Glories of Lord Parasurama

Mayapur

Haribol everybody, Hare Krsna.

Welcome and Thank you for joining us. Hari hari, and those who have joined include some very senior exalted vaisnavas, making my job difficult talking in their presence. But I pray unto them also, “Please bless me, give me strength. So, I could talk something worthwhile”.

Reading from canto 9, chapter 16, text number 6. So, to get to the sixth verse we have to read 5 previous verses.
Text 1

sri-suka uvaca
pitropasiksito ramas
tatheti kuru-nandana
samvatsaram tirtha-yatram
caritvasramam avrajat [ SB 9.16.1]

Translation:

Sukadeva Gosvami said: My dear Maharaja Pariksit, son of the Kuru dynasty, when Lord Parasurama was given this order by his father, he immediately agreed, saying, “Let it be so.” For one complete year he travelled to holy places. Then he returned to his father’s residence.

Text 2
kadacid renuka yata
gangayam padma-malinam
gandharva-rajam kridantam
apsarobhir apasyata

Translation: 
Once when Renuka, the wife of Jamadagni, went to the bank of the Ganges to get water, she saw the King of the Gandharvas, decorated with a garland of lotuses and sporting in the Ganges with celestial women [Apsaras].

Text 3
vilokayanti kridantam
udakartham nadim gata
homa-velam na sasmara
kincic citraratha-sprha
Translation: 

She had gone to bring water from the Ganges, but when she saw Citraratha, the King of the Gandharvas, sporting with the celestial girls, she was somewhat inclined toward him and failed to remember that the time for the fire sacrifice was passing.

Text 4
kalatyayam tam vilokya
muneh sapa-visankita
agatya kalasam tasthau
purodhaya krtanjalih

Translation: 
Later, understanding that the time for offering the sacrifice had passed, Renuka feared a curse from her husband. Therefore, when she returned she simply put the water pot before him and stood there with folded hands.

Text 5
vyabhicaram munir jnatva
patnyah prakupito ’bravit
ghnatainam putrakah papam
ity uktas te na cakrire

Translation:
The great sage Jamadagni understood the adultery in the mind of his wife. Therefore, he was very angry and told his sons, “My dear sons, kill this sinful woman!” But the sons did not carry out his order.

Now Text 6, please repeat.
ramah sancoditah pitra
bhratrn matra sahavadhit
prabhava-jno muneh samyak
samadhes tapasas ca sah

Translation: 
Jamadagni then ordered his youngest son, Parasurama, to kill his brothers, who had disobeyed this order, and his mother, who had mentally committed adultery. Lord Parasurama, knowing the power of his father, who was practiced in meditation and austerity, killed his mother and broth ers immediately.

Gaur premanande hari hari bol!

Sri Krsna Caitanya, Help! It is also said, if you remember the lotus feet of Gauranga, then duskaram sukaram bhavet something that is very difficult to do, becomes damn easy to do. duskaram sukaram bhavet. But if you forget the lotus feet of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, then even damn easy thing becomes most difficult thing to do. So, I want to remember Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s lotus feet as I proceed to talk.

So, a little back tracking. This is just a beginning of new chapter, so a little review of the previous chapter or remembering some highlights of the previous chapter or summary of the previous chapter. Whatever you may want to call.

When Kartavirya Arjuna arrived in Jamadagni’s asrama and took away Kamadhenu, that time Parasurama, we will have to say Lord Parasurama. That chapter is entitled as ‘Warrior incarnation of the Lord.’ Somehow that was getting my attention. Lords warrior incarnation. Different varieties of incarnations and this was the warrior incarnation of the Lord. So, He was out of station when Kartavirya Arjuna had come and taken Kamadhenu forcibly, upon arrival he found out what had transpired. And then He wanted to take action. He could not tolerate injustice done. Gone to the capital of Kartavirya Arjuna. Kartavirya Arjuna did not fight himself, but he employed 17 aksauhini divisions to fight with Parasurama. Parasurama on one side and 17 aksauhini divisions on the other side. That’s a lot of army.

Some are on the back of the elephants, some are on the chariots, some are on the back of horses, some foot soldiers. The scriptures call it Caturangi Sena. The army has four kinds of army men as I said that some on the back of horses, chariots, elephants and some are walking. So big number and this was like in Kurukshetra there was 18 aksauhini divisions, so just one less. Those many aksauhini divisions sena or army Parasurama fought with single handedly and swiftly and His arms and weapons were acting swiftly like a mind and a wind it says. And he annihilated all. All went flat.

Lord Parasurama ki – Jai!

So, just see the prowess of my Lord, He is your Lord also, bow down.

“aise sri Parasurama ko mere baram bar pranam hai”

As we say that with Krsna, unto such Krsna I offer my obeisances again and again, and to such Lord Parasurama we offer our obeisance as you just saw what He did with aksauhini. So, then His army was no more in existence. Then Kartavirya Arjuna himself comes on the scene and I would like to remember, Kartavirya Arjuna with his Sahastra Bahu, Bahu means arms and he had one thousand arms. While he was battling with Parasurama. Why He is called Parasurama? because He holds Parasu in His hand. Parasu is a chopper or an Axe is called Parasu. So that is His weapon, so he is known as Parasurama. So, He has two sets of weapons, one is ParaSu (the chopper and the shield) and other one is bow and arrow. So Kartavirya Arjuna, he was holding with his five hundred left hands he was holding the bows, how many? five hundred of them in five hundred left hands, and in five hundred right hands, he was holding or stringing the arrows and shooting. You could imagine the battel.

But Parasurama had only one bow and one arrow but he was counteracting and dismantling all those arrows. So Kartavirya Arjuna couldn’t battle and fight with the use to arrows, then he started picking up and uprooting gigantic trees and throwing them at Parasurama and then Parasurama gets closer and with the chopper he uses chopping technique. He cuts all the arms of Kartavirya Arjuna and then finally whooopppp, finished.

This was a nice scene. Although Parasurama was very ghastly, still as a lila and a pastime of ParaSuram. So when enemy is at distance, Parasurama uses just bow and arrow and when He gets closer to the enemy or when enemy gets closer to Him, then He has chopper. I was thinking, this is Parasurama, there are three Ramas. Parasurama, Sri Rama, Balarama. So Balarama also has two weapons. He is Haldhara, so He has plough and the other weapon is club (Musala). Not regular club, little different kind. Now they offer Musala in Krsna Balarama temple, in the beginning there use to be club like a Hanumana holding club. But it’s not exactly like club, it is translated as club, but it is Musala. He is Musaldhar or Haldhara. What does Balarama do? Sometimes Balarama while fighting with an enemy, He drags His enemy with the help of the plough closer, closer and closer and when the enemy is close enough then shuupp.. with the club, and the enemy is finished.

So then Parasurama returns with Kamadhenu to his father’s grahasta asrama or father is also like a guru for Him, so He returned to His father’s asrama and He has a cow Kamadhenu but as we just finished reading those verses, statements of Jamadagni, He was not happy. “Oh! You killed, you killed Nardeva and this is sin, you committed sinful activity by killing Nardeva. The king who represents the Lord, who is the first citizen, the protector of the citizens and you killed him? This is a sinful act”. So Jamadagni was not at all happy. And that reminded me when Srngi also had committed offence of yet another nardeva, Pariksit Maharaja, then Samyak Rishi was also not happy. “Hey What did you do? You kid, you immature”. So, the Sanskrit word is there Angaha means committing sin. So, both of them Jamadagni Muni as well as Samyak rishi both of them used the same word Angaha, you committed sin, both of them used that word and both of them are chastising and expressing displeasure. Both the parents Jamadagni muni and Samyak rishi.

So then instead of the verse that is in front of us that describes the two qualities of Jamadagni mentioned, prabhava-jnah. First of all, Parasurama was prabhava-jnah. Parasurama knew the prabhava or influence or prowess of his father and spiritual master in regards to two, his prabhava and Samadis, he has undergone meditation. He has become powerful because he meditates. My father meditates. He is a meditator. And tapasaS ca sah, because he is a tapasvi, he undergoes all the austerity and performs meditation and that is why I know his prabhava. I am prabhava-nah, I am the knower of his prabhava. So those two items mentioned in the verse mentioned on the board, in the sixth verse of this chapter. But in the previous verses yet another quality of Jamadagni is mentioned, Ksamaya. Ksama- “You are kid, you are such an intolerant, you could have tolerated whatever Kartavirya Arjuna did. You could have forgiven”. So, this was the stand of Jamadagni. And he also said ksamaya rocate sauri, he said, Lord is pleased when one is tolerant, and he forgives others.

Pariksit Maharaja also did that with Kali, He forgave Kali “Okay you could stay in four places, to set that kind of scene, you could stay in four places, dyutam panam striyah suna”. Gambling means dyutam, panam means drinking, suna is where slaughtering is happening and striyah where there is prostitution. So, these four places you could stay. So, like that
fifth place also was offered. So, king Pariksit exhibited these, being Ksamashil, Ksamasva.

Parasurama had not exhibited that.
ksaminam asu bhagavams tusyate harir isvarah

And Jamadagni also said ksaminam those who are tolerant, aSu bhagavams tusyate Bhagvan becomes please with those who are tolerant. “Okay so you have committed sin so how to get rid of the reactions are waiting”.

So Jamadagni said,

tirtha-samsevaya camho jahy angacyuta-cetanah

You should go to the holy places, tour to the holy places, and develop angacyuta-cetanah. Srila Prabhupada would translate this as develop Krishna Consciousness. You should become Krishna conscious, go to the holy places and tirtha-samsevaya not only sevaya but samsevaya means samyak prakaren sevaya. Go deeper into the service, get into the details of the service, that is the meaning of samsevaya, tirtha-samsevaya and become Krishna conscious. So, then I was thinking that its good that this father, kind and authoritative and knowledgeable and learned and realised Jamadgani, he gave these instructions to his son Parasurama but then what about us?

We also committed sins, yes, any sinner here? One, two.. life after life after life all we did was sinful. Not that we committed one, two, five sin, everything we did was just sinful. Wrong. Because we were busy in Adharma, not in Krishna conscious. Or may be some kind of Dhama but we were not going for sarva-dharman parityajya. Yesterday we were hearing Devamrita Maharaja. His mother was also getting, “Hey, children you have to recite the verse of Bible first, if no recitation of bible then no lunch or no dinner.” So, there was some kind of pious deeds, or theistic, but lot of atheism, we also heard from Maharaja three kinds of Atheist. I never heard it before. Organic, naturally grown and everyone here in this world is naturally grown atheist and some are analytical with their logic and justification of all the sins they commit. So, all these two three kinds, some uttama Adhikari amongst the sinners or atheist, some madhyam Adhikaris and some kanishtha Adhikaris, different grades of atheist.

As Maharaj was describing his childhood and his mother’s instruction. So, I was thinking, I have to give class today, so I was thinking today I would say something about my mother. So, she would bring me to temples, sometime Hanuman temple, Siddhesvara temple or some other temples in my village. So, as we are in front of the deities, she would say fold your hands and we would do that and then Pray, and I wouldn’t know what to pray so I would wait for dictation from my mother. Please pray, “God give me intelligence”, pray to God give me intelligence, God give me intelligence. So, this was kind of standard prayer my mother use to get me to say. So, praying and praying so finally when god gave me intelligence and I joined became a Brahmacari at Juhu Hare Krishna land in Bombay.

And she was saying, “Oh! God, why did you give such intelligence to my son?” She was not happy with this kind of ntelligence, sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam Saranam vraja and all that. And then my brother had come, finally found out whereabouts of me. You have to come, you have to return home, mother may not survive, she is ready to give up her life, please come and give your darshan just one time. she wants to see you. So, I went, it’s a long story, lot of event. So, I was in sadhu form, dhoti, kurta and shaven head. I was kind of a brilliant student in my high school and school days. So, all the villagers were thinking, he was a nice boy, he used to be nice boy, so now what has happened? He has gone mad, became pagal and my father was begging, he had a pant in his hand, and begging, please wear this, become normal. Although my father and my brothers they never ever had touched pants in their life. There were also in dhoti and kurta. But they wanted me to become a modern man, an Engineer and economic development so that was on there mind. So, they were thinking that one day our son will be come engineer, he would come back riding in a car or at least he will come with a motor bike, the something else happened, Srila Prabhupada gave me this Padayatra program, bullock cart sankirtana party. And in 1984 as we started our long walk, long sankirtana party from Dwaraka to Mayapur.

We went through Gujarat and came to Maharashtra, and one day guess what? One day we visited my village and I come into the village riding a bullock cart. Hari. So, our parents, like Jamadgani, the ideal father he gave the right instruction, our parents did not do but, Srila Prabhupada ki Jaya, Srila Prabhupada became our father. He took the role of a father. And now he had thousands of children. There also use to be talk that they are all your disciples, but some have recognised you are and some have not yet recognised that you are there spiritual father or spiritual master but at least thousands recognised and Prabhupada gave that similar instruction as Jamadagni.

tirtha-samsevaya acyuta-cetanah

Prabhupada gave us Mayapur Vrindavan festival ki jaya! You go to Mayapur, you go to Vrindavan and cultivate your Krishna Consciousness, so what our parents could not do, or no one did for us, on behalf of Gauranga, Gauranga, Gauranga, Gauranga, this is magnanimity of Gauranga, namo maha-vadanyaya kindly magnimously Lord gave Prabhupada to the world and he played a role of spiritual father and spiritual master and saved us.

And few thoughts on first verse on which Prabhupada has not written commentary I was reminded, yesterday we heard. How Balarama went on tirtha yatra of all India and then Parasurama also was asked to tirtha-yatram samvatsaram he also went on tirtha yatra and we heard yesterday, Balarama went on tirtha yatra pilgrimage for one year and Parasurama also went on tirtha yatra for one year. This Ram that Ram similarity. So, both Rams went on pilgrimage for one year. Balarama went on pilgrimage for one year and Parasurama went on pilgrimage for one year and Nityananda Rama, Balarama hoilo Nitai, He also went on pilgrimage. You know that, Right?

Kanai pandit, okay you have my son. And from Ekachakra gram journey began and Nityananda Prabhu was travelling and travelling assisting this sadhu all over India like Balarama travelled, Parasurama travelled and Nityananda Rama also travelled and as Nityananda had come, arrived at Radhakunda and that’s where he gets the news, “Hey, our Lord is here, Gauranga has appeared.” He received this news on the banks of Radhakunda and that’s when Nityananda Prabhu stops travelling, going round and round all over India and straight comes to Navadvipa, Haribol, I am here, gives some indication that I’m here, I am here, the way he arrived and Caitanya Mahaprabhu says go find out, whereabouts of Nityananda. And they had gone in all ten directions looking for Nityananda in Navadvipa. He is somewhere in Navadvipa but Nityananda did not want others to find him out. Nityananda wanted only Gauranga to find him out. So, he was right here but they couldn’t find Nityananda. It was the will of Nityananda. Then so they had gone back, no no we couldn’t find. We went everywhere, to every island, all the corners, nook and corners but we couldn’t find. Then Caitanya Mahaprabhu said ok okay, lets go, then Caitanya Mahaprabhu starts going in the direction on Bhaktisiddhanta Marga, Gauranga was walking, and gaur bhakta vrindas were right behind Him. Of course, Bhaktisiddhanta Marg was not there and at Nandanacarya bhavan so about 100, 150 or 200 meters down the road there is
Nandanacarya bhavan, it exists even now.

So, Caitanya Mahaprabhu entered, he inquired, do you know? Have you seen? if anybody know, he knows because he is Sarvagya meaning what? He knows everything. Sarvagya. And then that great meeting between the two Lords. Balarama hoilo nitai, Nityananda Rama and Gauranga met at Nandanacarya’s house called Nandanacarya’s Bhavan. And what a reunion!

What a meeting! embracing, shedding tears and trembling and rolling on the ground and went on and on before they calmed down and sat down and finally some exchange of thoughts happened. So that Rama, Nityananda Rama travelled and arrived at Navadvipa and the meeting took place. And Parshurama also travelled, like that many more things could be said but time and tide waits for none. We wish there was something to stop the time so that there is always 8.00 clock, the beginning, but the clock moves, and it has made one complete round and it is 9.00 o’clock.