8 November 2023

You are far away from the world here at Badrinath. Badrinath dhama ki Jaya!

The five Pandavas had left everything and moved towards Badrinath dhama It’s a beautiful and silent place. Every sanatani wants to go to Badrinath once in his life on Char-dhama Yatra. And above all the dhamas is Vrndavana Dhama. Vrndavana dhama ki Jaya!

It’s beyond all the Tirtha Sthalis. Krsna is the source of all incarnations. Like that the source of all the dhamas is Vrndavana Dhama.

All avatars are in the avatari.

advaitam acyutam anadim ananta-rupam
adyam purana-purusam nava-yauvanam ca
vedesu durlabham adurlabham atma-bhaktau
govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami

Translation:

I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is inaccessible to the Vedas, but obtainable by pure unalloyed devotion of the soul, who is without a second, who is not subject to decay, is without a beginning, whose form is endless, who is the beginning, and the eternal purusa; yet He is a person possessing the beauty of blooming youth. (Sri brahma-samhita 5.33)

We can realise here that all the dhamas are in Vrndavana Dhama. That’s why it’s called Adi-badri.

The source of Badrinath in the North is this Adi-badri. The Badrinath in the Himalayas is an extension of this Adi-badri. Nanda baba and Yasoda Maiya and other Vrajavasis had a desire to go on Badrinath yatra. There is a possibility that they were thinking of going North. This is my thinking. So Nanda baba said to Krsna, Balarama and others, “Let’s go to Badrinath.”

Krsna brought them here and pointed towards the mountains and said, “See the Himalayas.” I also said to my god brother, Gurudev Prabhu to see the Himalayas. Mostly people do not know that these mountains are the Himalayas. Even I did not know.

Sri Krsna finished the pastimes here and wanted to return to His dhama.

krsne sva-dhamopagate
dharma-jnanadibhih saha
kalau nasta-drsam esa
puranarko ‘dhunoditah

Translation:

This Bhagavata Purana is as brilliant as the sun, and it has arisen just after the departure of Lord Krsna to His own abode, accompanied by religion, knowledge, etc. Persons who have lost their vision due to the dense darkness of ignorance in the age of Kali shall get light from this Purana. (SB 1.3.43)

When Uddhava got the news and he said, “I will also go back with you.” But Krsna said, “No, you go to Badrinath. Uddhava followed the order and came to Badrinath. Did you have darshan of Uddhava?

Uddhava is also at Uddhava Baithak at Gulma Lata. In this universe, there are 9 Varsas and 7 Islands.

Bharat Varsha is one of them and every Varsha has their preacher. In Bharat Varsha, Narada Muni is the leading preacher. Vyasa Dev is also there. Ganesh Gufa is also there, but you can’t see it. You listen and see and believe. In Badrikasram there is a cave in which Vyasadev was dictating and Ganesh who was writing like a stenographer. I had gone to Badrinath in 1977 in November. It was very cold. Devotees woke up, but continued sleeping in their sleeping bags. And then we got up and performed kirtana and were warmed up.

There we have Tapta Kunda with boiling water. Here we also have a Tapta Kunda, but there is cold water. In the boiling water in Tapta Kunda people even cook their rice. Who can make such arrangements? Only Lord Krsna can. So it’s very cold there from Diwali to Akshay Tritiya and it’s closed. But the pujari keeps all bhoga there for the closed period. When the gate is opened on Akshaya Tritiya, all the Bhoga is used up. It’s said Narada Muni and demigods worship the Lord in that closed period. The military is there. They say that they hear the sound of the conch shell and bells during that closed period.

Narada Muni keeps travelling all over. Narada Muni once said to the Lord, “Oh Lord, people ask me what the Lord is doing now? So I have to always tell them that the Lord is lying down and Laxmiji is massaging His feet. But that’s not very inspiring. People will say that if the Lord is resting we should also rest.”

The Lord thought, “I will renounce every thing and do tapasya.” Thinking this He came to Badrinath, but it was occupied by Shivji and Parvati Maiya.

The Lord took the form of a Baby and was crying for help. Seeing this Parvati Maiya was filled with compassion, but Shivji said, “No. Don’t go. It may be some Maya.”

But Parvati Maiya could not stop herself and took the Baby and kept Him in her house. Shivji and Parvati went to Gauri Kunda. When they came back and knocked on the door, there was no response from the inside. Shivji understood it was the Lord and He has encroached on their place. Then they moved to Kedarnath.

The Lord stayed here and did tapasya as Nara Narayan.

rsabha uvaca
nayam deho deha-bhajam nrloke
kastan kaman arhate vid-bhujam ye
tapo divyam putraka yena sattvam
suddhyed yasmad brahma-saukhyam tv anantam

Translation:

Lord Rsabhadeva told His sons: My dear boys, of all the living entities who have accepted material bodies in this world, one who has been awarded this human form should not work hard day and night simply for sense gratification, which is available even for dogs and hogs that eat stool. One should engage in penance and austerity to attain the divine position of devotional service. By such activity, one’s heart is purified, and when one attains this position, he attains eternal, blissful life, which is transcendental to material happiness and which continues forever. (SB 5.5.1)

When Brahma appeared, he also heard two words ta… pa and he also did tapasya. The Lord did Tapasya here. Laxmiji comes here and stays in the form of Badri trees. She is serving here as the Badri trees. Badri means Laxmi. Nath is Lord. So it’s Sri Sri Badrinarayan. Sri Sri Laxmi Narayan ki jaya!

From Badrinath yatra in 1977 we returned to Vrndavana. Our party’s name was Narada Muni Sankirtan Travelling Party. Prabhupada had asked us which book was distributed most. He liked book distribution very much.

He has filled his Bhava in his books so he says, “If you want to know me, read my books. I will never die till my books are there.”

We told Prabhupada that we showed his Bhagavad Gita to Vyasadev. Prabhupada was happy to hear this. I also said one more thing to Prabhupada which one of Prabhupada’s disciples did not like.

There is a Bhima Pul in Badrikasrama. And now only Bhima and Yudhishthir were remaining. Once Bhima had an encounter with Hanuman. Hanuman was sitting on the way and his tail was in the way so Bhima thought he is an ordinary monkey. Hanuman said, “Please leave my tail. I am old.” Bhima could not even move his tail an inch. Then Hanuman showed his original form. Bhima and Hanuman both are Vayu Putra.

Hanuman said to Bhima, “If you need me, you can call me.” Hanuman was on the flag of Arjuna’s chariot in the Kurukshetra war. From Bhima Pul in Badrikasrama Bhima had gone to the Lord’s abode. I told this to Prabhupada, but my god brother did not like it. He felt I am reminding Prabhupada of going back to the Lord’s abode.

Badri Narayan darshan is a very special Abhishek. There are very few temples where we can have darsana of the Abhishek of the Lord – Pandharpur, Badrinath, Kshir chora Gopinath. We can see Their Abhishek.

All of have reached Badrikasrama. You are fortunate. Is the Yatra going on wonderfully?

Madhuvan is Tapo Stali of Dhruva Maharaja and here the Lord did tapasya. Caitanya Mahaprabhu also came here. Also at Tapta Kunda, water has washed His lotus feet. The birds are also sleeping now. This is very normal. The sun is up means the light is on. Night is for sleeping and the night light is the moon.

Vrindadevi is like a temple commander. She makes all arrangements for The Lord’s pastime.

Kakati is a monkey who wakes up Radha and Krsna as they are resting after Rasa lila and tells them to go home before all at home wake up. There is a place named Sanket where Krsna and Radha make gestures and give their message to each other as to where they will meet. Yasoda Maiya puts Krsna to sleep and leaves, but Krsna gets up and goes to the forest for Rasa lila. Krsna plays His flute and only the Gopis can hear the flute and they leave home and go to the forest for Rasa dance. Then is it is jaya radha madhava kunja bihari. They also have snacks and they dance together and then they rest.

I wanted to tell you that we should go to bed early, but we do night duty and we are busy. So tomorrow via Kedarnath, you will be going to Kamyavan. There are many places of darsana in Kamyavan. Many Kundas and temples like, Sri Lanka and Ashok vatika. There are many monkeys. Ram setu made by monkeys, is there. Gopis said to Krsna, “You just keep talking.” So the Lord showed the Gopis how He made Ram Setu. Krsna became Rama and the monkeys came and the construction of Ram Setu began.

5 November 2023

Today is a very special day. I was thinking, it’s Radha-kunda’s appearance day and as I reached here, you reminded me of a very fortunate day when I was initiated by Srila Prabhupada. It was also Kartik. I was also in Vrindavan at that time. The video of the initiation which has recorded the event very nicely, is also there. I was watching the video. I was sitting there at the time of initiation and Srila Prabhupada handed me my mala and asked me what are the 4 regulative principles. And told me to chant 16 rounds daily. My material name whatever it was, started from the letter – R. So I was thinking my new name would be Radha Raman or something like that, but Prabhupada gave me the name Lokanath and I was reminded of Lokanath Goswami.

Prabhupada gave me harinama and that’s everything.

bahunam janmanam ante jnanavan mam prapadyate
vasudevah sarvam iti sa mahatma su-durlabhah

Translation:

After many births of spiritual practice, one who is endowed with knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be all that is. Such a great soul is indeed very rare. (BG 7.19)

Radha Krsna are all in all.

radha-krishna prana mora jugala-kisora
jivane marane gati aro nahi mora

Translation:

The divine couple, Sri Sri Radha and Krishna, are my life and soul. In life or death I have no other refuge but them.

I am serving harinama for the last 51 years. Krsna’s name has caught me and it’s not leaving me. Today 51 years ago I officially received Harinama.

We all stayed with Prabhupada for the whole of Kartik masa. At that time Prabhupada stayed in a small room in Radha Damodara temple. The rent of the room was 5 Rupees. I had seen Prabhupada for the first time in 1971. I was attracted to his simplicity and I was reminded of the Shadh Goswamis. I could experience his renunciation and humility.

Prabhupada had recently bought the land where we now have the Krishna Balarama temple. That land was donated by Mr. Saraf to Prabhupada and in March, the ground breaking ceremony was done. Srila Prabhupada would daily send us to the construction site and we would go from Radha Damodara temple to the construction site performing kirtana.

The Tamala tree was in the courtyard and at that time that tree was my height. In Damodara masa we would spend our time in Radha Damodara temple and every evening we attended English classes by Prabhupada on the Nectar of Devotion.

It was the first time we had darshan of the Saligram Sila given by the Lord to Sanatana Goswami. He would offer 2000 obeisances to the devotees. We don’t even pay one. So the Lord gave him a Saligram Sila and do Parikrama. We had not even heard name of Radha-kunda. I did not know it was the appearance day of Radha-kunda. If we don’t die, we become old gradually. But as age increases there should be jnana vardhana also.

The first instruction Prabhupada gave me was related to Govardhan and the last instruction was also related to Govardhan. Prabhupada sent me and Dravida Prabhu to Agra to bring groceries for Annakuta. That’s the first instruction related to Govardhan. In 1977 Prabhupada said to me, “Take me to Govardhan by bullock cart.” Both instructions are related to Govardhan.

Jiva Goswami had said to Srinivasa Acarya to go to West Bengal. In the same way, Prabhupada told me to go to Mayapur doing Padayatra.

We also started Vraja-mandala Parikrama. As I received initiation on Bahulastami, Srila Prabhupada made by connection to Vraja Dhama. One holy dip in Radha-kunda and your life is successful. So in this way, Srila Prabhupada gave perfection to my life. Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Trillions of Gopis had come here and meanwhile came Aristasur in the form of an ox and created lot of turbulence. He was so huge that as he was running, the earth was trembling. Krsna was saying, ’Do not fear, Oh Dear I am here.’

As the demon came face to face with Krsna, Krsna was fearless and seeing this the demon was very angry. Krsna caught his horns and whirled it round and round and threw him away. Same time, same place, same tithi, 5000 years back. Krsna meets Radharani and Krsna says, “What did I do wrong?” Radharani replied, “ Oh, You killed an ox. You have committed a big sin. Don’t touch Me. First take bath in all the holy rivers.”

So Krsna made a kunda with his heel and He also used His flute and called all the holy rivers. He took a dip in that Kunda – Shyama-kunda. Now Krsna says, “Radha, you don’t talk to Me because You have committed a sin. You take a bath in all the holy rivers.”

At one place, Aristasur had hit the land and there was a ditch and all the Gopis dug around it and in one hour made Radha-kunda. But it was empty so Krsna said, “Take water from my Kunda.”

Radharani said, “No, that water is impure because You have taken bath in it.”

Gopis brought water from Manasi Ganga, but it was not practical and the Kunda wouldn’t fill completely with that. Krsna again said, “Take the water” and Radharani agreed. And the Kunda was filled with water.

Then Krsna said, “ Radhe, Your Kunda is dear to Me as You are dear to Me. And your Kunda will be more famous than my Kunda.” So you see that’s happening. People hardly talk of Shyama-kunda.

Radha-kunda’s water is not just water. It’s love of Radha and Krsna. And our way to achieve Krsna Prem is made easy by Radha-kunda. When Krsna develops compassion for His devotees His heart melts and begins flowing and that is Ganga maiya. Radha Krsna’s krpa and daya had made our Krsna realisation very easy.

yasyatma-buddhih kunape tri-dhatuke
sva-dhih kalatradisu bhauma ijya-dhih
yat-tirtha-buddhih salile na karhicij
janesv abhijnesu sa eva go-kharah

Translation:

One who identifies his self as the inert body composed of mucus, bile and air, who assumes his wife and family are permanently his own, who thinks an earthen image or the land of his birth is worshipable, or who sees a place of pilgrimage as merely the water there, but who never identifies himself with, feels kinship with, worships or even visits those who are wise in spiritual truth — such a person is no better than a cow or an ass. (SB 10.84.13)

Krsna was saying this to all the rsis and munis. If we do not hear from the realised souls what is the use of being in the dhama.

At Prayag, we have sangam of Ganga and Yamuna. People ask where Saraswati is? Saraswati flows from the mouth of the sadhus, that makes the Sangam of Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati. Take a bath and also hear from the sadhus and go back to Godhead. Caitanya Mahaprabhu would also say, when He was with the devotees, as if He is taking us up and up. Go ahead and progress in devotional life. Complete one mala of 12 forests. Radha Raman Maharaja is at number one and has completed 36 malas. Bhadra Prabhu has completed many malas and Varaha Rupa Mataji has completed 33 malas.

It’s 84 Kosa Parikrama, so one who completes Vraja Mandal Parikrama never returns to 84 species of life.

HH Lokanath Swami Gurudev’s katha at Bahulavan

2 November 2023

Today is the Tirobhava of Narottam Dasa Thakura. He also went on Vraja-mandala Parikrama and this means that we are following in his footsteps. We are carrying our bodies to the places where Narottam Dasa Thakura went. But what about the bhava he was carrying in his heart. We can just hear about it.

We are sadhakas trying to become sadhana siddhas, but Narottam Dasa Thakura was a Nitya Siddha. He wrote Bhakti Prem Chandrika bhajan songs and Prarthana song book. If we read those we can get some idea about his mood. When he sang, Krsna would appear.

He arranged the first celebration of Gaura Purnima festival at his village in Bangladesh that is Kheturi.

Once Caitanya Mahaprabhu called out to Narottam. He announced his birth. Caitanya Mahaprabhu kept his prema for him in the Padmavati River and she asked, “How will I recognise him?”

Mahaprabhu said, “ As he enters your waters there will be a flood.”

Janava mata was also there during the Gaura Purnima festival. She also stayed at Radha-kunda. Her baithak is there at the bank of Radha-kunda. At the festival, Narottam Dasa Thakura was singing. The Lord says, “Wherever My devotees do kirtan, I stay there.”

jaya Sri-krsna-caitanya prabhu-nityananda sri-advaita gadadhara srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrnda

We are all also part of the Gaura Bhakta Vrinda. So as kirtan was going on Panca-attva appeared.

His disappearance is very amazing. As his associates were doing his Abhishek in the Padmavati River, he melted into the milk that was being used for his Abhisek and left this world. With that milk his disciples made a Dudh(milk) Samadhi. One samadhi is in Bangladesh and the other Pushpa Samadhi is at Radha Gokulananda temple.

Gaura Kishor Dasa Babaji Maharaja said that if you sing the bhajans from his two bhajan books, your life will be perfect.

The holy place known as Mathura is spiritually superior to Vaikuntha because the Lord appeared there. Superior to Mathura is the transcendental forest of Vrndavana because of Krsna’s rasa lila pastimes. And superior to the forest of Vrndavana is Govardhana Hill, for it was raised by Krsna. And, above all, Radha-kunda stands supreme, for it is flooded with nectarean prema of Krsna. (NOI 9)

You have all walked quite a lot. That is tapo divyam, divya tapasya. It is guaranteed that it brings purification and bliss. Dhruva Maharaja did tapasya and in six months he attracted the Lord. Bhakti is Krsna Akarshani.

Nanda Baba and his family shifted from Gokul to Vrindavan on the evening of Diwali day after the two trees were broken by Krsna. They crossed Yamuna by making a bullock cart bridge and they came to Chattikara. Gokul Vasis stay here. Basanti Gram is nearby. Vrsabhanu and his family shifted from Raval to Barsana.

Krsna and his family stayed at Chattikara Gram. We are fortunate to be able to stay here. We should not leave Vrindavan. Prabodhananda Maharaja said, “I will not leave Vrindavan.”

Gokul Vasis stayed here for three years and eight months. Chattikara is known as Shakatavarta in sastra. From here they go to Nandagram and at Bhadravan Vatsasur was killed by Krsna. Bakasur was killed in Khadirvana.

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?

Instructions for Youth Preaching
13 July 2022

Whatever problems can come in future we have to make a list of it previously in order to avoid the crisis, crisis management and this is called pro activity. We have to make a list previously of all problems that will come in future. And then third thing is note the vision, the obstacles and then strategies. What step we should take, which plan we should make so that we can realize our vision. So one, two, three and the 4th and 5th is.
4th is resources, resource I previously said resources are mainly of two types human resource and funds. This is our forth factor and fifth is our time line. This Vision we have to realize so it’s first phase we can achieve in one year and its second phase we can achieve in next two years and finally after 5 years also. I am just giving example of time line. In phase manner you achieve the goal of realized vision. This is 5 point planning.

One time Radhe Shyam Prabhu had invited me. There are lots of youths in Pune. On this topic I had said, explained the vision for ISKCON youth form preaching at that time we were talking about Pune. So I had talked about the vision making the list of obstacles and then strategies to overcome these obstacles and realise the vision.

Like that on this I gave seminars for some days. So also if you have not done then you can also do this or follow this more or less. There can be more sutra (formula). So this 5 point program. So yesterday we had seminar, today is also there. So I am sure that you are going to cover this, what vision is there? What problem is there?

How can we cooperate? How can we give cooperation for you preaching. Whatever is favorable for preaching should be done. Temple authorities they have to cooperate with ISKCON youth forum Preacher. And many types cooperation, either it may be transportation or funds or this that. Cooperation is the key factor for success.

These words are very famous in Maharashtra. The Ex chief minister of Maharashtra what is his name? Vasant Rao Dada Patil. He said one mantra,
“Bina sahakar nahi uddhar”
“Bina sahakarnahiuddhar”

Translation: Without cooperation there is no progress.

For us Srila Prabhupada ki jai.
Srila Prabhupada has said this to us, “That if you love me” Someone may say “Yes we love you, yes we love Prabhupada.” Prabhupad said “I want to see your love, I don’t just want to hear ‘I love you,. So how can we show our love for Prabhupada?

Prabhupada’s expectations was specially he said “How you co-operate with each other to protect this institution after I am gone.” Such a heart touching popular statement of Srila Prabhupada. Ofcourse this is not only limited to youth preaching but everyone needs this cooperation, taking and giving.

Co-operation. “Co” means together, two parties, “Co-operation”. So you all, specially managers or temple authorities make sure or any else party or youth forum preaching discussion is going on so, for the development and prakash ( advertisement) , vikas (development) , vistar (expansion) , uddhar (deliverance) , cooperation is essential or necessarily important.

So please co-operate, give your full hearted support by even participating. I think we all fulltime devotees of ISKCON have some role or should have a role in ISKCON youth forum or youth preaching , college preaching. Everyone has some role, so to play this role, to give your contribution, are you all ready? Hari bol .

Okay any questions, comments?
Devotee : Hare Krishna my question was that as you said in Iskcon those who are full time devotees there should be some role in youth preaching like their should some role but as a institute there are various services. So how to balance this? So I want to know that from you how should be balance this the organization and youth preaching?

Answer: So you Head pujari, is there any shortage of pujaris? If the youth will not join if they are not trained then they will not become Brahmin then how they will do deity worship? It will not work smoothly .That’s why we have to think and pray to Lord. Prayer is also a contribution . Or do nice shringar of Lord. When youth will come they will take darsana of Lord, nice beautiful Lord and if they experience that very neat and clean temple. Then this will be also contribution of the Head pujari for preaching.

Mataji devotee: Hare Krsna as we can see prabhujis can serve in this mission by doing full time joining as bramhachari and becoming pujaris so my question to you can we as mataji serve you in this mission?

Answer: “grihe thako, vane thako, sada ‘hari’ bole’ dako”
Bramhacharis or Grihastas everybody can serve Lord . Ultimately who is serving? Its soul. Body is only tool to serve but sadhaka who do sadhana who does bhakti? Its soul only. The devotional service of Lord is for everybody.

Devotee: Hare Krishna from yesterday Chaitanya Prabhu is taking this seminar for youth, this is for me those who are doing youth preaching. So some inspiration and your instructions. How should we take it and apply it?

Answer: “kelyane hot aahe, aadhi kelechi pahije “
First stop thinking , start acting. Do or Die. If this we will not do then . We will die or Hare Krishna movement will not be survive. There is such understanding, universal understanding , organisation which every time have to depend on new people. They came and they are gone. New batch they have trained and then out. Second batch when we trained they are also out. Are you getting it.

So this type of institution don’t have a bright future and also won’t last for long time . So, survival of the fittest. Survival is only of those who are fit. So we have to make our organisation fit, we have to be fit. So we need new devotees but we also should have old devotees and also trained devotees. Then together young and old, new and matured and they would be pillar of institution. So steadiness would then come so from womb to tomb program.

So from womb till the last ritual we have to survive. So that devotee would always survive in devotion. They maybe full time devotees, of course and also our congregation Grihasta and also Brahmacari. Grihasta have their role, brahmacaris have their role. Every varna every ashram has a role.

There are only Grihasta no sannyasis that is not good, or there are only sannaysis that is also incomplete. Often times I said this in connection of youth preaching , everyone has a role and everyone should have a role in making devotees. If you think you will understand the connection or you find some connection, break your brains. And if such big and successful program is happening then just add your name to it. Tagging along, tag along.

Oh! I was also there, I was there. Some devotees, aya ram gaya ram, coming and leaving. So new devotees also they are coming and they are leaving. So this also not a healthy situation. Likewise, our managers those were doing youth preaching in the past but aren’t doing it in present, this is also aya ram gaya ram.

So managers are also preachers they should preach steadily and enthusiastically . If you are managers and if you will not perform youth preaching then your management would be in difficulty. Without helping hand nothing is going to happen. Neither preaching would happen, nor fund raising would happen and nor you would be winner of book distribution marathon.

Srila Prabhupada wanted to see that how many temples you have opened? How many books your temple is distributing? How many devotees you have made?

phalena paric?yate

Translation: One’s success or defeat in any activity is understood by its result.

This type of results give self-introduction of your Krishna consciousness level. So from this seminar, those who were previously performing youth preaching, called youth preachers, their revival may happen and they may again perform youth preaching with all enthusiasm and more efficienctly. With this hope and desire these two days get together we had planned. Thought charning is happening now. So now get back into action. I think I would stop here.

Disappearance of Srila Gopala Bhatta Goswami
ISKCON NVCC Pune
7th July 2023

We should have sang first but now its a little late. However we can still ask, where is he? This is the beginning of the bhajan, je anilo. Whether it is a ‘Ye’ or ‘Ja’ at the beginning, it is an important meaning to the bhajan. The day itself is one of joyfulness or otherwise it is the disappearance day, which is one of mourning the great personality who left this world, Gaura parashad viraha.

There is agony and pain when thinking of the demise of that great Acharya. Narottama das Thakur has described this in this bhajan, Je anilo prema dhan and this is not always the case, as what is described in the bhajan but at least there should be thoughts of what is said in the bhajan. Narottama das Thakur is describing what he is going through when the Acharya’s disappear.

Je anilo prema dhana koruna pracur heno prabhu kotha gela Srila Gopal Bhatt Thakur.

je anilo prema dhana koruna pracur heno prabhu kotha gela acarya thakur

Translation
He, who brought the treasure of divine love and who was filled with compassion and mercy-where has such a personality as Advaita Acarya gone?

He who brought the treasure of divine love and distributed it also, he has today disappeared in 1531. Where has he gone? Is it Panchami today? Okay, what Maas is it now? Ashadh? There is one more in Uttar Pradesh.

Kaha mora swarup rupa kaha sanatan

Translation
Where are my Svarupa Damodara and Rupa Gosvami? Where is Sanatana?

These are the feelings of Narottam das Thakur as he finds out one by one that ‘this Acharya is now not here and that one has gone also.’ So where have they gone?

kaha dasa raghunatha patita pavan

Translation
Where is Raghunatha Dasa, the savior of the fallen?

kaha mora bhatta juga

Translation
Where are my Raghunatha Bhatta and Gopala Bhatta

this is Gopal Bhatta and Raghunatha Bhatta. Today we are observing the day of Gopal Bhatta and so there is one Gopal Bhatta and second one is Raghunatha Bhatta so yuga means two.

kaha mora bhatta juga kaha kaviraj eka kale kotha gela gora nata raj

Translation
Where are my Raghunatha Bhatta and Gopala Bhatta, and where is Krsnadasa Kaviraja? Where did Lord Gauranga, the great dancer, suddenly go?

Narottama das Thakur was a second generation Acharya and so he is remembering the Acharya’s of the first generation and feeling this pain and agony of separation. ‘Gora nata raj, Gauranga! Gauranga! Where has Gauranga gone?’ When Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu left this world by entering the deity of Tota Gopinath, from that time the Gaudiya sampradaya Acharya’s also started to leave the world in great numbers. Why is this?

Pasane kutibo matha anale pasibo gauranga gunera nidhi kotha gele pabo

Translation
I will smash my head against the rock and enter into the fire. Where will I find Lord Gauranga, the reservoir of all wonderful qualities?

‘How will I attain the associates of Gauranga Mahaprabhu? I will not he able to get their association now.’

se saba sangira sange je koilo bilas se sanga na paiya kande narottama das

Translation
Being unable to obtain the association of Lord Gauranga accompanied by all of these devotees in whose association He performed His pastimes, Narottama Dasa simply weeps

‘I had association of so many of these great souls but now they are no more here. Se sanga na paiya kande narottama das, I am not getting this association anymore so now and so there is nothing else to do but weep now.’ When Gopal Bhatta Goswami was present in Vrindavan at the Radha Raman temple, he entered the lord’s eternal pastimes’s, his nitya lila. Jaya om nitya lila Gopala Bhatta Goswami Maharaja ki jai!

His Samadhi is just behind Raman Raman and his worshipable deity is Radha Raman. Radha Raman! Have you taken darshan? This is the only original deity in which is still in Vrindavan, otherwise all the original deities of Vrindavan have had to move to other places. Some are in Jaipur and where is Madan Mohan? In Karoli and Srinath Ji is in Nathdwara. Many other deities that were installed and worshipped by the sox Goswami’s are in many other places also, but this one deity, Radha Raman stayed.

Vrindavanam parityajya padam ekam na gacchati

Translation
It is said that Krsna never goes out of Vrindavana.

Ekam padam na gacchati. In this way Radha Raman didn’t take a step out of Vrindavan, he never left. He is there even today, jai Radha Raman ki! Actually only Raman is there (Krishna), and there is only one crown where Radharani should be, there is no deity of her. Gopal Bhatta Goswami had Saligram Sila’s which he was worshipping and from them, one Sila became Sri Raman. The Sila did not become Radha, only Raman.

He was born in North India and then he came to Vrindavan from Sri Rangam and he was the son of Venkatta Bhatta. Sri Rangam is where the river Kaveri flows. Kaveri Maiya ki jai! By remembering each item, each detail we become more purified. Gopal Bhatta Goswami was Ananga Manjari and Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ki jai! I was supposed to stop with the name of Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and continue the talk but I cannot stop myself from calling out ‘jai.’

When the lord departed from Jagannath Puri and started for his tour of South India, he met Sri Ramananada Raya at the banks of the river Godavari who was personally Vishaka Sakhi herself or himself. Now the lord has gone further and reached Sri Rangam and the banks of the river Kaveri. Over there, Venkata Bhatta who had two brothers, he requested the lord to stay at his home and actually the lord was going to stay there anyway.

Whether he had been invited or not, the lord was going to stay there and the invitation just became an excuse, a reason. You understand the Chatur Masa, the four months of the rainy season? The lord’s stay in Sri Rangam for four months and his meeting Gopal Bhatta Goswami happened at the time of Chatur Masa and Gopal Bhatta Goswami’s departure from this world was also during Chatur Masa.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was therefore anyway going to stay at the home of Venkatta Bhatta anyway and therefore this was not an accident but this was an arrangement. This is exactly what Chaitanya Mahaprabhu wanted and his desire was fulfilled when Venkatta Bhatta invited Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to his home. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu stayed there for four consecutive months and the lord’s travelling which is described in the Madhya lila – why are you sleeping?

I have said this to one person but it is an instruction to others also. Sit properly like a Yogi and how must you not sit? Like a Bhogi. I didnt want to say this but.. You can fill in the blanks. It will be disrespectful to the Acharya’s who we are speaking of and glorifying. We are trying to speak about them and remember them, but if you totally ignore these talks of glorification then it isn’t proper, right? It’s not proper etiquette.

At that time Srila Gopal Bhatta Goswami was only seven years old, I am thinking of more to speak about. This is the second Goswami who Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is meeting and the first Goswami who he met was Raghunath das Goswami. Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had taken Sannyasa and lord Nityananda and Advaita Achrya Prabhu had bought the lord to Shantipura by some tricks.

That is when Raghunath das Goswami came to meet the lord from his birthplace Saptagram. This meeting indeed took place but I wont speak more in this topic now, what happened when they met and their talks, what instructions the lord gave him. So this is two. Then Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu went for his tour of the whole of South India including Maharashtra and returned to Jagannatha Puri. Then again the lord departs for a tour this time of East India, Bengal.

In Bengal the lord goes to Ramakeli, where the lord meets Rupa Sanatana and at that time Jiva Goswami was a small child of maybe two years old. It is hard to say whether the lord met the child or not but certainly the lord would have seen him, who was the son of Anupama, the brother of Rupa Sanatana. So when the lord met them at Ramakeli, Jiva Goswami was a small child. That’s four right? One, two three and four. No okay and five, Jiva Goswami is number five.

Then Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu returns to Jagannatha Puri once again and then when the lord leaves Puri for Vrindavan for the third time, he goes to Varanasi where the lord meets Sanatana Goswami for the second time. He had already met Rupa Goswami at Prayagraj but over here he also meets Raghunath Bhatta at Varanasi. He is the son of Tapana Misra who was a resident of Bangladesh and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had told Raghunath Bhatta ‘go to Varanasi!’

At that time, he did not understand that he was thinking ‘why Varanasi?’ The lord then told ‘I will come there in the future and I will then meet you over there.’ Chaitanya Mahaprabhu stayed at Varanasi for two months and also Raghunath Bhatta was a child just like Gopal Bhatta Goswami had been a child when Mahaprabhu first met him. Jiva Goswami was not even a child he was a very small child because Rupa and Samatana were very elderly.

But Raghunath das Goswami was a young man and that’s why he was told, ‘go and get married.’ He was not a boy and he was not elderly, but rather a young man and so this is how Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu met the six Goswami’s at different times and in different places. The Lord then sent them individually to Vrindavan one by one and the first ones to be sent to Vrindavan was Lokanath Goswami and Bhugarbha Goswami and there is also the six Goswami’s, vande rupa sanatanau raghu yugau sri jiva gopalakau.

Although they are not counted amongst the team if these six Goswami’s, they are certainly very much connected with these Goswami’s. Lokanath Goswami and Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami, not Bhugarbha Goswami, they also have a special team or connection. Okay so back to Sri Rangam where Gopal Bhatt Goswami was not happy about the fact that Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had taken Sannyasa.

In solitude Gopal Bhatt Goswami was lamenting ’why? Why has he taken Sannyasa?’ At that time the lord was also leaving the home of Gopal Bhatt Goswami after having stayed there for some time. The lord was leaving Sri Rangam and actually this is what occurs, after taking Sannyasa many people are left behind. Now Gopal Bhatt Goswami was being left behind by the lord and the lord is going on elsewhere. Gopal Bhatt Goswami was not happy about this and so through a dream – not Jagannatha lila darshan, no. That lila had not started yet because the lord had only stayed for two months and had then immediately left for his tour.

The lord came in his dream in Navadwipa lila and when Gopal Bhatt Goswami listened to those lila’s he became ecstatic and so thrilled that he began to cry. So like this in a dream Chaitanya Mahaprabhu lies Gopal Bhatt Goswami on his lap and the lord is also crying and he is bathing Gopal Bhatt who is lying on the lord’s lap, with those very tears. Hari Hari. Venkatta Bhatt was in Sri Rangam where Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was staying and Venkatta Bhatt had two brothers and one of those brothers was?

Prabodhananda SarasvatI Thakur. The whole family were worshippers of Sri Lakshmi Narayana and they were Pujaris of this form of the lord. Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was seeing that they were a little proud of being Pujari’s if Lakshmi Narayana and the lord was also thinking that ‘Venkatta Bhatt believes that Narayana or Vishnu is the original supreme personality of Godhead and Krishna is and incarnation of Narayana.

They believed that all other incarnations were from Narayana, Vishnu. ‘Narayana is the original personality of Godhead!’ This misunderstanding many people have and so Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu must have had many discussions with Venkatta Bhatta and out of these, in one discussion Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu stayed ‘oh why is this? Your Lakshmi is such a well known chaste wife of lord Vishnu. So why is that that she is always following Krishna and that she wants to be with him? She is in Sri Ban and Bela Ban and is performing many austerities to get association with Lord Krishna.’

Anyway it’s quite a long discussion and Venkatta Bhatta said’ it’s the same thing, it’s the same. Narayana and Krishna are the same personality.’ Then Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu explained in great detail that this was not the case. In Vrindavan the lord is known as Nanda Nandan.

Aradhyo bhagavan vrajesa tanayas tad dhama vrndavanam

Translation
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 most worshipable form of the lord is Vrajendra Nandan and how is the lord worshipped in Vrindavan?

aradhyo bhagavan vrajesa tanayas tad dhama vrndavanam ramya kacid upasana vraja-vadhu-vargena va kalpita srimad bhagavatam pramanam amalam prema pum artho mahan sri caitanya mahaprabhor matam idam tatradarah na parah

Translation
The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Krishna, the son of Nanda Maharaja, is worshipped along with His transcendental abode Vrndavana. The most pleasing form of worship for the Lord is that which was performed by the gopis of Vrndavana. Srimad Bhagavatam is the spotless authority on everything and pure love of Godhead is the ultimate goal of life for all men. These statements, for which we have the highest regard, are the opinion of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. (Caitanya-matta-manjusa by Srila Viswanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

The worship of the gopi’s, the Vraja Vadhu’s is performed with such devotion and it is the Gopi’s who are the performers of the topmost worship. If one wants to perform worship then they should follow the footsteps of the Gopi’s and Srimati Radharani. Worship should be performed in the bhava, the mood of Radharani and the Gopi’s. The lord continued ‘your Lakshmi, ours is Radharani and
Lakshmi is yours. Your Lakshmi wanted to remain in her position as the opulent goddess of fortune in Vaikuntha and at the same time enter into the pastimes of Krishna, where sweetness and beauty are superior to power and opulence, this is not possible.’ Seva adhikara diye koro nija dasi. What is before this part? Ei nivedana dhara, sakh?ra anugata koro

Ei nivedana dhara, sakh?ra anugata koro seva adhikara diye koro nija dasi
(Tulasi Arati 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

So what must one do? He must beg, nivedana, at the lotus feet of Tulasi Maharani, for what? May i become a maidservant, anugata of the Gopi’s. ‘Your Lakshmi indeed wants to enter the pastimes of the rasa lila of Radha and Krishna but whoever wants to do this must do two things. The first thing is that that personality must have a form like the Gopi’s, Gopi Rupa and secondly, one must have the feelings of the Gopi’s who are maidservants themselves of Lord Krishna.

‘But your Lakshmi wanted to remain in her opulent position with all her ornaments and wonderful dress.’ Whenever Krishna played his flute, the Gopi’s would run to him as soon as they heard the flute. One Gopi would only have an earring in one ear and wouldn’t have had a chance to put the other one on when suddenly the flute’s sound would be heard. The Gopi would then run towards the sound of the flute and leave all the dressing and adornment unfinished.

Whereas Lakshmi would hear the sound of the flute and say ‘oh okay, let it sound but I have not finished adorning myself yet. I am not ready, he has to wait for me.’ This is the difference in feelings and it shows that there is some difference in love for the lord. Also Krishna is known as Rasaraj Krishna and he is an ocean of Rasa’s, mellows of the sweet taste of Bhakti, devotion.

This is all described in the Gaudiya literatures and Sri Krishna who is the centre of the five main rasas or mellows of devotional service and seven indirect mellows, he tastes these mellows of devotion. This lord is Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also and so how much is five and seven? Have a little think about it so that you don’t fall asleep because sleep comes when they’re thinking stops. That is why it’s better to have a little interaction and some exercise.

Narayana tastes two and a half rasa’s and Krishna how many? Twelve Rasa’s. It was a little surprising to hear that lord Narayana tastes two and a half mellows when I saw this reference and read it. For four months these conversations took place and there was also Kirtan

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

This Harinama kevalam is sufficient on its own and many other residents of Sri Rangam in those days came in many crowds, well no crowds is not the what we should call it. Many people would come in large groups to take darshan of the lord and Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was liberating many souls in this way. Having said this, his main focus was on this family and by the lord’s association and mercy the whole family became a family of Gaudiya Vaishnava’s!

They all became Pujari’s of Radha Krishna, so in this way one was Gopal Bhatta who later became a Goswami and then Venkatta Bhatta and Prabodhananda Saraswati Thakur both left Sri Rangam and went straight to Vrindavan to reside there. Vrindavan dham ki jai! There they will worship Vrindavan also

aradhyo bhagavan vrajesa-tanayas tad-dhama vrndavanam ramya kacid upasana vraja-vadhu-vargena va kalpita srimad bhagavatam pramanam amalam prema pum-artho mahan sri-caitanya mahaprabhor matam idam tatradarah na parah
(Caitanya-matta-manjusa by Srila Viswanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Translation
The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Krishna, the son of Nanda Maharaja, is worshipped along with His transcendental abode Vrndavana. The most pleasing form of worship for the Lord is that which was performed by the gopis of Vrndavana. Srimad Bhagavatam is the spotless authority on everything and pure love of Godhead is the ultimate goal of life for all men

They would all worship the lord in the mood of the Gopi’s, Gopi Bhava. Gopala Bhatta Goswami is Ananga Manjari anyway. In Kama Vana there is a Surabhi Kunda and there Prabodhananda Saraswati made his small cottage and started staying at the banks of this Kama Vana. He write many books there and remained one of the main associates or followers of lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

And Gopal Bhatta Goswami then became his disciple, his paternal uncle from whom he took initiation. Then Gopal Bhatta Goswami began to reside in Vrindavan and you can call it the order or desire of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu that the six Goswami’s will recover the pastime places of the lord. I will not go into detail of what they would need to recover or found due to the attacks of the Muslims. There was a time when the deities of Vrindavan had to be moved or hidden and therefore nobody was coming to do Parikrama, Yatra to Vrindavan.

Parikrama’s were closed and therefore Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu again wanted to revive the glory of Vrindavan. Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ki jai! People had forgotten which pastime had taken place where, where the pastime places were and so the six Goswami’s of Vrindavan would have to find these lost pastime places, that’s one thing. Then secondly the temples would have to be reestablished and deities would be once again installed and worshipped.

Then they would have to write many scriptures, that is three, then much preaching must happen, that is four. There must be preaching, hearing, chanting. And so Gopal Bhatta Goswami was engaged in all these activities and before he had even reached Vrindavan, Lokanath Goswami was already there and so were Rupa and Sanatana. When Gopal Bhatta Goswami reached Vrindavan, Rupa and Sanatana became so happy and they immediately send a message to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who was at that time in Puri.

‘Gopal Bhatta Goswami is here!’ We don’t know how the messages were taken five hundred years ago, they may have had postmen who came and went from Vrindavan and Jagannatha Puri. Then lord then learnt that Gopal Bhatta had reached Vrindavan and then Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s joy knew no bounds, he was so joyful. It is written about Gopal Bhatta Goswami in his lifetime biography and there is a description in Bhakti Ratnakara taht Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had sent his own kaupin and outer garments of the babaji order, as symbols of renunciation to Vrindavan! Haribol!

Gopal Bhatta also wrote the great scripture Hari Bhakti Vilas and he also wrote a commentary on Bilvamangal Thakur’s famous writing Krishna Karnamrita. Jiva Goswami writes that he had a lot of help in writing the Sad Sandarbhas from Gopal Bhatta Goswami and ‘Only by taking his help was I able to write the six Sandarbhas.’

The other Goswami’s all had their own worshippable deities but Gopal Bhatta Goswami only had shalagram shilas. He had twelve shilas which he used to keep them in a cloth bag hung round his neck. He had gone to Nepal and got them from the Gandaki river and he actually got these Shila’s because even when he went once to out them back in the river, he tried to to put them back but just as soon as he put them back they jumped back again into his hands.

In this way the Shila’s were taking their rightful place and they did not want to leave Gopal Bhatta Goswami. Maya does not want to leave us but here we see that Krishna did not want to leave him. So the worship of the Shila’s was continuing but Gopal Bhatta Goswami had a great desire that ‘i may one day have a deity to worship then I will also put a flute on my deity as well as so many other ornaments which I would offer my lord.’

The lord understood this desire of his pure devotee and one day by the desire of the lord one rich merchant like Keshava Prabhu (laughter). These merchants always give something for the lord, some ornament like a crown for the deity, just like they give Gopal Krishna Maharaja for his worship of his deities. So one merchant came with wonderful ornaments and outfits of the deity and gifted them to Gopal Bhatta Goswami.

The Goswami accepted all these byt he was thinking ‘what will I do with all this? My deity is just a Shila. So that same night he put his Shila’s to rest and then he himself lay down to rest and the next day he woke up and saw

uttisthottistha govinda uttistha paramesvara uttistha kamala kanta trailokyam mangalam kuru

Translation
O Govinda, O Paramesvara, O beloved of Laksmi, please rise and bestow good fortune on all the three worlds

He must have prayed like this, ‘wake up oh lord, wake up.’ When he awakes the Shila’s he see’s that one Shila is not a Shila anymore but has instead become Sri Sri Raman. What an occurrence! Is there anything to question whether the lord exists or not? Is there such a thing as God? He became an enchanting three fold bending deity and this news reached everywhere very quickly. Rupa and Sanatana Goswami ran over to the place where the lord had manifested.

They ran to take darshan of Sri Raman and a great festival took place and since then every year on this day when the Shila became lord Raman, there is a great festival on this day in Vrindavan. It is the day after Nrsimha Chaturdasi and it is called Purnima day. That is the day when Gopal Bhatta Goswami’s Shila became a deity. There is also a story that one day Gopal Bhatta Goswami goes to a place in Uttar Pradesh called Saharan and he meets one Brahmana there. This Brahmana was a little distressed and the cause of his distress was that he had no son.

Gopal Bhatta Goswami understood the reason of his distress and so he blessed the brahman with a great benediction. So he didn’t bless him to have eight sons but he said ‘you will have a son.’ Then this Brahmana actually had a son and he had previously said to the Goswami that if I truly get a son then I will give him to you for your service.’ This Brahman’s son was called Gopinath and he became known as Gooinath Pujari. Today on the disappearance day of Gopal Bhatta Goswami, and after his disappearance this Gopinath Pujari took birth in Saharanpura.

He became the Pujari and actually he probably was even when Gopal Bhatta Goswami was here, but even after he continued the service to the deity of Sri Raman. He continued to serve Radha Raman and so in this way the associates of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the some Goswami’s stayed in Navadwipa. There was one team of them in Jagannatha Puri and the third group was where? Sri Vrindavan Dham ki jai!

The team of Vrindavan, especially the six Goswami’s of Vrindavan, they were given special power, intelligence and strength because through them the Gaudiya Vaishnava’s wanted to expand and spread the teachings of Gaudiya Vaishnavism and the disciplic succession. We have Madhavendra Puri and Iswara Puri in our succession and from Iswara Puri lord Chaitanya took initiation and after the lord it is the six Goswami’s of Vrindavan who carried on this disciplic succession.

When we think and we see who the Acharya’s of our Parampara are, there is lord Chaitanya himself and thereafter the six Goswami’s of Vrindavan. And what should we say of the six Goswami’s? They have done everything including re-establishing the principles of religion and in such a way as to ensure that preaching of Dharma continues for a long time. They have planted the seeds of the foundation of this preaching and of Gaudiya Vaishnavism.

The most junior of the six Goswami’s was Srila Jiva Goswami and one by one all the Goswami’s leave this material world and nobody is left apart from Jiva Goswami. At one time he was in charge of the Gaudiya Vaishnava lineage, he was the instructing spiritual master of many great stalwart Vaishnava’s. After the demise of the sox Goswami’s, three great Vaishnava’s came about who were known as the ‘three Acharya’s.’

They were Narottama das Thakur ki jai. Next, Shymananda Pandit ki jai! That’s two and then? Srinivas Acharya ki jai! Srinivas Acharya became the disciple of Gopal Bhatta Goswami and Narottama das Thakur becomes the disciple of Lokanath Goswami and Hridaya Chaitanya of the place called Ambila Kalna who is also known as Hridaya Ananda becomes the spiritual master of Shyamananda.

At one time all three of these personalities were in Vrindavan and Jova Goswami was their instructing spiritual master, Siksa Guru. At one time Jiva Goswami sent all three of them, ‘now if you go! Go and preach.’ The only means of preaching is books, books are the basis. So they filled a whole cart with Gaudiya literature and they were told by Srila Jiva Goswami, ‘go to Bengal and preach!’ So these three Goswami’s went to Orissa and Bengal and they preached extensively in this part.

After these three Acharya’s, we can say that the place for the next Acharya was empty for a while and for some time we dont hear of a great Acharya coming. Then Visvanatha Chakravarti Thakur ki jai! After two hundred and fifty or three hundred years after this, Visvanatha Chakravarti Thakur comes and his disciple is Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana. So first there were six Goswami’s and after them there were three Acharya’s.

Then there was the team of these two great Acharya’s, Visvanatha Chakravarti Thakur and Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana. Baladeva Vidyabhusana gave many people faith in the Gaudiya Vaishnava movement when by the blessings and order of his spiritual master and Sri Govinda also, he went to Jaipur and wrote a commentary, Sri Govinda bhashya. Many books have been written by Visvanatha Chakravarti Thakur and therefore he has contributed so much also to Gaudiya Vaishnava literature.

So in this way books are the basis and we can see that Visvanatha Chakravarti Thakur has therefore written many books and commentaries and also after him we cam say a hundred and fifty years later, there is another team of three Acharya’s and they are Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur and Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada ki jai!

Krishna consciousness had to be spread throughout the whole world and alongside this, there is the prediction of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu

Prthivite ache yata nagaradi grama: sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama
(Chaitanya Bhagavad Antya khanda 4.126)

Translation
In every town and village throughout the world

This prediction had to be made true and that is why all the Acharya’s have given their own prediction and for four hundred years there were arrangements being made. Just like we often say that Srila Prabhupada started making arrangements in 1922 when order, ‘hey you! Go to the western countries and preach there! You!’ When someone soeaks like this we get a little scared, ‘is he talking to me?’ That’s what one started thinking.

So it is our understanding that to follow that order Srila Prabhupada spent a lifetime in separation because the order was given to him in 1922. Then eleven years later Srila Prabhupada took initiation in 1933 and in another eleven years in 1944 Prabhupada started distributing books and his back to godhead magazine. Then after another eleven years in 1954 Prabhupada took to Vanaprastha ashram and then we see that after around eleven years there is a new occurrence.

The Prabhupada went to the western countries in 1966 and found med Iskcon and then after another eleven years Srila Prabhupada entered into the eternal pastimes of the lord. So we call this a lifetime in preparation but even before Srila Prabhupada all these Acharya’s were preparing, getting ready. Then Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur made a master plan, he made a blue print in Godrumadwipa, Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur’s Godruma Kalpatavi.

The Thakur writes a book about preaching at Nama Hatta and he writes the whole outline in a book. And also the very year Srila Prabhupada took his birth, Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur sent his book overseas to the western world. His book distribution had started then and so Bhaktivinode Thakur had started distributing the message of the Gaudiya Vaishnava’s.

He had writing a book about Parikrama and was known as the seventh Goswami. There are the six Goswami of Vrindavan and then there was one more Goswami, Bhaktivinode Thakur who was known as the seventh Goswami of Navadwipa. Bhaktivinode Thakur was the one who had trained Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati and that is the reason he had become Bhakti Siddhanta Dharine, possessor of all knowledge of the science of Bhakti, devotional service.

Bhaktivinode Thakur was like a social scientist, you can say and he knew all the different sects of Siddhanta, especially the bogus aula, baula, kartabhaja, Gauranga Nagari’s who were all Sahajiya’s. This was all pointed out by Bhaktivinode Thakur and so what did Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur do in his lifetime? He worked to get rid of and fight all these bogus sectionsof so called Vaishnava’s and Mayavadi’s also.

Paritranaya sadhunam, and what else? Vinasaya ca duskrtam, he annihilated the miscreants.

paritranaya sadhunam
vinasaya ca duskrtam
dharma samsthapanarthaya
sambhavami yuge yuge
(Bhagavad Gita 4.8)

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

The lord does this when he appears in this material world but when he is not present then his work is done through his Acharya’s who are his own. These are the Acharya’s who Sri Krishna himself speaks of, ‘acaryam mam vijaniyan, I am myself the Acharya.’

acaryam mam vijaniyan
navamanyeta karhicit
na martya buddhyasuyeta
sarva deva mayo guruh
(Srimad Bhagavatam 11.17.27)

Translation
One should know the acharya as Myself and never disrespect him in any way. One should not envy him, thinking him an ordinary man, for he is the representative of all the demigods

The lord descends to the material world at intervals, sambhavami yuge yuge and then what does he do?

paritranaya sadhunam
vinasaya ca duskrtam
dharma samsthapanarthaya
sambhavami yuge yuge
(Bhagavad Gita 4.8)

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

The lord himself is doing this work but when he is not physically present to do it, the lord empowers the Acharya’s of the disciplic succession do this work. Bhaktivinode Thakur created a blue print, a plan of how to preach Krishna consciousness throughout the whole world and he had also made a prediction that a great soul, Mahapurush would appear soon and he would preach in every country of the world.

Also those who would hear this message throughout the world will take it up and would return back to India and they will all get together with the people of India and together what will they sing? Jaya Sacinandana Jaya Sacinandana Jaya Sacinandana Gaura Hari. So like this, Bhaktivinode Thakur was preparing so this Hare Krishna movement may reach the whole world.

Then Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur took this preaching to a greater extent and he even established the Gaudiya Maths which totalled sixty four and sixty of these were in India and four were established outside India. He was sending different disciples to other countries such as England and Germany and some other European countries but he they didn’t get any recognition there. Then finally Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada ki jai! He was the devotee military commander, Senapati Bhakta of lord Gauranga Mahaprabhu.

Lord Gauranga had given birth to many soldiers, some in America, South America, Africa, Australia but when we say the devotee military commander, Senapati Bhakta, there is an army and so Prabhupada went overseas to New York by sitting on a boat. If there is an army then a boat is needed, no? So sitting on the Jaladuta was a Deva duta, Srila Prabhuoada, a messenger of the God’s. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada deva duta ki jai! Senapati Bhakta ki jai!

And where was he going? New York and why New York? Some devotees say and I also keep saying that New York is the capital city of Kali Yuga, it is the base, the kingdom of Kali Yuga. That is why Srila Prabhupada made it the first place if his attack and he has reached this place. As soon ads he reached he has thrown time bombs in the form of his books and the holy names.

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

Due to the effect of this bomb, many people got effected, they got hurt and actually the bad elements in these persons were killed due to these bombs. These people were protected and they became devotees. So Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had given birth to this army and therefore wherever Srila Prabhupada went, fourteen times around the world, his army met him and with the help of these army soldiers, this Hare Krishna movement was preached, spread and established far and wide.

The mrs were four principals in the preaching as well. No illicit sex life, no intoxication, no gambling, and no meat eating. Due to following these principles , we can easily say that the bad qualities if the candidates were destroyed. No more! The sinful activities which were being performed were stopped and they became pious souls

srnvatan sva kathah krsnah
punya sravana kirtanah
hrdy antah stho hy abhadrani
vidhunoti suhrt satam
(Srimad bhagavatam 1.2.17)

Translation
Sri Krsna, the Personality of Godhead, who is the paramatma (supersoul) in everyone’s heart and the benefactor of the truthful devotee, cleanses desire for material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who has developed the urge to hear His messages, which are in themselves virtuous when properly heard and chanted

In this way the mission to spread lord Chaitanya’s Sankirtan movement was established by Srila Prabhupada, and we do keep saying that Prabhupada is the founder but actually the original founding father of this movement are Gauranga Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu. Sankirtan eka pitarau.

ajanu lambita bhujau kanakavadhatau sankirtanaika pitarau kamalayataksau visvambharau dvija varau yuga dharma palau vande jagat priyakaro karunavatarau
(Caitanya-bhagavata 1.1.1)

Translation
I offer my respects unto Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Sri Nityananda Prabhu, whose arms extend down to Their knees, who have golden yellow complexions, and who inaugurated the congregational chanting of the Holy Names. Their eyes resemble the petals of a lotus; They are the maintainers of all living entities; They are the best of brahmanas, the protectors of religious principles for this age, the benefactors of the universe, and the most merciful of all incarnations

The founding fathers of this movement are indeed Gauranga and Nityananda Prabhu who are krishna Balaram themselves, who are Rama and Lakshman. Prabhupada was made the instrument. Nimitta matram bhava savya sacin

tasmat tvam uttistha yaso labhasva
jitva satrun bhunksva rajyam samrddham
mayaivaite nihatah purvam eva
nimitta-matram bhava savya sacin
(Bhagavad Gita 11.33)

Translation
Therefore get up and prepare to fight. After conquering your enemies you will enjoy a flourishing kingdom. They are already put to death by My arrangement, and you, O Savyasacin, can be but an instmment in the fight

The establishment of this Hare Krishna movement was done through Srila Prabhupada by the lords Gauranga and Nityananda Prabhu’s. Prema Dharma was established through this movement and actually the holy name Hare Krishna Hare Krishna is what Dharma? Prema Dharma. You are all members of international society of Krishna consciousness and so continue to be a part of this society and performing these devotional activities. Dharmam tu saksad bhagavat pranitam

dharmam tu saksad bhagavat pranitam
na vai vidur rsayo napi devah
na siddha mukhya asura manusyah
kuto nu vidyadhara caranadayah
(Srimad Bhagavatam 6.3.19)

Translation
Real religious principles are enacted by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Although fully situated in the mode of goodness, even the great rsis who occupy the topmost planets cannot ascertain the real religious principles, nor can the demigods or the leaders of Siddhaloka, to say nothing of the asuras, ordinary human beings, Vidyadharas and Caranas

golokera prema dhana hari nama sankirtana rati na janmila kene taya

Translation
The only remedy is hari nama sankirtana, the chanting of the Hare K???a maha mantra, which is imported from the spiritual world, Goloka Vrindavana. How unfortunate I am that I have no attraction for this

namo maha vadanyaya krishna prema pradaya te, da means dena, to give. And pradaya, pra means prakrishta rupena, or complete. So that personality who has given such wealth of love is Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

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

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

So this wealth of live is the topmost because love of Godhead is the topmost and has been called the fifth and final dharma. Srila Vyasadeva had written many books but he was not satisfied by doing so, there was no job satisfaction. What was his job? To write all the books on transcendental subject matters which he did but he was not satisfied. When he heard Narada Muni ask him at Badrika Ashram, ‘what is the matter? You look very distressed.’

Not you all, no this is what Narada Muni asked Vyasadeva and it was morning time and they were sitting on the banks of the river Saraswati at Badrika Ashram. Vyasadeva’s face was looking distressed and therefore Narada Muni asked the reasons for this distress. Then Vyasadeva answered that ‘I have written so many books on spiritual knowledge but I am not satisfied. Maybe there are some shortcomings, some mistakes, faults or defects in the books I have written.’

Having said this, he gave all the books to Narada Muni who is also the spiritual master of Srila Vyasadeva. Both of them are also the supreme lord, Vyasadeva is the empowered incarnation of the supreme lord and Narada Muni also. But still one has become the disciple of the other so Vyasadeva requested, ‘please do a book review of all the books which I have written. You may make some corrections and I would like to hear some observations or comments.’ That is when Narada Muni has said vasudevasya mahima hy anuvarnitah

yatha dharmadayas cartha
muni varyanukirtitah
na tatha vasudevasya
mahima hy anuvarnitah
(Srimad Bhagavatam 1.5.9)

Translation
Although, great sage, you have very broadly described the four principles beginning with religious performances, you have not described the glories of the Supreme Personality, Vasudeva

You have not emphasised the glories of Vasudeva and instead you have given importance to the four principles of religion namely religiosity, economic development, sense gratification and liberation. You have spoken so much on karma kanda, jnana kanda, kevala visera bhanda.

karma kanda, jnana kanda, kevala visera bhanda
(Narottama das Thakur)

Translation
the paths of karma kanda and jnana kanda are pots of poison

Then Srila Vyasadeva wrote one more scripture and that scripture is Srilmad bhagavatam, king of all scriptures ki jai. In this Srimad bhagavatam it is said harih sarvatra giyate

vede ramayane caiva purane bharate tatha
adav ante ca madhye ca harih sarvatra giyate

In the Vedic literature, including the Ramayana, Puranas and Mahabharata, from the very beginning (adau) to the end (ante ca), as well as within the middle (madhye ca), only Hari, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is explained

Whether you call the lord by the name Vasudeva or Hari, vasudeva parah kriyah vasudeva para veda vasudeva param tapah vasudeva vasudeva

Vasudeva para veda
vasudeva para makhah
vasudeva para yoga
vasudeva parah kriyah
vasudeva param jnanam
vasudeva param tapah
vasudeva paro dharmo
vasudeva para gatih
(Srimad bhagavatam 1.2.28-28)

Translation
In the revealed scriptures, the ultimate object of knowledge is Sri Krsna, the Personality of Godhead. The purpose of performing sacrifice is to please Him. Yoga is for realizing Him. All fruitive activities are ultimately rewarded by Him only. He is supreme knowledge, and all severe austerities are performed to know Him. Religion [dharma] is rendering loving service unto Him. He is the supreme goal of life

So by making this literature the instrument, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu himself was most attached to listening to Srimad bhagavatam instead of any other book. And that is why Sri Krishna has said

trai gunya visaya veda
nistrai gunyo bhavarjuna
nirdvandvo nitya sattva stho
niryoga ksema atmavan

Translation
The Vedas mainly deal with the subject of the three modes of material nature. Rise above these modes, O Arjuna. Be transcendental to all of them. Be free from all dualities and from all anxieties for gain and safety, and be established in the self

The vedas deal with the subject if the three modes which are sattva guna (mode of goodness), raja guna (mode of passion), and tama guna (mode of ignorance). Even the different scriptures ate based on the different modes of nature and therefore some are in the modes of goodness, some are in the modes of passion and some in the modes of ignorance. ‘Become Nistrai gunyo, free from all the modes of material nature.’

So one scripture was written which was beyond the material modes and that was the topmost scripture srimad bhagavatam. So there are four principles of religion and above these is the fifth principle of the dharma of love, Prema. What does this movement of Sei Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu do? It gives Prema, love in charity to one and all. Each living being is searching for this Prema and this love means the supreme lord himself.

He is the embodiment of Prema. You may call it love or joy but this is what every living entity is searching for and that is why one name of the lord is Ananda, joy. Sac cid ananda vigraha, he is full of joy and his name indicates joy. Nanda ghar ananda bhayo, what happened at the house of Nanda? There was joy in the house of Nanda which means his whole mansion was filled with joy and this means that Krishna was there.

Joy means Krishna so if there is joy in the home of Nanda it means that Krishna must be present there because he is the only one who is an embodiment of joy. Krishna is the embodiment of Prema also, and therefore krishna prema pradaya te means that when one is giving out Prema, love then this is the same as giving Krishna.

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

This religion has to be introduced and preached everywhere otherwise there are many other man made religions which are mano dharma, mental speculation. ‘I think..’ this is what is happening most of the time. This is also called a form of gambling because people are being cheated in the name of religion and they are being told something which is only partly true.

I shouldn’t say this but the religion who has the most followers, thirty three percent of the population of the world is Christianity. Then our Muslim friend’s constitute twenty five percent of the population and so we Hindu’s are only fourteen percent. These others have played such a trick and so their preachers and their scriptures will speak mostly of sarva dharman parityajya, abandoning all varieties of religion.

How can we compare the six Goswami’s of Vrindavan and Gopal Bhatta Goswami to some religion which was founded just some fifteen hundred years ago. Then two thousand years ago there was another religion which was founded then a few hundred years later another religion was founded. So these religions were founded only a short while ago and whatever is started must come to an end. In actuality there is only one dharma, religion of all living entities.

That religion is called Sanatana dharma or Bhagavad dhama. What has Prahlad Maharaja said? Kaumara acaret prajno
dharman bhagavatan iha

Sri prahrada uvaca
kaumara acaret prajna
dharman bhagavatan iha
durlabham manusam janma
tad apy adhruvam arthadam
(Srimad bhagavatam 7.6.1)

Translation
PrahladA Maharaja said: One who is sufficiently intelligent should use the human form of body from the very beginning of life, in other words, from the tender age of childhood -to practice the activities of devotional service, giving up all other engagements. The human body is most rarely achieved, and although temporary like other bodies, it is meaningful because in human life one can perform devotional service. Even a slight amount of sincere devotional service can give one complete perfection.

So which religion must we follow? Bhagavad dharma and that too in young age one must begin to take lessons in the path of bhakti. Each and every living entity has only one religion, Jaiva dharma. Having any other proper religion is just not possible although so many false religions continue to exist. This dharma and that dharma and then there are people who follow a certain so called religion for a short while and then they go elsewhere to follow something else.

Elo and gelo, they come and go. Who has said this? Lochan das Thakur. But Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has given us the topmost dharma and this is the o e true religion that is for all living entities and it is the religion of love, Prema dharma. This is what the world is lacking and therefore it is our duty to bring to the world this which is lacking, what people are searching for.

Gopal Bhatta Goswami will be happy with us if we preach this Krishna consciousness and also if we follow the principles of Krishna consciousness also. Nitai gaura prem anande hari haribol.

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.

Topic : SB 1.15.06
Place: Iskcon Chowpatty
Date 20th November 2022

means is equal to all glories to assembled devotees “samaveta yuyutsavah mamakah pandvas caiva “(BG 1.1.) assembled to fight but here they are not come to fight. I had not prepared my talk for big gathering like this, I wasn’t expecting, anyway you are welcome thank you.

I heard there is no Sunday festival, so I thought during temple the devotees, mostly anyway, I am happy more devotees, happier devotees and our movement is that of congregation because some kirtan, Sankirtan and movement congregation more the merrier, Hari Hari and this is not a crowd, this is, this is assembly the gathering of devotees, crowd is not good, or this is sabha, in sabha they only allow sabhya here or those who are sabhya they are allowed in sabha. “sabhya means gentlemen”. We don’t even know, it has to be gentle, gentlemen, not ruffian gentle. Hari Hari. So we are reading from canto 1 chapter 15 text number six. Is it somewhere, could you see although in the back board there so try to repeat.

yasya ksana-viyogena
loko hy apriya-darsanah
ukthena rahito hy esa
mrtakah procyate yatha

Synonyms
yasya — whose; ksana — a moment; viyogena — by separation; lokah — all the universes; hi — certainly; apriya-darsanah — everything appears unfavorable; ukthena — by life; rahitah — being devoid of; hi — certainly; esah — all these bodies; mrtakah — dead bodies; procyate — are designated; yatha — as it were.

Translation
I have just lost Him whose separation for a moment would render all the universes unfavorable and void, like bodies without life.

Purport
Factually for a living being there is no one dearer than the Lord. The Lord expands Himself by innumerable parts and parcels as svamsa and vibhinnamsa. Paramatma is the svamsa part of the Lord, whereas the vibhinnamsa parts are the living beings. As the living being is the important factor in the material body, for without the living being the material body has no value, similarly without Paramatma the living being has no status quo. Similarly, Brahman or Paramatma has no locus standi without the Supreme Lord Krsna. This is thoroughly explained in the Bhagavad-gita. They are all interlinked with one another, or interdependent factors; thus in the ultimate issue the Lord is the summum bonum and therefore the vital principle of everything.

Srila Prabhupad ki Jai.

I have just lost Him whose separation for a moment would render all the universes unfavorable and void, like bodies without life.

Factually for a living being there is no one dearer than the Lord. right , it has to be right. The Lord expands Himself by innumerable parts and parcels as sv???a and vibhinnamsa. Paramatma is the svamsa part of the Lord, whereas the vibhinnamsa parts are the living beings. As the living being is the important factor in the material body, for without the living being the material body has no value, similarly without Paramatma the living being has no status quo. Similarly, Brahman or Paramatma has no locus standi without the Supreme Lord Krsna. This is thoroughly explained in the Bhagavad-gita. They are all interlinked with one another, or interdependent factors; thus in the ultimate issue the Lord is the summum bonum and therefore the vital principle of everything.
Cool air is coming from somewhere like I said give me the scarf, could this be dirested to you all right or share or share that with me.

yasya ksana-viyogena
loko hy apriya-darsanah
ukthena rahito hy esa
mrtakah procyate yatha

I have just lost Him whose separation for a moment would render all the universes unfavorable and void, like bodies without life.

So this is the chapter “Pandavas retire timely” and timely means on time. What is their time, they are chosen to retire they have lost their Lord, Lord of their life.

shyam tayktva svapadam gatah
taddinat kali ayata
sarva sadhana badhaka

This is a statement in shastra’ws purana’s that says, Lord departed “shyam tayktva” the other part is also “yada mukundo Bhagwan” “shyam tayktva svapadam gatah” and when is the general one but a particular day , that day as Lord departed for his own abode, tad dinat from that day, kalir ayata, Kaliyug began. The day Lord departed , the last day of the Lord on the planet becomes the first day of the age of kali, and what is Kali “sarva sadhana badhaka” our sadhana is tough and turby all daha’s in our sadhana.

That is , those are the Pandav’s and those are all kinds of devotees “Yasya ksana viyogena”yog- viyog, Yog is linking, communicating, establishing relationship, communicating that’s Yog and this is viyog “yasya ksana viyogena”, we have no experience of all this, we had one but we have forgotten, we are covered over, “sunyayitam jagat sarvam Govinda virahena me”.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is talking without Krishna this whole world is void, sunya, then Prabhupad of course says sunya has value when there is one in the front, otherwise one zero and then another zero and another zero and then big zero without that one, that one is the Lord and we are, ya, Srila Prabhupad is talking about that in purport, we are his parts and parcels, lucky we are in fact. We are his , we are his, whose, Lords ya Krishna’s then we have some value otherwise dead body “mrtakah procyate yatha” forget us the parts and parcel of the Lord.

mamaivamso jiva loka
jivabhutah sanatnah (BG 15.7)

not only Lord has said that they are “mam-aivansh”. Lord didn’t say “mam-ansh.” What did Lord say “eva” has to be underlined and understood of course, they are only certainly and only my parts and parcels not of anyone else not

yam brahma varunendra rudra marutah
stunvanti divyaih stavair
(SB 12.12.1)

We are not , we are not parts and parcels of at least we could devta’s because devta’s themselves are parts and parcels of the same Lord, so we are not part and parcels of the same Lord, so we are not part and parcels , we are directly parts and parcels of the Supreme Personality of the Godhead “mam eva ansh” mam eva, ya this way some more intimate connection or relationship is emphasised.

mamaivamso jiva loka
jivabhutah sanatnah (BG 15.7)

means forever, not that you are part and parcel of Lord for some time and then he become part and parcel of someone else, of allah, allah is okay, not this one, forever we are parts and parcels of the Lord forever, for all the time to come, of course Lord is Sanatan and sat-chit-anand, sat means eternal, Lord is eternal and we are the parts and parcels of the Lord are also eternal. The ansh, Krishna said, we are ansh, we are ansh and who is Lord what is that term anshi, ansh anshi one who is whole.

om purnam adah purnam idam (ISO Invocation)

that purn is called anshi and parts and parcels are called ansh, we are ansh and Lord is anshi. So ansh has to become part of anshi, he is , there is also explanation here vibhinash and svansh even

ramadi murtishu kala niyamena tisthan
nanavataram akarod bhuvaneshu kintu

even there ansh’s but that svanah and hence they are all achuta, achuta means not falliable, they don’t fall. Lord takes avatar, many avatars, they don’t fall down but we fall down vibhinansh fall svansh never fall, so vibhinansh are chute and svansh are achute, okay you are all with us, in the back there, the back benchers. Now want to make some statements or some observations, see how things work. Any object fan or ball anything that you throw up and which is part and parcel of earth, all these objects make up this gross earth, all these made up this gross earth, Prithavi. Where will they end, they come back to the earth, they always try to settle on the earth that’s one thing. What about different water bodies well specially say rivers water bodies, rivers are also part and parcel of what ocean, yes so where the rivers are always running to, to the ocean, hence the rivers are also called

nimna ganam yatha ganga
vaisnavanam yath (12.13.16)

that is another statement from Bhagwatam. “nimna means down”, “ga means goes”, river goes down right, also the time is there source is at the top of the mountain or at foot hill of the mountain, at higher level compare to the ocean level, so that water is always running and trying to, always anxious to become part of the whole ocean. So river and other water bodies are ansh’s, part and parcel and ocean is anshi, complete whole. What about the fire , fire is always trying to go there, upward, even if you havev a mashal or torh, try to do this way they goes up, why up, where to, to the sun which is the source of all fire and light. So like wise, right, I think, where as, where as, therefore, de resolve, we could say when they have meeting, they could say where as , where as this, therefore, so we gave a few examples for quick observation then therefore the living entities which are part and parcel of the Lord, living entities are ansh and the Lord is anshi, so they are always anxious to go back, return to the Lord they are settled.

hitvanyatha rupam sva rupena vyavasthitih (SB 2.10.6)

Sukhdev Goswami said, this is in 2nd canto Srimad Bhagwatam, living entities are always trying to “sva rupena vyavasthitih” as they say on this point, swasth ho, swasth ho, you understand hindi na, of course as soon as this question is raised, my health is Okay, swasth ho but one time, one time those who really understood the purport or deeper meaning of swasth ho, it has to be. They have something else on their mind while asking this question and also replying those days, good old days, before the age of kal, sva is who, us living entity, sva and sth means situated swasth, Lord is also swa there is a talk here, living entities and paramatma or the Lord, So Swasth means, “are you situated in Krishna Consciousness properly?”

krsna tvadiya padapankajaranta
madyaiva me visatu manasarajahamsah (from Mukund Mala strotram)

Kulshekar’s Lord, oh Lord what that day would be mine, “manasarajahamsah” “manasarajahamsah”, his mind he is addressing designated as “hamsah-rajanahamsah” and Lord, your lotus, I already said, your feet are lotus like, “Krsna tvadiya pada pankajarantam”. My mind is raja-hamsah, when will my mind which is like a hamsah, will hang around, It even says enter, enter your lotus feet, be next to your lotus feet or attached to your lotus feet of think of your lotus feet or serve your lotus feet. So, as one does that, that person is “swasath”, I am “swasath”just body, mind, soul, wellbeing is complete when soul is also “swasath”, not just body, mind, soul also mainly soul ???? ????? ?? ?????? ??,?? ???? ????? ?? ????????? ??, ?????? ?????? ??????, you heard it of that , shastra says, shastra says, because this is a fact, ?????? ?????? ??????, okk have it, you get the body and before you get the body, the pran prathistha of vyadhi is already done, temple has been inaugurated, deity of vyadhi is installed, okay have this , have fun.

Body is given, we think to enjoy but also to suffer, I am changing topic or to enjoy you have to pay for, you go to the shop or the mall these days, the malls, malls, because the more products are being sold produced and transported and promoted and courier service and there is some survey where the people have become more happy because of more products produced of all sorts of products material nature is exploded and mining and this and that, has this made the world happier, what do you think? What is your experience, has you look around, has this made the world happy? But not now, but in future, we will make you happy but then this Prabhupad use to say, this is a post dated cheque from a bankrupt. Someone is a bankrupt and he will give a post dated cheque. Noway, No way they did another survey in the America. Which country’s citizen are more sick? They did the Global Survey and the conclusion was America. Number one the most sick nation in the world. “America”. I was not surprised to hear that because America, the Land of opportunities, they say sometime, even some Hare Krishna devotees.

more ehi abhilash
Americaa deshe diyo vass

So , dreamland, heaven on earth. Hari Hari. The enjoyment and suffering, do you think there is some relationship , yes or no. “Yes”, it is a package, you don’t get only enjoyment not possible, if you want enjoy be prepare to suffer, you like it or not, don’t like Krishna has said long time and this is internal truth in fact

ye he samsparsa ja bhoga
duhkha yonaya eva te
adyantavantah kaunteya
na tesy ramte budhah
(BG 5.22)

Krishna has warned this, who is going to read Bhagwat Gita, Marathon has come, it is time to distribute Gita and encourage everybody to read or hear the Lord. He is our well wisher and friend and what not, he says

ye he samsparsa ja bhoga

I am getting into this , so as our senses come in contact with sense objects “ye he samsparsa ja bhoga” our sense coming in with the sense objects and what happens “samsparsa ja” Ja means taking birth, uttapan hona, what takes birth “bhoga” Bhoga is enjoyment, sense and sense object coming in contact with each other nicely, samsparsaja, sama means samya prekaren, complter contact bhoga, enjoyment is the outcome, but it doesn’t stop there, Krishna says ”duhkhe yonaya eva te” the verse begins, Lord statement begins with “Ye” and ends with “te”, Ye- te, “ye he samsparsa ja bhoga”by doing this, “te” happens that happens what is that “duhkhe yonaya eva te”the very source or reason cause for enjoyment becomes cause of “what”suffering.

Hari Hari, anyway, sometimes someone hates you who hates you most, one who loved you most one time, people in general will not hate you or but those who loved you so called love, so called love which is I love you, actually people should be saying I am lusty after you, not that I love you, I am lusty after you I am gone exploit you, I am gone take advantage of you, such people end up hating us and killing us or I am just making the connection those who love us they hate, something that gives us joy, will give us suffering and as we go for shopping, buying, to buy something which we wish to enjoy, you have to pay for it. Right, but the suffering comes free. “Buy one get two”, “buy one get two”, you bought one item and soon you will have another one, suffering. So we are being fooled because we are in illusion, ignorance etc, that is why Krishna has kindly, he kindly appears down here, speaking to Arjun, but is he speaking to Arjun only, No, he is addressing all of us, making Arjun the medium or Nimit, Lord is addressing all of us and then on Lord’s behalf devotees, acharya’s also do their part.

om ajnana timirandhasya jnananjana salakaya
caksur unmilitaam yena tasmai sri gurave namah

Srila Prabhupad ki Jai

Srila Prabhupad did that and of course we have to continue to do so, “you do as I did” that is something else but Prabhupad said “you do as I did” so what Prabhupad did, we have to follow in his footsteps and talk on behalf of Prabhupad, entire Parampara “evem Parampara praptam” what Krishna spoke in Bhagavat Gita and other scriptures, we have to share that with rest of the world and as we are becoming gradually, bit by bit free from illusion that statement said

ady antavatah kauntaya
na tesu ramate budhah

O Arjun, in fact this is kind of definition of who is buddhiman, who is intelligent , those who indulge , get involved become part of something that has beginning and soon has ending ady antavatah” ady-adi- beginning, antavatah, so beginning with joy and happiness, it is nice , its nice and then you get a slap, we are not expecting, we are fools, we thought this would never happen, it does happen, it must happen, slap is nothing, hang him, just kill him, as it happens, so many times ??? ?????? ??? ?????? ??? ??? ????????? suffering of all sorts adi-davik, adi bhoutik adhyatamik. So ady antavatah kauntaya, na atesu, no tesu, tesu meaning something that had beginning, there is happiness, there is joy…

So, World is designed like this. The world is programmed like this and theirs is no way, we could interfere not even superpowers. Be that America or now china and next one is going to be India in the line. The world is …

Ye hi Samsparsa-ja bhoga,
Duhkha-yonaya evat e
Ady-antavantah kaunteya
Na tesu ramate budhah
(BG. 5.22)

Budhimaan (Intelligent) person does not indulge in such things he stay alone for Sadhna.
Krishna said Indriyani niyamado begins with sense control. your enemy is lust.

kama esha krodha esha
rajo-guna-samudbhavah
mahashano maha-papma
viddhyenam iha vairinam
(BG 3.37)

Viddhi, please take notes, “viddhyenam iha vairinam” this is your vairi. This is your enemy no. One, Mr. Lust. Prabhupada said, Mr. lust. And then Kamath

dhyayato vishayan pumsah
sangas teshupajayate
sangat sanjayate kamah
kamat krodho ’bhijayate
(BG 2.62)

Lust is eldest brother and who is younger one. Krodh. Kamat krodho bhijayate. And like that four others chandal Chokdi. The whole team is there and they have a strategy to get us, to grab us, to fool us. So the Lord said, anyway originally because Arjun had asked this question. Third chapter. The bhagavad Gita towards the end at…
yam kem papam charyati purush. And then annich varshapi balat yojita.

Arjuna uvacha
atha kena prayukto’ yam
papam charati purushah
anichchhann api varshneya
balad iva niyojitah
(BG.3.36)

This is a question. We donot even how to ask questions or write questions. Arjun has asked questions on our behalf and Bhagavad-Gita is perfect question, Perfect answer. Presentation. so annichapi, Sometimes I donot know this is not good. No, I Should not do know I know this, balad iva niyojitah. But someone is dragging us forcing us. Who is it, What is it, that gets me to do something even anichchhann api varshneya balad iva niyojita?. Answer to that question krsna says kama esha krodha esha . that’s first only two parties are mentioned whether shad repoos are theirs and this world is full of repoos. Pakistan is not your repoos. Hari Hari. Ravan is inside us

Hiranyakashpu inside us. We are small small hiranyakashapoos. There is to be time. This there is to be time which is a fact. Demons were smaller in number but bigs in size. Giant Size. What has happened now. Number has multiplied. Size has produced. So is my enemy? This one or this one, this one. So while we are pointing to someone one finger. Three fingers no no.. someone else you are .. you are.. you.. yourselves are our enemies. Hari Hari. Krishna as third chapter, you should study this towards the end of the third chapter. The question of Arjun and krishna is talking. Not only he has said, the lust is your enemy but where does lust reside in the bodies.

indriyani mano buddhir,
asyadhishthanam uchyate
etair vimohayatyesha
jnanam avritya dehinam
(BG 3.40)

Lust is sitting. Lust has a base in the body where indriyani all the senses. Mind and intelligence. If intelligence is taken over by enemy. Then finished right. Hari Hari. So we pray.

tesham satata-yuktanam
bhajatam priti-purvakam
dadami buddhi-yogam tam
yena mam upayaanti te
(BG 10.10)

Lord may give us buddhi to make money. Right? Listen to say what Lord says “dadami buddhi-yogam tam yena mam upayanti te” I give intelligence. I kindly give intelligence to somebody and why and what for does he would or should or could use that intelligence. yena mam upayanti te” He should use that intelligence for Aina so that Mam unto me.upayanti. up means near. Yanti means to go, to go or to come near me , come towards me. He should use the intelligence. Otherwise you are less intelligent. Fool number.one. Scientists are .. Prabhupada did not spare. So scientists are fool number one. We never heared anyone, scientists called fool, what? this was unheared of, I dreamed of. Prabhupada, first one. He never spared one. and that way. Prabhupada, this is Prabhupada Bhagvad Gita as it is.

na mam dushkritino mudhah
prapadyante naradhamah
mayayapahrita-jnana
asuram bhavam ashritah
(BG 7.15)

Four kinds of people never surrender to me. They are the rascals, they are demons. They are this, they are that. So this is bhagavad-gita as it is. In good old days and (reminded us- till 10 right?) In Juhu temple had just started and Juhu being Prabhupada’s office. “ Bombay is my office. Srila Prabhupada spend lots of time and there’s a Kurukshetra war also you know. This is a battle between Mr. Anne and Iskcon and foreigner. Prabhupada spending lots of time in Juhu. And good fortunate, we were brahmachari in Bombay beginning with 1971-72. So what am I… Okey Okey.. so this is a nice Sunday, I guess used to come from downtown with their cars and with their wives well dressed and themselves also with them ties and this three-piece suit and they’re all sitting. Prabhupada talk of rascals and demons, fool number ones and so I was just a new devotee. I had a little difficulty digesting, what prabhupada had to say but nice people, gentleman and rich their wives are sitting next to them as rascals, fools. Could not he use some better terms. Gradually I realised, this is Bhagwad Gita as it is.

avajananti mam mudha
manusim tanum asritam
param bhavam ajananto
mama bhuta-mahesvaram
(BG 9.11)

Gradually, I trained up. Also started to call… you fool, you rascals, you this…. Somethings, somethings that we cannot say much as Prabhupada. Hari Hari.

So going back to our living entities parts and parcels which are anshs of anshi Lord. He is anshi, We are ansha. So this is what natural. This is our goal of life in fact. Reunite with lord. That’s why he says yogi Bhava. Yogi Bhava

yoginam api sarvesam
mad-gatenantar-atmana
sraddhavan bhajate yo mam
sa me yuktatamo matah
(BG 6.47)

Yogi bhava. Ofcourse these days Prachaar is bhogi bhava. Day and night breaking the news. Commercial and electronic media, this media, that media.. bhogi bhava, bhogi bhava. Just opposite of.. So Kali, Maya is doing this Prachaar. Bhogi Bhava Prachaar. We, the members of International society for Krishna Consciousness, We have to do Prachaar of Yogi Bhava and so that ultimatelty, all the living entities, go back to Krishna that comes around, goes around to… so we have come, where we have come from where we have to go back. You could see the world go back. what did I say? go back. What did I say? what does that imply, what does that mean? Go back, we were there. That’s why go back. Not only go, what we say- go back or back to home, back to godhead. So that would be the perfection. In year 1971, Cross Maidan festival, you heard about that one, which myself and Radhanath Maharaja amongst 10,000 to 20,000 folks of Bombay were also joining but two of us also were there.

Anyway during that festival Girga Chowpatty. from Girga chowpatty to cross Maidain, there’s processi or Shobhayatra started here. I attended this one. I was at girga Chawpaty. May be March, April 71. Whenever I come this side or like I came, I was driving quite girgao chawpatty yesterday. Not only I was reminded of Prabhupada was there. He spoke, he addressed, but reminded me. Of course, I never forget so, when you forget something then just talk out then we said reminder, but I had never forget, so I would not say it was a reminder, Just maybe clicked again. And that Prabhupada was talking of going back to godhead. Prabhupada was talking about Vailkuntha Right? At Girgao Chawpaty. The goal of life is to return home, back to godhead. Back to home. Who was making this point. I want to just say that as much as prabhupada talked about spiritual sky, which others also may be talking but we have to go back to home, back to godhead. That’s the goal, others don’t seem to be not talking much or not emphasizing not repeating going back to godhead and how many times if we do counting in with the base. You’ll find thousands up to thousands of times, thousands of times practically every talk, every lecture you will hear, going back to home going back to home… going back to home… back to godhead. And of course he’s doing this on behalf of Sri Krishna Chaitnaya Mahaprabhu. Sri Krishna Chaitnay Mahaprabhu ki jai.

This is Gaudiya Vaishnavs, more than other vaishnavs. And of course only vaishnavas would talk of spiritual sky, Vaikuntha even Vishnu and Vishnu Lok and all the residents of Vaikunth are called vaishnavas or those who accept Vishnu as a supreme personality of godhead.

bahunam janmanam ante
jnanavan mam prapadyate
vasudevah sarvam iti
sa mahatma su-durlabhah

(BG. 7.19)

Who surrender into me, jnanavan mam prapadyate. jnanavan mam prapadyate. What does his gyan. How much does he know? vasudevah sarvam.finished. All that they know is. Prabhupada translates. Vasudev is all in all. Vasudeva is all in all.

vasudevah sarvam iti. Iti means this much. How much? vasudevah sarvam. Jnanavan those who know this much. They surrender unto mam, unto the Lord and they are Mahatma’s. sa mahatma su-durlabha?. Not only durlabh. Su-durlabhah. Very very rare. So amongst all those who talk of why could not and of course about krishna Vishnu vaikunth. And something we know, we a little more than other vaishnavas also. You know golok av nisvati akhilatmbhutk.. tele.. hari dham cha Meshesh teshu teshu all this cosmology. Astronomy. You see through the eyes of brahma and he will you see Shashra-Chakshu. You donot need telescopes. And how much telescopes are showing you, not much. They haven’t even seen the end of one universe. Have they reached now? That’s somewhere in the middle.

These days they are talking, as we are sending signals to other planets all around. Folks they are also sending their signals. They are capturing, they are registering. They are saying, they are 36. Civilization out there, I donot know what is reason to say. They are 36 civilzation out there, out there. This is big progress one time. There’s no… that life is only on the earth but now that there civilzations out there. intelligent. Anyway but still what they are captured all knowledge they have gathered information gathering they’re doing with their telescopes. They are called Pratyakshavadies. We are Prokshwadi and they are pratyakshvadies. Prati-Aksh. Whatever they could see or whatever they could smell, whatever they could hear or touch or test there is all that exists but our understanding is all that is said by the Lord, all that is in the scriptures. That is all truth, all that exists.
Acharyavan purusho veda

Upanishads says. All that they are there is do is acharyavan. Become acharayan. One who has Dhan,he is Dhanwaan. like that.. many words are formed like that. So one who has acharye or accepted acharya in his life is Acharyavan. Then what happens. Acharyavan Purusho. That person who has accepted acharya veda he gets to know. He becomes knowledgeable or Acharyavan Purusho veda. Or the other term very famous one is Shastra chakshusha, seeing through the eyes of the scriptures. (removing glasses…. Now I donot see much, Now I see.) so the scripture has two pairs of glasses also right one and two. As we see through, read through, then we get to know get to see in fact including the Lord

premanjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena
santah sadaiva hrdayesu vilokayanti
yam syamasundaram acintya-guna-svarupam
govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami
(BS 5.38)

With the help of Sadhu-Shashtra acharye.. we get to know, get to see and touch, smell, realised.. so that arrangement is there and we should be taking full advantage of this. Lord has very kindly brought us, all of us in contact with Srila Prabhupada.

International Society for Krishna Consciousness ki Jai.
Srila Prabhupada ki Jai.
Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu ki jai.

Of course this movement is Chaitanya Mahaprabhu movement. He is original founder.

ajanu-lambita-bhujau kanakavadatau
sankirtanaika-pitarau kamalayataksau
visvambharau dvija-varau yuga-dharma-palau
vande jagat priya-karau karunavatarau || 1 ||
Gauranga Nityanand! Gauranga Nityanand!

Let it go more to my effort. So that’s Gauranga, Nityanand. This is their movement

Vande Sri-Krsna-Caitanya-
Nityanandu Sahoditau
Gaudodaye pushavantu
Citrau sandau tamo-nudau
(CC Adi lila 1.2)

This is a prayer at the Lotus feet of Gauranga and Nityanand. They have given us this movement. Srila Prabhupada then established this moment founded in 1966. I do not have time but I want to say that Prabhupada said- the books are the basis. He said the other things also. Purity is force. Utilities is the Principle and remaining Preaching is essense. So I think the Preaching is these essense and book are the basis. So this is something we are. We should be right now. Get more serious about. This is Marathon time. Right? Gita Jayanti Mahostav ki Jai.

In ISKCON there is always a Marathon. Every day is Marathon. but occasionally, there’s more emphasize. Emphasis on and then we call that as Marathons also Bhagavad-Gita distribution Marathon has already begun right? I think used to be one month nowadays, double it. This time their Marathon is going to be lasting for at least two months. So please get into action. Is anything that you could give in Charity to others to you near dear ones or love the neighbour as thyself Bible Says to love the neighbour as thyself but do not just keep saying I love you, I love you. Do something , You know, I love you. This could be just lip service. So do not just do lips service. Do something Practical, tangible. So give them Prabhupada’s books which are Krishna’s books. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s books. We call them Prabhupada books. Prabhupada has translated and presented and packaged. So, we Call Prabhupada’s books. I thought so. The Shashtras are most essential. There’s lots of lots of ignorance around, lots of ignorance. So,

Tamso Ma Jyotirgamaya
We want to bring people to the light and the source of light is Krishna, I want to bring us everyone back to Krishna and doing this is the topmost Welfare activity. We are all Human beings. Yes we are. We look like and we should prove that we are. They’re saying that. Propkarya idm shareem. Manushya shareeram Propkarya. This human form of life is for Propakaraya like

Paropakaraya Falanti Vrksah
Paropakaraya Vahanti Nadyah.
Paropakaraya Duhanti Gavah
Paropakarartth Midam Sarira,.

Reverse Flow or Share Water and this is their Propakaar They do not drink themselves but they share with others then Propakaraya Falanti Vrksah. Fruits trees are giving in Charity. Take Fruits, Take Fruits. Take Fruits and Propakaraya Duhanti Gavah.. So this Trees, cows, rivers do, we are in the list. then conclusion Propakaraya idim… this one.. Shareram for Proakaraya, so please distribute books.. distribute books.. distribute books.. Read books.. Read books. Read books. And more you read, mor will you like to distribute also. you will Krishna on the pages. Basically, distributing books is distributing Krishna, sharing Krishna. So you all have Krishna, You all have Krishna in different forms and form of the holy name, We have Krishna Radha.. Radha Gopinath ki Jai.

You have Krishna in the form of Radha Gopinath. Srila Prabhupada’s books, you have Krishna in form of Prabhupada’s books. you have Mahaprasade Govinde.. that is also Krishna’s form. Annapara Brahma says not only Arjuna said Param Brahma Param Dhama to Krishna. Anna when it is offered to Krishna, it becomes Param Brahma, So you have all this. You have all this… So don’t be miserly. The Maganimous.. as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Srila Prabhupada ki Jai. So, each one you should all take your quotas, five, ten and twenty thousands, five thousands and distribut flood Mumbai with Srila Prabhupada’s books. Gehe Gehe Jane Jane. This was also Narad Muni’s Strategies, I want to bring bhakti to every home, Jane Jane means every person. So we are in that Parampara of Narada Muni also. Srila Prabhupada ki Jai, and it is said this book printing and book distribution is our transcendental business, is the only business that we do or we emphasize on their business. Okay,
Thank you.

Srimad Bhagavatam katha day 3
Pune Hadapsar
27th December 2022

Can you all hear at the back? I know you can all hear on the monitor. Okay, apart from welcoming you all it is also important that I thank you for your coming here today. I can see that you are not getting tired although you have been coming for two days (shouts of Haribol).

vayam tu na vitrpyamau
uttama sloka vikrame
yac chrnvatam rasa jnanan
svadu svadu pade pade
(Srimad Bhagavatam 1.1.19)

Translation
We never tire of hearing the transcendental pastimes of the Personality of Godhead, who is glorified by hymns and prayers. Those who have developed a taste for transcendental relationships with Him relish hearing of His pastimes at every moment.

There were many sages who had gathered at Naimisaranya, there was a big gathering of eight eight thousand and they all said ‘vayam tu na vitrpyamau. We are not becoming tired of listening about the transcendental pastimes of the lord. Svadu svadu pade pade, we want to hear these at every moment. So these feelings are also coming to all of you and what can be said about your enthusiasm?

Today you have made a great achievement and you have made a great uproar. How many days he had been sitting down, but today you have all stood up, and not only did you stand up but you were all dancing! Haribol! By listening to the pastimes of the lord, there is perfection and satisfaction and this was what was discussed at the end of the Bhagavad Mahatmya.

The four Kumaras were speaking on the pastimes of the lord continuously and the lord suddenly appeared there with so many of his associates. Then there was a Maha Sankirtan, a great Sankirtan and everyone including Jnana and Vairagya started dancing. In the same way when we first enter and start listening to the pastimes of the lord initially, we are in the same situation which Jnana and Vairagya were in, but they also started dancing.

I am sure the lord who is here present before us in his deity form and he is here is his form of the holy name

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

This is also a form of the lord.

kali kale nama rupe krsna avatara
nama haite haya sarva jagat nistara
(Caitanya Caritamrita Adi 17.22)

Translation
In this Age of Kali, the holy name of the Lord, the Hare Krsna maha mantra, is the incarnation of Lord Krsna. Simply by chanting the holy name, one associates with the Lord directly. Anyone who does this is certainly delivered

Once there was a discussion about the different forms of the lord and it was discussed that one form of the lord is which one? Kali kale nama rupe krsna avatara, the lord appears in the form of his holy name.

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

when we chant, the lord appears.

nama nache jiva nache nache prema dhana jagat nachaya maya kare palayana
(Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur)

The Name dances, the soul dances, and divine love dances. The whole world then begins to dance and Maya flees.

The name starts to dance also which means that the lord is dancing and the jiva is dancing also. Then by doing this, everyone attains prema dhana, prema dhana. Krishna prema pradaya te.

Namo maha vadanyaya
Krishna prema pradaya te Krishnaya Krishna Chaitanya
namine gaura tvishe namah
(Rupa Goswami)

I offer my respectful obeisances unto the Supreme Lord Shri Krishna Chaitanya, who is more magnanimous than any other avatara (incarnation of the Supreme Lord), even Krishna Himself, because He is bestowing freely what no one else has ever given – pure love of Krishna.

Krishna kahnaiya lal ki jai! Dwarakadhish ki jai! Kahnaiya lal is in Vrindavan and Dwarakadhish is in Dwaraka. We are speaking a little about the pastimes of Dwarakadhish, I think I have not spoken of everything in full so you will only understand in accordance to what has been spoken. It is true that we can never speak fully on the glories of pastimes of Srimad Bhagavatam, we can only speak in a limited manner.

This is because the pastimes of the lord are a sea, a whole ocean is there, it is unlimited. Krishna Katha is an ocean out of which we can only spray or throw a few drops from that ocean upon you all by speaking something. A few drops from the ocean we can take and even these few drops of the nectar of the pastimes of the lord is enough for us. These few drops then become an ocean for us.

om purnam adah purnam idam purnat purnam udacyate purnasya purnam adaya purnam evavasisyate
(Sri Isopanisad invocation)

Translation
The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete. And because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as a complete whole. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete by itself. And because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.

Whatever comes out of this ocean of transcendental pastimes becomes complete also. Sarvatma snapanam param vijayate sri krsna sankirtanam

ceto darpana marjanam bhava maha davagni nirvapanam sreyah kairava candrika vitaranam vidya vadhu jivanam anandambudhi vardhanam prati padam purnamrtasvadanam sarvatma snapanam param vijayate sri krsna sankirtanam
(Siksastakam 1)

Translation
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.

Once we become part of this Sankirtan movement, which for us is just a drop in the ocean of transcendental pastimes of the lord, then what do we do? We take bath in that ocean or there is a bathing of our soul and along with this, yayatma suprasidati.

sa vai pumsam paro dharmo
yato bhaktir adhoksaje
ahaituky apratihata
yayatma suprasidati
(Srimad Bhagavatam 1.2.6)

Translation
The supreme occupation, or dharma, for all humanity is that by which men can attain to loving devotional service unto the transcendent Lord. Such devotional service must be unmotivated and uninterrupted in order to completely satisfy the self

The soul will be happy, and that soul is us ourselves because we are not this body but we are the spirit soul. When you were all dancing I was thinking that now you are all relaxed, right? ‘Relax, take it easy- relax!’ There is so much tension and pressure in the whole world and there is operation in separation and depression by which the whole world is troubled. That’s why I was thinking when I saw you dancing that ‘now you’re relaxed. You are now at home.’

You’re soul is now taking that joy, stealing joy just like when a person dances, what should we take from that? We should understand that the person must be very happy and that’s why he is dancing. It is also true that crazy people dance as well, Hari Hari. Well, we can also dance because we are crazy for Krishna and we can be called crazy as well.

kiba mantra dila, gosani, kiba tara bala
japite japite mantra karila pagala
(Caitanya Caritamrita Adi 7.81)

Translation
My dear lord, what kind of mantra have you given Me? I have become mad simply by chanting this maha mantra

Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, ‘what kind of mantra have you given Me? Since you have given me this mantra what has happened? I have become mad simply by chanting this maha mantra. Japite japite mantra karila pagala. The people of Mayapura, Navadwipa are calling me mad, a crazy man.’ Actually every person is mad, some are mad after Maya and some are mad after Hari Katha, crazy to hear Krishna’s pastimes.

As I was coming here, on the way as I went to sit in the car, I met a Mataji who was here yesterday in the katha and she was saying also that ‘Maharaja, yesterday’s talk which you gave, this katha has made me mad. This is because on the way home and upon reaching home I kept thinking of all the things which you had spoken in the katha.I was listening to your katha and so I was not even able to sleep at night also.’

If I have pleased at least one person and that’s job satisfaction. I am doing a job here by speaking in the pastimes of Krishna and I am satisfied that by my doing so, at least one person has become happy. I dont know if any of you ate happy or not but at least one person was, (shouts of Haribol). Thank you. So Dwarakadhish ki jai. Dwarakadhish went to Kuruksetra three times and once her went during the time of a solar eclipse and this is going back five thousand years ago.

When there is an eclipse of the sun or it can be an eclipse of the moon which also takes place, the saintly persons go to a scared river or lake to take bath. So the supreme lord himself, Dwarakadhish went along with his queens, and there were how many in number? Sixteen thousand one hundred and eight and of course his parents were there too, Vasudeva and Devaki. And also there were many ministers there along with the lord, and they were just about to leave.

If I tell speak like this then the story will start but actually all of this is part of the story, the katha but I was not supposed to speak in this way and so I wont do so. Anyway so, I’m talking to myself, so almost a hundred years ago or itself possible that it’s a little less than that, the Brajavasi’s were feeling sunyayitam jagat sarvam govinda virahena me

yugayitam nimesena caksusa pravrsayitam sunyayitam jagat sarvam govinda virahena me
(Siksastakam 7)

Translation
O Govinda! Feeling Your separations I am considering a moment to be like twelve years or more. Tears are flowing from my eyes like torrents of rain, and I am feeling all vacant in the world in Your absence.

For the Brajavasi’s in Vrindavan it was sunyayitam jagat sarvam. They were feeling the while world to be vacant without Govinda and you can take it that they were dying due to feelings of the intense separation from the lord. They were so anxious to meet the lord, you can’t even imagine how much. Krishna knew of this and he was also missing them of course. ‘Odho mohi Braj visrat nahi. Oh Uddhava I cannot forget Braja, Vrindavan. Yeh mathura kanchan ki nagari.’

At that time Krishna was in Mathura so he was telling Uddava ‘this Mathura is a city made of gold. There is always business dealings going on here of gold and silver and so many other things. But in Vrindavan the dealings are the dealings of love and so I not happy with all these other business dealings here in Mathura. Oh Uddhava, mohi Braj visrat nahi. Oh Uddhava I cannot forget Braja.’ So both parties were missing each other and when these things are discussed, we should see if we are also missing the lord.

This is our misfortune, that we think we can live in separation from the lord. As it is said, what sort of life is that? Some people say like this but I am saying, ‘what sort of life is this, to live without Krishna? What life is this without the supreme lord?’ For the soul the only life is Krishna otherwise there is only death or there is death again and again.

punarapi jananam punarapi maranam punarapi janani jathare sayanam, iha samsare bahudusare krpaya’pare pahi murare
(Sankarachrya bhaja govindam verse 21)

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.

Sankarachrya has sung this in the bhaja govindam bhajan. Bhaja govindam bhaja govindam govindam bhajamudhamate.

bhaja govindam bhaja govindam
govindam bhajamudhamate
samprapte sannihite kale
nahi nahi raksati dukrumkarane
(Sankarachrya bhaja govindam verse 1)

Translation
Worship Govinda, Worship Govinda, Worship Govinda. Oh fool! Rules of Grammar will not save you at the time of your death

‘You fool! What should you do? bhaja govindam. Govindam bhajamudhamate. Worship Govinda.

In Varanasi there was one Maha Pandit, a great expert knower of Sanskrit and he kept speaking Sanskrit and he was the one Sankarachrya was speaking to when he said ‘oh fool bhaja Govindam, worship Govindam.’ And what is that one bhaje Pandurangam?

When Sankarachrya cane to Pandharpura, I was supposed to be speaking on another subject but anyway when he came to Pandharpura he took darshan of Pandharinath, of Vitthal Rukmini. Then he wrote one Astaka called the Panduranga Astaka, Panduranga Panduranga. In this Astaka he says Parabrahma lingam bhaje Pandurangam. Lingam means the form , although those who preach Advaita, about the formless and the lord who has no qualities are called Mayavadi’s.

Sankarachrya had come to preach this Mayavada and he did this also but those who preach like this say that the lord has no form and neither does the lord have any qualities also. That Sankarachrya who was preaching that the lord was formless and without qualities came to Pandharpura and started saying ‘bhaja Govindam.’ Actually this he was already saying in Varanasi and so when he came to Pandharpura he said ‘Parabrahma lingam bhaje Pandurangam.’

You say it to, Parabrahma lingam bhaje Pandurangam, Parabrahma lingam bhaje Pandurangam. I was speaking or rather I was asking if we really miss Krishna and I was also reminding everyone that we must miss the lord. We have to think of the lord to be able to miss him and so when Krishna had to go to Kuruksetra to bathe in the lake calles Surya Kunda, Dwarakadhish sent a personal letter addressed to the residents of Vrindavan, to each individual. He sent a hand written letter, not typed because typed is not personal.

He signed it ‘yours sincerely Dwarakadhish.’ When that letter was received by Nanda Baba and even Radharani and the Gopis, the cowherd boys, everyone had a personal invitation. There was no limit to the joy of all the residents of Vrindavan who shouted ‘we will go! Kuruksetra dham ki jai! Let’s go to Kuruksetra, let’s go to Kuruksetra!’ I was trying to say in brief that in Kuruksetra there was a meeting between the residents of Dwaraka and Dwarakadhish with the residents of Vrindavan, the Brajavasi’s. There was a great reunion.

itidrk sva lilabhir ananda kunde sva ghosam nimajjantam akhyapayantam
tadiyesita jnesu bhaktair jitatvam punah prematas tam satavrtti vande
(Damodarastakam verse 3)

Translation
By such childhood pastimes as this He is drowning the inhabitants of Gokula in pools of ecstasy, and is revealing to those devotees who are absorbed in knowledge of His supreme majesty and opulence that He is only conquered by devotees whose pure love is imbues with intimacy and is free from all conceptions of awe and reverence. With great love I again offer my obeisances to Lord Damodara hundreds and hundreds of times.

The joy and pastimes of that meeting was enjoyed by all who were present there in Kuruksetra and there manifested a lake or ocean which was made of joy. Anandambudhi vardhanam prati padam purnamrtasvadanam

ceto darpana marjanam bhava maha davagni nirvapanam sreyah kairava candrika vitaranam vidya vadhu jivanam anandambudhi vardhanam prati padam purnamrtasvadanam sarvatma snapanam param vijayate sri krsna sankirtanam
(Siksastakam 1)

Translation
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.

So purnamrtasvadanam, they were tasting that joy and so the residents of Vrindavan had gone there at this time to Kuruksetra with a decision which they had made and what was that? ‘When we meet Krishna this time, and Balarama will also be there, we will not let them go back again to Dwaraka. We will instead bring then to Vrindavan!’

This was the decision which they had made and how they would bring them to Vrindavan? ‘As the lord was Dwarakadhish, he will certainly come in a chariot,’but the residents of Vrindavan had gone in ox carts.’ The residents if Dwaraka had come in many chariots and there were kings and warriors amongst that gathering and important ministers whereas the business and wealth of the residents of Vrindavan is the cows, Go dhan.

They had many ox’s also and that is how they would travel, in ox carts within Gokul or Vrindavan and so in the same way they had gone to Kuruksetra in the ox carts. Then they were thinking ‘when Krishna and Balaram along with their sister Subhadra would be sitting on their chariot, there may be horses to pull them but we will tell the horses to get out! We will remove those horses and we ourselves will become the horses!

If it is necessary, we can also become donkey’s for the lord, why not? Whether it be a horse or a donkey, it doesn’t matter. We will become that for the supreme lord and we will pull that chariot and bring Krishna and Balaram back to Vrindavan.’ In Jagannath Puri there is a festival of Jagannatha Rathayatra, is there or not? You must have heard of it. There every year, this Rathayatra festival is held in commemoration of this meeting of Kuruksetra.

Krishna did not go to Vrindavan but the attempt was made to take bring Krishna’s chariot by pulling it to Vrindavan. The Jagannatha temple in Jagannatha Puri is the same as Dwaraka or Kuruksetra and there is one more temple in Jagannatha Puri which is called the Gundica temple. This Gundica temple is Vrindavan so when Ratha Yatra in Puri takes place, the people who pull the chariot are in the mood of the residents of Vrindavan, the devotees of Vrindavan.

You could also say they are in Gopi Bhava, the mood of the Gopis or of Nanda Baba in Vatsalya, the mood of parental affection. They could also be in Sakhya Bhava, Like the friends of the lord. They come and take those moods and the they pull Jagannatha’s chariot from Dwaraka or Kuruksetra towards the Gundica temple or Vrindavan. You can say that Jagannatha Rathayatra has this history and the story we have just told behind it.

These are all stories of history, itihasa. Iti means ‘like this’ and asa means ‘it happened.’ So it literally means this is what happened and this is called itihasa, history. Just like the stories of there was once a king and a queen, first the King and then the Queen. The King was Rama and the Queen was Sita. The story of this King and Queen is not just a story but these are the facts of historical events that occurred.

This was the first time that Krishna had visited Kuruksetra and when he went the second time it was Mahabharata and the Kuruksetra war that was going to happen. Dharma kshetre kuru kshetre samaveta yuyutsavah.

Dhritarashtra uvacha dharma kshetre kuru kshetre samaveta yuyutsavah mamakah pandavashchaiva kimakurvata sanjaya (Bhagavad 1.1)

Translation
Dhritarashtra said: O Sanjay, after gathering on the holy field of Kurukshetra, and desiring to fight, what did my sons and the sons of Pandu do?

At that time the lord had gone to Hastinapura in preparation for the war and both Duryodhan and Arjuna reached at the same time to meet the lord. Both of them wanted the lord’s help and participation in the upcoming war. This is all part of the Mahabharata and so the lord said ‘okay, on one side will be my own army, the Narayana army with one akshauhini in number (218,700) and on the other side I will come myself on my own. Also, I will be there but I will not fight.’

The war that was going to take place is called a pastime of the war in the sastras. It is called a pastime because the lord’s pastimes are about to take place there. So it is not that only the Rasa Lila is a
pastime of the lord, the war that took place is also a pastime due to the the lord being present there. In that pastime at the end Duryodhan took the lord’s Narayan army and then he said or he must have thought ‘oh look at that poor Arjuna! I took the while army with thousands of men and he just got one man.’

yatra yogeshvarah krishno yatra partho dhanur dharah tatra shrie vijayo bhutir dhruva nitir matir mama
(Bhagavad 18.78)

Translation
Wherever there is Shri Krishna, the Lord of all Yoga, and wherever there is Arjun, the supreme archer, there will also certainly be unending opulence, victory, prosperity, and righteousness. Of this, I am certain

This is the last sloka of the Bhagavad wherein Sanjaya has spoken, Sanjaya uvaca but in the first sloka of the Bhagavad it was Dhritarashtra uvaca and Dhritarashtra had asked

Dhritarashtra uvacha dharma kshetre kuru kshetre samaveta yuyutsavah mamakah pandavashchaiva kimakurvata sanjaya
(Bhagavad 1.1)

Translation
Dhritarashtra said: O Sanjay, after gathering on the holy field of Kurukshetra, and desiring to fight, what did my sons and the sons of Pandu do?

So he is asking, ‘kimakurvata?’ What is happening once they have decided to go to the battlefield of Kuruksetra?’ What happens in a war? One party wins and the other one loses, there is only win or loss. That is why the answer to the first question of the first sloka in Bhagavad is given in the last sloka of by Sanjaya. That is why it is said Sanjaya uvaca. In the last five slokas of the Bhagavad are spoken by Sanjaya, Sanjaya uvaca.

Sanjaya has said yatra yogeshvarah krishno yatra partho dhanur dharah, wherever there is Shri Krishna, the Lord of all Yoga, and wherever there is Arjun, the supreme archer, what will be there? Tatra shrie vijayo, there will be unending opulence and there will be victory! Wherever there is the pair of Krishna and Arjun, Krishna and his devotee, there is victory.

So remember this. Also it is said in the Mahabharata,

Jayas tu pandu putranam yesam pakse Janardanah
(Mahabharata)

Translation
Victory is always with persons like the sons of Pandu because Lord Krsna is associated with them

Why will the sons of Pandu be victorious? Yesam pakse Janardanah, Lord Janardana is on their side, Krishna is there on their side and that is why victory is assured for the sons of Pandu. There is also another sloka from the Mahabharata

Yato Dharmastato Jayah
(Mahabharata)

Translation
Where there is Dharma, there will be Victory

There will always be victory where there is righteousness. Satyameva Jayate na anrtam, the truth always prevails. Why is it said ‘eva jayate?’ They could have said ‘satyam jayate’ but no, it is ‘satyameva jayate.’ Eva means only, it is emphasised in this way to show that only the truth can prevail. Not that the truth prevails but only the truth prevails. Satyameva jayate. Usually we hear only these two words but there is another part to this saying, nanritam.

This word nanritam means that victory can never come to the untruth, to those who speak falsely and who lie. Na means not and ritam means truth so nanritam is untruth. Hari Hari. Let me tell you first and then I will come back to the war, the third time Krishna comes to Kuruksetra is after the war has ended. Krishna goes to Hastinapur with the Pandavas and King Yuddhishtir. He then begins to stay in Hastinapura and before the war it was Arjun’s turn to grieve and he was so worried and full if grief.

That is why lord Krishnahad to speak the message of the Bhagavad and then after the war King Yuddhishtir is grieving,‘because of me, for me sixty four crore people had to die including our own friends and relatives and these and those. All this just for me to become the King!’ Krishna was explaining and appeasing them. Firstly Krishna by speaking the message of the Gita to Arjun became famous as the speaker of the Bhagavad . At the end Arjun says

nasto mohah smrtir labdha
tvat prasadan mayacyuta
sthito ‘smi gata sandehah
karisye vacanam tava
(Bhagavad 18.73)

Translation
Arjuna said, My dear Krsna, O infallible one, my illusion is now gone. I have regained my memory by Your mercy, and I am now firm and free from doubt and am prepared to act according to Your instructions

These are Arjun’s last words in the conversation between Krishna and Arjun- karisye vacanam tava. This is the end of the eighteenth chapter and the few slokas that are left at the end are spoken by Sanjaya. So Arjun says ‘karisye vacanam tava, I will act according to your order and I will fulfill your desires.’ This is where the dialogue between Krishna and Arjun ends.

Arjun then says that he has no doubts left within his mind and he has become fixed in his mind by listening to the words spoken by Krishna in the . He has become steadily fixed and sober. Even though Krishna was trying to make Yuddhishtir understand for two months in Hastinapur, he continued to lament. At this time they het the news that Grandfather Bhishma is about to leave his body.

Upon hearing this, Krishna and the five Pandava’s ran to that place, back to Kuruksetra and there is a description of this in the Mahabharata. There were so many Kings and sages who had assembled there when they found out that Grandfather Bhishma was about to depart. Krishna is the supreme personality of Godhead of course, as is Balaram, but amongst all men and devotees, Bhishma is a great personality and he was a great grandfather. His age was around four hundred years and he was a greatly respected personality and so on.

He was of great character and he was respected by the Pandavas and by everyone. He was called ‘Gangeya’ because he was the son of Ganga and he had come down to earth after taking so many lessons and instructions in the heavenly planets. His spiritual master was the supreme lord Parashurama who instructed him in the heavenly abode and that is why when he came from the heavenly planets to earth, he was known a Devavrata.

Then also he had taken a vow so that his father King Santanu could marry the fisherwoman. What was the vow he took? ‘I will be a lifelong Brahmacari!’ This is a great vow. There are many vows that a person can make but this Brahmacari vow is called a Brihad Vrata. ‘I will never get married and I will remain a Brahmacari throughout my whole life!’ When the Gods heard this, they cried ‘what?! This is a very Bhishan vow, a terrible vow. How can the son of a great King take such a vow?’

This is how he got the name Bhishma. In this Kuruksetra war, he was fighting on the side of Duryodhan and he was also the commander in chief for the army. The war went on for eighteen days and the Bhagavad has eighteen chapters also. Hari Hari. The Mahabharata has eighteen Parva’s and one of these parts (Parva) is called Bhishma Parva. You can call the Parva a part or a chapter and the Bhishma Parva starts from chapter twenty five till forty two.

The forty second of chapter of Bhishma Parva is the eighteenth chapter of the Bhagavad gita which means that the Bhagavad gita is basically a small part of Mahabharata which has one hundred thousand slokas. Srila Prabhupada used to say that Mahabharata is the history of Greater India. Bhagavad gita is a part of Mahabharata and because we are Hindus or this or that, we do not sometimes realise that the Bhagavad gita and the Srimad Bhagavatam are two depending books.

So many people think this but I will not ask you all here how many of you know this and how many of you don’t know this. The Gita has been spoken by the lord in Kuruksetra and it has seven hundred slokas and Srimad Bhagavatam is a great book with eighteen thousand slokas in it and twelve cantos. There are three hundred and thirty five chapters, do you understand what a chapter is?

Just like in the Gita there are eighteen chapters, so in Srimad Bhagavatam there are three hundred and thirty five chapters and eighteen thousand slokas. The speaker is Srimad Bhagavatam is Sukadeva Goswami who spoke the Bhagavatam on the outskirts of Hastinapura on the banks of the Ganges. This is where King Parikshit had left his Kingdom and everything, he had become completely renounced and he had come to this place.

All the saints and sages had reached this place and Sukadeva Goswami was welcomed there and this place is called ‘Shuktaal and that tree is there also. That is where Sukadeva Goswami sat, under that tree for seven days reciting the Bhagavatam. That is why it is called a ‘Bhagavad Sapta,’ because Sapta means seven days and that is for how long Sukadeva Goswami’s recitation of Srimad Bhagavatam went on for. Srimad Bhagavatam is like the Puranas and it has
the history of the whole universe in it.

I wont speak on it now but it describes the creation of the universe also and it has so many other things. The Bhagavatam has ten topics and it is the description of the pastimes of the lord and his devotees. The incarnations of the lord who we were describing and speaking of yesterday, all these are described in detail along with the instructions and pastimes of the different incarnations.

Out of the three hundred and thirty five chapters, take note of this- the ninth chapter is a description of Sri Krishna himself. Out of the whole Bhagavatam, the ninth chapter which is the tenth canto is the description of lord Krishna and the eleventh canto has another Gita in it. One is the Bhagavad gita from the Mahabharata but in the eleventh canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam there is one more Gita.

This Gita is also spoken by lord Krishna but this Gita has a different name which is Uddhava gita. Who knew that? Have you heard of this before? Uddhava gita. It has more chapters and slokas than the Bhagavad gita and that is also a Gita, a song of God spoken by Krishna himself. There is a dialogue in the Uddhava gita between Uddhava and Krishna which is in this Uddhava gita but the name given in this is Uddhava’s name, not the lord’s name.

In one sense you can say that Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam are two separate books but when put together they become one complete work. They compliment each other, the Gita and Bhagavatam or you could say that the Gita ends with Krishna’s instruction

sarva dharman parityajya
mam ekam saranam vraja
aham tvam sarva papebhyo
moksayisyami ma sucah
(Bhagavad gita 18.66)

Translation
Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.

But when we open the Bhagavatam what are the first words? Om namo bhagavate Vasudevaya. This is where it begins, telling one to take shelter of the supreme lord Vasudeva. Lord Krishna kept emphasising in Bhagavad gita to Arjun to take shelter of the lord, or rather the spirit soul should take shelter of the supreme lord but the whole of Bhagavatam is the topic of those already under the shelter of the lord. satyam param dhimahi are the words of the first verse of the first chapter in the first canto.

We meditate, dhimahi upon whom? Satyam param, the supreme lord is satya, the supreme truth is the lord. So okay, back to Kuruksetra which is where we were more or less and Krishna has taken the five Pandavas and reached Kuruksetra and there is a gathering of sages who have also come there. From the tenth day of the battle of Kuruksetra till the day of Makar Sankranti, what happens on the 14th of January?

Makar Sankranti. This is when the sun travels from the south hemisphere to the northern hemisphere by changing it’s direction. Also Grandfather Bhishma who had received a blessing from his father, what was that blessing? ‘you can die whenever you desire, and not before then. You will be able to leave your body by your own will. No one will be able to kill you.’ We have a curse upon us but he had gained a blessing. The war went on for many days and even those who survived the war had left for their own kingdoms and the ones who died were dead and gone but Bhishma was still there on a bed of arrows.

So he is just lying there and when the lord arrives there with the Pandavas, Bhishma requests ‘get me some water.’ Duryodhan and his party should not have been present there but they were there and so Duryodhan bought back a vase full of water. ‘No, no not this water! I need Ganga jal, the Ganges water.’ So Arjun took out his famous bow the Gandiva and the water of the Ganges appeared from the earth and went straight into the mouth of Grandfather Bhishma.

Because his arms were busy as they had been tied down in the bed of arrows so he couldn’t drink with his arms, so Arjun arranged like this for him to be able to drink Ganges water. Arjun ki jai! This is Arjun, the greatest archer, he was the number one, at least he was the best of his time. There was a person called Ekalavya who was also a great archer but he was asked by Drona, ‘give me your thumb as my fee’s for being your Guru.’

So his number went down and in this way Arjun remained the number one archer. So over there, King Yuddhishtir who was still lamenting over the outcome of the war , had a dialogue which was in that him and Grandfather Bhishma. So in that dialogue, whatever Grandfather Bhishma said to him made that grief go away. Just like Arjun said in the Gita ‘nasto mohah smrtir labdha tvat prasadan mayacyuta’

nasto mohah smrtir labdha
tvat prasadan mayacyuta
sthito ‘smi gata sandehah
karisye vacanam tava
(Bhagavad gita 18.73)

Translation
Arjuna said, My dear Krsna, O infallible one, my illusion is now gone. I have regained my memory by Your mercy, and I am now firm and free from doubt and am prepared to act according to Your instructions

In the same way, when King Yuddhishtir heard the words of Grandfather Bhishma he became free from illusion, doubt and lamentation. The lord was showing the world that ‘the message of my devotee, whatever words come out of the lotus mouth of my devotee is even more powerful than my own words.’ He is demonstrating this here in this incident where the lord was so tired trying to explain these things to King Yuddhishtir, but here Grandfather Bhishma got the glory of instructing the King and all who were present there.

Also King Yuddhishtir became peaceful and happy and along with all these happenings, Grandfather Bhishma is now getting ready to leave his body. He will get ready to leave his body now and the way in which he will do leave his body and his situation at this point is a very difficult situation which he is in. There are very few instances of someone leaving their body in such a way because we were singing just yesterday

Itna to karna swami, jab prana tan se nikale
govinda nama leke, tab prana tan se nikale

Translation
Oh Lord, Please do this much, when the soul leaves my body, that I take Your beautiful name of Govinda.

Then we add to the last part, ‘oh lord you too should come at that time to give your darshan and may it be on the bank of the Ganges.’ In those days the river Saraswati used to flow through the Ganges but now it does not flow there. So we can say on the banks of the Saraswati and especially in the presence of lord Krishna, having darshan of the lotus face and the lotus feet and all the limbs of the lord, meditating on the form of the lord, Grandfather Bhishma left his body.

Grandfather Bhishmadeva ki jai! So this was the third time in which Krishna came to Kuruksetra. I will speak a little about the second time the lord went to Hastinapura in the time we have left. This is during the time of the war, when war was still going in and Krishna said that he will be there in the battlefield but he will not fight. So the lord has come there and just see which role he has taken. Krishna has become Partha Sarathi, have you heard this name before?

Partha meaning Arjun and he has become the sarathi, the chariot driver of Arjun. Krishna has become a driver! What can Krishna not become for his devotee. Before this he had also become a messenger and he had gone to Hastinapura to compromise before the war. That time when he went, he had pleaded on behalf of the Pandavas, ‘if you cannot give them half the kingdom then at least give them five villages.’ Krishna had made a suggestion like this but the answer he got was ‘five villages are a lot!

I will not give them the land in which you could fit the point of a needle!’ Then from one viewpoint the lord’s mission was unsuccessful so the only other solution was to have the war. This was all after the Pandavas were exiled to the forest of twelve years, was it twelve or fourteen years? Twelve years yes, lord Rama’s exile was fourteen years and the Pandavas also had to stay incognito, in hiding for a year and the Kingdom of Virat is where they chose to hide, where Krishna and Balaram came to see them.

From there Krishna was asked to go to Hastinapura with the suggestionof the five villages and that is when Duryodhan tried to arrest lord Krishna. What did the lord do? He showed his universal form, ‘try to arrest me. You can’t do anything!’ He had also arranged beforehand a big party and welcome and he wanted to host a meal for the lord, but Duryodhan’s nature was so wicked and he was also so arrogant amd the lord could smell the foul smell of his arrogance.

The lord therefore did not accept the invitation to eat at the place of Duryodhan and in fact the lord left his place. Because the lord is going to soon say in the ninth chapter of the Gita, ‘patram puspam phalam toyam yo me bhaktya prayacchati.’

patram 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, fruit a water, I will accept it

The lord has said in the ninth chapter, ‘patram puspam phalam toyam’ which means vegetarian food. Actually we should not even be taking a vegetarian diet because we need to be
Krishna-tarian. This means that anything we eat shouldn’t be offered to the lord first because the lord is the enjoyer as he has said in the Gita ‘bhoktaram yajna. tapasam’

bhoktaram yajna tapasam
sarva loka mahesvaram
suhrdam sarva bhutanam
jnatva mam santim rcchati
(Bhagavad gita 5.29)

Translation
The sages, knowing Me as the ultimate purpose of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attain peace from the pangs of material miseries

The food, the ingredients should be for the lord’s enjoyment and the when he eats that it becomes Prashad, mercy which is for us. One time lord Krishna went to the home of Vidhura and Vidhura was living in a small little cottage along with Vidhurani, his wife and when Krishna came, well Krishna is like a VVVIP. He is a very, very, very important person and so when the lord came to their little home they both got confused. ‘How shall we welcome the lord properly? Where shall we sit the lord and what can we offer him? What can we offer him to eat?’

At that time, the wife of Vidhura, Vidhurani cut banana skins on a plate instead of the banana. She threw the banana into the dustbin or threw it to one side and instead she kept the skin on the plate and she was cutting that banana skin and feeding it to the lord. When Krishna was eating this he was thinking ‘aaaahh, I have not had a meal like this in my whole life. It is so sweet.’ So we can see what the supreme lord is hungry for. He is hungry for our devotion and our love because the whole world belongs to him, including all the greens and food stuffs he has everything.
He is the one who gives to us all that we have. Eko bahunam yo vidadhati kaman.

nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam
eko bahunam yo vidadhati kaman
tam atmastham ye ‘nupasyanti dhiras
tesam santih sasvati netaresam
(Katha upanisad 2.2.13)

Translation
The Supreme Lord is eternal and the living beings are eternal. The Supreme lord is cognizant and the living beings are cognizant. The difference is that the
Supreme Lord is supplying all the necessities of life for the many other living entities

Krishna is the one who fulfils the desires of everyone, and so what could we actually feed him? Krishna is not hungry but here Vidhurani pleased him by her act of devotion just like Sabari had pleased lord Rama. Who says that the lord does not eat? Of course he does but we do not feed him in the same manner that Sabari or Vidhurani did or how Yashoda used to feed the lord. That is why Krishna may not be eating now.

Mostly people do not eat patram puspam phalam toyam but instead of these vegetables and fruits they are eating mutton and chicken. Hari Hari. This is not the diet for Krishna and this is not the menu for us humans either and this is an abomination. So Krishna has brought Arjun and is reaching Kuruksetra and there is a description in the Gita

tatah shvetairhayairyukte mahati syandane sthitau madhavah pandavashchaiva divyau shankhau pradadhmatuh
(Bhagavad gita 1.14)

Translation
Then, from amidst the Pandava army, seated in a glorious chariot drawn by white horses, Madhav and Arjun blew their Divine conch shells

The lord is driving a great chariot which is being pulled by white horses, shvetair. Sitting on that chariot are Madhava, Krishna and Pandava who is Arjun. Just as they entered the battlefield, divyau shankhau, they both sounded their divine conches. The lord’s conch shell was named Pancajanya, yes there is a name for the conch and Devadattam dhananjayah. Dhananjayah is another name of Arjun’s because he was known as one who could get wealth.

What did Dhananjayah do? He blew his divine conch which was named Devadattam and just as the chariot goes further into the battlefield, Arjun says, ‘let me see who has come here to fight with me! Who can fight with me, who dares to do so?!’ His blood is boiling and he is very enthusiastic to fight and so just as they reach there Arjun says to Krishna senayor ubhayor madhye ratha? sthapaya me ’chyuta

senayor ubhayor madhye ratha? sthapaya me ’chyuta yavadetan nirikshe ’ham yoddhu kaman avasthitan kairmaya saha yoddhavyam asmin rana samudyame
(Bhagavad gita 1.22-22)

Translation
Arjun said: O Infallible One, please take my chariot to the middle of both armies, so that I may look at the warriors arrayed for battle, whom I must fight in this great combat.

So Arjun tells Krishna ‘senayor ubhayor madhye- please take my chariot in between both armies, just take it more forward.’ So Krishna took the chariot forward and put it in between both the armies. If you go even today- have any of you been to Kuruksetra? Put your hand up properly otherwise I cannot see. I know you all have arms but if you have gone then.. Okay some hands are going up. His Holiness Sundar Caitanya Maharaja has also been to Kuruksetra so Kuruksetra dham ki jai!

So that place where Arjun had told Krishna to put his chariot in between both armies, that place now has a chariot and deities of Krishna and Arjun are sitting on that chariot. That chariot is in the exact location of where the chariot was places by Krishna upon Arjun’s request. There is also a tree there which is called Akshayavata.

Krishna’s message of the Gita has not yet started in where I am telling you this story but the message that we know Krishna will tell, that message of the Gita was also heard by this tree. This tree then became immortal and he was a witness and he is there still today, you can see, yes? You are sitting here, but you are taking darshan of that tree so pay your obeisances to the tree and that dham, Kuruksetra.

When Krishna took the chariot in the middle of both armies, the lord began to speak. And whatever I speak today of what Krishna speaks in the Bhagavad gita, this has all been spoken by the lord in the first chapter of Bhagavad gita, so it is only half of what is actually being said. The lord says ‘pasyaitan- look Arjun. You wanted to see who had come here to fight against you didnt you? So see here!’

bhisma drona pramukhatah
sarvesam ca mahi ksitam
uvaca partha pasyaitan
samavetan kurun iti
(Bhagavad gita 1.25)

Translation
In the presence of Bhisma, Drona and all other chieftains of the world, Hrsikesa, the Lord, said, Just behold, Partha, all the Kurus who are assembled here.

Pasyaitan samavetan kurun. It is the Kaurava’s who have come together to fight. When Arjun heard this, he became very much affected and with this Arjun is going to make a U-turn. Before he had a strong desire and so much enthusiasm to fight like a hero but now he will become lax. Gradually Arjun will start saying ‘no no no. You are telling me to fight and that is the reason for us coming here but now mukham ca parisusyati, my throat is drying up. Sidanti mama gatrani, the limbs of my body quivering and gandivam sramsate hastat. My great Gandiva bow is slipping from my hands and you are asking me to fight?

arjuna uvaca
drstvemam sva janam krsna
yuyutsum samupasthitam
sidanti mama gatrani
mukham ca parisusyati
(Bhagavad gita 1.28)

Translation
Arjuna said: My dear K???a, seeing my friends and relatives present before me in such a fighting spirit, I feel the limbs of my body quivering and my mouth drying up.

‘Na ca rajyam sukhani ca, I do not want the Kingdom and hatva sva janam ahave, I do not want to kill my own people, my Kingsmen. Sreyo ’nupasyami, I cannot see how any good can come out of this.’

na ca sreyo ’nupasyami
hatva sva janam ahave
na kankse vijayam krsna
na ca rajyam sukhani ca
(Bhagavad gita 1.31)

Translation
I do not see how any good can come from killing my own kinsmen in this battle, nor can I, my dear K???a, desire any subsequent victory, kingdom or happiness.

Arjun went on and on like this, giving his reasons and at the end Arjun has sat upon the chariot and he has put down his bow and arrow. So this bewildered, confused and sorrowful Arjun needs to be pulled up to stand again. Because one cannot fight whilst sitting down, how is one supposed to fight? By standing up, and if one is sitting then what is to be said to him? ‘Get up!’ Fighting is always done by standing whereas one has a conversation whilst sitting and Arjun is sitting which means?

Anyway, when there is a cart being pulled by a buffalo and there is a big load on that cart and there is a lot of heat on a hot summers day, sometimes the buffalo does not want to pull the cart. Then the farmer or whoever is controlling the buffalo will hit him with a stick so he gets up and then he goes a little further and sits again. Then the farmer will hit him again and so he will go a little further and finally what happens? He sits down and he is saying ‘no more, finished, full stop. I do not want to go further and I do not want to pull this cart!’ So in the same way Arjun sat down and said ‘no war, no fighting.’ Then Krishna speaks his instructions in the Bhagavad gita and in the seventeen chapter especially the lord has said so much and shown so much.

What can be said? Do you all know where Kuruksetra is? It is in the north of Delhi and during the war, Dhritarashtra is sitting in Hastinapura and Sanjaya is there also. So by sitting in Hastinapura, Sanjaya had darshan from far away. It is like a television and he can see what is happening on the battlefield of Kuruksetra whilst sitting in Hastinapura. He is watching the scene and he is even listening to Krishna’s instructions of the Gita.

He is also narrating all this back to Dhritarashtra and he is even having knowledge of what everyone is thinking! Just like he says at the end of the Gita
‘Vyasa-prasadac chrutavan.’

vyasa prasadac chrutavan
etad guhyam aham param
yogam yogesvarat krsnat
saksat kathayatah svayam
(Bhagavad gita 18.75)

Translation
By the mercy of Vyasa, I have heard these most confidential talks directly from the master of all mysticism, Krsna, who was speaking personally to Arjuna

Before the war Srila Vyasadeva had Dhritarashtra and had told him, ‘I can give you sight as you are blind.’ But Dhritarashtra said, ‘oh no no no. I don’t want sight because I will see my sons being killed. Please do not give me vision and do not open my eyes. If you like then you can give Sanjaya this power of attorney.’ That is exactly what happened and honesty is the best policy which is why Sanjaya said at the end of the Gita, Vyasa prasadac.

By the mercy of Vyasa I was able to see and hear all that was happening at Kuruksetra and Sanjaya then narrated everything that was happening on the battlefield to Dhrtarastra whilst sitting in Hastinapura. This Kuruksetra is the place which was ruled once by King Kuru. That is why it is called Kuruksetra, it is the Ksetra, land of Kuru. There was a Kingdom called Kuru close to Kuruksetra and Panchal was also close by.

Panchal is where Draupadi was born and therefore she was known as the daughter of Drupada, Panchali. So both these were both close to each other, it is only recently that they became different states. You can see the map which is five thousand years old and Kuruksetra is in itself a Kingdom also and Panchal is close by, you can see Panchal here. There is also the Kingdom of Kosala close by and also Wardha is there. Five thousand years ago Maharashtra was also there and South India was called Pancha Dravida.

In the sastras, the place we now know as Gujarat was called Gurjaradesa, this is mentioned in the Puranas. Ww cannot say how important Gita is, how great it is. Just like yesterday I was telling you, ‘nigama kalpa taror galitam phalam. Srimad Bhagavatam, the mature fruit of the desire tree of Vedic literatures

nigama kalpa taror galitam phalam
suka mukhad amrta drava samyutam
pibata bhagavatam rasam alayam
muhur aho rasika bhuvi bhavukah
(Srimad Bhagavatam 1.1.3)

Translation
O expert and thoughtful men, relish Srimad Bhagavatam, the mature fruit of the desire tree of Vedic literatures. It emanated from the lips of Sri Sukadeva Goswami. Therefore this fruit has become even more tasteful, although its nectarean juice was already relishable for all, including liberated souls.

In the Bhagavatam it is said that the Gita is also called Gita upanisad. Sarvopanishado gavo, there was a description of the gita where is was said that there was a tree made up of all the scriptures. And in regards to the gita it was said that the cow is made up of all the Upanisads and dogdha gopalanandana. Who is milking the calf? Gopalanandana is Krishna and if there is a cow who is being milked then there must be calf. Parthovatsa, Partha is the Vatsa, the calf.

Sudheerbhoktha, those persons who are intelligent will listen and give attention to the gita. In this way the gita’s milk is described as Amrita, nectar.

sarvopanishado gavo dogdha gopalanandana parthovatsa sudheerbhoktha dugdham gitamrutam mahat
(gita Mahatmya 4)

Translation
The Bhagavad gita is just like a cow, and Lord Krishna who is a cowherd boy, is milking this cow. The milk is the essence of the Vedas, and Arjun is just like a calf. The wise men, the great sages and pure devotees, are to drink the nectarean milk of Bhagavad gita

bharatamrta sarvasvam
visnu vaktrad vinihsrtam
gita gangodakam pitva
punar janma na vidyate
(gita Mahatmya 5)

One who drinks the water of the Ganges attains salvation, so what to speak of one who drinks the nectar of Bhagavad gita? Bhagavad gita is the essential nectar of the Mahabharata, and it is spoken by Lord K???a Himself, the original Visnu.

The lord has given us his mercy in so many ways and the Bhagavad gita is one of the most important gift. It is the lord’s message and as the lord left the earthly planet, he wrote a letter for us and he left that behind. What is that letter? It is the Bhagavad gita and Arjun was made just the via medium for us to receive the instructions of the Gita.

The whole point in the lord reciting the gita was for us, we are the targets for his recitation of Bhagavad gita. This is why we must study Bhagavad gita in this human form of life which we have received with so much different.

ekam sastram devaki putra gitam
eko devo devaki putra eva
eko mantras tasya namani yani
karmapy ekam tasya devasya seva
(Gita-mahatmya 7)

There need be only one holy scripture – the divine Gita sung by Lord Sri Krishna, only one worshipable Lord – Lord Sri Krishna, only one mantra – His holy names, and only one duty – devotional service unto that Supreme worshipable Lord Sri Krishna.

Ekam sastram devaki putra gitam, one scripture is enough, and what is that? Devaki putra gitam, the song of the son of Devaki, that one sastra is enough. Eko devo devaki putra eva, there should be just one God, and anyway that is the case and who is that adi deva? Devaki putra Krishna is the only one lord and that is also sufficient.

One sastra and one lord, then eko mantras tasya namani yani. One mantra for the whole world is sufficient

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

We all should have one job, only one occupation and what is that? Tasya devasya seva, only the service of the lord should be our work and our life. We must always be ready for performing service of the lord, this is what Bhagavad Gita teaches us, it teaches Bhakti Yoga. The international society of Krishna consciousness ki jai, this is also called Iskcon and it’s founder Acharya is Srila Prabhupada ki jai!

Srila Prabhupada presented the Bhagavad gita and he gave it the name Bhagavad gita as it is, and there is a reason behind why Srila Prabhupada called it this but it will take a lot of time to tell you. Anyway there’s no time but I recommend this Bhagavad gita for all of you and this Bhagavad gita is available in how many languages is gita translated in, Maharaja, do you know?

Seventy or eighty? Oh, Bhagavad gita has been translated in eighty languages! This includes Chinese and Swahili for Africans, Hebrew and this one and that one. In eighty languages. And the local devotees of each of these countries are distributing the Bhagavad gita to the people of each country. Devotees are joining and that is why it must be called Bhagavad gita as it is.

Arjun became free from his illusion and he then became ready in his service to the lord, in the same way by reading this Bhagavd gita, thousands and millions of people in over one hundred countries are coming to serve the lord! This is a fact and even in China they have stopped eating mutton and chicken and even rats, they eat everything including rats. I went there a few years back and I found out that they have bread there but which type of bread?

Ant bread, made out of ants and they showed me many fields, ‘this is a red any field and this is a white ant field, this is that kind of field’ and so one kind of ants are put into a certain bread and different ants are put to make a different bread. Whoever will eat this bread is certainly not a human being but a demon. This is why people are becoming diseased and Yuhuan in China is where Covid 19 started.

Then they spread this Covid throughout the whole world and then then the poor Chinese people themselves got it infected. Anyway we pray for the many persons who are losing their lives. We are made from the food we eat and you will think accordingly to what you eat. They say ‘you are what you eat.’ Our body is made of whatever we eat but along with this, the mind is also influenced by what we eat.

Depending on whether we are eating in the mode of ignorance, passion or goodness, we become as such body and mind. It’s a big topic and the three modes of material nature make up one whole chapter of the Bhagavad gita and it is very important. So all if you please be sure to read Bhagavad gita and the Bhagavad gita is here also for you to take. I also thought to speak upon this topic today because in this month of December the lord spoke the Bhagavad gita.

We also know the day, it was on the day of Mokshada Ekadasi and at what time if the day did Krishna speak the Gita? At seven o clock in the morning, at the time of sunrise. The Mahabharata war was a righteous war, so from sunrise it would begin until sunset when it would end daily. So in this way the supreme lord spoke these instructions in the morning at Kuruksetra. Our spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada had also gone there to Kuruksetra in 1975 to see some land and open an Iskcon temple there.

At that time the Prime Minister of India was Gulzarilal Nanda and he was only the Prime Minister for a short time and he became friends with Prabhupada. He had shown Prabhupada this land at Kuruksetra and now I remembered something, as Srila Prabhupada came to Vrindavan from Kuruksetra, the next day Srila Prabhupada on the 6th of December 1975 gave me Sannyasa initiation (shouts of Haribol)!

You are all looking at my Danda, please dont be scared that ‘Maharaja has a Danda.’ It is there for your protection and so Srila Prabhupada gave me a Danda and made me a Tridandi Sannyasi as he returned from Kuruksetra. The eighteenth chapter is called ‘Sannyasa Yoga’ and in this very Kuruksetra there is now an Iskcon temple being constructed called ‘Sri Sri Krishna Arjun Mandir.’

It will look something like this and it the temple inauguration is going to happen in maybe a year or so it could happen. Also this Bhagavad gita is being distributed throughout the world and it has already been distributed to literally ten million people. In China, in America, in Africa, everywhere. The people of those countries are becoming Krishna devotees by reading Bhagavad gita and then they’re distributing Bhagavad gita.

So you all take Bhagavad gita as it is, many people take Bhagavad gita as it is and they keep it somewhere in their home as it is. ‘I have Bhagavad gita as it is and it is still as it was when I bought it.’ So do not just take it home and leave it as it is but open it and please read. When you read it the lord will talk to you, okay I think we have a short clip to show about changing bodies. We are always changing bodies and going from one body to another. The lord has said dehino ’smin yatha dehe
kaumaram yauvanam jara

dehino ’smin yatha dehe
kaumaram yauvanam jara
tatha dehantara praptir
dhiras tatra na muhyati
(Bhagavad 2.13)

Translation
As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change

First – hand experience of “vasamsi jirnani”

vasansi jirnani yatha vihaya
navani grihnati naro ’parani

This body is called a cloth “vasamsi jirnani yatha vihaya”.

Many years ago I had a small accident and had an injury on my head. I went to the hospital, so (taka) stitching, what you people call it? Stitching right? The doctor came with a needle and thread. At that time I realized, “vasamsi jirnani yatha vihaya” This body is like a cloth. When clothes are torn you stitch them. It’s also said “stitch in time, saves the nine.”

If there is a small hole, it should be stitched quickly or it will increase. So the doctor came and he stitched the torn part. I was observing what all he was doing. Then I was convinced, first hand experience “vasamsi jirnani yatha vihaya.”