prabhupada told me to chant Hare Krishna and what to stop he had already told.
So we stop.
His Holiness Lokanath Swami Maharaj ki jaya!!
Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!!

Venue: ISKCON Nagpur
Date: 16th June 2015
Day 1 of Bhagvat Katha

Sukadev Goswami described, in total, there are twenty eight hells. It has been described in detail in
the fifth canto. King Pariksit has listened to it very attentively.
“Nanogra-yatanan neyat tan me vyakhyatum arhasi” (SB 6.1.6).

So, when King Pariksit (listened) to the description of those hells and to the conditions of suffering
in the hells, nana (varied) types of and ugra (terrible) conditions of suffering. So, then king
Pariksit, who is a devotee, a Vaisnav, becomes para-dukha-dukhi. Para-dukha? – dukhi. Para-duhka.
Para-dhukah-dukhi. On listening to this description, which is very frightful and which gives goose
bumps, He became aggrieved others’ sorrow. “Is there any such solution through which people would
never have to go to hell?” The same idea as ‘prevention is better that cure.’ If it be avoided, its
better.

So, explain me about such a solution, tell me about such interpretations and anecdotes. Give me a
solution so that… adho gacchanti tamasah (BG 14.18), the Lord said, urdhvam gacchanti – there are those who go upwards, madhye tisthanti rajasah… adho gacchanti – there are those who go downwards too, tamasah. So, king Pariksit has asked for a solution. Is there any solution? The question is perfect and there is that perfect answer also to this question. – Purna-prasna – purna-uttara. And the question is related to that in which there is everybody’s welfare. So, such a question has been welcomed and Sukadeva Goswami.

“na ced ihaivapacitim yathamhasah krtasya mana-ukta-panibhih” (SB 6.1.7)

So, Sukadeva Goswami said people will definitely commit sin. And in what ways? It’s called
“kayena manasa vacasa” (SB 4.8.59). kayena – sin is committed physically, mentally kayena manasa, vaca – and verbally. That’s what is called mana-ukta-panibhih. So, one has to repent. By repentance, one is freed from reaping the fruit, result of that sin. That is why one should repent.

“dhruvam sa vai pretya narakam upaiti ye kirtita me bhavatas tigma-yatanah (SB 6.1.7)

So, people will definitely have to go, narakan, narakan upaiti. So, activities performed under the
influence of Kama (lust), krodha (anger), lobha (greed), the Lord says in other places, in Gita, that
these are the gateways to hell. Gateways / portals of hell, Kama- kamandha, then, krodhandha, then,
lobhandha. When one is blinded by these, blinded by lust, blinded or illusioned by anger and greed.
So, these are activities those that take one to the doorstep of hell. Narakan upaiti, dhruvam.
Undoubtedly, no one can stop that. Naraka- Hell. Hell is a place. In this universe, there is hell or
heaven is also there and in the middle there is mrtyu loka and beneath lies patala loka. Naraka loka
is also existent. People say, inexperienced people say, even great swamis often say that there exist
no other separate planets such as hell and heaven and hell is here, on earth itself or some heavenly
pleasures are fond here itself. People call Kashmir as ‘Nandana-vana’ Or America- “Mora ei
abhilasha, AMERICA dese dio vasa”- (Guru Maharaj and audience laughing), such people. Hey Tulasi
Maharani, please bestow such mercy that I get my visa, so that I can go and settle in America, so that
I can get green card from them.

So, heaven, America, the heavenly planet. Such is some people’s misconception. But otherwise, there
exists such a place called Svarga, there exists a place called narak, there exixts also this mrtyu loka
in the middle. In one universe. Papa-niskrtau yateta (SB 6.1.8). So, we should try. We should make
attempts to repent before bearing the result. tasmat pura eva asu iha. Very quickly. As quick as we
can repent. pascatap – prayascit. Pascatap. Oh! I made a mistake. I committed a sin. To grieve, to
be sad and to do some procedures, it’s called prayascit, so that one will not have to bear the
consequences that activity. So, such an activity must be done immediately. The quicker one does it,
the better it is. We should accept that we committed a sin. The Christian people go to the church to
tell, to confess to the farther of the church that we committed some sin, some offence. Then,
atonement, that should be done what solution is there, how can we be freed? This is ongoing. Every
Sunday they will go and queue up and tell everything to the pope or the priest whatever mistakes were
committed, whatever sins were committed and then, you tell about some repentance, what repentance? So, in our religion too… in the Vedas there is a very large section, Karma Kanda section. Or there are the religious scriptures. ‘The Manu-Smrti’ is also there. In that you’ll get a long list – this repentance for that sin, that repentance for this sin… so, one should do so. Sukadeva Goswami has mentioned about this practice. “Dosasya drstva guru-laghavam” so, how much sin? Guru sin. Guru meaning grave sin. Some heavy sin or some light/small sin. So, according to that, repentance also has to be in accordance to that. As it is being said bhisak cikitseta rujam nidanavit (SB 6.1.8).

When you go to the doctor – cikitsak, then the inexperienced gives test, aaahhhhh. So, diagnosis is done.
And then, there are all these illnesses. Laghu or guru, according to that, OH, this is a headache, so
take aspirin, go! If it is a case of brain hemorrhage, get admitted into I.C.U. Guru- it’s a very
serious matter, take bed rest, you stay here only, get admitted.

So, Sukadeva Goswami is saying, likewise, repentance also has to be according to the lightness or
seriousness of the sin. The time King Pariksit listened to this, then only Sukadeva Goswami should not
have told the solution. But, it’s already said now, our acaryas have commented on that and Prabhupada
also wrote in the purport king Pariksit is being tested. Let me see, I tell him this is the solution. So, let me see what the response of my disciple, King Pariksit, is. How much he learnt and understood about Bhakti. So, king Pariksit immediately spoke thus:

“Drsta-srutabhyam yat papam, janam apy atamano
hitam karoti bhuyo vivasah prayascitam atho katham (SB 6.1.9)

No, no, no! This repentance is useless. You explained repentance to be the solution. However, repentance is not the solution. This is a patchwork. He meant to say it is not the permanent solution. “ Drsta-srutabhyam” I heard that by doing such and such sins, on gets such and such results. For theft, one has to go to jail. “Live life king size” – smoke our brand’s cigarette, then? – Cancer hospital this way. In that direction, is cancer hospital. I heard so, or even read it on cigarette packets – “can cause cancer”. So, drsta-srutabhyam, heard also and have seen too. The scriptures or sages have said no, no, don’t do this, don’t do, don’t do. Even after knowing it, heard, seen
and even got to know something. Even then, people keep doing such activities in which lie their
own harm. Karoti bhuyah vivasah – being compelled.

“Anicchann api varsneya, balad iva niyojitah atha kena prayukto yam papam carati purusah” (BG 3.36).

The same thing Arjuna asked Krsna. He asked to Krsna, I know that one should not commit sins as such, aniccham api, aniccham api… baladiva – some forcibly, papam carati – someon makes one do sins. So, what is that? Who is that? We are compelled to commit sins. Which is that energy? Who is that person? So, king Pariksit is also saying that those who repent, even after repenting, punah, they will again do sinful activities. Sinned and then repented, so, the lure of doing sin, lure of sinful activities.

“Papachi vasana nako dauu dola tyahuna andhada baracha me” (Abhanga, Saint Tukaram).

Tukaram Maharaj has said, papachi vasana- the tendency of committing sins does not go. Committed a sin then repented. So, one will not have to bear the consequences of that sin. Yet, one will again commit sins as the lure or propensity of sin, the seed of sin is already sowed. We do some activities, the act of sin we do but it is temporary. The activity is temporary, that activity is not eternal, it is over. But, what’s left? The propensity of sin, the seed of sin sowed by the sinner. The propensity for committing sin, the desire for committing sin remains, It stays back.

So, “kvacin nivartate bhadrat, kvacic carati tat punah” (SB 6.1.10) so, this is useless, said king Pariksit. Committed some sins for some time, then again, some repentance. One got free from the fruits, whichever one had to reap for that sin, but, punah- again sin is committed. So, like that such pursuance, again sin and repentance, again sin and repentance. King Pariksit referred to it as kunjara saucavt. This kunjara, meaning elephant.
The elephant is famous for its bathing. How does it bathe? He does bathe and then… in some lake or river. We got an elephant in our padayatra. It’s with us for several years and we walked behind it in the padayatras. The elephant had the leadership of our padayatra (jokingly). Elephant in the front, I saw too, he would go in the water and would bathe to its heart content. We used to keep watching that scene, the elephant’s bath, how it used to spray water on itself, here and there, from the top with the use of its trunk. We used to take photos of it too. However, after sometimes, when it would come ashore, it would, again with its, throw dust and mud on itself. It just took bath, came ashore and again became dirty, made itself dirty, useless.

“atho partha manye kunjara-saucavat” (SB 6.1.10)

I think that all this is similar to an elephant’s bath, this repentance that you talked about.
So, Sukadeva Goswami surely is happy by this observation of His disciple, king Pariksit.

“Karmana karma-nirharo, na hy atyantika isyate
avidvad-adhikaritvat prayascittam vimarsanam” (SB 6.1.11)

So, one action, one act of sin one did, then, to get free from it, one did a second action, the act of repentance. So, nirharo, karma-nirharona, so the seed of sin sowed by the act of sin or the propensity or tendency for sin produced by the act of sin has not been able to be eradicated by repentance. So, Sukadeva Goswami is yet, accepting its right well said. Well done, good boy, good student. You’re good.

Now, He is talking about a second type of repentance too. He is telling him prayascitam vimarsanam.
He said so – After repentance, that sinful person has, yet, not been free from his or her ignorance.
He remained ignorant, even before he was ignorant, even after that, his ignorance did not dissipate. So, what should one do? Prayasittam vimarsanam. One should acquire knowledge. One should acquire tatva-jnana. So the first type of repentance is referred to as karma-kanda. And now the repentance we are talking about is also another type of kanda. What’s that? – jnana kanda. Karma kanda, jnana kanda, kevala visera bhanda (Prema Bhakti Candrika). That is what vaisnavas, Gaudiya vaisnavas understand. Thtkarma-kanda… So, most religious activities that usually take place, the people: “say with pride!” what? “we are Hindus!” say proudly! So, the Hindus are busy in such actions, in karma-kanda. And then, some of them, jnana kanda

“Bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kami – sakali asanta’ (CC Madhya 19.149).

So, the desire for bhukti- material enjoyment is the desire of karma-kandis. Desire for material enjoyment. Those in jnana-kanda aremukti-kami. They desire mukti – liberation. But then, both are kami, full of desires, Kama, kami. So, one who is full of desires (kama) is kami, Kama, kami. Kevala visera bhanda. It’s nothing but a pot of poison.

“Tapasa brahmacaryena-brahmacaryena samena ca damena
ca tyagena satya-saucabhyam yamena niyamena va” (SB 6.1.13).
So, people acting under jnana kanda are illusioned here. Someone may think that this is nice,
Tapasa, it’s good if he is a tapasvi- hermit, He is a religious person. However, not all hermits are
religious or Krsna conscious people. He is definitely a hermit, but, there is no God consciousness or
sentiment of God in him. There is no sentiment of devotional service. (yaha bhakti ke bhava ka
abhava hi hain). He is doing penances though, who was such a hermit? Hiranyakasipu did this kind of
penance. He did such a penance that even demigods got frightened by the impact of the penance, such an impact.
But, that penance was not meant for attaining God or for God realization. “I want to be immortal!”
“Make me immortal!” after becoming immortal what am I going to do? I am going to trouble everybody.
“Isvaro ham aham bhogi siddho ham balavan sukhi” (BG16.14). I’ll keep doing that so then, make me
immortal. So in fact, penance has to be transcendental penance or it has to be spiritual penance. All
activities should be spiritual, its purpose is
“yat karosi yad asnasi yai juhosi dadasi yat yat tapasyasi kaunteya tat kurusya mad-arpanam” (BG 9.27).
Offer me! Offer the penance to me, do it for attaining me. Get up early in the morning, that is
penance. Go to attend katha-lecture despite rainfall, this is also penance. To sit near the stove and
cook even during summer, that is penance. In fact, if we perform these activities for the Lord’s sake,
if we cook and offer or feed the Lord so,

“tapo divyam putraka yena sattvam suddhayed yasmad brahma-saukhyam tv anantam” (SB 5.5.1).
Lord Rsabhadeva says to His sons: “do penance! Do penance! Do penance!” But, what kind of penance?
Transcendental penance. Lord Brahma too, the first activity that Lord Brahma did before creating the
Universe. He wasn’t able to figure out from where He was born. I came into existence, but, what
should I do? If we just continue with interpretation, we won’t move further. So, He started to find
out. He wanted to know, he was inquisitive. Then, He heard two word, first was ‘ta’ and the second
was ‘pa.’ When He uttered them together, then, “aahhh!” ‘Tapa’ – penance. I have to do penance, have
to do penance. So, He did penance, he did transcendental penance. So, at the end of the penance, the
Lord appeared. He met with the Lord, they even shook hands. Then, the Lord “divya jnana hrdaya
prakasito” (Guru Vandana, text 3), filled His heart with transcendental knowledge. So, transcendental
penance, transcendental penance.

So who doesn’t do penance in the world? Every person, different kinds of uncomfort, samena ca damena ca tyagena, tyagena- sacrifice. They were also tyagi – hermit or dani – generous. Jarasanda was very generous, he was a demon, but was generous. Yet, he wasn’t generous to Krishna. He wasn’t offering to Krsna. So, demons can also be generous. Demons can also be hermits. Demons too can be priests. Ravana was a great priest. He was a great intellectual. So, propensity for such a generosity or
penance or even knowledge which are not meant to serve the Lord, which do not serve on the devotional service of the Lord.
“jnana-karmady anarvrtam, anukulyena krsnanu-silanam bhaktir uttama”

Bhaktir uttama – bhakti is topmost, Bhakti is topmost. What is that uttama bhakti? – jnana karmady-
anavrtam. Jnana and karma. Transcending karma kanda and jnana kanda. “Anukulyena krsnanu-silanam” Anukula – favourable. Kamsa, He used to think too, in Mathura. Kamsa also , for instance, whenever He would eat something and he would see any leaf in that food then on seeing that he would remember the Lord in yellow robes. Hey! Bring the knife. Perhaps He is appearing in my plate (laughter). So, he used to remember but, thought that whenever he will show up what will I do? – beat Him up. I’ll kill Him. So, this kind of remembrance is not appropriate, it’s inappropriate.

“Ksipanty agham mahad api” (SB 6.1.14) Sukadeva Goswami said repentance is compared to kunjara-
saucavat, with the elephant’s bath. And He is describing this as venu-gulmam ivanalah. The trees and
plants in the forest, bamboos too are there. When they catch fire, the leaves get burnt to ashes.
Yet, when it will rain, the bamboo will again grow. The essence, its root was there in the earth. The
plant just got burnt a bit from outside or it went through some trimming or some cutting. Like in
parks they give them some shape, some form. Of an elephant or a peacock but, they definitely grow up
again. Or the farmers, sugar cane planters, they got the sugarcane cut and sent it to the factory too
already. So then, they give the plant water then, again they start growing. The root remain intact.
So, there repentances found within karma kanda and jnana kanda, they do not destroy the sins from the
root or they do not destroy the root cause of sins.

“Kecit kevalaya bhaktya vasudeva-parayanah” (SB 6.1.15).
So, Sukadeva Gowsvami is saying there is only one solution,
“Krsna-bhakta-niskama, ataeva santa” (CC Madhya 19.149).
The other party is not peaceful all are kami, “bhukti kami, mukti kami, siddhi kami”. The baba
(saint) who is constantly after them, he even does miracles. On seeing miracles (chamatkara) we do
namaskara to him. He who give ashes, they are known as siddhi kami. Such
siddhi saints are always coming up in our country with illustrious names. 100 to 150 years ago
Illustrious saints came up and many Hindus followed them. So, siddhi kami, everybody is kami but,
“krsna-bhakta- niskama ataeva santa” the devotee of krsna does bhakti or he listens to Srimad
Bhagavat. These Devi puranas, prayers to Demigods within karma kanda, so many fire sacrifices, all
these come under repentance. So, siva-dam, the hearing of Srimad Bhagavat is siva-dam and then, what? “tapa-traya-unmulanam” (CCMadhya 24.100) tapa-traya, causes of miseries. There are three of them, Adidaivik, adibhautik, adhyatmik. What do we call that? – tapa traya-unmulanam- “unmulanam” – this Srimad Bhagavat, it eradicates them from their very root, foundation, base. So, that’s why

“srnvatam sva-kathah krsnah punya sarva-kirtanah
hrdy antah stho hy abhadrani, vidhunoti suhrt sadam” (SB 1.2.17).

It has been mentioned in Srimad Bhagavatam itself – by hearing Srimad Bhagavatm, there are other
scriptures too. There is some karma kanda, this purana, that purana. Big body of knowledge. Very big
sangrah grantha, scriptures, various scriptures. But, what happens by listening to Srimad Bhagavatam?
“Hrdy antaha stho hy abhadrani, vidhunoti suhrt sadam” this katha reaches our “hrdy antah stho” -it
goes deep in our heart and consciousness and this Srimad Bhagavata katha, what does it do? Vidhunoti-
it cleanses all the inauspiciousness, abhadra or all the lure and tendency for sinning.
“Ceto darpana marjana” (Sri Siksastaka, verse 1) wherever there is the stain of kama, lusty desires,
the seed of sin, so this, “jnanagnih sarva kamani bhasma-sat kurute tatha” (BG 4.37) knowledge about
bhakti. Vasudevah sarvam iti- that kind of knowledge. What kind of knowledge? “vasudevah sarvam.”
Vasudeva is everything. Those who know this are knowledgeable, this is knowledge. Knowledgeable people. ‘Mam prapadyante’– come under my shelter. And what do I do when such a person comes to me? The Lord says – ‘mam ekam saranam vraja’ and then? – ‘aham tva, sarva papebhyo moksayisyami’- I will liberate you. The consequence of your sin that you had to definitely bear, I will liberate you from that too. And also, free you from the lure, the propensity, the plan, the strategy to again commit sins. “Aham tvam sarva papebhyo mksayisyami ma sucah” Do not fear, just surrender unto me. So, this is thus proved that the topmost repentance has to be done also. So, what is the topmost repentance? Devotional services or activities (Bhakti). Do bhakti! This is not karma kanda neither jnana kanda.

“kecit kevalaya bhaktya vasudeva- parayanah
agham dhunvantikartsyena nirharam iva bhaskarah (SB 6.1.15).
So, when there is fog during winter, dhuka we call it in Marathi, and when the sun rises, bhaskarah –
the sun defeats or clears the fog with its rays. It spreads light everywhere. Likewise, the actions
of devotional service, by becoming vasudeva-parayanah, then aghamdhunvanti kartsyea. It dhunvanti –
cleans even the thoughts of committing sins or even the sinful thoughts. So, we find this principle of
the Bhagavat about which we have already mentioned a little bit at many other places too.
“Na tatha hy aghavan rajan puyeta tapa-adibhih
yatha krsnarpita-pranas tat-purusa-nivesaya (SB 6.1.16).
So, Sukadeva Goswami is again saying. Earlier He said yes, one should do penance, give charity and
perform religious activities ,should acquire knowledge – ‘yamena niyamena, tyagena’ but… yes, this
will do some purification. But, na…puyeta – there won’t be much purification through the repentance
done in karma kanda or jnana kanda. Yatha krsnarpita-pranas tat-purusa-nisevaya. How much can we be
free, be purified? The extent to which one is purified by, first of all, doing krsnarpita krtya – by
either performing activities of devotional service for Krsna or by serving those personalities, those
mahabhagavatas who render devotional service unto Krsna or by associating with them, that is, by doing
bhakti, that extent of purification cannot be achieved by performance of any other religious
activities.

So,nityam bhagavata-sevaya, bhagavaty uttama sloke bhaktir bhavati naisthiki (SB 1.2.18) What will
happen when we will listen to Bhagavat? – There, Prabhupada says that there are two kinds of Bhagavat. Scripture bhagavat and person bhagavat. So nityam bhagavata sevaya meaning service unto both! Service of Bhagavat, Mahabhagavat Srila Prabhupada ki…Jai! Service to Prabhupada, to Prabhupada’s movement.
So, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur Mahasaya ki…Jai!

Today is the Disappearance Day Celebration of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura. So his point of view, his
visions, he started doing quite some activities or projects. The acaryas launched projects, but, it’s
not necessary that these projects meet their objectives during the very lifetimes of those acaryas
themselves. You must be willing to build a house. The aim of your life it is. We shall own a house.
Our own home. Own a motorcycle, something like that. All these get accomplished to some extent and a
little remain yet unaccomplished.
Radha-Gopinatha Ki… Jai!

However, the endeavor of the acaryas, they start them and then their endeavor or project is further
accomplished through or within the parampara, the disciplic succession. Next acarya, next group of
devotees, of vaisnavas, then next, like that. So, Bhaktivinoda Thakur launched many of ISKCON’s
(International Society for Krishna Consciousness’) projects too. He also inaugurated the parikrama,
Nava-dvipa Mandala parikrama. He also predicted that in the future, foreigners will come. They will
come from Germany or America and along with the Bengali or Indian devotees, they will? – “Jaya
Sacinandana, Jaya Sacinandana, Jaya Sacinandana, Jaya Sacinandana, Jaya Sacinandana Gaura Hari…”
(Vaisnava song-Guru Maharaj and audience singing together).
So, further then, Bhaktisiddhanta also did proceedings, then, came Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila
Prabhupada. Nationals and foreigners came together and then, started saying and singing Jaya
Sacinandana everywhere, throughout the whole of India. The arati that we sing, “jayo, jaya gaura
cander” (GM singing), this and so many, hundreds of other songs were written by Srila Bhaktivinoda
Thakur. Saranagati and so on. So the singing of this, listening to it and
congregationally chanting it is also rendering service unto His words only, It’s his service only.
These, Bhakti-vrksas, Bhakti-vrksas, namahattas and then Bhakti-vrksas, all these plans, these
hypothesizes, these concepts are those of Bhaktivinoda Thakur only. Emphasis is being laid on it here
at Nagpur. So, it is service unto Bhaktivinoda Thakur. So, like that, nityam bhagavata sevaya. So
the listening of Bhagavat, is service unto the Lord, service unto vaisnavas, sevice unto bhagavatas.
So, krsnarpita-pranas tat-purusa-nisevaya by doing so, puyeta – purification takes place.

“ Sadricino hy aham loke pantah ksemo kuto- bhayah
susilah sadhavo yatra Narayana-parayanah (SB 6.1.17).

So, he inaugurated, to what extent bhakti is chief. He told about karma yoga also, about dhyana yoga
and then what did the Lord say?

“Yoginam api sarvesam mad-gatenantar-atmana
sraddhavan bhajate yo mam sa me yukta-tamo matah” (BG 6.47).
So, among all the yogis, the bhakti yogi is the topmost, said the Lord in the end of the 6th chapter if
Gita. Yoga day is coming soon (laughter). Preparations are in and awareness is being created. So, do
some preaching. Preach about yoga, about ‘Bhakti-yoga’ or ‘Japa-yoga!’ Or preaching of japa-yajna.
Otherwise, the same thing, some karma kanda, jnana kanda thing or something does take place with yoga practice. However, Sukadev Goswami is saying that bhakti-yoga is the topmost. Susilah – the saints, who are virtuous, Narayana-parayanah. They follow the bhakti ‘pantha’ – path only. In marathi they use the word often, pantha, mahanubhava pantha. Path in English, they call it path in America (GM saying it in American accent), “path” (laughter). So, this word originated from the word ‘patha.’ From patha came path. Three, where from came the word three? – ‘Trin, trin. Trin is found in Sanskrit. Thus came three. Like that, many other words came from Sanskrit which is the mother or generator of all other languages.

So, “prayascittani cirnani Narayana-paranmukham” so, Sukadeva Goswami is again saying that is often
seen that the persons who adhere by the repentances of this world, they vimukha Narayana-paranmukham. Some are Narayana-parayanah – taken the path of devotional service, who are susilah sadhavah, narayanah-parayanah. But, those who do other types of repentances, the karma kandis, jnana kandis, they are Narayana-paranmukham, they are not compliant with Narayana. That is why “na nispunati rajendra sura-kumbham ivapagah” So, he is giving an example: the bottle of liquor (GM laughs), if you try to purify it with the water of whichever river, na nispunanti, it will not get purified.

Likewise, do whatever repentance you wish to, that won’t purify the person. And now, He is presenting
this same statement in form of a principle – “sakan manah krsna-padaravindayor nivesitam tad-guna-ragi yair iha” (SB6.1.19) if someone just does krsna-padaravinda, krsna-caranaravinda (surrender completely unto the two Lotus Feet of krsna) which is like honey. The sweetness of the name of Krsna, of His qualities, His pastimes, unto them whoever surrendered, whoever came under the shelter of Krsna, that person
“na te yamam pasa-bhrtas ca tad-bhatan svapne pi pasyanti cirna-niskrtah” So, he who is a devotee of
krsna and who constantly drinks the nectar of Krsna, of the Holy Name.
“Hare krsna Hare Krsna Krsna krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare”

“padodakam pitva, punar janma na vidyate” drinks the caranamrta (water that bathe His Lotus feet) of His Lotus Feet then, punar janma na vidyate and one will develop bhakti too. So, those practicing such
bhakti, those who are tad-guna ragi, they will not receive the sight or will not have to see the
‘Yamadutas’, the order carriers of Yamaraja, even in their dreams. The yamadutas will stay away from
them. With such devotees who are constantly krsna guna-ragi, constantly attached to the qualities, the
name, fame and paraphernalia of Krsna, who are Narayana-parayanah or those who are the practitioners of
“kirtaniyah sada-harih –svapne hi na pasyanti, pasa-bhrtas ca tad-bhatan”

So, yamadutas who constantly keep what in their hands? They keep pasa, they keep ropes. On finding
a sinner who is on his deathbed or who is to die soon, they keep their ropes ready and then they drag
or pull that person out if his body and take him with them. So, they are ever-ready. So, Sukadeva
Goswami says, there is also a case an example of this. You are telling right though that he who is
attached to krsna, tad anuragi, guna-ragi, he does not come across yamadutas even in his dreams. Not
even in dreams, then, what to say about when they are awake. So, Sukadeva Gswami says yes, yes, I am
remembering a primitive historical event. I am going to narrate that. Are you ready?
“Dutanam visnu-yamayoh samvadas tam nibodha me” (SB 6.1.20). And during that primitive history, you
will listen to the conversation between yamadutas and Yamaraja himself. So, then, you will understand
what I just said. That even in dreams neither Yama nor Yamadutas will come. So, saying thus,
“kanyakubje dvijah kascid dasi-patir ajamilah”. So, He is talking about some kanyakubja that now or
even in the scriptures is known as Kanauj. And the modern Kanpur in U.P (Uttar Pradesh), Kanpur it is
this kanyakubja itself where lived Ajamila.

How was Ajamila? – “dasi-patir ajamilah” Dasi-pati meaning, or vaisha-pati – husband of a low class
woman or a prostitute, Ajamila. Once he lived– his name was Ajamila. And all his virtuousness or
righteousness got destroyed. Because of whom? “Dasyah samsarga-dusitah” by keeping association of
that low class, prostitute woman. So, his condition became deplorable. So, what he used to do? He
used by force take money from people.

‘Bibhrat kutumbam’ (SB 6.1.22)– yena kena prakarena, somehow or other to foster or sustain his
kutumbha, his family. By hook or by crook, Yena kena prakarena. So, one among those ways was that he
used to catch hold of someone and tie him up, arrest him. Then, he searches that person’s pockets,
opens that person’s carry bag and peep in and whatever he finds, he loots. Kaitavaih – then, he would
gamble, he was a very cunning gambler. He would very easily play cards. Playing cards- Time pass, So
many people spend so much time gambling in trains. Goa is a major gambling centre. So don’t go to
Goa. We go often as we did not know. So, cauryair – and he used to steal, used to pick pocket. He used to commit thefts through various ways. Garhitam vrtim asthitah – these types of garhit, condemned activities. And in this way, he used to keep troubling everybody. Such a person he was. Like Jagai, Madai. And even nowadays you can find these kind of people. Everywhere you will find people who do such activities. Kalir cela – followers of Kali.
“Evam nivasatas tasya lalayanasya ta-sutan” (SB 6.1.23). So, with money earned from such activities,
as he was nurturing his sons and that low class woman, lots of days, months and years went by.
“Ayur harat vaipumsam udyam astam ca yann asan” (SB 2.3.17).

ayur harati, so what does the sun do? It snatches, takes away, the sun rose and then set and thus,
took away the whole day of today. Took away everyone’s time. Ayur harati vaipumsam. Yet, the sun
does not snatch the time of only those who are doing what? Listening to Srimad Bhagavat. Those who
listen to Srimad Bhagavat and those who do bhakti, they become kalatita. They transgress kala (time).
They are not affected by the effects of kala. So, as for Ajamila, lots of his time got over. How many
years? Asthasity- he turned eighty-eight. He became an eighty-eight years old man. And by that age,
he even got ten children too. At the age of eighty-eight he had a new born child. That’s nothing!
Recently, somewhere in the west (western country), a wedding ceremony took place. No! No, he was a
hundred and three years old (laughter). And to who he got married, she was ninety-four years old.
They broke the record. So, they brought him on a wheelchair (laughter). So now their life has
started. Affair or ya.., and it came into news that prior to the wedding, they had seven children
already. So, this is… My disciple, Ajaya-vijaya prabhu. So, he was a Brahmacari and once, he
received his father’s wedding card (laughter). So, he was summoning hi Brahmacari son “come, I am
going to get married.” (Laughter). Please attend my marriage. So, this, Ajamila, parampara dasi pati
ajamila. So by chance, balo narayano namah (SB 6.1.24), he named his youngest son as what? He named
him ‘Narayana.’

It is due to the result of some unknown good deed that he did not name him ‘Tinku, Chinku.’
(Laughter). Pintu is good? (laughter). These names are meaningless. Just some name. So “pitros ca
dayito bhrsam” and he was very dear to his parents, the low class woman and Ajamila. A small child
is normally dear to everyone or to parents. So, they were no exception. So, they loved Narayana a lot. And lie that, Sukadeva Goswami says “baddhah-hrdayas tasmin arbhake” (SB6.1.25). So, hrdaya-granthi. They got attached, tied up got into bondage. The pasa – ropes of affection or attachment, what kind of ropes? Sneha-pasa we call it. Sneha-pasa or granthi. Meaning knot. A knot is formed or tied up in the heart. Gatha-bandhana. So, in course of loving that child, in course of taking care of him.., and how old? – Kala-bhasini. He talked in a broken language.
So, on listening to that broken language.., “Lama”. “Say ‘Rama’ son.” So, the child would say ‘Lama.”
Children cannot say Rama, they cannot pronounce ‘ra’ (laughter) ‘Lama.’ Perhaps he did not say Rama
as such. So, like that, when he would make him say something, he would be very happy on listening to
his broken language. And as we listen to all this, we have to bear in mind, realize that we are no different too. We will, more or less find similarities between Ajamila’s and our lives. We should
understand this word, learn this word. Vasibhuta, vasa, kama-vasa. Kama-vasa. krodha-vasa. Meaning
anger takes charge of or takes hold of us. We do not control lust (material desires) or anger.
Instead, lust anger and greed control us, Kama-vasa, krodha-vasa. So, it compels to do such things
and then, we do such things.

“ Prakrteh kriyamanani gunaih karmani sarvasah ahankara- vimudhatma karta Aham” (BG 3.27).
Sattva-guna (goodness) and Rajo-guna (passion), Tamo-guna (ignorance). So, it’s the play, the ploy of these three modes of material nature. These three modes make the whole world dance to their tunes “mayadhaksena prakrtih suyate sa- caracarm” (BG 9.10), the Lord says – under my direction and of these three modes separately. However “ahankara-vimudhatma” vimudha – bewildered, what does he think? – kartaham. “I do.” And the Lord says no, no, you are not the doer. Gunaih karmani sarvasah. The gunas, modes of material nature are the doers. The mode of goodness, the mode of passion and the mode of ignorance make you act. So, whenever, either while eating or while drinking something, he calls him. Hey, come here Narayana, come here. Eat what? Eat mutton and rice also (laughter) or come Narayana, eat chicken noodles (laughter).

Narayana, come here, you will get vitamins by eating eggs, the ‘scriptures’ and the dieticians of
present days also say that. So, eat eggs doesn’t matter be it Sunday or Monday, just keep
eating ‘andey’ – eggs (laughter). Who has seen the ‘dandey’ – the hitting rod? What’s the guarantee
that we will be punished? (Laughter). They keep saying certain things like that. Who has seen hell?
Bhasmi-bhutaya dehasya kutah puar agamano bhavet (Carvaka Muni, CC Adi 7.119 – purport). The time this body is turned to ashes, then, finished, everything is finished. This re-birth, this result of sins,
there is nothing like that, everything is here. These Hare Krsna people, they say that there exist a
hell separately, “have some fear for that at least” Nah, forget that! (Laughter). Such preaching
this is current topics.

Death is here or the Yamadutas are not very far. He did not realise this thing while he was busy enjoying his lifestyle. He was enjoying. So, he did not even know. Time flies they say. Time flies (Maharaj clapping fingers). When you have fun, time flies. When people live happily, peacefully, time runs like that and we don’t even know it. And when suffering comes, when people are aggrieved, then: “the watch is not working or?” Did the watch stop? Time stands still. People experience that. When they are enjoying time flies. Suffering, time stands still. So, he was enjoying, so-called. This is so-called enjoyment. So, now, after enjoyment, there is suffering too. People do not think like that. Ajamila too wasn’t thinking that way. So, “just do it.” What to do? – Just do it! You think afterwards (Maharaj laughs). So, ‘high living and? – no thinking.’ Just do it!
Forget this ‘simple living, high thinking.’ Not high thinking, high living. And not even simple
Thinking, no thinking.

“ matim cakara tanaye bale narayanahvaye” so, when death came, “Yamadutas aarahe hein!” – Yamadutas are coming- unannounced. There was no announcement, they just showed up. One cannot tell them that “you showed up without taking an appointment. Yamaraja speaking! He thought… Someone was driving a car very fast and was also talking on mobile. So, someone was saying to him, “I want to come see you, want to meet you.” No, no, no, I am very busy. I am busy. Very busy. No, very busy. The car turned over and drove off the cliff and “phir milenge.” – We’ll meet again. So, he was very busy. No time, Bhagavata katha is taking place and he is, uh… We’ll see I am very busy, taken up. So, he also, the poor fellow, he was busy. But, mrtyu-kala upasthite. So, Ajamila’s son was playing nearby. So, he saw the Yamadutas coming towards him. So, how were they? The yamadutas? Pasa-hastams (SB 6.1.28). What was there in their hands? Ropes. So, there was three persons. He saw three persons. Bhrsa ati-darunan, that scene was very horrible. Ortheir appearance was very horrible. They were very scary. Vakra-tundan. Their faces were twisted. Their teeth were showing and urdha-romna and hair like this (standing). When you go abroad you find hair like… (Laughter), cut here (from audience: spike, spike). They even paint/dye it, just as the peacock feathers, similar styles. So, their’s too were urdha-romna. So, all their hair were stood up. And then, he saw that “netum agatan atmanam” They have come to take me away. Look! Look! See the rope in their hands. They are coming straight towards me, I am finished, It’s my end now.

“dure kridanakasaktam putram” (SB 6.1.29). So, his son was playing nearby. So speaking to him in a state of great mental restlessness and being helpless, without no other resort, he called out “Narayana!” so,
given that the utterance of ‘Narayana’ was done on a high tone, so the devotees of Narayana, are normally, very prompt or ever ready so that if someone is on his deathbed somewhere and is uttering the Lord’s name, is remembering the Lord, ‘itna to karna swami, jab prana tana se nikale, Govinda Nama leke, tab prana tana se nikale.’ So, those doing such prayers, they were alredy doing such prayers all life long and now, at the end, the utterance of Govinda’s name, Narayana! Or Govinda! Of Gopinath!
(Aloud) – Hare Krsna Hare krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare! So, they used to keep waiting and so, as soon as the name Narayana got uttered, then, bhatur nama (SB6.1.30). Somebody is calling out the name of our master. These are the Visnudutas.

So, the utterance of the name ‘Narayana’, the Visnudutas heard that. nisamya mriyamanasya, hari-kirtanam. The order
carriers of Lord Visnu heard that Ajamila who uttered ‘hari-kirtanam’, the Holy Name of the Lord or who
has uttered ‘Narayana.’ And then, what happened? – sahasa apatan. They immediately arrived there,
appeared there. And when they came, they saw that these three persons had reached there earlier and
what were they doing? Vikarsatah (SB 6.1.31). They were dragging him away. They had even tied him up
with the rope.

So, his conscience, his life, his soul and the soul is covered by the subtle body. The subtle body, made up of mind, intelligence and ego and inside it, the soul. All that together is known as conscience. This conscience is also known as prana – life. So, antah hrdayat – they had tied it from deep within
his heart and were dragging it away. So, the Visnudutas saw those three persons whom Yamaraja sent, were busy doing such a thing. And as soon as they came and saw that, “Hey! Beware!” . So, when the Yamadutas heard this– who are you? Ke yuyam? “Dharma-rajasya sasanam, pratised-dharah” Who are you to stop or prohibit the ruling jurisdiction of the dharma-raja?

“Kasya va kutaya ayatah” (SB 6.1.33). Whom do you belong to? From where have you come? Kasmad asya nisedhatha – Why are You stopping us? Kim devah? Are You some Demigod? Upadeva ya? Or some sub-demigod? There exists such classifications, devata and upa-devata – Demigaods and Sud-demigods. So, “yuyam kim siddha-sattamah” you are some pure devotee or self-realised persons? Are you? And, meaning, who are you or do you have any idea or something? Who are You to actually stop us. However, they are saying these things that are you some Demigod or some Sub-demigod, a pure devotee, self-realised person, also because they were impressed by the beauty of those Visnudutas. And looking at every beauty or form of the VIsnudutas, sarve Padma palasaksah (SB 6.1.34), just look at Your eyes, You are Padma-locani. Your eyes are like the petals of a Lotus flower. Your yellow, silk robes are
dazzling as lightning. Just as it was lightning today.

“ Kiritinah” – you have worn a crown and even earings. “Lasat-puskara-malinah” – and there is even a garland made of Lotus flowers around Your neck. “aahhh!” The garland is perfumed too, it’s not made of plastic (laughter). They are not plastic flowers. “Sarve ca nutena-vayasah” (SB 6.1.35). And you are young, you are youngsters. “Sarve caru-caturbhujah” – all of you are four-armed. We never saw such a thing before.
“kurvantah svena tejasa “– with Your own effulgence. You did not bring along any torch or light etc. You yourself are effulgent. And by that only, by only your presence, more light has been spread than that of the natural light which was already here. Yes, you are very beautiful and there is no doubt in that. But, being even so beautiful.
“ kim artham dharma-palasya kimkaran nah nisedhatha” (SB 6.1.36). We are the servants of Yamaraja. We are Yamadutas, servitors of Yamaraja. So, why are you stopping us? You are beautiful in appearance. Feels like to click a photo of yours or film a video of Yours, but you are definitely beautiful from everywhere aspect, but your behavior is not that good. Why are you opposing the governance of Dharmaraja? So, on hearing the Yamadutas, the Visnudutas began speaking.

How was their voice? Just as the thunder, have you ever heard the thunder? – Yes! But, that as I heard today, I have perhaps never listened to such a thunder before. It’s our first time, fresh experience. So, it is said here that the voices of the Visnudutas also were like “megha-gambhiraya vaca” (SB 10.58.39) or “megha-nirhradaya gira”- on a high tone, loud and clear, now they will tell their message which you will be able to hear tomorrow. The speech of the Visnudutas. And who is the listener while this conversation is taking place? Ajamila who is hanging in the middle (laughter). Below waistline, he is still inside since that subtle body has a waist and a form too and half of himself is outside. So, in that condition he got the association of even the Yamadutas. They are the order carriers or servants of Yamaraja. So, their association also is sadhu sanga – devotee association.

And then, in the second chapter, you will hear the speech of the Visnudutas and then, in the third chapter you will get to hear Yamaraja’s speech. You will be happy on listening to Yamaraja. The fear for Yamaraja that is there, from whom we are afraid, so, listen to that speech too. You will acquire cleanliness of consciousness and peace of mind. All of that is being said so that we do not have to do what? So that we don’t experience the tortures of hell. Give me such a solution. So, Sukadeva Goswami is telling about the solution itself to king Pariksit here in this anecdote. So, ok, thank you. Hare Krsna! Srila Prabhupada ki…Jai! Radha-Gopinatha ki…Jai!

Venue: Kenya
Dated: 19.04.2015

Sundar Lala Saci Dulala… (Vaishnava Song- Guru Maharaj singing)….
Radha Bankebihari ki… Jai! Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavata ki jai! Srila Prabhupada ki jai!

So this morning reading from Srimad Bhagavatam, canto 2, chapter 7, text number 53

“Mayam varnayato ’musya ?svarasyanumodatah
srnvatah sraddhaya nityam mayayatma na muhyati” (SB 2.7.53)

mayam — affairs of the external energy; varnayatah — while describing; amusya — of the Lord; ?svarasya — of the Personality of Godhead; anumodatah — thus appreciating; srnvatah— thus hearing; sraddhaya — with devotion; nityam — regularly; mayaya — by the illusory energy; atma — the living entity; na — never; muhyati — becomes illusioned

Translation and purport by Srila Prabhupada ki… Jai

The Lord’s activities in association with His different energies should be described, appreciated and heard in accordance with the teachings of the Supreme Lord. If this is done regularly with devotion and respect, one is sure to get out of the illusory energy of the Lord.

Purport:
“The science of learning is a subject matter seriously is different from the sentiments of fanatics”. And you could talk about each statement of Prabhupada also further. Fanatics! You know fanatics? Ya, You do? There are lots of them.
“Fanatics or fools may consider the Lord’s activities in relation with the external energy to be useless for them, and they may falsely claim to be higher participants in the internal energy of the Lord, but factually the Lord’s activities in relation with the external energy and the internal energy are equally good.” Ya! Yoga Maya and Maha Maya, Yoga maya is active in the spiritual world internally directly in relation with the Lord. While the external energy is dealing with external energy. Mayam! Says ‘mayam varnayato amusya’- Lord’s Maya, Lord’s external energy, this material world including how Lord first creates and then controls and maintains and eventually, annihilation also. These activities of the Lord Maha Visnu, Garbhadakasayi Visnu, Ksirodakasayi Visnu. These three Visnus put together is one avatar, Purusa avatar of the Lord, one of the avatars, Purusa avatar. So their activities are in relationship with the external energy which have been described also in the beginning cantos of Bhagavatam. So, we have to go further before, the point that Srila Prabhupada is making would be clear. So we are just introducing this. So, they are both equally good, that’s one point. Those are Lord’s activities either in relationship with internal energy or the external energy. They are “Lord’s” activities, “Lord’s” activities, so they are equally good.

“On the other hand, those who are not completely free from the clutches of the Lord’s external energy should devoutly hear regularly about the activities of the Lord in relation with the external energy.” In the beginning, “They should not foolishly jump up to the activities of the Lord’s internal energy, falsely attracted by such activities like His Rasa-Lila.” I think you are getting some points here now. Rasa- Lila is in the tenth canto, so don’t jump. Read earlier cantos also which are dealing with Lord’s activities with the, in relationship with the external energy of the Lord- “this” world.

“The cheap reciters of the Bhagavatam are very much enthusiastic about the activities of the Lord’s internal potency and the pseudo devotees, absorbed in material sense enjoyment, falsely jump to the stage of liberated souls and thus fall down deeply into the clutches of external energy”. “Some of them think that to hear about the pastimes of the Lord means to hear about His activities with the Gopis or about His pastimes like lifting the Govardhana Hill and they have nothing to do with the Lord’s plenary expansions as the purusavataras” This is how they think, there is a party thinking like this. And the “pastimes of the creation, maintenance or annihilation of the material worlds.” We have nothing to do with this; the, the creation, maintenance, annihilation and they go to the Rasa dance and other pastimes in the tenth canto.

Rather, the descriptions of such activities of the Lord as the purusavataras are specifically meant for persons who are in the clutches of the external energy. Topics like the Rasa-Lila are meant for the liberated souls and not for the conditioned souls. The conditioned souls, therefore, must hear with appreciation and devotion the Lord’s pastimes in relationship with the external energy, and such acts are as good as the hearing of Rasa-Lila in the liberated stage. A conditioned soul should not imitate the activities of liberated souls. Lord Sri Caitanya never indulged in hearing the Rasa-Lila with ordinary men.

That’s the point! He did indulge in hearing Rasa-Lila pastimes; but not with the ordinary men. With Ramananda Rai and Svarupa Damodar, they were liberated they are nitya-siddhas in fact one is Lalita other one is? – Visakha, Lord is talking with them. “In the Srimad-Bhagavatam, the science of God, the first nine cantos prepare the ground for hearing the Tenth Canto.” Ok I’ll get back to that. “This will be further explained in the last chapter of this canto.” We’ll take a look at it soon.

In the Third Canto it will be more explicit. A pure devotee of the Lord, therefore, must begin reading or hearing Srimad-Bhagavatam from the very beginning and not from the Tenth Canto. We have several times been requested by some so-called devotees to take up the Tenth Canto immediately, but we have refrained from such an action because we wish to present Srimad-Bhagavatam as the science of Godhead and not as a sensuous understanding for the conditioned souls. This is forbidden by such authorities as Sri Brahmaji. By reading and hearing Srimad-Bhagavatam as a scientific presentation, the conditioned souls will gradually be promoted to the higher status of transcendental knowledge after being freed from the illusory energy based on sense enjoyment

Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purports of the Second Canto, Seventh Chapter, of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, entitled “Scheduled Incarnations with Specific Functions”.
Mayam varnayato musya ?svarasyanumodatah,
srnvatah sraddhaya nityam mayayatma na muhyati.

The Lord’s activities in association with His different energies should be described, appreciated and heard in accordance with the teachings of the Supreme Lord. If this is done regularly with devotion and respect, one is sure to get out of the illusory energy of the Lord.

Ok so this is our Acarya, Lord Brahma speaking. Kindly Speaking “Mayayatma na muhyati” Atma has been illusioned and how to make that atma free from illusion is the goal. Goal of Dharma, goal of Bhagavatam also. So, how could that be achieved is described here. Mayaya- Means by maya. Mayaya means by maya. With maya ‘Atma na muhyati’- Atma is not illusioned. Well of course, this is being talked about, the atma’s… ya..haribol.. Let’s talk about hearing, when you sleep, that’s the end of the hearing. And then, we’ll continue to be what we are here. Illusioned! All the atmas in the Lord’s abode are… it has nothing to do with maya in the spiritual sky. “Sambhavami atma mayaya” (BG 4.6). Or His maya, the internal. Maya is also of two kinds you could say. Yoga maya and Maha maya, both are mayas. Both are energies, energy that governs, controls all those liberated souls in the spiritual sky, is internal energy of the Lord

“Mahatmanas tu mam partha, daivim prakrtim asritah” (BG 9.13). Lord said that in Gita. Mahatmanas tu mam partha- Oh! that person is Mahatma, that person is mahatma! Who is that mahatma? ‘Mahatmanas tu mam partha, daivim prakrtim asritah’- the person, the soul that has taken shelter of “daivi prakrti” of the Lord, that is mahatma. So, there are “Daivi” prakrtis. Also Radharani is that “daivi prakrti”. So those who have taken shelter of “daivi” prakrti of the Lord- internal energy of the Lord- Yoga maya of the Lord they are Mahatmas. So in the spiritual sky, everyone is mahatma. No Duratmas, no bad atmas. Only, only pure devotees, entire population of that of pure devotees. Enlightened! “Enlightened” devotees. So, two Mayas, that is also Maya, the Yoga Maya and Maha Maya is active here, represented by Durga.

Radharani in the spiritual sky and Durga in the material world. Durga! She makes it difficult for going. “Dur..ga!” ‘Ga” -means to go and ‘Dur’ -means very difficult to go out. Durga also means fort, the fort of the Maha Maya, Maha Maya’s fort and Durga Devi is superintendent. And she is Chaya of the original spiritual Maya. Spiritual Maya’s, she is Chaya – shadow. And she “prakrteh kriyamanani, gunaih karmani sarvasah (BG 3.27). prakrteh kriyamanani, gunaih karmani sarvasah. All the souls here are governed by prakrti, Durga.

Now, these three modes of material nature- Sattva-Guna, Rajo-Guna, Tamo-Guna. What is that? Gunamayi, Gunamayi maya, what is that? – Daivi hy esa! Daivi hy esa guna-mayi, mama maya duratyaya (Bg 7.14). Daivi hy esa “guna-mayi”- My maya, external energy is “guna-mayi”maya. “Guna-mayi!” -full of gunas. Basically, three gunas – sattva- guna, raji-guna, tamo-guna. Gunamayi maya, Mama maya? “Mama” maya, Who’s Maya? – “Mama maya!” “My” maya, “My” energy. “Duratyaya”- very difficult to transgress! To transcend. To get out of the clutches of my three guna-mayi maya is very difficult. Difficult, but not impossible. Difficult it is, but; not impossible. So, how to, is there any possibility how to become free from the clutches of this tri guna-mayi maya? So, as soon as the three gunas take over, the soul becomes conditioned soul, bound up soul. Mam eva ye prapadyante, mayam etan taranti te. The Lord has the material problem, spiritual solution coming up. The problem is we are caught, we are bound and we are being tossed by the waves of this illusory existence. Thrown from one body to another, one planet to another, one species to another! And then, but, Mam eva, mam eva ye prapadyante! Mayam etam taranti te. “Mam eva”- those who surrender unto Me, Mayam etam taranti te- immediately, instantly they could become free from my Maya.

There are two.., there are but two things. One is Krsna, other one is Maya, there is no third party. Third party is us, in fact. We are the third called tatastha energy. Internal energy, external energy and we are? – Beech, Beech mein (speaking in Hindi). Like a beach, beach is always in the middle. Of what? – One side there is the water, other side there is the land and the middle is what? – “Beach.” Beech mein Beach (Hindi). Then what happens? Sometimes that beach becomes part of the ocean. Waves come, they cover and entire beach is covered then it’s part of the ocean. Other times, it is part of the land. So sometimes the beach is covered by the water, other times covered by? – The land. So, our status is like that. The tatastha energy is like that, marginal energy is like that. Sometimes covered, governed by the internal energy. It could also be governed, covered by the external energy.

So now, as we are here in this material world, we were very much covered by the external energy of the Lord, influenced by the external energy of the Lord. And then hence, in deep illusion and the goal is how to become free from this illusion. Being governed by the external energy is not very pleasing, It’s torture. And Srila Prabhupada explains there is a cat. Cat holds sometimes the rat. Rat is held by the cat, Yes? Yes, yes? You have seen? That happens in this country also? We see that in India happening around. And then, sometimes, same cat, mother cat, also holds the kitten. “Miaw, miaw, miaw..” (Guru Maharaj making sound of a cat). The helpless, little baby cat, the kitten is crying “miaw”, mummy! Miaw, miaw, miaw. And the mother cat comes and holds by the neck and brings upstairs or next door or here, there. So, the holder is the same, the cat holding. Sometimes rat is held and other times the kitten is held. When the rat is held, is rat very happy in the mouth, the clutches of, the jaws of the cat? Is the rat happy? Yes or No? So the same cat, when it holds the kitten, does kitten try to get out of the clutches of the “Cat’s” clutches? Very happy! The soft and warm touch of the teeth. As long as you like to hold me, I am very happy in this situation. I am very happy. The kitten never complains, never tries to get out of the clutches. So, it is like that the same Maya. Well, Lord’s Maya, as we are hearing, there no difference between Lord’s external energy or His dealings with the external energy and His dealings with the internal energy. Because it is same Lord in fact. This, He is holding. But; for the conditioned soul, when external energy holds, this is a torture and when internal energy holds, gives shelter to the soul, soul is very, very happy.

So, goal is to get out of the clutches. Like a rat, rat’s position rat is held. We are like a rat held by Maya. Not happy there, we want to be held by the Lord’s internal energy. “Then” we would be happy. So, daivi hy esa guna-mayi, mama maya duratyaya. Lord’s Daivi prakrti is holding us, all the souls in this material world and souls are not happy. They cannot be happy in that situation. “Mahatmanas tu mam partha, daivim prakrtim asritah” Mahatmas are those who take shelter of the internal energy of the Lord and Lord says ‘yes!’ “Mam eva ye prapadyante, mayam etan taranti te”. You just take shelter of me! Surrender unto me! You just, you just call out like that kitten miaw, miaw! Miaw, miaw. Immediately the mother cat must come. That’s the arrangement. Does come! Must come! So, the conditioned soul is in trouble- Help! Help! Kelp! Help! – Krsna Krsna Krsna Krsna, Krsna Krsna pahimam. Please protect me- Krsna Krsna Krsna Krsna, Krsna Krsna raksamam. (CC Madhya 7.96).
So this – Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Although we are singing here, but, this call, emergency call. Someone in distress is calling – Ö Lord, O Lord, O Lord!” Enough is enough. Please get me out of here Oh! Lord.
Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

Calling for Krsna so that He would accept us again, give us shelter again…
“Punarapi jananam, punarapi maranam, Punarapi janani jathare shayanam
Iha samsare bahudustare, kripaya apare pahi murare” (Bhaja Govindam by Sri Sankaracarya, text 22).

This is, Sankaracarya is praying, this is Sankaracarya’s prayer. My dear Lord, “punarapi jananam, punarapi maranam” – repeated birth and death. For a while, Janani jathare shayanam- lying there, called shayanam. Sleeping, lying in the womb of the mother, not very comfortable situation. Not at all “iha samsare bahudustare, kripaya apare pahi murare”. “Please, please O! Lord, please.” Protect me from this birth and death and entering into another womb, into another womb… “Mayayatma na muhyati”- So, this verse is talking. When you come to the stage, the stage of the free from the illusion caused, clutches caused by Maya. Mayaya, “na” muhyati- Free from influence of Maya. You would like to attain such a stage? Or, yes ok? How are you Sir? Fine, everybody is fine. “I Am fine.” He is in ICU, but, if you ask him how are you? – I am fine. So, first we should be realizing we are in deep trouble, trouble waters. And then, that will to get out. ‘Will’- I want to become free form this illusion, free from this bond, free from this suffering! Free from this suffering.

So, when that will is strong, I mean there has to be will right. There has to be will to become free from the clutches, free from suffering. Then, we would be looking for some other alternatives. We have tried this, we have tried that and nothing is working out, then I will try out something different. The “will” has to be there. Thinking, feeling, willing. Thinking and feeling. “Feeling” not filling, “Feeling”, “feel.” If we are filled with “feeling.” We are full or filled with “feeling.” That feeling would be there, after thinking. Thinking, feeling and that strong will. So, more we think, more we think, more we think, more we think. What happens? From thinking, comes the feeling and when feeling becomes stronger, stronger, solidified, then, the strong will, strong will. And then, where there is will, then what happens? We will find the way! So, we are also making point as will… (microphone problem).

Feeling, something thrilling, microphone is feeling. Failing! So, by hearing, this thinking, food for thought. From “hearing” comes the feeling. Thinking, feeling, willing. So the thoughts are here. The topics are talked about here and as we hear more and more.., as we hear more, there is more… We think. We “Hear”, we think right? The hearing makes us think. Is that right? Hearing makes us think. We take notice of something, noteworthy. As we hear, the feelings are stirred up leading to the strong will. So, anyway, we could, then, kind of conclude that hearing is important. Hearing is important, hearing is important in order for this thinking, feeling and willing to happen. It all starts with hearing. And that is what is being talked here. Sranvatah – hearing, Sranvatah- we should hear! We should hear! How should one hear? One should hear sraddhaya. One should hear with faith. “Sraddhaval labhate jnanam” (BG 4.39). Krsna said- If you have faith, then you will acquire the knowledge. If you hear something with the faith, then that, you will accept that. You will admit, you will accept that. That will become your property. That will become part of you. But, if you have no faith, then you will reject. That will bounce off. That, what heard, will not settle. That will not become your possession because you don’t have faith or you have a doubt.

So, sraddhaval labhate jnanam, Samsayatma! Samsayatma vinasyati! (BG 4.40). If you doubt, you doubt, doubting, doubting, doubting, doubts, vinasyati! You will be destroyed. Already destroyed and you will be further destroyed. So there is talk of hearing here. But hearing how, how to hear? – sraddhaya. And what kind of hearing? – nityam- constant hearing -hearing all the time. “Nityam bhagavata-sevaya, bhagavaty uttama-sloke bhaktir bhavati naisthiki” (SB 1.2.18). Same Bhagavatam has already made this statement. Hare Hare. Haribol! Gaura Haribol!
What is that statement? Says – “Nityam bhagavata sevaya” This says nityam also. That one also says nityam bhagavata sevaya. And if you hear and you hear nityam. Nityam means, nityam means constant or nityam also meaning regular. One person said “you know, I, I visit, Bankebihari Temple, I am a “regular visitor.” Every Janmasthami.” That’s also nityam right? That’s nityam. He is a nitya sevaka, nitya visitor. Nitya means regular, once a year. ”Every year, once a year, I am there!” I am a regular visitor. So, that is also nityam. That person could claim. He is right if he says I am nityam, I am regular. But; there is also, ya then, every Sunday he is also nityam. Every Sunday, I am Nityam. Every, every day, every morning. That is also nityam. And this nityam, has to be extended.

So, the terms used in the Sastras says ksana, anuksana, ksana means moment. Ksana means moment. This is the time factor that cannot be further broken into pieces. Just one moment. One moment or you are visiting or you are hearing. This moment- Ksana- anuksana, anu means the following moment, also hearing or also remembering. Ksana- anuksana. This moment and the next moment also and the following moment also and the following moment also and that is also nityam. So again we will have to understand what is this nityam.

“Tesam satata yuktanam bhajatam priti-purrvakam” (B.G 10.10). Lord said in Bhagavad-Gita Lord said something similar. “Tesam satata yuktanam bhajatam priti-purrvakam”- “Those who serve me” how? – Sraddhaya or? Well, with faith or priti, with loving, loving service and satata yuktanam. Satat! Satat! Means constant, constant! Like satat, word satat. How does it sound? Is there any space between those letters? Satat. They are so much next to each other – satat. Constant like that. The word, when you hear this word satat, is there some space? There is no spacing out. There is no interspace, satat. That is the purpose the Lord is using this, this particular word satat. ‘Tesam satata yuktana’- Those who are engaged – Yukta, equipped with the service. How often? Or what kind of service? Satata-yuktanam. I mean that’s the, that’s the goal. What do the residents of the spiritual sky, they are also serving the Lord. Do they go herding cows with Krsna once a year? They claim “yes! I am, I am a regular cowherd boy. I am regular associate of the Lord. Every, on Gopasthami day, I go herding cows.” No! They do, they do it every, every, every day. And of course, other times, they do some other things also. “Pritipurvakam and Stata-yuktanam” And the goal is going back to home, back to Godhead. Then this, well, that’s fine once a year; but then, it will take long, long, long time.

So, Sranvatah? “Srnvatam Sva- kathah Krsnah, punya- sravana-kirtanah” (SB 1.2.17). Lord’s, the Bhagavatam also has said Srnvatah. About hearing this, srnvatah, so Srnvatam Sva- kathah Krsnah, punya- sravana-kirtanah. Hearing about the Lord. His katha, of the Lord is? – Punyasravana- kirtanah. This is punyatma. Most pious – punya. They have acquired punya by doing what? Punya sravana- kitranah. And this hearing, what would that hearing do? “Hrdy antah stho hy abhadrani, vidhunoti suhrt sadam” (SB 1.2.17). Hrdi antah sthah. Hrdi means in the heart. Which part of the heart? Well, everywhere, specially, hrdy “antah” sthah. “Deep” within the heart- Core of the heart. There are so many black spots, desires, vasanas, this, that. ‘Hrdy antah stho hy abhadrani”- is abhadra, amangala, inauspicious. Mundane, matter, “stuck” to your heart. Hrdaya granthi! There are knots also. Hrdaya granthi. The heart is full of knots. Knots of attachment. “Asa pasa satair badhhah” (BG 16.12). This is all hidden in the heart. Well, in the heart, in the mind. This is part of our? – Antahakarana. The subtle body made up of mind, intelligence, false ego and the consciousness. This is our antahakarana. And in there, you will find all the, all the desires. Asa Pasa Sataih. “Sataih” – hundreds, thousands badhhah. This is how one conditioned soul becomes baddhah jiva. Baddhah- bound! So many strings attached us. “Strings” attached. Bound. You cannot move. So as one hears! As one hears..

“Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare”

Or as one hears “punya-sravana-kirtanah”, sva katha Krsnah, then that katha, those topics will do the cleansing of the heart. Cleansing of the consciousness. All those desires will be cleansed. “Ceto- darpana marjnam” (Sri Sri Siksha Astakam, Verse 1) will happen. Consciousness cleansing. Become free from desires. It is possible, becoming free from Kama. Ok kama, get rid of kama, get rid of kama!

So, by hearing about Krsna, the “hearing” about Krsna, the “hearing” about Krsna. As soul hears about Krsna with, with faith and with, constantly and cleansing will happen. Thinking, feeling, willing will happen. Will to attain Krsna will also become stronger. Will to go back to Krsna will also become stronger. Well, hearing. From hearing comes thinking, feeling, willing. “Hrdy antah stho hy abhadrani vidhunoti surt sadam

“Nityam bhagavata-sevaya, bhagavaty uttama-sloke bhaktir bhavati” and, that statement also says as one hears Srimad-Bhagavatam, nityam bhagavata sevaya. Srila Prabhupada gave us this nityam bhagavata. Not just seven days and your obligation is over. Bhagavat saptah, seven days and that again jump to the Rasa dance. Forget all these earlier cantos. Well, everything done not in authorized fashion.

So, as one hears Srimad-Bhagavatam, then, that person hearing Bhagavatam becomes Bhagavat. What does that mean? In relationship with the Lord, that is called Bhagavat. From Bhagavat, “Bhaagavat”- related with the Lord. Bhagavat-Dharma or Srimad-Bhagavat or Maha-Bhagavat, Bhagavat, devotee Bhagavat. His activities would be fit to be included in the Bhagavat or He is fit to enter the pastimes of the Lord. “Bhagavaty uttama-sloke”- Because he has developed now Bhagavaty uttama-sloke, “bhaktir bhavati.” Bhaktih bhavati. He will attain bhakti- bhaktir bhavati naisthiki! Another dimension being added here. He will achieve Bhakti! What kind of Bhakti? – naisthiki bhakti. He had started with sraddha. He had started with sraddha. Sranvatah sraddhaya nityam. And by hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing, thinking, feeling, wiling, your will is becoming stronger. Your sraddha is becoming stronger. And now, you have attained nistha. You were at the level of sraddha, then, you did Sadhu sanga. Means you did hearing. Bhajana-kriya, you did practices as per the instructions. And Anartha nivrtti. That has done what? – You have become free from anarthas. “Anartha nivrtti sa” (CC Madhya 23.11). Anarthas, becoming free from anrthas. As one becomes free from anarthas, undesirable, unwanted, useless stuff, activities or thoughts or whatever. “An”, “an”- “artha”, an-artha, artha. Artha means ‘meaning’ also. Means meaningless (Anartha). Artha also meaning economy, economy. So, mundane economy could also be anartha.

So, as one becomes free from anarthas, then, he is now nistha. Bhaktir bhavati naisthiki! The bhakti is described. Adjective used to describe Bhakti is naisthiki Bhakti. He started with sraddha bhakti. Now he has naisthiki bhakti- mature. When sraddha matures, when sraddha becomes pakva, matured stage of sraddha, faith is nistha. So, nistha, Srila Prabhupada translates that as irrevocable or irreversible. No reverses, no U-turns. Drdha sraddha. Drdha sraddha is nistha. No “Aya Ram, gaya Ram”- He is not – (Speaking Hindi) Aya Ram, Gaya bhi Ram Pata hi nahi chala. When he comes, when he goes, very unsteady, “Very” unsteady. So, from that unsteady stage, one becomes now fixed, fixed up. So, how, how did he become fixed? – By hearing. Nityam bhagavata-sevaya, bhagavaty uttama-sloke bhaktir bhavati naisthiki. And then, there is lot more, higher to go. And then, there is asakti, then there is ruci, then there is the Bhava, then there is the, there is the “Prem” levels.

So, chanting is also, chanting and hearing that we do, it is also, becomes nistha level chanting and it becomes asakti level chanting. From sraddha to prem, that ladder is there. And then, ruci level chanting, bhava level chanting and finally, “prem” level chanting. Fully evolved. So Naisthiki is like halfway through, long way, long way to go. The uphill task is over. And you are climbing the hill. Climbing, climbing, climbing, then, last few stretches becomes even harder. Harder to get there. Hundred people started walking, climbing. Mountain climbing, fifty went halfway through and then, another twenty five were dropped and another, were dropped. Finally you will find only five persons reaching the mountain top. They made it! They made it! So, at sraddha level, many started at sraddha level. Many started. But; to come to this naisthiki requires a special endeavor, extra endeavor. And this endeavor is this, ya, hearing. Hearing, chanting and practicing and ever and ever and you are at nistha and then got to keep going forward also. So that Mayayatma na muhyati! Atma becomes “free” from, completely free from illusion. And he has developed Krsna prem which is what? – The goal of life is Krsna Prem. We should avoid all the ten offences against the holy name so that we achieve the goal of life which is what? – “Krsna Prem” is achieved, “Krsna Prem”.

So, by constant hearing, Sravanam, Kirtanam, Visnoh Smaranam. We remember the Lord more. We are reminded of the Lord more and more as we hear more, Sravanam, Kirtanam. And hearing, so, has to be about Visnoh smaranam. Visnu, hearing about Visnu or Visnu-tattva – Krsna, Ram, Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Then you will remember them only. You heard about Krsna, you will l remember Him. You heard about Maya, you will remember Maya. So, whatever the topic of you are hearing is, that is what you will end up remembering. So, this world is reminding, busy reminding us of Maya and if you want to remember Krsna, then, hearing about Krsna. Well, that is, Srimad-Bhagavat Gita also and Bhagavatam also. In fact, before Bhagavatam, hearing Bhagavad-Gita. Not jump to Bhagavatam, read Bhagavad-Gita. Do ABCD first before you go for higher education. So, Gita, Bhagavat and then, gradually, Tenth canto, then, Caitanya Caritamrta. And chanting of the holy name is always there. “Hare Krsna Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Ram Hare Ram…” and this also has to be heard? – Sraddhaya and nityam. With faith, with love and devotion and constantly so that we get rid of this anartha business cum go to higher levels. Go higher and go higher and go “higher…”

Hare Krishna to you.