Venue: ISKCON Vrindavan

Dated: 15 Oct 2009

(S.B. 1.16.26-30)

“satyam saucam daya kshantis tyagah santosa arjavam

samo damas tapah samyam titiksoparatih srutam

jnanam viraktir aisvaryam sauryam tejo balam smrtih

svatantryam kausalam kantir dhairyam mardavam eva ca

pragalbhaym prasrayah silam saha ojo balam bhagah

gambhiryam sthairyam astikyam kirtir mano ‘nahankrtih

ete canye ca bhagavan nitya yatra maha-gunah

prarthya mahattvam icchadbhir na viyanti sma karhichit

tenaham guna-patrena sri-nivasena sampratam

socami rahitam lokam papmana kalinesksitam” (S.B. 1.16.26-30)

satyam – truthfulness; saucam – cleanliness; daya – intolerance of others’ happiness; ksantih- self-contrl even if there is cause of anger; tyagah – magnanimity; santosah – self-satisfaction; arjavam – straightforwardness; samah – fixing of the mind; damah – control of the sense organs; tapah – trueness to one’s responsibility; samyam – indiscrimination between friend and foe; titiksa – tolerance of the offenses of others; uparatih – indifference to loss and gain; srutam – following spiritual injunctions; jnanam – knowledge (self-realization); viraktih – detachment from sense enjoyment; aisvaryam – leadership; sauryam – chivalry; tejah – influence; balam – to render possible that which is impossible; smrtih – to find one’s proper duty; svatantryam – not to depend on others; kausalam – dexterity in all activities; kantih – beauty; dhairyam – freedom from disturbance; mardavam – kindheartedness; eva – thus; ca – also; pragalbhyam – ingenuity; prasrayah – gentility; silam – mannerliness; sahah – determination; ojah – perfect knowledge; balam – proper execution; bhagah – object of enjoyment; gambhiryam – joyfulness (I wasn’t expecting that meaning); sthairyam – immovability; astikyam – faithfulness; kirtih – fame; manah – worthy of being worshipped; anahankrtih – pridelessness; ete – all these; ca anye – also many others; ca – and; bhagavan – the Personality of Godhead; nityah – everlasting; yatra – where; maha-gunah – great qualities; prarthyah – worthy to possess; mahattvam – greatness; icchadbhih – those who desire so; na – never; viyanti – deteriorates; sma – ever; karhicit – at any time; tena – by Him; aham – myself; guna-patrena – the reservior of all qualities; sri – the goddess of fortune; nivasena – by the resting place; sampratam – very recently; socami – I am thinking of; rahitam – bereft of; lokam – planets; papmana – by the store of all sins; kalina – by Kali; iksitam – is seen.

Translation and purport, Srila Prabhupada ki Jai!

In Him reside 1.Truthfulness, 2.Cleanliness, 3.Intolerance of another’s unhappiness, 4.The power to control anger, 5.Self-satisfaction, 6.Straightforwardness, 7.Steadiness of mind, 8.Control of the sense organs, 9.Responsibility, 10. Equality, 11.Tolerance, 12.Equanimity, 13.Faithfullness, 14.Knowledge, 15.Absence of sense enjoyment, 16.Leadership, 17.Chivalry, 18.Influence, 19.The power to make everything possible, 20.The discharge of proper duty, 21.Complete independence, 22.Dexterity, 23.Fullness of all beauty, 24.Serenity, 25.Kindheartedness, 26.Ingenuity, 27.Gentelity, 28.Magnanimity, 29.Determination, 30.Perfection in all knowledge, 31.Proper execution, 32.Possesion of all objects of enjoyment, 33.Joyfulness, 34.Immovability, 35.Fidelity, 36.Fame, 37.Worship, 38.Pridelessness, 39.Being (as the Personality of Godhead), 40.Eternity, and many other transcendental qualities which are eternally present and never to be separated from Him, that Personality of Godhead, the reservoir of all goodness and beauty, Lord Sri Krishna, has now closed His transcendental pastimes on the face of the earth.

In His absence the Age of Kali has spread its influence everywhere, so I am sorry to see this condition of existence and this is Dharni uvaca : mother earth has replied “I am sorry for this” that’s her. And even if it were possible to count the atoms after smashing the earth into powder, she replied here, still it would not be possible to estimate the unfathomable transcendental qualities of the Lord. He make all the water in the ocean, you make ink with that and then he make full earth planet could be your paper and write down, sky is your paper; you want to make sky in a paper? Some others make earth into paper, or make all the trees into their pens and then go ahead writing the qualities of Lord you will not see the end of those qualities; ‘anyeca’, the word ‘anyeca’, ete anyeca these qualities and many other are not possible to estimate unfathomable transcendental qualities of the Lord.

Krishna das Kaviraj he is describing Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s tour of Vrndavan and he has compiled the account in few chapters, he says I am done with it. There’s so much more to write koti, the word use is koti granths’ am writing one, but 10 millions scriptures could be written just to describe Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s past times in Vraj including all the emotions, the feelings, the dealings that he had with every creature moving in, jungam sthavar and he is also remembering may be Anantshesha Anant could take this project he has thousand mouths, he could describe. Anant also in the beginning of creation, he was given this task of holding the another planets and the universes on his hoods and then another task while you are holding all these planets you also glorify the Lord, begin talking, glorifying the task your sahastra vadan you could talk talk and then he said “how long do I have to keep holding all these planets?”, “not for very long”, “but how long?” Well as soon as you finish chanting all the glories, all the qualities, naam, lila you have covered and when there is no more nothing more to talk about then you could throw off those planets. “Oh that’s nice I can, I have thousand mouths and I have just now start and quickly quickly finish and I don’t have to carry this big burden. That is how Anantsesa was thinking and he started his project of recitation of unlimited glories and He chanted and chanted and He is chanting till the present and He would continue to chant till the time for pralaya would come and he would be still in the middle annihilation time.

So no limit to the unfathomable transcendental qualities and in front of that each mouth there is audience not that 2000 mouths same message or same thing is talking. (Maharaj asking) How many speakers do we have? couple? 2? 3? 1? (Laughter). So same thing; you go to each one of those two of those and same message comes out, same message, it was not like that; Anantshesh, he has thousand topics, simultaneously he has thousand, on thousand fronts he is glorifying the Lord and audience they go from one to another to another one just to check out what is else being talked about. (Ok, it’s coming up, I did not notice) It is said that Lord Anantdeva has tried to expand the transcendental qualities of the Supreme Lord with His numberless tongues, and that for numberless together it has been impossible to estimate the qualities of the Lord, this is for Anantadeva. The above statement of the qualities of the Lord is just to estimate His qualities as far as a human being is able to see Him. But even it is so; the above qualities can be divided into many subheadings. According to Srila Jiva Goswami, the third quality, intolerance of another’s unhappiness- daya intolerance of another’s happiness, Can be subdivided into (1) protection of the surrendered souls and (2) well wishes for the devotees.

In Bhagvad-gita the Lord states that he wants every soul to surrender unto Him only, and He assures everyone that if one does so He will give protection from the reaction of all sins. Unsurrendered souls are not devotees of the Lord and thus there is no particular protection for everyone in general. So Lord gives protection to those who surrender unto Him, “dharmo rakshati rakshitah”. This is arrangement of the Lord; Lord protects those who protect dharma. “You protect dharma and dharma in turn will protect you”, this was statement of Lord to His mother Yashoda. “Take shoes, wear shoes”. “No no cows don’t have shoes”, “Then take umbrella”, “Cows don’t have umbrella”. “Mother mother…”, Lord gave lecture to His mother, “dharmo rakshati rakshitah“. “You just have to take care of cows which is our dharma and everything else would be taken care of, would be protected, don’t worry mother. Let Me just take care of cows, let Me just protect cows and will be protected”.

Dharmo rakshitah. “Sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja” (Bg. 18.66), give up all varieties of religion and then what, “mam ekam shranam vraj” that is religion. Give up all other varieties and you go for this variety and that variety is mam ekam sharanam and this is paramo dharmo – supreme dharma, “bhaktir adhoksaje paro dharmo” (S.B. 1.2.6). For the devotees He has all good wishes, and for those who are actually engaged in loving transcendental service of the Lord. He gives particular attention. He gives direction to such pure devotees to help them discharge their responsibilities on the path back to Godhead. And Lord takes charge of that person, gives him direction, as He did, Narada muni gave instructions to Dhruva Maharaj in Madhuban just few days ago and because he was very anxious to meet the Lord and the Lord takes note of that, oh! this person is interested in Me and immediately Lord makes the arrangement “brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija” (CC Madhya 19.151) first we meet the devotees, Lord sends His devotees to us vartma pradarshak guru someone becomes vartma pradarshak, vartma? What is vartma? Path, pradarshak, pra darshak – shower, shower of the path, one who shows you the path.

Oh! Rath yatra is this way, temple is that way or what is the address? Where is festival? Little pushing in the direction of Lord and some other devotees also. Lord is equally kind to everyone and the sun is equal then shiksha gurus, and then vartma pradarshak, shiksha guru, diksha guru and chaitya guru, any other names? We are familiar with these four names, “amara ajnaya guru hana tara’ ei desa” (CC Madhya 7.128) Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, you all become gurus; one of these three kinds, not…Chaitya guru? No (Maharaj Laughs) there’s only one. Again you could have many shiksha gurus, there’s one diksha guru. Ya there are many who want to take advantage of sun’s rays, sun is available. Similarly, the Lord says that the surrendering unto Him is guarantee for all protection from Him, but unfortunately persons are unable to accept this proposition and therefore they suffer from all material miseries. So even though the Lord is equally well- wishing to everyone, the unfortunate living being, due to bad association only is unable to accept His instructions in toto, and for this the Lord is never to be blamed, Lord is doing His part, everything possible and you have to take some steps, some initiative, initiation, initiative.

Sun has come all the way to your courtyard and he has travelled billions of miles all the way from sun globe, the sun light and has come on the roof in the front, courtyard, there’s little shake hand; co-operation, other person is extending his helping hand, you have to raise your hand, he has made it he has extended. So Lord has done so much, He is doing, little initiative from living entities part he will be taken charge of by the Lord and His devotees could be taken under their wings they say. The hen as soon as there is some big bird in the sky the little chicks, we have seen immediately bird spreads its wings, 10 chicks, they are all covered, when we were little children we had seen this in our village and they are protected. Then hen is also watching, so dharmo rakshtih – protection is there.

Devotee association, you get more devotee association, senior devotee association and I am protected. He appears to be partial to His devotees, but factually the matter rests on living being to accept or reject equal treatment by the Lord. The Lord never deviates from His word of honor, “yoga-ksemam vahamy aham” (Bg. 9.22). And there was one faithless person he had no faith ,he was a Brahmin, he was even a Brahmin and Lord was not providing, what kind of Lord He made this promise “yoga-ksemam vahamy aham”, he had learned that verse by you know, kanthsth by heart he used to recite this all the time, but waiting and Lord not keeping His promise, he scratched that and said, “I don’t believe yoga-ksemam” and then he had gone out looking for something that he was in a need of. In the meantime procession coming towards his young boys playing and dancing entered the house of this Brahmin and their leader was very beautiful, somewhat bluish completion, wearing yellow garments. Oh! please take this, wife of the Brahmin, here is a gift for you, bye and walked out. His wife had noticed although very beautiful and charming, enchanting boy the leader of this group, but there were some scratches and blood is seen on His face also. So party goes profession and then Brahmin comes home, his wife was waiting, oh! Here is a gift for you, gift for you, open the gift and finds all that he was looking for.

Oh! Who gave this? And she describes. Oh! You know face of that young, sweet, and then this Brahmin realized, oh! That’s my Lord you were talking about and then just in morning I crashed that verse, I had no patience I was impatient to have this that and Prabhupada told this. So Lord never deviates from his word of honor. Who says that Lord does not honor or protect that doesn’t appear, he doesn’t do so because they do not call out like Draupadi. So there is one song, nice song “who says that Lord does not eat, log khilate nahi, people do not feed Lord like shabri had fed ‘Shri Ram’ or that wife of vidura, Vidurani had fed the Lord oh! That is the best meal of my life. I had never had such a food. So who says that Lord does not eat? Because they do not feed like Shabri, you know Shabri? You have heard about shabri from Ramayan, Ram visited some lower class society, she was waiting for Sri Ram, Ram will come to this part of the forest ‘danda-karanya’, finally Ram had come. Swagatam, su-swagatam Sri Ram please come big welcome, simple but grand, heart-grand, little rangoli was there. Have a seat, have a seat, no big thrown made up of gold or there were no jewels just little straw mat but the devotion that hospitality, intense, there was water and some fruits berries, she wanted to make sure the berries that she was goin to feed the Lord, they are the right kind, ripped and sweet and she would do little testing if it was ripe, sweet, ready to go then she would offer it to Sri Ram, vatsalya bhava and Ram, “give more give more”. There were no pine apples or fruits, just berries grown all around her hut.

So who says that Lord doesn’t eat? Because you don’t feed the Lord like Shabri fed the Lord, who says this, who says that because you don’t call out like Draupadi. When He gives assurance for protection, He promises that, His promise is executed in all circumstances. It is a duty of a pure devotee to be fixed in the discharge of the duty entrusted to him by the Lord or the Lord’s bonafide representative, the spiritual master. The rest is carried on by the Lord without a break. So Lord has his part and devotee has his part and Lord does He does His part, keeps His promise gentle man. What does gentleman do? Gentleman’s promise, promise is promise. So Lord keeps His promise that is part of His qualities, all these qualities, 40 qualities mentioned here, cleanliness, truthfulness, leadership, complete independence, what about us? When living entity tries to do that complete independence it gets into trouble. Depending on Krishna, depending on devotees of Krishna interdependence not independent, these are two extremes completely independent, and overly dependent. The middle path interdependence, depending upon each other, “bodhyantah parasparam” (B.G 10.9) and all that.

We cannot imitate the Lord in every respect, oh! Lord has His qualities, oh! He is independent, I am his part and parcel, I also exercise now my independence and soon as living entity goes for that option, “bhoga vancha kare nikata-stha maya tare japatiya dhare” immediately Krishna’s maya grabs him, hang him, and he is punished again and again by the death because of his independence, punish him, not only kill, but hang him, at the end of each life, what punishment, hang him ok so in this lifetime, what should we do? Hang him, “janmanam ante bahunam” (Bg. 7.19) “punarapi jananam punarapi maranam”, it’s a punishment for being independent. So all these qualities of the Lord, in Him reside all qualities, in us also, in a soul also, His qualities reside, minute quantity. His qualities are “yasyasti bhaktir bhagavaty akincana” (S.B 5.18.12) yasya asti bhaktih bhagavaty, what kind of bhakti? Akincana bhakti – one who has devotion, unto the Lord, akincana nishkincana, and “sarvair gunais tatra samasate surah” (S.B 5.18.12) and immediately that person is endowed, gifted with all these qualities, yasasiti bhakti, one who has devotion, bhakti for the Lord, immediately qualities of the Lord flows from Him to the devotees or qualities which are already there living entities being part and parcel those qualities are revived and he become also qualified.

Then he exhibits all this straightforwardness, faithfulnesses, knowledge, kindheartedness, magnanimity, all these qualities would be exhibited. But the apparently obvious these qualities were not visible in a human being’s beginning of Age of Kali and hence ‘socami’, I am thinking or I am lamenting hence my lamentation you know oh! Dharma oh! Bull and the cow, or having a dialogue in the beginning at the Age of Kali. Kali is now just now coming on the scene and already some symptoms are visible mother earth is concerned, worried and lamenting and that’s why she doesn’t look very happy. oh! what’s the matter with you? And she says yes ‘rahitam’ you know because He is no more with us, that Lord with these qualities is no more- rahitam. “socami rahitam lokam” (S.B. 1.16.30), rahitam is without Him and now this ‘papmana’ this Kali is appearing on the scene and is a store of all sins, Kali Kali what kind of Kali? Kalina papmanam – he is a store, he is a super bazaar, you name the item of sin, Oh! you have this sir? Sure, and what about that, he has all varieties of sins and is going to display all over the planet and so he is setting the scene. So Kali is encountered with this Kali by king Parikshit and you will be getting some places to reside in the kingdom he has one foot in the door and get me get me he is pushing the door and he succeeds in getting one foot some space and then gradually expands. Oh! 4 places you could stay “dyutam-panam striyah-suna” (S.B 1.17.38) and any more yes where there is corruption anything with artha laxmi fifth place then he was in business and he had all his strategy spreading all over.

Lord also has His strategy, ok I am leaving. “krsna svadhamo upagate dharma jnanadibih saha”, Lord has gone to His own dhama, He has taken dharma and jnana with Him, right? Dharma jnanadibih adi, what else? Similar items like this, He has taken them away and what happened? All these things were because Lord and light was there, Lord left, Krishna “surya sam” and as soon as Krishna was not on the scene, there was total darkness and “kalo nasta drasham esam”, people lost the eye sight, not that they had no eyes, they were seeing outside, they are seeing only outside, that looking within was not there kind of light inside was turned off ‘aham ajnana-jam tamah’- “tesam evanukampartham aham ajnana-jam tamah nasayamy atma-bhava-stho jnana-dipena bhasvata” (Bg. 10.11) the lamp that is lit within or Lord when He has special kindness and compassion, what does He do? ‘ajnana-jam tamah’ ajnana or something born from ignorance, and what is born out of ignorance? tamah – the darkness and kind Lord, “hey hey I will light the lamp” jnana-dipena bhasvata, jnana-dipe – He lights the lamp of knowledge. So when He left, He kind of turned off that light jnana-dip nothing inside, it’s all darkness. Kali has appeared, influence of Kali, ignorance, in brahma muhurta they are sleeping, what time is mangal arti? 9:30 in the morning where am staying not far away from here there is a temple where every morning mangal arti is 9 o’clock you could tell, close your eyes, tell me which Age is this possibly could be when mangala arti is at 9 o’clock. You could close your eyes and say oh! this must be! Sounds like Kaliyug.

So when Lord has departed and there is a transition, the new age, the new season as Prabhupada calls it. It looks like a new season, the climate change in last few days, in the morning the climate change new climate. So like that, transition from one age to another and Kali is appearing, so from Lord’s side all arrangements also been made for those sincere souls and sincere seekers there is an arrangement even in this Age of Kali, now Bhagvatam appears. “purana arka uditaha” brilliant as sun, Bhagvatam appears, Lord departs and Bhagvatam appears another things also appear. As the Kali appears, then not only this dharni in the form of cow was lamenting, bhakti devi was also lamenting, bhakti devi and jnana and vairagya and that whole team and (I am just reading) Narada muni says “vrutha khedayase bale aho cintataru katham” (Srimad Bhagvatam Mahatya 2.1) don’t lament, no cause for lamentation. “Sri Krishna caranam bhojam smara dukham gamisyanti”. You just remember the lotus feet of Sri Krishna caranam bhojam smara, very clean instruction clear and dukham gamisyati, “tvam tu bhaktih priya tasya satatam pranato adhikah” (Srimad Bhagvatam Mahatya 2.2). You are very dear to the Lord, even dearer than His own pran “tvaya ahutastu bhagavan yati nichagrahesvapi” and Narada muni says, “you know, if you appeal to the Lord, He is ready to go anywhere, everywhere, “tvaya ahutastu bhagavan yati nichagrahesvapi” nicha- fallen “yavanah khasadayah abhira kirata pulinda pulkasa” (S.B 2.4.18) and this and that and this country that country so ‘nicha graheshuapi’. Lord is ready to go wherever you want, O! Lord please come this way, this house, come to that, come to that, you are ready to.

Then Narada muni says, “badhva anjalim tvaya prustam kim karomi iti cha ekada” (Srimad Bhagvatam Mahatya 2.6), ekada: once upon a time, you ask that Lord, my dear Lord badhva anjalim, you had your hands folded and enquired prustam “tvaya prustam kim karomi” anything I could do, my Lord for you? And Narada Muni says, Lord responded “mad bhaktan poshaya iti ca”, madbhaktan poshaya – you nourish my devotee, make them healthy, you become some kind of tonic for them and then “angi kruta tvaya tad vayi prasanno”. Lord was very pleased with you then He, He gave two sons to you and that was jnana and vairagya, “muktim dasim dadau tubyam” and gave one maid servant also He added maid servant to you entourage and what is that made servant? “muktim dasim dadau, muktim dasi dadau” He gave mukti as your dasi, so mukti becomes dasi of bhakti. Lord has made that arrangement, “jnana vairagya kamimo”, those jnana vairagya are sons and we conclude here, then in “kalinasaddrasa koapi yugo nasti varanane”. Narada Muni says “oh! My dear bhakti devi you know”, “ya ya please tell me what, what is it?” “kalinasaddrasa yugo nasti” there is no Age like Kali, not in bad sense. It is very good time, this is the best of the ages. Oh! Vranane-bhakti devi ““kalinasaddrasa koapi yugo nasty”- there is no other age like the Age of Kali and then we have devotees like Narada muni, their determination in this Age of Kali, all this difficult times, adversities and challenges and this and that all the symptoms of Age of Kali. Everything all odds against, but then Narada muni says “tasmin tvam sthapishami” tasmin tasmin means that is what Kali yuge tasmin, this kind of Kali yug “tvam sthap ishami”, I will establish you. Where? “gehe gehe jane jane”, gehe gehe – in every house, I will establish you. “gehe gehe jane jane” in every person, this is my vision, this is my target. What is your strategy sir? Narada muni says: “annaya dharman tiraskritya”, you have heard this before? Very nice “anyadharman tiraskritya puraskritya mahotsavan”. tiraskritya – I will abandon, I will discard all other dharmas or processes in this in all other strategies, puraskritya – keeping in front of Me, I will accept that strategy, and what is that? mahotsavan, mahotsav “festivals, I will organize festivals, “bhakti nrityati yatra cha” where bhakti will dance, where you will dance as she does in Vrndavan, in festival bhakti dances.

So this is with organizing festivals, Srila Prabhupada has taken this seriously. When Prabhupada started his International Society for Krishna Consciousness, knowing what promise he had made to Bhakti devi, what kind of vow that he had taken, Srila Prabhupada had adopted this formula, utsavan, Sunday festival, and this festival, and Janmashtmai festival, and what other festivals? Hare Krishna festival. I joined the movement because of Hare Krishna festival in Bombay and Prabhupada was travelling all over India with Hare Krishna festival, chanting, dancing, feasting in festivals and sending parties on the streets everywhere and various kinds of festivals, morning program is like a festival, like a festival. Where there is a festival, there is a feast or where there is a feast there is a festival. And then Narada muni says, “tada naham harer daso, loke tvam na pravartaye” if I don’t do this, and I am ready to give up my “hari dasatva”, it is not possible to do that but he says, I have jata but I’ll shave off, I will throw away my veena or grow beard or something to fast to death, I’ll not take sweets. If I don’t succeed in doing this, here a point he’s making, “tada na aham”, if I don’t do this what I have just said, then “harer daso na harer daso loke tvam na pravartaye” if I don’t follow this, then no harer daso, then I can’t claim myself to be a Haridas, Hari’s das, Harer das. We will stop here; ok thank you very much

Srimad Bhagvatam ki jay!!