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

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

Purport: By devotional service or by the most confidential knowledge, one can understand very easily how the different energies of the Lord are working. One part of energy is manifesting the material world; the other (superior) part of His energy is manifesting the spiritual world. And the via medium energy is manifesting the living entities who are serving either of the above-mentioned energies. The living entities serving material energy are struggling hard for existence and happiness, which is presented to them as illusion. But those in the spiritual energy are placed under the direct service of the Lord in eternal life, complete knowledge and perpetual bliss. The Lord desires, as He has directly said in the Bhagavad-Gita, that all conditioned souls, rotting in the kingdom of material energy, come back to Him by giving up all engagements in the material world. This is the most confidential part of knowledge. But this can be understood only by the pure devotees, and only such devotees enter the kingdom of God to see Him personally and serve Him personally. The concrete example is Narada himself, who attained this stage of eternal knowledge and eternal bliss. And the ways and means are open to all, provided one agrees to follow in the footsteps of Sri Narada Muni. According to sruti, the Supreme Lord has unlimited energies (without effort by Him), and these are described under three principal headings, as above mentioned.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“aisvaryasya samagrasya viryasya yasasah sriyah jnana-vairagyayos caiva”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Venue: ISKCON Nagpur
Dated: 16th August 2015

We should hear katha with shanti and silence and then hearing will give you all benefit, in between the ear and atma there is mana you should take care that mana does not create disturbance in hearing.

“ankulasya sankalpa pratikulasa varjanam”

Yo u are all welcome for Sunday feast, last time in Purosotam masa we heard the Mahima of Harinam. Yamraj said to his dutas bring those who don’t bend in front of Lord and those who don’t chant harinam. In vrindavan we did Bhagvat mahatmaya that was shown online on mayapur TV. Do you watch TV? yes this TV you can watch, iskcon TV you can see sitting at home.

Then I went to Jagannath puri for Navakalevaram utsava new deities were installed. It was a great experience. Special darshan of Lord Jagganath. Lord Jagannath walks in a special style His devotees carry Him. Lord puts His merciful glance on all His devotees.

“jagannathah svami nayana-patha-gami bhavatu me”

May that Jagannatha Swami be the object of my vision. Please come on the path of my vision. I experienced at a moment that Lord is just looking at me. Then at Pandarpur I reached for ashadi utsava. Do you go to Pandarpur? Haribol Pandurang is also Krishna.

“panduranga panduranga vithala vithal”

Lord standing on brick, 20 lakh people had come for darshan of Vitthal. Some came walking in that we had two Hare Krsna dindis. They walk for 18 days then 18 hours they stand in queue for half second darshan of Lord Vitthal that’s enough for the devotees darshan of Lords lotus feet. There are very less temples in India where they allow touching the lotus feet of Lord and Lord Panduranga is one of them.

“sadhavo hrdayam mahyam sadhunam hrdayam tv aham” (S.B 9.4.68)

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. Once in Pandarpur devotees could hug Lord Vitthal they call methi in Marathi, the two hearts very close. Lords heart and devotees heart that was 100 years back now they stopped that system.

Then I went to China from Pandarpur, “sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama” “In every town and village, the chanting of My name will be heard.” (Caitanya-bhagavata, Antya 4.126)

This preaching has reached to China also; I was not the only one to go. Srila prabhupada send HH Tamal Krsna Goswami to china for preaching. There are 2000 serious Hare Krishna devotees. Bhagvat gita is translated in Chinese language and distributed all over. Our team distributed 1200 Bhagvat gita to Chinese. The people there were kirtan preme, once in kirtan they were sitting and clapping then they all stood and then they started dancing. I was surprised and very happy to see them dancing. We distributed mantra cards to them. They can’t pronounce hare they say hale hale and then slowly they said hare hare…they all paid fees to attend kirtan program it was not free.
Hindi chini bhai bhai, I told them this in one program; in 1962-63 childhood I heard this Hindi chini bhai bhai. I was confused what is this- Hindi is language and chini is sugar how’s that possible a language and sugar are brothers. Then as I grew older I understood what it meant when I came in contact with Srila Prabhupada. So how we become bhai bahi? When we have common father the Lord then we become bhai bhai. Same Lord is sitting in every bodies heart “aham bija-pradah pita”. We are all brothers Hindi Pakistani bahi bhai . People all over the world are brother’s bhai bhai.

In China some people following Christianity had also come for the program their rosary beads also had 108 beads. Many people are ignorant also they don’t know who the Lord is. Lot of preaching of Buddha dharma is there in China. Then I returned back to Delhi then Kolkata for the celebration of Srila Prabhupada’s journey to west on 13 August 1965; 50 years completed. Prabhupad was born in Kolkata and in Kolkata he got instruction from his guru to preach in English in the west in 1922. Then full life Prabhupad was preparing to go to the west. Prabhupada lilamrita describes his entire mission. In 1922 he got instruction and in 1933 he got initiated your name is Abhay Caran, ac not ac of railway its Abhay Caran Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada. Then in 1944 he printed back to god head magazine, in 1955 he took vanprasta -you want tea or me he asked his wife and humorously she said of course I want tea. She was not aware that Prabhupada was serious. Then he went to Jhasi.

Then in 1966 ISKCON was established in New York. Jhasi devotee said ISKCON was conceived in Jhasi and delivered in New York. Prabhupada said ISKCON is my body. But how he went to New York via Nagpur. Prabhupad wrote dairy the name of that diary is Jaladutta dairy. Then in 1977 Lord gave Prabhupada 11 years for establishing dharma. “dharma-sthapana-hetu sadhur avatar” (Sri Caitanya Caritamrta Madhya-lila Chapter 17 Verse 185) he established dharma in the whole world.

So in Kolkata we celebrated golden jubilee at Netaji stadium its capacity was 12,000. And it was full pack for 12 hours. Delegates from 107 countries had come. Srila prabhupada ki jai.
That was the most auspicious moment when Prabhupad went to west that was the starting of his preaching mission. We all devotees went for darshan of birth place of Prabhupada. When Prabhupada was small he used to go for darshan of Radha Govindev and used to keep looking at the Lord.

His father was a great devotee. In such family Prabhupada was born. Many sadhus used to come to his house. And his father Guar Mohan Dey used to ask the sadhus please bless my son that he becomes a devotee of Radha rani. Prabhupada used to organize small ratha yatra when he was small. And used to tell his sister after ratha yatra we will distribute prasad so keep prasad ready. This was all preparation lifetime preparation. Senapati bhakta -Srila Prabhupada. So many of us collected here but Iskcon started with one person that’s Srila Prabhupada. Caitanya Mahaprabhu preached in India during his yatra but for the foreign land preaching he appointed Srila Prabhupada he left it all to Prabhupada to ISKCON.

Srila prabhupada made famous Lords name all over the world in a very short time. Because of his efforts we are all blessed by golokera prema dhana he made us rich.

Vivekanada swami also preached in west and one lady was inspired and came to India and Prabhupada brought many and many devotees.

The glories of Acharyas should spread in all brahmanda. Prabhupada ki jai

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you for being here in good number. Happy birthday to me, good days have come. Its Lord’s mercy He gave me birth on this auspicious day. Lot of devotees come on this day to meet Lord. “vitthu maza lekurwada”.
I was born on tuesday in Aravade, Lord Rama was born on Tuesday. So they named me Raghunath as its Lord Rama’s name. My mummy mazi aai used to love me a lot. She used to take me to temple and she used to say fold your palms and pray and I used ask her what to pray?? And she used to say ask for Buddhi. Then Lord heard my prayers and finally I became Hare Krsna wala. Then my elder brother came to Mumbai to take me back. And said to Lord we never told to give him such Buddhi. My family used to think that one day Raghunath will become engineer and come to village with motorcycle. But I went with bullock cart with padayatra to Aravade. I was studying in Sangali initially but my family said you go to Mumbai University for higher studies. That’s how Lord inspired them to send me to Mumbai.
Then I went to Mumbai. Once in pandal program I was giving Introduction of Srila Prabhupada. I said Srila Prabhupada is exporter and importer; he exported holy name to America and imported American sandhus. I was lucky to have darshan of Srila Prabhupada. I was inspired by his kirtan. I always had this desire to serve country..humanity.. But was not sure how to start it.

“Yatha taror mula nesechanena” – When you put water at roots then fruits will come. Srila Prabhupada said we also want to serve our family, country, humanity then you should serve Lord. Then my eyes opened. We always have propensity to serve someone. So we should serve Lord. One is guru and other laghu. Phone has become cheap and talk has also become cheap. So if you want to really serve some one then serve Lord through Krsna everybody will be served. I also brought few books of Srila Prabhupada also japa mala.

Then I started living in kohinoor lane with some of my villagers in Mumbai. I was student of chemistry. And I used to keep grantha in the chemistry book and read. And my parents told my villages keep an eye on him he should not run away and they were happy seeing me reading rasayan that is chemistry. But they were not aware what rasayan I was reading. When nobody was in room I used to sing kirtan like I heard from Srila Prabhupada.

I used to regularly go to hare krsna land juhu then I decided jina yaha marna yaha… I wrote a letter to the president there to join. I wrote in the letter dazzling arti, ecstatic kirtan, prasdam, which I had copied from the pamphlet which I got from there. Then I went to meet the president and told him I want to join and he announced new bhakta here new bhakta here.

Britishers came for business here and then captured us. So Indians were not joining in Hare Krsna. Indian used to say these foreigners are CIA. Yes we are CIA- Caitanya Intelligence Agency... So very less Indians were joining. So the hare krsna land people were very happy to receive me they welcomed me. And then they took me to a place where a barber was waiting for me. So in one hour I was hare krsna devotee. Same evening they took me to a place and I was told to translate lecture of H.G. Gargamuni prabhu. So in two hours I became a preacher. Then my family came to know about me. They got the pamphlet of Hare Krsna festival. Then they understood. I would be there. Then my elder brother came to take me back. If you don’t come back mom will not live. Family was telling me stay at home we will make a temple here for you. But I wanted to stay in Hare Krsna temple. All villagers used to say. He was a very good boy now he has become mad. My mom went to an astrologer and he said he will come back. But his bhavisyavani went wrong. I went back to Hare Krsna land by Srila Prabhupada’s mercy.

Srila prabhupada made me fortunate and you also make others fortunate by giving them hari nama. Let us all push forward the mission of Srila Prabhupada. You will need to take now responsibility on your shoulders. Time is less and lot of seva is pending. I can’t do it alone… I need help… We all together will protect, expand, this Hare Krsna society. You all love Srila Prabhupada, you are premi bhakta of Srila Prabhupada. But Srila Prabhupada said you show your love by cooperating with each other after I am gone. This is how you show your love for me. Srila Prabhupada is siksha guru for all of us…… Every one related to Krsna is to glorified…

SrilaPrabhupada ki jai…
Radha Pandharinath ki jai…

Dated: 12.09.2012
Venue: Mauritius

So once again, I would like to thank you for good presence, big presence in small country. The big interest…I am sure you have so much interest in the Holy Name. It is one of the offences to keep the phones on (laughter). The 12th offence (laughter) is you have on phone next to you, we will get there. We will, I think this will come up again; but… (To someone in audience) That’s what you said right? Yes, your interest in Japa is very obvious here by the good turnout of devotees. This is Purushottam Month also, only few more, few more days to go; but, somehow, Japa retreat or Japa whatever, workshop or Japa, I don’t know what you, what name you have given, is becoming part of this Purushottam month. It’s becoming event, part of that “very” auspicious month. “Very” favourable for devotional service.

In fact, nothing works in this month, just the devotional service, no Karma Kanda. You don’t get any result of conduct Karma Kanda or Jnana Kanda which is “kevala visera bhanda” (Prema-bhakti candrika) also. In any case, just a pot of poison. According to our siddhanta, our stand, Karma Kanda is just a pot of poison.
So, only thing that works during this month, only thing that is beneficial, infact Radha-Krsna worship for this month is stressed very much which is the topmost thing to do. And the way we worship Radha-Krsna is “yajnaih sankirtana- prayair, yajanti hi su- medhasah” (SB 11.5.32). It requires intelligent person, brainy person to go for worshipping in yajnaih- by performance of sankirtana. So, you must be, you are very intelligent persons because you are always, not only during this month, but you are always worshipping the Lord by performance of Sankirtana. And sankirtana is congregational chanting or congregationally glorifying the Lord, in a broad sense which may not be always limited to chanting of ‘Hare Krsna’ but, there are related activities are also Sankirtana.

How Srila Prabhupada made the connection of the sounds at the construction site, at ‘Hare Krishna Land’, Juhu, Bombay during his days. We were proposing that there is so much noise here. So much “kat kat kat kat” (Guru Maharaj making sound) here, you should be in stationed elsewhere. Well, Prabhupada said, this is “music” for my ears. This is Radha-Rasbihari’s temple being built, so the sounds are not ordinary. This is also music, this is also “sankirtana.” So, only a pure devotee like Srila Prabhupada could make connection on those sounds as “sankirtana.” “Yajnaih sankirtana- prayair, yajanti hi su- medhasah”.
So, again then kirtana is, we do kirtana, Sankirtana, kirtana. While, we were just doing little bit of that with the use of Mrdanga and Kartals and, and last night what we had Oh! ..(Guru Maharaj laughing). There is a ISKCON kirtana standard committee. They may not approve of (Laughter) I am a member of that committee (Laughter). I don’t know how to deal with the situation; but… So, that’s, one way sankirtana. Congregational chanting and dancing with Mrdangas and kartals. And some other, maybe, Veena of Narada Muni is there and…
“prema dhala dhala sonara anga, carane nupura baje” (Gitavali, part one, Arunodaya-kirtana, text 2). Mahaprabhu is taking part in sankirtana and He is chanting and dancing prema dhala dhala sonara, His golden form is moving, swaying and He has tinkling, jingling bells around His ankles. So, that’s instrument also, some tinkling bells. He does not have to play that instrument separately with the hands. It is there around His ankles and as He dances, the jingling and tinkling of that bell, that’s instrument also. The bells… and then, and of course, other thing that we do is we take our Japa Mala and do yajnair sankirtana-prayair. We do our, the glorification of the Lord. Lord is glorified to, to our hearts content.

Of course, doing kirtana is the whole hearted and full-throated kirtan, out loud. And then, during japa, we may not be screaming or shouting out loud. Some meditative chanting we do. Or we do “murmuring.” On our beads, we chant japa. So, that’s the other way. Kirtan with group as big as possible and last night was a, quite a, quite group. I got the report there were over 700 devotees last night (Haribol!!!). You don’t know? You missed it? You were there? So, they said 700 devotees. 700 plates of prasadam were distributed. Maybe towards the end some more rushed in. So this Japa seminar, retreat, whatever the name is, this is happening during Caturmasya also. In the middle of caturmasya, there is sandwiched; this month is, two months of Caturmasya and then, Purushottam masa and then two more Caturmasya months to follow. So, it’s right in the middle and right towards the end of this month we are able to do “this” during this Caturmasya or oh no, Caturmasya and Purushottam masa. I just, probably you know, we were doing Kirtana Mela in Germany.

So, that was quite experience and we were in Radhadesh and we were doing kirtanas called “Stay high forever” Stay high forever kirtana. Prabhupada termed, he called this stay high forever. Whether you chant Hare Krsna with the drums, instruments or you chant on your beads, the idea is to stay high forever. Stay high, up there! Srila Prabhupada was referring to this as the drug. He said “I have a drug for you!” And then, those in the mid 60’s, those American boys and girls would jumpe “Oh! Swamiji has a drug for us!” (Laughter, Guru Maharaj laughing). They were into drugs and.., Prabhupada said “my drug is very special.” If you take this, you will stay high forever which is not the case with the other drug. I don’t think you know (laughingly). I only have heard (laughter) that you take the drug and you kind of go high. You begin floating or (laughing) they say you feel lighter and you feel relieved and no anxiety and you feel.., but, when the effect is over, then, what happens? They are low. Then next time, they take, well, a bigger dose, higher dose and then they go higher also. But, when the deep effect is over, they go “lower.” And like that, they increase the dose and then one time, they may go highest and opposite of that is lowest and from there they may never go (laughter) anywhere. They are stuck into that ignorance, the lowest mode of material nature. So, this is mundane thing, mundane world. This is all due to whatever you said, drugs or so-called mundane gratifications. Higher and then, lower, this up and down “dvandva mohena bharata” (BG 7.27).

But, this chanting, this sankirtana, this “japa” is meant to keep us only at high altitude. Elevation! and no degradation. Ya, so, we, we were doing ‘stay high forever’ kirtanas in Radhadesh and we also did Rama Katha in Czech Republic as we were doing Ramayana Katha and then… so, we are here, to do these japa sessions. So, we are today and tomorrow also? You will be coming back tomorrow? (Yes!) Or you are staying overnight or? But, you’ll be back! Ya? We expect you tomorrow or? – Yes! “Kal bhi aaoge ki nahi?” – Haan! (Hindi). Ok! (Guru Maharaj laughing out loud along with audience).

So, I think we have today and tomorrow. So, today we could say first session is already on. We started a little late and this goes up until four o’clock at which time there is prasadam for all. Yes? For one hour you’ll get a break and then, we resume at five o’clock. Than five to seven or something, Ya? So, these are the two slots for today. Two to four and five to seven. Ok! There is something already printed here or no, ok, let’s see what it is. Alright! And then tomorrow.., so, those who can attend Mangala Arati, they.., we have Mangala Arati at 4.30. So, 4.30 to 9.30 which includes, after mangala arati there will be japa session. Those who would be with us, we could chant together Japa. There is the Bhagavatam class followed by breakfast. At “9.30”, breakfast. Ok and then, Japa retreat session. I would call that as number three which is 10.30. Last for two hours- 10.30to 12.30. And then, again break for.., is it lunch break or? No! No! That’s a break, short break and then, then one to.., this is a longer one. One to… what I am looking at here, one to four! Oh, it’s longer sessions. And then, tomorrow is a marathon (laughing). And ya, four to seven it says. Ok, so, no! Four to five. Oh, that’s shorter one. Maybe we should.., 10.30 to 12.30 break and then one to four. Ok. Ok that switched (?) Ok, we’ll end at four. Ok so, I think you “have” this! … Yes. OH! (Guru Maharaj starts laughing). I thought you, you have to take notes. I was just… So, I see you already have a pretty good idea. “Better” idea than I (laughingly). So, this is our first introductory session. And… So, we already said some introductory matters and we could continue. Ya, something Harinama Mahatmya, you may want to call it or the glories of the “Holy Name!” And part of that, I want to do, quickly run through the Siksastaka. You are familiar with Siksastaka. And at, in fact, there is no greater or better glory of the Holy Name chanted in the form of this Siksastaka which has been chanted, these glories have been chanted by none other than the “Supreme.” “Supreme” Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu ki… Jai!

Caitanya Mahaprabhu is glorifying the Holy name. His whole and sole purpose coming down here, in the midst of us, was to share this gift of the Holy Name. Just imagine, the “Supreme Lord.” Supreme Lord comes down to the Earth, why does He come? – “golokera prema-dhana, hari-nama sankirtana” (Srila Narottama dasa Thakura). To hand out the best of the gifts. So, “He!” He came down with the sankirtana. He came down here with this japa, Japa business. He gave us the business so that we could be in business. Japa has been given by Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu and He hasn’t given only, speeches, talks on Kirtana, the mahatmya and… In fact, Mahaprabhu has chanted more and spoken less. Talked less, chanted more.
So, He has spoken these eight verses of Siksastaka, He spoke other times glories of the Holy Name, but then these eight verses are very special. These, they have been attributed to the Lord. The Gita was spoken by Sri Krsna. What did Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu speak? What did He write? He wrote these Eight prayers. Of course, on behalf of Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu, His Associates were writing so many scriptures, books. But, personally Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu wrote only eight verses and they are known as Siksa astaka. Siksa is instructions and astaka- the eight verses. And the theme of this is the Holy Name. Stress of this is the Holy Name. And not that Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu compiled these eight verses and then published and “Ok”, do the mass distribution of this and He had nothing to do with. He is author, He doesn’t have to read them. But, Mahaprabhu, as we understand again and here is the Caitanya Caritamrta Antya-Lila means last, concluding pastimes. In that Antya-Lila, the very last chapter is the Siksastaka. You better know the location. Where is Siksastaka situated in Caitanya Caritamrta. It is the very last thing like “essence” of Caitanya Caritamrta Antya-Lila, chapter 20 – Siksastaka. And there is nothing more, this is it.

So, this way we could also understand the position, of the Siksastaka. This is something very tough thing. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu passed His nights testing the meaning Siksastaka prayers in the company of Svarupa Damodar Goswami and Ramananda Raya. So, He compiled and then, every night He has His most confidential associates around Him at Gambhira in Jagannath Puri. And He is… In this way, he became absorbed in ecstatic emotions. He relished the taste of reciting. This is another, also mentioned here, transcendental verses.

“ei-mata mahaprabhu vaise nilacale, rajani-divase krsna-virahe vihvale” (CC Antya 20.3). And of course, this, we just talked about the night, but during the day also, rajani? – “divase!” Day and night Lord is in this mood of separation, mentions here and.., So, He is reciting and remembering and getting absorbed in different emotion of these, these verses of Siksastaka. “nana-bhava uthe prabhura harsa, soka, rosa, dainyodvega-arti utkantha santosa” (CC Antya 20.5) – He relished the symptoms of various transcendental emotions, such as jubilation, lamentation, anger, humility, anxiety, grief, eagerness and satisfaction – (Translation). There is the whole waves of emotions of various kinds. “Sei sei bhave nija-sloka padiya, slokera artha asvadaye dui-bandhu lana” (CC Antya 20.6) – He would recite His own verses, expressing their meanings and emotions, and thus enjoy tasting them with these two friends – Translation). Ramananda Raya and Svarupa Damodara. Sometimes, Lord would be absorbed in a particular emotion and would stay awake all night reciting related verses and relishing their taste (20.7).

“sankirtana-yajne kalau krsna-aradhana” (C.C Antya 20.9). Then Mahaprabhu sharing everything He is talking now is only most essential, most confidential. So, one day, one night He said to His two friends – “sankirtana-yajne kalau krsna aradhana, sei ta ‘ sumedha paya krsnera carana” (CC Antya 20.9). “Dear friend, dear friends!” Not mummy (laughter) Dear friends- `That in this age of Kali, aradhana, krsna-aradhana is done by the intelligent people by performance of Sankirtana. So, Mahaprabhu has said this… in His own words, in Bengali words, Bengali language which is nothing but, just the translation of Bhagavatam verse that we had been talking about earlier. “krsna-varnam tvisakrsnam sangopangastra-parsadam yajnaih sankirtana-prayair yajanti hi su-medhasah” (SB 11.5.32). Not the first part, but, the later half, Mahaprabhu said that in Bengali language to His friends: “You know! The, the process of ‘krsna-aradhana’ is sankirtana.”

“nama-sankirtana haite sarvanartha-nasa” (CC Antya 20.11) and Mahaprabhu continued and Mahaprabhu quoted that verse. That same verse from Bhagavatam that we quote all the time, Mahaprabhu quoted that verse as it is which He had already said that in Bengali , to substantiate his statement he has quoted Bhagavatam verse “yajnaih sankirtana-prayair” and then He says more. “Nama-sankirtna haite sarvanartha-nasa”– By performance of nama sankirtana, the anarthas, all anarthas are destroyed. “Sarva- subhodaya” – all auspiciousness arrives. Krsna-premera ullasa – and there will be the Love of God would be invoked “initiating the flow of waves of love for krsna.” These are Mahaprabhu’s thoughts. Here, Mahaprabhu recites now the, the first of the eight astakas to His, those two friends with Him. So, beginning of this chapter, Mahaprabhu is reciting one of the astakas and then, He makes some comments, few comments Himself. These are His texts, His verse and then, some emotions. Just sampling of that in included here. Not all that, all the waves of emotion arrive. They are not all here.

“ceto-darpana-marjanam bhava-maha-davagni-nirvapanam
sreyah-kairava-candrika-vitaranam vidya-vadhu-jivanam
anandambudhi-vardhanam prati-padam purnamritasvadanam
sarvatma-snapanam param vijayate sri-krishna-sankirtanam” (Sri Siksastaka, verse 1).

So, Mahaprabhu says “param vijayate sri-krsna sankirtanam.” All glories! Not only all glories, but “victory” to the sankirtana. You may want to call it movement or just sankirtana and its sankirtana movement, of course. And Mahaprabhu is sankirtanaika-pitarau.

“ajanu-lambita bhujau kanakavadatau sankirtanaika-pitarau kamalayataksau
visvambharau dvija-varau yuga-dharma-palau vande jagat priya-karau karunavatarau”

That is introduction, as soon as you open ’Caitanya Bhagavat’ which is another scripture, you find this as the first verse. Mahaprabhu is glorified as “ajanu-lambita bhujau” and “sankirtanaika pitarau.” The founding father of sankirtana movement and of course, he is not alone. That is why it says sankirtanai ka “pitarau.” Pitarau means two, Ramah- Ramau. You know little Sanskrit, Ramau. Sankirtanaika-“pitarau”, “kamalayataksau” “dvija-varau” Ÿuga-dharma palau.” You see, everywhere “au, au, au.” (Laughter). This means two, two of them. This, Gauranga Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu are sankirtanaika pitarau- Founding Fathers of the sankirtana movement.

So, “param” vijayate! Mahaprabhu, “param” vijayate! Victory of the Holy Name. So, that is the eighth, 1/8 (one eighth) part, portion of this first siksastaka. Param vijayate sri-krsna-sankirtanam. And there are seven, there are seven other components in the siksastaka. First line has two of them- ceto-darpana, “marjanam!” stop there, that’s one. Then, maha-davagni “nirvapaman!” Whenever is a nasal sound, then you stop that’s two. Then, vidya-vadhu – “jivanam.” So, there are seven of these and these are the, you may call the glories or the adjectives- ‘Visheshana’ or in Sanskrit vishesha, visheshana. These are seven visheshana. Seven glories or attributes of the sankirtana movement, Sankirtana! Each one is a special feature, description the quality, “adjective” of that sankirtana.

So, we don’t have such luxury, right now, to go through this step by step. Sometimes, there are seminars given on siksastaka and that takes one week just to go through this, this seven- eight verses. And we have Bhaktivinoda Thakur and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur amongst others, they have written commentaries on siksastakas also. So “anandambudhi-vardhanam”- Always expanding the ananda and ceto darpana marjaman you understand? Darpana- Cleansing. Wherever there is a black spot, cleansing. Mahamantra chanting does the cleansing of the heart, the consciousness. Davagni- “Maha-davagni” we are being “burnt!” samsara-davanala-lidha loka (Sri Sri Gurv-astaka). The first thing that comes out of Hare Krsna devotee’s mouth as he gets up and faces the Deities and in the morning, takes ‘Darsana’- Mangala arati – samsara-dava. This, world is, what kind of world is this? Samsara-davanal this forest fire. Same thing – maha-davagni-nirvapanam. So, that fire of the material existence is extinguished by this sankirtana movement. Tava kathamrtam (Gopi Gita, text 9) Gopis said here Tava kathamrtam, what does your kathamrta do? Tapta-jivanam. The life that is on fire- tapta-jivana- the kathamrta. Here is Namamrta, sankirtana, they are not different.

So, maha-davagni, like that’s all the benefit “sarvatma-snapanam” Sarva, atma snapanam. Snapanam meaning taking bath. So, as one is involved, engaged in “sankirtana”, what happens? His atma takes full bath in that sankirtana, the full Abhishek. The living entity is bathed or swimming, drowning; but, happy. If someone is drowning, OH Help! Help! Help! Drowning, Help! Help! But if you are drowning in this, the sankirtana, then you don’t call for help. You are nicely situated. You are “very” happy to be “drowned” in this ocean.

“avatirne gaura-candre vistirne prema-sagare, yena majyanti majyanti te maha anartha sagare” (Prabhodananda Saraswati, Caitanya Candramrta). And this is in Caitanya-candramrta- it says Caitanya Mahaprabhu appeared and what did He do? “avatirne gaura-candre vistirne prema-sagare”. He expanded the prema sagara. And it is “here” now, there is sagara all around us, ocean all around us. But, then on the Island, there is the ocean, the sankirtana.

So, avatirne gaura-candre vistirne “prema”-sagare. And Lord appeared and He expanded that ocean of love of God- prema sagara. And then, next it says “yena majyanti-majyanti” – those who do not throw themselves into this prema sagara. ye “na” majyanti. Those who do not drown, do not throw themselves, do not dive deeper into this prema sagara, well for them there is another sagara. This is maha anartha-sagare. Take note of two sagaras, Prema sagara and maha anartha sagara. So, those who do not get into this sankirtana sagara, prema sagara, only other sagara available around, only option is? – maha anartha-sagara. Not only anartha, but maha anartha sagara. So, that is why it takes intelligence to make the choice. Take a pick! Prema sagara or maha anartha sagara. So, intelligent person goes for “yajnaih sankirtana- prayair, yajanti hi su- medhasah”. So like this, Mahaprabhu has, Himself, glorified this sankirtana in this first verse. Or He could, later on go little deeper and try to understand how there are seven different attributes of the sankirtana movement or chanting, right there.
“Sankirtana haite papa-samsara-nasana” (CC Antya 20.13) He says, now He makes little comment. This is Mahaprabhu’s words that sankirtana destroys the papa of, in this world.

‘Citta-suddhi, sarva bhakti-sadhana-udgama’ (CC 20.13) And then, “cita”-suddhi, Citta-consciousness. Suddhi- the purification takes place. And this is the source of all the “sarve bhakti-sadhana”. Bhakti is life of devotion. This is the means, original means of the life of devotion, “ Krsna-premodgama, premamrta-asvadana, krsna-prapti, sevamrta-samudre majjana” (CC Antya 20.14).

Ya, similar thoughts which we already talked, Krsna- prema -udgama, premamrta-asvadana. This is Hindi, Aap logon ke liye Hindi mein Mahaprabhu bol rahe hein (Guru Maharaj speaking Hindi). It’s very similar. Premamrta-asvadana, krsna-prapti, sevamrta-samudre majjana. And then, as one takes to this sankirtana, then, “seva amrta samudra.”. There was the prema sagara and now it is mentioned He has taken, accepted the sankirtana. Then, he has received seva because as one is chanting “Hare krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hara Hare”, what is he doing? Is he doing something or just saying this mantra? Utterance is there or else, and thoughts are supposed to be accompanying that utterance of the Holy Name. And one thought that Prabhupada always mentioned was thought of, it’s a prayer, begging for service of the Lord. Oh Lord! I am yours Oh ! Lord, please engage me in Your service oh! Lord, Oh! Pleasure, pleasure potency of the Lord, Oh! Radhe, Oh Krsna. So, then, Caitanya Mahaprabhu says seva-amrta samudra. Now he has another samudra, he has another ocean which is also nectarian. Seva-amrta samudra or seva amrta sagara and “majjana.” And devotee immerses, immersing. This is Mahaprabhu’s.., “The result of chanting is that one awakens his love for Krsna and tastes transcendental bliss. Ultimately, one attains the association of Krsna and engages in His devotional service, as if immersing himself in a great ocean of love.” (Translation CC Antya 20.14)

These are Mahaprabhu’s confidential thoughts and words. Then, next verse,

“ namnam akari bahudha nija-sarva-saktis
tatrarpita niyamitah smarane na kalah
etadrisi tava kripa bhagavan mamapi
durdaivam idrisam ihajani nanuragah (Sri Siksastaka, verse 2).

So, Lord has further glorified the Holy Name- “namnam akari bahudha nija sarva-saktis”. How potent is the Holy Name. How potent is the Holy Name? Lord has invested “all” His energies. nija! Take the note of this two little words, but important ones. He has invested energies, whose energies has he invested? Nija – His own energy. And how much energy has he invested. nija, “sarva”-saktis. All His energy he has invested in the Holy Name of the Lord. So, who is more powerful? The Lord or His Holy Name? (Answers from audience- Holy Name! – laughter). I was expecting you would say they are both equally powerful. All energy of the Lord, all that is in Him, all that in the Name. Well, some time, they do sing “Hari se bada Hari ka nama.” – (Hindi expression – Greater than Hari is hari’s name). “Hari se bada hari ka nama.” And they say this, that bada Hari ka nama, this bada hari ka nama- Hari se bada. Certainly not less, bada not chota, never chota, no less.

So, all the energies have been invested in the name and what other concessions are there? There are no hard or fast “rules” it says. “niyamitah smarane na kalah”– That’s another, not only all the energies, all powers, but no hard and fast “rules.” “etadrisi tava kripa” – and this is Your kindness my Lord. Mahaprabhu is also taking stand now, also as He is a chanter, He is a devotee. Now, He is facing the Lord and addressing the Lord- “yes this all You have done!” All Your powers invested in the Holy Name, no hard and fast rules and his is Your kripa, bhagavan mamapi. But, using the word ‘api’ – “but” Ifs and buts. No ifs and buts! But, here Mahaprabhu is coming: “but!” all these as just described, “but!” What is but? “durdaivam!” – It’s very unfortunate situation. What is that misfortune of myself? – na anuragah- I do not have attraction- I don’t have attachment to these Names My Lord! iha jani. iha, iha meaning in these names, iha. ajani means not, not produced, not… ya ajani. They are not there, in me, ‘araga’ is not there. na anuragah in this Holy Name and this is misfortune. Of course ee can’t say Caitanya Mahaprabhu has no anuraga in the Holy Name. Could you say that? Mahaprabhu has no attraction, no attachment, no ruci, is that the case? He is taking the stand on behalf of us. We should be saying this. If the honesty was the best policy (laughter), then, we should be talking like this. “I have no attachment, I have no attraction.” Is that the case? I think many of you would also admit that, think that way. Or, ya some ruci but, not enough. More! I would like to get more ruci, more anuraga. So, that’s when I think or, the Japa retreat session comes into the picture or maybe it’s also kind of response to this.
Ok I have “durdaivam idrisa ihajani na anuragah” That maybe the starting point of the, or what motivated us to come to this Japa retreat. I don’t have enough attachment, attraction. I want to increase my attachment to the chanting of the Holy Names of the Lord. So, then, I think that’s something that is gathering us here, all of us together to look into this and see whether how we could move forward or increase our or what to do. So, what to do? Mahaprabhu has, of course, He has raised this emotion or question and immediately He has presented the answer also to this question in nutshell and what is that?

“Trinad api sunicena taror api sahisnuna, amanina manadena kirtaniyah sada harih” (Sri Siksastaka, verse 3).
Just now there was no anuragah, there was no attraction, no attachment. It’s becoming very hard for, struggling to get some names out of the mouth. Struggling, “struggling” – They are not coming out. Not naturally coming out. No attraction, they force themselves. And then, something happens in between and now what is happening? – “kirtaniyah sada harih”. So, this person is chanting all the time. He is doing kirtana, chanting all the time. So, what happened? Mahaprabhu has said. In Sanskrit he said “trinad api sunicena” – trina means straw in the street and nica means down. And ‘su’- means even more down, more humble. Straw is humble, but then, Mahaprabhu says more humble than the straw in the street (laughingly). As you trample all over these straws, you walk “all” over. Does any straw beats you with another straw? Takes some straw nearby and beats you, or runs after “Hey!” (Laughter), no courtesy! You are just walking all over me! So, not only trinad api, nicena, not nicena, “su” nicena. “su” nicena. That’s why the translation is lower than a straw on the street. Not as same as straw in the street, but more lower than a straw in the street. Anyway, we can’t get into the vyakhya of the, the comments.
And “taror api sahisnuna” and tolerance. The “humility” – this was humility part and then, tolerance part. How much tolerant? ‘taror api sahisnun’- Sehenshil (tolerant in Hindi). How much? More than the trees, trees are all around and they tolerate all the rain of either, Mauritius has all the seasons. I think in one day you get all the six seasons (Guru Maharaj and everybody laughing). You go through six season or this morning there was winter (laughter). Here it is sunny, there was, it also rained. And it was raining on the way (laughter).

So, the, the trees go through all these seasons and then; they just tolerate all this inconvenience caused by seasonal changes. Go through the rain and the wind and Sun and the human beings are cutting and beating the trees, they don’t complain. You may be cutting some branches of the tree and then, if you are tired you could go sit down under the same tree, in the shade of the same tree. Does that tree say “Hey fool!” You are just cutting my branches which are like my arms and now you want to rest! So, the trees are tolerant. So tolerant like the tree and what else has to happen? “Trinad api sunicena taror api shisnuna “amanina mana dena” kirtaniyah sada harih”
Amanina- Not expecting any respect for himself, herself. Not expecting any respect, on the contrary, doing what? amanina ‘manadena.’ Amani is one word and manada another word. So, it gets transformed here. amani, amanina – by giving all, not expecting any respect for oneself. And manadena, manada – the giver of honor. Because ‘mana’, mana is honor, ‘da’ is giver. The giver of honor. Becoming giver of the honor, honoring others to extent of serving others. Not just lip service. So, this is important item. I mean, they are all important items. This trinad api sunicena taror api sahisnuna. But, the straw and the tree is talked about. We may not be dealing with them so much, when it comes to, you know, day to day dealings in, as we lead our lives, then we have to deal with others, devotees all the time and this factor amanina manadena, this has to be practiced, understood. Can do the review of our own performance, our own dealings, introspection and see how we are doing with, our performance with this amanina and manadena. Ya, specially vaisnavas and vaisnava aparadha. That we may talk about later on. Vaisnava aparadha could be disastrous results.

Once we were chanting, but now we are not chanting or we don’t have attraction for chanting! What happened? We may not realize, but lot of time, because we offended vaisnava. We offended some devotee. And now, you got the punishment. What is your punishment? Now you don’t like Holy Name anymore. So, “amanina manadena kirtaniyah sada harih”. Devotees are very dear to the Lord. All the living entities are very dear to the Lord. But; Lord takes that as an offence. Oh! you know, I just offended this person. But; that is becoming offence of the Holy Name. Sometimes difficult to understand. I offended this person, but how is that Nama aparadha? Well, Lord takes it personally. Ok, you were thinking that you did not offend Me, but you offended My devotee. But, my devotee is very dear to Me. Lord takes it personally. Lord takes it as if “you have offended Me!” My devotee is not different from Me or He is very dear to Me and so, we offend some person, but becomes a nama aparadha, krsna aparadha
“Yei ye magaye, tare deya apana-dhana gharma-vrsti sahe, anera karaye raksana” (CC Antya 20.24). Caitanya Mahaprabhu shared some of His emotions. “The tree delivers its fruits, flowers and whatever else it possesses to anyone and everyone. It tolerates scorching heat and torrents of rain, yet it still gives shelter to others.” And there are more thoughts of Mahaprabhu before we come to the next verse which is

“na dhanam na janam na sundarim kavitam va jagad-isa kamaye
mama janmani janmanisvare bhavatad bhaktir ahaituki tvayi” (Sri Siksastaka, verse 4).

Sraddha to prema, you heard of that? From faith, initial faith to the topmost ladder of krsna prema, love of Godhead. The siksastaka is talking that also, what is not step by step, you don’t find it one after the other, but, it is all those sraddha and then what? And sadhu sanga, bhajana kriya, anartha nivrtti and nistha, ruci, asakti, bhava and krsna-prema. So, these verses are dealing with that subject matter. It is a nutshell, it is also talking. Siksastaka is also talking about sambandha jnana, Sambandha, abhidheya and? – prayojana. If you know this, Gaudiyas are into this and this is found everywhere also. This sambandha jnana. And you worship, you are supposed to worship Radha-Madanmohan! Then, “abhidheya!” – relationship. Then, getting settled in devotional service. Radha-Govinda, worship of Radha-Govinda. Go higher for prayojana, the final destination, you worship Radha-Gopinatha and then, and that’s the prema is the prayojana.

So, the siksastaka is talking about sambandha jnana, abhidheya, prayojana is also described in these eight verses. You will also find, the Sadhana Bhakti and Raganuga Bhakti or Vaidi Bhakti, Raganuga Bhakti is also described here. Or vaidi sadhana Bhakti as well as Bhava Bhakti you’ll find here. Prema bhakti thoughts are also here. The first five verses they talk about Sadhana and then, sixth verse there is some bhava and seventh verse also has a bhava and seventh verse also little prema and then eighth verse is just the prema. Those emotions are, they have been integrated in these eight verses. So, here, there is something like anarthas. “Na dhanam, janam na sundarim kavitam va jagad-isa kamaye” In the commentaries by our Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Bhaktisiddhanta, it is also said this is like four purusarthas. This verse is talking of purusarthas. Dharma, artha, kama, moksa! If you take a closer look at this, you will find dharma, artha, kama, moksa. Moksa is – mama janmani janmani, no I am not interested in moksa. That part is there and what about kama? – “na dhanam, na janam, na sundarim kavitam”. So what you interested in? – pancam purusartha! I want just the Lord and His service. So, na dhanam, na janam, na sundarim, na kavitam, kavitam. This is also like a bhukti (enjoying the result on action). No bhukti, no, no, no bhukti. This list is also bhukti list, dhanam, janam. Wealth and the women or men or enjoyment, sake of enjoyment. Sundarim kavitam and all jagad-isa kamaye – the wordly desires.
</strong “bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kami — sakali asanta, krsna-bhakta— niskama, ataeva ‘santa” (CC Madhya 19.149). So, just in one verse, there are lots of very foundational philosophy of Gaudiya vaisnavas, vaisnavism is been compacted. So, oh Lord of the universe, I do not desire material wealth. Materialistic followers (laughingly), ok the materialistic followers. Otherwise spiritualistic are ok. Spiritual followers are I do not want a beautiful wife or the fruitive activities described in the flowery language or I don’t want all this. All I want life after life is unmotivated devotional service unto You! I just want service. “ Janmani janmani, bhavatad bhaktir ahaituki” And what kind of Bhakti? – ahaituki- No cause. Why not? Some say why do Bhakti? Why do you do Bhakti? All those, your parents may be, at some point or others – why Bhakti? Our response should be why not Bhakti? What else is there to do? What do you mean why Bhakti? Why Bhakti meaning they want to know the cause. What is the cause? Why should one do Bhakti? What is the purpose? What will you gain? ‘Pet bharega’ (Hindi)? - They say, pet bharta hain? So, ahaituki – no cause, Just we are meant to serve the Lord that’s all, that’s our constitutional position. “ayi nanda-tanuja kinkaram patitam mam vishame bhavambudhau
kripaya tava pada-pankajasthita-dhuli-sadrisam vicintaya (Sri Siksastaka, verse 5).