Date: 2008, Venue: Vrindavan (Braj mandal Parikrama) Haribol, so when a devotee was walking with umbrella he was trying to hold it over me, immediately I was remembered of a pastime,
when first time Krishna had to leave for cow herding.  Then mother Yashoda approached Krishna,
please take umbrella and also take pair of shoes. Krishna refused “no. no….i can’t wear shoes, cows don’t have shoes but if you insist I wil wear the shoes then bring the shoes for all
the cows first”.

So Nanda Maharaj had 900,000 cows and each cow has 4 legs, so how many shoes are
required? 36 lakhs so which bata-tata company would provide so many shoes (laughter
maharaj also laughing).

So mother Yashoda gave up the idea of insisting Krishna to wear the shoes. Oh! But at
least take the umbrella it’s hot out there, again Krishna’s condition was first
get umbrella for the cows, so how many umbrella required? 9lakhs then Krishna
said cows have feet but they don’t have hands so we would require somebody to
carry the umbrella, so we need 9 lakh people walking next to the cows holding
umbrella. Mother Yashoda also gave up that idea (laughs) she could not manage 9
lakh people. So during all the cow herding pastime of Sri Krishna in Vrindavan
, He always walks bear feet behind the cows. So don’t think you are the only
ones going on Braj mandal parikrama without shoes, Krishna also goes around without
shoes in Vrindavan.

So He has gone around without shoes, without umbrella, then He did little preaching to mother Yashoda.  He said “dharmo rakshati rakshaka” if we protect dharma then dharma will in turn protect us. So Krishna says “serving cows taking care of cows this is our dharma” this is our dharma then our own protection is guaranteed if we take care of cows protect the cows, serve the cow.  Lord Krishna not only has delivered talk – discourse on this topic but He has practically demonstrated throughout His Lilas the importance of cows and importance of serving the cows.

So cow is the center of our culture and religion. Krishna, s one of the principal pastime
is  “gocaran-lila” cow herding –calf herding pastime. What does the God do? This morning also a question came up what does the God do every day? That minister or that priest he was not able to give suitable answer to that question. But we know the answer is very simple, I know
that you also know the answer now I have given you some clue. So what does
Krishna do every day? He is a cow herd boy He is herding cows. Supreme
Personality of God head, master and controller of all the universes all that He
does in Vrindavan during the day is herding cows and calves “namo brahmanya devaya go brahmanya hitayacha jagad hitaya krishnaya govindaya namo namhaa”.

So in this way Krishna has established the importance of Cows and the Brahmanas in Krishna
consciousness. So we are doing the puja of the cows today as it was instructed
by Krishna to Nanda Maharaj. Krishna says worship cows, brahmanas and Giriraj,
so we have done some puja of the cows, Gomata ki ……..jai, we should worship and serve the brahmanas “vancha-kalpataru bhyas ca krpa-sindhubhya eva ca patitanam pavanebhyo
vaisnavebhyo namo namah”. And then soon we would also be worshiping Giriraj
and in this way till this day Krishna’s instructions get followed Giriraj Govardhan
ki ….jai. So the cows and Govardhan they are very closely connected, closely related if you hear the
name Govardhan there is a cow connection right there in the name of Govardhan .
So cows become healthy they become hell and hearty because of the grass that is
available at Govardhan, the water, the shades of the trees, that is all
available at Govardhan. The cows enjoy being around this Govardhan, the cowherd boys are also very very happy being around cows and Govardhan. So let us contemplate, meditate upon Govardhan and Krishna, cowherd boys and cows around Govardha. So that one day we would be
promoted we will also get assignment as a cowherd boy, but you may say O! I am engineer,
come on! I am doctor, I can’t  be a cow herd boy .but Krishna is a cow herd boy, if you just want to be doctor, engineer just continue in this world. But if you want to come back home then be
prepared to be the cow herd boy herding cows, taking care of the cows. Anyone
interested in going back home going to Krishna, going to Vrindavan? Haribol.
Then pray to this cow, pray to this dhama, pray to Giriraj so that you will
become eligible we will have that adhikar of entering the pastime of Krishna
being a cow herd boy. Gomataki…….jai, so before you leave pay your obeisance’s
to the cows deep in your heart, pray to the cow, touch the feet of the cow.

S.B
2.5.34

“varsa-puga-sahasrante
tad andam udake sayam kala-karma- svabhava –stho jivo jivam ajivayat”

Translation
and purport by Srila Prabhupada, Srila
Prabhupada ki ……………jai

TRANSLATION-
Thus all the universes remained thousands of eons within the water [the Causal
Ocean], and the Lord of living beings, entering in each of them, caused them to
be fully animated.

PURPORT- The Lord is described
here as the jiva because He is the
leader of all other jivas (living entities). In the Vedas He is described as
the nitya, the leader of all other nityas. The Lord’s relation with the
living entities is like that of the father with the sons. The sons and the
father are qualitatively equal, but the father is never the son, nor is the son
ever the father who begets. So, as described above, the Lord as Garbhodakasayi Vis?n?u or
Hiran?yagarbha Supersoul enters into each and every universe and causes it to
be animated by begetting the living entities within the womb of the material
nature, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita (14.3). After each annihilation of
the material creation, all the living entities are merged within the body of
the Lord, and after creation they are again impregnated within the material energy.
In material existence, therefore, the material energy is seemingly the mother
of the living entities, and the Lord is the father. When, however, the
animation takes place, the living entities revive their own natural activities
under the spell of time and energy, and thus the varieties of living beings are
manifested. The Lord, therefore, is ultimately the cause of all animation in
the material world.

“varsa-puga-sahasrante
tad andam udake sayam kala-karma- svabhava –stho jivo jivam ajivayat”

The
animations are very popular these days and that’s considered to be very
advanced or very intelligent thing to do. Animation in television they get
different dolls to fight with each other, they seem to be talking or running
after each other. The Disney world you know in America the most famous
animation are by Disney world in North America. So we are parts and parcels of
the Lord and like father – like son, the ability of the Lord is also in us in
minute quantity and this is little minute animation that we become the cause of
or off course we create little children, Lord has created all of us and we
create few children.

Lords
begets living entities within this womb of material nature “mama yonir mahad brahma” (B.G 14.3)
Lord makes “mahat tattva” that is
the womb and Lord glances, He glances upon that total Material energy mahat
tattva in front of  Him, He doesn’t even
have to touch it, just by looking at it He does the impregnation and how many
countless living entities they get animated as per kala-karma-svabhava, their karmas which they had committed during
previous creation and that bhava, their inclinations, their tendencies.

So
we create few living entities or we not create living entities they always
exist we gave bodies become cause of giving bodies to few children. But look at
the Lord how much He could create “tasmin
garbham dadhamyaham sambhavah sarva bhutanam tato bhavati bharata” (B.G
14.3). He becomes the cause of sarva
bhutanam of all the living entities and giving them bodies also first of
all they are His parts and parcel. So when it’s difficult to trace the history
when the living entities were created “mama
amsa” from purna- some amsa, some parts and parcel were created we don’t
difficult to find out. So that creation of living entities then later on giving
them bodies also to sarva bhutanam- all the living entities.

I
(maharaja saying) never heard this creation as lila- srusti lila, Devananda
prabhu was explaining different incarnations have different lilas  or even there is lila, I never for first time
I was thinking this is also lila of the Lord, creation is also lila – srusuti
lila and the 3 purusa avataras put together are performing this lila. So what
we do little bit it’s not described as lila we also have little creations few
children ok, big house ok or housing colony that’s kind of creation, big bridge
we built, little space Apollo 8 or Apollo 11. there are unlimited oceans, night
time we see so many planets floating like dust particles float in the air, they
we send little sputnik floating. So these are tiny creations of tiny living
entities, so they are not described as lilas. but when Lord performs herculean
tasks –big big tasks, creation of the universes not just one but unlimited
universes and then within each universe so many planets and so much variety and
you just, Jai Sri Sri Guar Nitai
ki…………………….jai.

For
a tiny living entity as we are from where we are sitting or where ever we are
existing from there you take a look at the universe that so many universes and
beyond that is another kingdom – the spiritual kingdom. And how much living
entities tiny and the tiny living entities brain is further tiny brain Prabhupada used to call tini brain, he
would describe so that tiny brain how much that could understand. What we know
is very very little there is a planet – there is a space- so many planets in
that space – the ocean- whole world out there or in there in the ocean. So many
varieties of entities in there of the total creation of the Lord all that exist
how much does living entities know? How much does living entities know? Just a
fraction who was that? It was Einstein – he said the knowledge meaning- you
admit how much ignorant you are, if you could admit that I am so much ignorant
means you are kind of knowledgeable. But one who thinks oh! I know everything
that is how the ignorance is described I who thinks I know everything that
means you are ignorant, but if you admit yes yes I am ignorant infact I don’t
know so many things, O! He is knowledgeable at least he knows that he doesn’t know.
So this scientist Ensitein he was admitting “you go to the beach and take one
sand particle from that beach Juhu beach, Prabhupada used to walk and then you
admit that my knowledge is this one particle that now I am holding within my
pinch just one particle may be that much or even less than that I know compared
to the number of the sand particles are there on this beach or there are so
many beaches also.

So
how much could living entity know? Not much so when Lord He performs His lila
of srusti lila the creation then it is just mind boggling, it’s just “acintya” just beyond the grasp the
capability of living entity to know it. But in order to make living entity knowledgable
or at least know as much as living entity could to the extend they could know here
in this section of Srimad Bhagvatam the creation has been described not just
the theory of creation the facts of creation have been described. I was
thinking how Narada Muni he has gone to the authority in the creation next to
the Lord or Lords right hand man, Lord is cause of all causes that’s the
chapter here we are dealing Lord is
cause of all causes sarva karana karnam.

So
the popular fact is that Brahma is the creator but even Brahma had to be first
created by the Lord before He creates more things. So Lord is cause of all
causes, cause of Brahma, who is kind of secondary cause of the creation. Lord
is first sarga then visarga, we were hearing and understanding yesterdays
lecture also. So Brahma is certainly has a big role if anyone has role to play
besides the Lord that is Brahma, he has a big big role to play in creation of
the Lord or creation of Brahmanda. So what Narada Muni is doing he is going all
the way to the top person, the top authority in this creation who is
responsible for creation, he goes there ok Brahmaji give us some – it’s like a
interview, we heard of those 10 questions yesterday which are at the beginning
of this chapter “yad rupam yad
adhisthanam” and total number of 10 questions were raised.

So
Narada Muni who also has inferior position he is going to the superior
authority he is going to his father, Narada Muni is son, Brahma is the father.
O! Father, father daddy daddy could you please tell me explain to me be kind
upon me. So these things human being should know or they should know these
things even as Lila of the Lord, creation is Lila of the Lord and O! my dear
father Brahma ji and he is asking all these questions all possible questions
that human being could possibly would want to know about the creation. Those
questions have been raised by Narada Muni probably he sat in Badrikasrama some
point and he I was making a list or these questions probably people from Delhi
would ask, these questions from New York, people from here there would ask and
he made a list and Badrikasrama because that is his headquarter, Narada Muni,s
head quarter is Badrikasrama, Badri-Narayana he worships in Bharatavarsa. “Narayana Narayana Narayana” when you
see Narada Muni you remember Narayana or he reminds everybody of Narayana, he
gives out Narayana, so Badrikasrama is his place.

So
he made a list and he is approaching Brahma “could you please tell us about
this creation? This, this ………different
10 questions”. And what we are hearing these days in the Bhagvatam class
including today’s verse is a reply, is a response to Narada Muni,s questions.
The person who is asking questions who has made the list of questions is a top
notch authority himself, pure and he is the representative of all the people.
Or he has to go around and O! What if somebody ask me about the creation, you
know I go everywhere I better know I better equip myself with answer to these
questions otherwise it could be very embarrassing position as those yamadutas
were embarrassed. Prabhupada writes if you are representing someone before you
out to represent you better be knowledgeable about the representation.

So
Narada Muni he is a world preacher and he is going to the top most authority
and wants to know all the things about creation. And the answers given are
nothing but the truth if anybody knows about the creation of course Lord knows
and there is and there is another person who knows and that is Brahma because
he is directly involved with the creation. So that person had been interviewed
by Narada Muni and these are facts “facts are facts” it is the truth for all
the time to come. Brahma and Narada Muni they wanted to go on record and that
record is here this Srimad Bhagvatam several chapters many many chapters
dealing with creation “sarga, visarga” very in-depth mystical also and so many
great details and very interesting details about the creation of the Lord.

So
this is it if anyone, anywhere, at any time is interested in knowing about the
creation of the Lord, creation which is out there, this is the place, this is
the source you go into Bhagvatam and vedic text, Upanisadas, Puranas, essence
of all that is here in Amala-Purana –
Srimad Bhagvatam Purana and you hear this you read this and you become
knowledgeable about the creation of the Lord. The creator mentioned here is
jiva “jivo jivam ajivayat” flows very nicely sounds very nice “jivo jivam
ajivayat” one jiva, jiva also means life, o! This is nirjiva they say- this
does not have jiva – this does not have life. So the first person Prabhupada
describing that person as leader of the all the living entities, but  he is also jiva because  he is full of life in fact life comes from
life which Prabhupada made that bold statement “life come from life” so that is
right here jivo. In the beginning there was jiva the supreme living entity and
he is cause of all causes from that jiva that life rest of the life has come in
to existence.

“hiranyagarhba antaryami” that jiva has
been described as “hiranyagarhba, “hiranyagarhba” that is Garbhadakshai Vishnu
that jiva has been also described as antaryami, antaryami Krishna the Lord in
the heart or supersoul “samsara
vyatirikta parmeswara”. Jiva is samsara vyatirikta – means someone whose is
beyond this samsara – this material existence this jiva doesn’t come from, it’s
not product of this samsara “samsara vyatirikta” and He is a Parmeswara, living
entity is also samsara vyatirikta beyond this material existence but He is not
only “samsara vyatirikta but he is “samsara vyatirikta parmeswara” He is
Supreme Personality of Godhead and He is creator. He creates brahmanda anda –
egg shape – brahmanda “mama yonir mahad brahma”.

So
brahmanda is the universe and He is also creator of panda another word has been
used for the living entity. Brahamanda is universe and the anda, one is anda
one is panda, anda – brahmanda its the material universe and pinda – each one
of us is pinda like we say “pinde pinde
matir bhinna” or “munde munde matir
bhinna” matti means intelligence, Devakinandan prabhu was also throwing
light on how each one is different, our thoughts are different everything is
different you could see he gave a class and I am also giving a class he said if
one of us could give class we would be talking but differently this is also
amazing creation of the Lord, no two persons look alike there are 100 of you
are sitting and each different looking except who? Jananivas and Pankajangri
even after 30 yrs I can’t figure it out, I have to take few minutes to understand
whom I am talking to (laughter) whom I am talking to is this Pankajangri or is
this Jananivas I think one has bigger sikha and one has smaller sikha, there is
some difference, difference is there but very subtle.

So
isn’t that amazing and sometimes we also hear its true from the beginning of
creation till now all the bodies created by the Lord, not two bodies are alike
not that the present batch each one different but previous batch and the
previous batch each batch no 2 bodies were created just alike there is at least
some slight difference, little scar something different and this is something
amazing that we could just sit and appreciate and become Krishna conscious.
If  we could just sit and be amazed instead
of going to Agra to see the wonder 8th wonder of the world, you could just sit
in Vrndavan and hear about the creation of the Lord and be amazed such a
wonderful Lord He is no that Krishna is wonderful Krishna, His pastimes are
wonderful, this chapter Prabhupada has given title as wonderful Krishna but he
is wonderful Maha Vishnu, wonderful Garbhodakasayi Vishnu, wonderful
Ksirodakasay  Vishnu, we don’t have to
only appreciate rasa dance and talk about the rasa dance, how amazing! And
appreciate but here this this srusti lila is such a amazing thing, you could
relish if you could go deeper and understand step by step the creation of the
Lord and the subtleties and the details and the flavor it’s just amazing thing
what Lord does, amazing, wonderful creation of the Lord.

The
Brahmanda that anda and this panda and all that is in anda is all in this
panda, all that is out there also in this body in minute quantity different
elements which are out there pruthavi, teja , vayu, akash “bhumir aponala vayuh kham” (B.G 7.4) out there in here also of the whole,
you want to sample just sample your body and analyze your body and by knowing
panda you could know lot about the anda whole brahmanda. So what attracted my
attention was also Prabhupada writes in the purport of the 2nd verse of the
same chapter and this is Srila
Prabhupada ki…….jai “contrary to
such mental speculative theories of creation however Narada Muni wanted to know
all the facts of creation in truth not by theories”.

So
many theories must be floating at the time Narada Muni also and big bang theory
and many other theories are there and Narada Muni just wanted to just smash
those or expose those or establish the fact not just go by theories but he
wanted to establish the truth about the creation. So Srila Prabhupada being a
representative of all the previous acharaya Brahma and Narada Muni, he is
really trying to attract the attention of the whole world. Are you interested
in knowing how the world was created? If
you say yes here Bhagvatam is the way. You may be studying theories which
is full of mental speculation but the facts are these, this was spoken by the
person who was involved with the creation right there and then. Millions of
years ago when the creation took place this person Brahma he was right there
not just witnessing but he was involved making his hands dirty. I have not
studied Bible in detail but what we hear from our devotees who are from
Christian background is the description of the creation of this world of course
the great thing is which we appreciate that they admit that this world was
created by the Lord that’s good thing first of all, this world was created by
the Lord not much detail and He took some 6 days to create and by that time He
was exhausted and then on the 7th day He took rest and that was Sunday and
following in the footsteps of God we took rest on the 7th day we are also of
course we are fighting for more rest. So besides Sunday now we have Saturday or
half day we want to work less and get more pay.

Or
in the beginning there was ad “sabda”
this is the part of the creation described, form sabda there was a sparsa,
rupa, rasa, gandha like that each of these 5 elements earth, water, fire , air
, ether, ether- has only sound, ether is more subtle creation or element and it
has only sound and the next only has sound and touch and like that you go to
the next one there are 3 things, 3 sense objects, 4th one has like that
………  So whatever is written in Bible is
also true giving credit to God His creation of course it’s His creation He
existed before the creation He was there at the time off creation, He created
it. But the only trouble is how much could you relish what is written in bible
that is also lila but described in such a summarized way that you could not
really relish and for the fact can’t
appreciate also unless you get into the details of the creation you
can’t appreciate it. So what is in the bible although truth but not much that
you could relish because so many missing links are there and some holes are
there and it doesn’t make sense sometime. So this is how a devotee is
explained. So this is what the Christians have to say or bible has to say. Then
very recently I came across statement from Quran about the creation. They kind
of agree with the description of creation which is described in the Bible the
Muslims agree with what is written in the bible only disagreement that they
have with the Christians or with the bible is they say O! come on you are
making God Alha kind of ordinary person, you are saying that He worked for 6
days to create then he was exhausted, he was tired com on God can’t be tired he
is never tired.

So
and then He created for 6 days, the 7th day he took rest they don’t agree with
this taking rest Lord taking rest doesn’t go together. And that’s the only
difference between what Christians and the Muslims have to say about the
creation of course both the parties fully agree that Lord has created this
world. But because what has been presented in bible and Quran is not a complete
and perfect and in great detail some place it doesn’t make sense and that has
given rise to the speculations of the scientist. The scientist or intelligent
being, intellectuals they always want to keep brain busy and active and so
exercise as other do exercise of the muscle or intelligent people the
intellectuals their power is in the brain muscle and they want to keep them fit
and active. So they were referring to this bible, Quran theories and that was
not convincing and then some intelligent theory had to be presented to the
world so they came with what is popularly known as big bang what is the theory?
Big bang What was big? The bang was big, the sound that explosion made they
kind of talk of some kind of mahat tattva or the mass of the matter was sitting
there, the matter was there and then nothing or suddenly or no prior cause or
notice or any person involved because there was no person according to them
before the creation just a big bang, big explosion took place and the whole
water scattered everywhere and came into a beautiful round shaped balls started
floating (laughs) but that’s not the experience when there is explosion, when
the terrorist came they also went to the twin tower – trade towers they exploded
those twin towers, some beautiful thing came out that you could take
photographs? O! What a beautiful creation or Americans got their karma.

In
Japan the most powerful bomb was exploded did some housing society, some
plants, some beautiful things came out of that explosion? So the experience
that we have of the explosion is that nothing beautiful, nothing wonderful,
nothing that could use comes into existence as a result of smaller big bang or
some explosion. So with this we reject, so behind every explosion there is a
person he is right there lighting the bomb may crude was y of lighting the bomb
with a candle may be that was being done some 50 yrs ago but now remote control
but still there is a remote, machine is there and person to push the button is
there. So no explosion is automatic unless some person is involved. So this is
how the big bang theory is down the drain. I also was thinking how because what
was available to the western world, the information or views or news of
creation from bible and Quran they did not satisfy the scientist or the
intellectuals and then they had to speculate and speculate and speculate to
their hearts content there was no one to stop them.

Generation
after generation they went on speculating and supporting this imaginary
theories big bang and some other theorizes and did this because the facts were
not available to them, the Bhagvatam theory was not made popular. Of course all
this big bang theory this is all in last 500 yrs or few thousand yrs there was
a time when this was the theory this was common knowledge. O! How was the world
created? Everyone knew you could stop any one on the street and ask them how
the world was created? And they would refer to conversation between Narada Muni
and Brahma or Maitre Muni and Vidura they knew because every student his
schooling began with the guru’s ashrama they all went to Gurus ashrama “brahmachari gurukule vasandanto gurur hitam”.
The perfect Narottamas, purified, through purified and honest persons as they
were they were only speaking truth and spreading the truth travelling
extensively where ever there was some black spot, some ignorance some were they
would go rush there with a torch light of knowledge and dispel the darkness by
discussing these topics of creation from Bhagvatam and some other Vedic
sources.

So
one time few thousand yrs ago in Sat-yuga, treta-yuga every single human being,
practically everyone knew how the world was created. So present theories are
just few hundred yrs old, concoctions and mental speculations which world is
buying because nothing substantial is being presented. But now the task has
begin with Srila Prabhupada entering the field of the whole world with the
original facts from Narada Muni and Brahma which are right there in the
Bhagavatam, which are being distributed far and wide. So this big bang theory
doesn’t have much future, not much longer into the future this big bang theory
would be accepted as something intelligent, like so many other theories are
being challenged, not only by Hare Krishnas but other intelligent being are
challenging theories one of such theory very popular theory is Darwin theory of
evolution being challenged all the time.

I
had read such report in the news paper before the challenges and the rejection
of the Darwins,s  theory of evolution but
something very recently a week ago, Darwin under attack by  U.S school board, American school boards are
attacking Darwin,s theory appeared in the front page in Sunday express on 2nd
if January and of course the whole news is from America printed as it is
(laughs) and God or Darwin report says God or Darwin choice is yours and this
U.S school board  they want to go for God
they want to reject this Darwin or at the most report says ok ok may be we
could accept this as a theory but not a fact may report also says, “I
definitely would prefer to believe that God created me” and I am not the or the
descendent of the apes, ape- the monkey, the Darwin is presenting that – the
most evolved being was apes-monkeys. Some 6 or 7 thousand yrs ago, the human
being from the monkey instead of using 4 feet he kind of stood up started
standing up gradually an d then his fore
limbs became his hands and his tail went inside from back and suddenly
he had hands, feet and tail, stood erect.

So
this all happened some 6 or 7 thousand yrs ago and then human beings first
edition, first version of the human beings were such uncivilized, uneducated
they were just  living in the caves -cave
men theory, the cave kings. And you know they used to fight a lot amongst each
other, men of one cave with men of another cave. They had no instrument they
just used rocks, throwing rocks at each other. The time of your battle field of
Kuruksetra where you describe amazing kind of weapons were used, the Mahabharat
war around that time, actually human beings had just now came into existence
and just even using rocks may be some sticks to beat each other and there were
no towns and cities and from that time the human being has further evolved and
he is becoming more and more intelligent and intelligent and more civilized
human being is the present version of human beings. So in brief in the
beginning was amoeba when the world was created in the beginning was amoeba not
Brahma (laughs) but amoeba.

So
that theory and there is little more into that and that’s theory of Darwin, Darwin’s
theory of evolution which was being taught in all the schools and colleges all
over the planet including in India unfortunately. I am sure even Mathura
university- vidyapitha is teaching the evolutionary theory of Darwin. Vaishnavs
never taught such theory Prabhpada would not even spit at such theories why
even spit and waste his spit at such garbage (laughter). He would just use his
boot to kick, he did not want to kick the face with is foot but with the boot
only. So one by one let us maintain staunch faith and some more patience and we
would relies that all those things which are presented as some kind of the
truth all over the world will be exposed and they would be proven wrong when
they know what is right and gradually there is a major change. I was talking
with Bhakti Swaropadamodhar Maharaj on phone just few days ago he conducted his
world conference- scientific conference in Rome in Italy just few days ago to
celebrate Prabhupada,s 108 birthday anniversary and he said there were so many
scientists but 32 of them he has a list of 32 scientist talking in favor of God
or Gods existence. There was a time, scientist means prove it, can you show me
God? If yes then I accept but now the same scientists are coming to the senses
gradually, gradually there is a global revolution in consciousness and

certainly the chanting of “Hare Krishna
Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare”
and study of scriptures the air is getting filled with the truth which is
defeating the myth and with that that
truth is inspiring so many individuals all over the planet now.

There
is a study first time, I was amazed to know, you would also be amazed first
time the research in consciousness being done.
Some scientists are doing research into consciousness you go beyond it’s
not just a matter something living, some consciousness they want to study the
consciousness though they may have different ideas what the consciousness is.
but at least they are coming to the conclusion that is world is not just dead
matter as darwin was also trying to prove- This is a bunch of chemical and
interaction of these chemicals life comes into existence. No, this verse is
talking that original jiva that samsara vyatirikta parmeshwara the Supreme
Personality of Godhead who was full of life He put life into everything else
around into living entities and got them into going, working as per their karma
and svabhava and ajivayat He becomes the cause of giving life to others, life
comes from life.

So life is being studied as consciousness for
the first time, this is happening of course you know Prbahupada in easy journey
to other planets  Prabhupada writes the
scientist are coming to the conclusion if there is a matter O! Possibly there
must be antimatter also, there is material there must be something ant material
also. What is antimaterial? There is a sprit, matter is matter then anti matter
is sprit. So some scientist are waking up to the reality it is good fortune and
good fortune of so many others because in this day and age the scientist have
become the Gurus of the masses, the Gurus or acharyas position has been taken
by the scientist. The scientist says something everyone Prabhupada says double
standard, sadhus is talking the acaryas is talking  you are challenging show me prove it but when
scientist say something lot of things which are not proven people don’t ask
those questions any more O! Could you prove it, their speculations they are
just blindly accepting it. And Prabhupada says double standard you are asking
us to show me, you are not asking the similar question to the scientist to
prove it.

So
it is very important for this spread of Hare Krishna movement over the planet
the scientist are a big stumbling block because they are taken as authority.
They have presented so many bogus
theories they dnt know to begin with thathey are souls or anybody is a
soul and to become scientist you dnt have to be man of any kind of
character….no, you could be women hunter, you could be meat eater, you could be
speculator and what else? What did I miss? Drunkard you could have a wine
bottle in one hand and you are punching the keys you are typing on the screen
its fine, its fine they can be Murderers, they may be terrorist could be
anything, no questions raised only their theories are accepted because with
those theories you get to exploit this material world and that is when you
could be ‘ishwaro-aham”, That you could declare but practically be that Ishwar-
the controlees, the enjoyer. So it’s a good team scientist are making the job
easy, facilatiinng this demonic nature and giving them how to be the enjoyer,
the ishwaro – aham. So from ishwaro-aham status that human being want to
achieve they want kingdom of God without God. Srila Prabhupada ki…jai wonderful
Prabhupada has made he was the first one to speak this kind of language, most
relevant statement Prabhupada has made. So from that position that human beings
are taking ishwaro-aham we have to bring them down to “daso- aham” “dasosmi”
not “boss-asmi”. So theories and scientist they are exploiting and people are
getting distracted and as a result infact there are suffering. They want to
enjoy but there are sufferings. So last lecture series Prabhupada gave on the
planet in Mumbai was the present day modern civilization is a total failure
only alternative is Krishna Consciousness this was his topic from Mayapur he
went straight to Mumbai and everyday he was roaring like a lion although we had
to lift him literally we had to lift him and put him on Vyas ashan but once he
was on the microphone he was getting the audience trembling. He was very bold
and out spoken and this civilization is total failure, only solution is Krishna
Consciousness. So, so many myths are being spread but Prabhupada books are
everywhere do you know that, I am sure another
places also this holds true that Delhi distributed 86 thousand Bhagvad –
Gitas in Marathon (round of applause). Devotees   of Delhi, Punjabi Bagh – 86, 000 Bhagvad-
gita and so like that it’s  just one city
score and wait till you hear about what Bombay did and other temples did to
distribute books and spread this knowledge. So this is Prabhupada,s program so
that the truth is established, the dharma “dharma sansthapanar thaya” and then
“sarve sukhina bhavantu” people would be happy and in real sense be prosperous
and that’s life that’s real life. So let us push on Prabhupads program,
Prabhupadas movement spreading the holy name and Bhagvatam knowledge based on
Bhagvatam this will spread the truth and whole world would be benefitted and
this is the topmost welfare work Prabhupada used to say.

Thank
you very much

 

Dated: 16^th Jan 2006

Venue: ISKCON Chow patty, Mumbai.

Hare Krishna, so  thank you for this opportunity being with all of you this morning,  we  get to hear so much about all  of you and being on the same planet, we don’t get to see each other so much.  You are ‘durlabh ‘su durlabh’ but we are here today this morning. So we have here this Srimad Bhagavatam – Canto 5, chapter 18 and text 23, please repeat

“Sa tva mampya acyuta sirsni vanditam

karambhujam yat tvad adhayi satvatam

bi bharsi mam laksma varenya mayaya

ka isvarasyehitam uhitam vibhur iti” (SB 5.18.23)

Translation and purport by Srila Prabhupada ki …………….jay!

O infallible one, Your lotus palm is the source of all benediction. Therefore Your pure devotees worship it, and You very mercifully place Your hand on their heads. I wish that You may also place Your hand on My head, for although You already bear my insignia of golden streaks on Your chest, I regard this honor as merely a kind of false prestige for me. You show Your real mercy to Your devotees, not to me. Of course, You are the Supreme absolute controller, and no one can understand Your motives.

Translation once again (repeat)

In many places the sastras describe the Supreme Personality of Godhead has been more inclined towards His devotees than towards His wife who always remains on His chest.  In Srimad Bhagavatam 11.14.15 it is stated –

“na tatha me priyatama atma-yonir na sankarah

na ca sankarsano na srir naivatma ca yatha bhavan”

Here Krishna plainly says that His devotees are more dear to Him than Lord Brahma, Lord Shiva, Lord Shankarshan – the original cause of creation, the Goddess of fortune or even His ownself.

Elsewhere in Srimad Bhagavatam 10.9.20 Sukhdev Goswami says, “nenam virinco na bhavo na sriri apy anga-sansraya prasadam lebhire gopi yat tat prapa vimuktidat” The Supreme Lord who can award liberation to any one showed more mercy towards the gopis than to Lord Brahma, Lord Shiva or even goddess of fortune who is His own wife and is associated with His body.

Similarly, Srimad  Bhagavatam 10.47.60  also  states,

“nayam sriyo nga u nitanta-rateh prasadah

svar-yositam nalina-gandha-rucam kuto nyah

rasotsave sya bhuja-danda grhita-kantha”

labdhasisam ya vdagad vraja-vallabhnam”

The Gopis received benediction from the Lord that neither Laxmi devi nor the most beautiful dancers in the heavenly planets could attain.  In the rasa dance Lord showed His favour to the most fortunate gopis by placing His arms on their shoulders and dancing with each of them individually. No one can compare with the gopis who received the causeless mercy of the Lord.

In the Chaitanya Caritamritam it is said that, “no one can receive the real favour of the Supreme Personality of Godhead without following the footsteps of the gopis”. Even the goddess of fortune could not receive the same favour as the gopis, although she underwent with severe austerities and penances for many years.

Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu discuss this point with Vyankatt Bhatt in Chaitanya Caritamrita madhya lila – 911 to 131 and there’s a many paragraphs here almost one page has been quoted as it is from that dialogue which took place where you know you were just there, Srirangam. This brings you back to Srirangam, back to Srirangam .  You have to be there and listen to the dialogue. The Lord enquired from Vyankat Bhatt, “your worship able goddess of fortune Laxmi always remain on the chest of Narayan and she is certainly the most chaste women in the creation”. However, my Lord is Lord Sri Krishna a cowherd boy engaged in tending the cows. Why is it that Laxmi being such a chaste wife wants associate with my Lord?  Just associate with Krishna, Laxmi abundant all transcendental happiness in Vaikuntha and for a long time accepted vows and the regulative principles and performed unlimited austerities.

Vyankatt  Bhatt replied, “Lord Krishna and Lord Narayan are one and the same. But the past times of Krishna are more relish able due to their sportive nature. They are very pleasing to Krishna’s shakties since Krishna and Narayan are both the same personalities Laxmi’s association with Krishna did not break any vows of chastity rather it was in great fun that goddess of fortune wanted association of Lord Krishna. The goddess of fortune consider that her vows of chastity would not be damaged by her relationship with Krishna rather by associating with Krishna She could enjoy the benefit of rasa dance. If she wanted to enjoy herself with Krishna, what is the fault there? Why are you joking so about this?

Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu replied, “I know there is no fault in goddess of fortune, but she could not enter into rasa dance”. We hear this from revealed scriptures, the authorities of the Vedic knowledge met Lord Ramchandra in Dandakaranya. And by their penances or austerities they were allowed to enter into rasa dance.  But can you tell me why the goddess of fortune Laxmi could not get that opportunity?  To this Vyankatt Bhatt replied, “I cannot enter into the mystery of this incident  I am an ordinary living entity, living being. My intelligence is limited and I am always disturbed. How can I understand the past time of Supreme Lord. They are deeper than millions of oceans”.

Lord Chaitanya replied, Lord Krishna has the specific characteristics. He attracts everyone’s heart by mellows of his personal conjugal love by following the footsteps of the inhabitants of the planets known as Brajlok or Golok Vrindavan.  One can attain the shelter of the lotus feet of Krishna. However, the inhabitants of that planet do not know that Lord Krishna is Supreme Personality of Godhead, unaware that the Krishna is Supreme Lord. The residence of Vrindavan like Nandamaharaj, Yashoda devi and the gopis treat Krishna as their beloved son or lover. Mother Yashoda accepts Him as her son and sometimes binds him to a grinding mortar. Krishna’s cowherd boyfriends think He is an ordinary boy and get up on the shoulders. In Golok Vrindavan no one has any other desire other than to love Krishna. The conclusion is that one cannot associate with Krishna unless he has fully received the favour of the inhabitants of Brajbhumi. Therefore, if one wants to be delivered by Krishna directly he must take to the service of residence of Vrindavan who are unalloyed devotee of the Lord.

‘Satvamam mama  ‘so quite a verse, mysteries guihyam, guihayatar no it is guihyatam, very very confidential subject matter meant of course to help us understand or to know Krishna, this is the kind of Krishna He is. And of course knowing Krishna is complete only then, only when we understand these devotees and their devotion for their Lord.  I may have said Supreme Lord. But some devotees even do not know even they do not care to know whether their Lord is Supreme or not Supreme and not even knowing that He is Supreme. He is just my Lord that’s all that I care to know. Now these kinds of devotees, no devotees, not devotees of demigods what to speak or why should we speak of devotees of politician of this world. They also have devotees, they also have camcas. Everyone is somebody’s devotee. And if there is no one else you always have your dog that it could become a devotee of your dog. So devotees of dog, devotees of politician, devotees of Demigod and then you have devotees of Narayan in Vaikuntha and then finally you are devotee of Shri Krishna in Golok Vrindavan.

In Vrindavan, Vrindavan… “O! I have come Bilvamangal says O! I have come, Vrindavan”. Vrindavan is special, Krishna in Vrindavan is special devotees in Vrindavan are special. This verse is helping us to know Krishna in Vrindavan and devotees of Krishna in Vrindavan and their love for each other.

Laxmi is seating ok she is seating on the chest of the Lord but gopis are seating in the heart of the Lord. Being on the chest, that is no small position. But to be inside right in the heart ‘sadhavo hridayam maihyam’ devotees are in my heart, they are in my heart and I am in their heart. So Laxmi could get as close as just on the surface and the heart is inside and just the cover of the heart, on the top of the heart. She is just floating on the top there not able to get in, enter the heart of the Lord, this is the difference.

“ramyakaachida upasana vrajvadhu vargenaya kalpitah mahaprabhu sri caitanya mahaprabhu matamidam”. This is the opinion of the Lord even who follow in the footsteps of a devotee. Yes, yes then Chaitanya Mahaprabhu follows in the footsteps of Brajvadhu vargenaya kalpitha ‘vrajvadhuvarga’vrajavadhu  the gopis of  Vindavan, the damsels of Vrindavan, the cowherd girls of Vrindavan they are the ideal devotees, the topmost devotees, most dear devotees of the Lord and if you want to follow in the footsteps ‘mahajanohin gatah sapantah’ the gopis are Mahajanas and Radharani is their leader.

The devotional practice by these gopis, Radharani,  Lord was wondering, “O! What so much love so much affection for me what for? And what is it? I want to understand all of this. Lord became very very curious, anxious to know gopis anxious to know Radharani what is in her heart? What is on her mind?  What kind of vision she has? I want to know this. I want to know my devotees and leader of all devotees is Radharani”. As He wanted it to know and be a devotee and relish the life of being a devotee, Lord appeared assuming the mood of Radharani, the complexion of Radharani.

Know me ‘Krishnam swarupam’ unto that swarupa that Krishna is offered my obeisance’s who assumed the mood of Radharani and complexion of Radharani to understand Radharani the topmost devotee. So that is the kind of very confidential. Even the Lord had hard time to understand this subject matter, the devotion of His devotee pure unalloyed.

‘na dhanam na janam na sundari kavitamva jagdish kamaye’ this is nothing to give up. ‘dhanam janam sundarim kavitam’ many more things are to be given up. And these gopis are even sometimes ready to give up their life. As a flute was being played by Sri Krishna, the gopis were rushing, running most of them succeeded and escaped. But some of them were caught around, “hey you can’t go”. They tried but the bandus and everyone pitas and patti so they couldn’t move so they decided to give up, Give up my existence, my body you have it, you have it, I go and they rush. They gave up their body. They died for Krishna and they ran. It is described such gopis those who gave up their bodies they were the first one to be with Krishna while others were still walking and running down the road. Those gopis were the first one to be there. So they are even ready to give up anything. Bodies were stumbling work. I get rid of it anything, everything.

Most difficult thing is to give up the pride that is also the difficulty in this past time which has been described here. The pastime of Laxmi in Shreevan in Vrindavan performing austerities  (tapasya) and these Nagpatnis during chastisement of kaliya. Nagpatnis as they were offering prayers they remembered, “O how come our husband kasyanubhavo sya na. (SB 10.16.36) What is the result of that tapa? “renu-sparsadhikarah” the dust of your lotus feet right on the hoods, head of our husband. O! We are amazed while that ‘lalana’ “srir lalanacarat  tapo” she performs austerities from long time ‘vihay kamana’ she gave up all comforts as it is mentioned in this purport also.

She gave up comforts of Vaikuntha she gave up and she has come to the forest and no servant and no one is around by herself and performing austerities. These Nagpatnis says, “how come she did not get the dust, she did not get to enter the rasa dance but our husband is getting lots of dust of your lotus feet” giving up pride at one point. Kaliya decided to surrender then what happened.  As Krishna was dancing on hundred hoods of kaliya, he was dancing the music was on in the sky. The dancing was being done by as the Lord has desired to dance immediately the music started. The drums, a big grand show there in the middle of the lake the audience were all around on the banks of that lake. And of course they were not interested in any performance and they were kind of half dead or collapsed or unconscious and so many things were happening but there was some they were there and more up in the sky full. Sky was filled with Demigods and Lord wanted to dance and He started dancing and whichever hood was showing still some life of sign of life around and kicking, alive and kicking, Lord would just place his at foot right on his hood there. While He is dancing He is looking side long and which hood is now next and there He would jump there. Like that He was crushing one hood after other and other.

The Nagpatnis were at some time pointing, “yes, yes this is right, he is not surrendering, he is not a devotee, he must be killed, he must be dead. Yes this is right thing to do, kill him”. But there was a point in the life in that episode as he was getting kick after kick some satsang he had done in his past reminded him”. One should be surrendering until the Supreme Lord and he was realizing this type of kicking power must be of the Supreme Lord only. I should  better take shelter of this person and he was ready to  bow down, mister this mister was ready to bow down and that time, point only he was vomiting blood he was helpless almost life less but within he was surrendered soul also. Surrendered soul from non surrendered mood. He went to the mood of surrender while he was not surrendering, the patnis were thinking, the wife was thinking, “kill him but  as soon as he was a kind of surrendered soul immediately started offering prayers to the Lord,” thank you for saving. You have given the dust of your lotus feet to our husband. You are very kind. You did not give this to Laxmi. Our husband has received such benediction”. So why not to Laxmi and not surrendered and a kind of surrender that Lord expects or not only surrendering unto the Lord or surrendering but also surrender unto his devotee, devotee of devotee of devotee or das ‘dasadasanudasanudas’ as one becomes then Lord, that person attracts the attention of the Lord and he becomes the fit candidate to receive the benediction of the lord.

“ramyakaachida upasana vrajvadhu vargenaya kalpitah Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says,  you have to follow the footsteps of gopis brajvadhu.  So Laxmi is not ready to do so and to enter rasa dance of course you need not only mood of gopis or being subordinate to the gopi, you have to be subordinate to another devotee, to another gopi. Then you fit into that big team of gopi’s rasa dance and serving Krishna that way. ‘ei nivedan dharo sakhir anugat karo seva adhikar diye koro nija dasi’ this is a prayer. Every day we are offering this prayer, “O tulsi Krishna preyasi namo namah”. You are so very dear to Shri Krishna that he puts you around your neck ‘tulsi har gada kase pitambar aavade nirantar hechi dhyana’. You are right around His neck. Someone very dear you hold that person around your neck. He is hanging from your neck embracing and hanging. Very dear, very dear you put that person close to your heart. Heart is now, “einivedan dharo” O ! tulsi devi I humbly pray, O!  tulsi devi. Vrinda devi has a big role one of the leading gopi. She almost has status of Radharani.

She is very significant person. ‘ei nivedana dharo sakhir anugat ..’ anugat I want to go. ‘Anu’, anu means follow behind somebody. ‘anugat koro’ please make me a follower of a damsel of braj ‘seva adhikar diye koro nijadasi’ and give me adhikar – eligibility. When would I become eligible to serve the Lord? When would I get seva adhikar? As one becomes the follower of a gopi and of course for us we cannot, but tulsi is there in front of us, we pray to her but still we don’t have that direct connection we go to temple commander, we go to temple commander and say, “do you have some service for me prabhu”, we go to temple president, we go to Governing Body Commissioner of ISKCON. He is the ultimate manager, coordinator of services and like that. That is one parampara, managerial parampara and the spiritual. Both are spiritual and they are connected through Prabhupada.

So we pray to Prabhupada and like that ultimately to those who are ‘nikunjayuno ratikeli sidhaye yayali bhiryuktarapekshaniya’ in that forest ‘Nikunja’ where two of them are divine couple where wandering Kunjabihari…………, someone makes arrangement, this arrangement, that arrangement.  Some expert devotees, rupa manjari or that manjari or  this gopi, that gopi. These are kind of aacharyas we have. They are part of that team and then they come down and give us all kind of guidance and benedictions so we connect ourselves through this Parampara. Then our prayer ultimately is heard and so this is following in the footsteps of devotee’ anugat koro’.

‘lalita vishakha aadi jat sakhi vrinda’ and ‘aagyay koriboseva carnarvinda’ Narottamdas Thakur  says, “when I go to Radha and Krishna ‘Radha Krishna pranamora yugal kishor’ and how I will  go? Where I will go? Once I ‘go, what I will do? But how will I do?  Begin doing all these things. He says, “O! There I will see. There are ‘lalita vishakha aadi’ so many sakhis there and what I will do? I will take permission, their approval then only I will enter that sevice, not that I just come dashing in and then tell everyone get out here. No, in different mood even talking like that doesn’t sound right. Right, no one cannot think like this. Very humbly prabhu, prabhu almost become nonexistent like Jagannath as he couldn’t           bear. No, no it’s too much O! no they are feeling so much separation from me. O! this is just because of me. I am the cause of this suffering and the residence of Vrindavan. No I can’t hear this, “go inside!” and as he is hearing his eyes are becoming amazing. O! Really what his eyes are becoming bigger and bigger. Oh no! no it was something like that. So devotee has to become very humble. No material existence in other words no material existence, no ego.

Two persons were going one after the other, I’ve just heard this. Two persons walking one behind the other. Good people they were infact devotee, practitioners of Krishna consciousness. One behind was beating that person ahead of him. This person was just walking and this person would beat him from time to time and this person was not feeling and not taking that as insult or anything playing transcendental and bleeding is going on. So this person with the stick was testing.  “Let me see now I will test his tolerance. Is he still there? His ego is still there, false pride is still there, the bodily concept is still there”. He is beating and checking whether. ‘Hey you hit me’, Prabhupada’s example: someone hits from the back of car. “You rascal you hit me. I’ll hit you.” Because that person not only identified himself with the body but now he is identifying with the car. As if the car is he. “I am the car, you hit me. Rascal you hit me.” So this person was kind of passing the test was getting in. But at one point, at one point he turned around and he said, “you know what you are looking for is not in there. The false ego, the pride. Those things are not in there”. I got it but you said it is not in there. That thought is there subtle things here. He said it’s not that what are you looking for is not in there but this person said, but you are aware, it’s not there, that is there. I got you, I caught you.

So not only you become free from ego but you don’t even. That is what happens. We become proud because we are pure devotee. But such a thing is it possible. “I’m proud of what, being a pure devotee. “ No, no pride! Free from pride doesn’t even remember, doesn’t even thinks. Of course you think of being very humble. Someone said to Prabhupada, “Prabhupada, Prabhupada I am the most fallen”.  Then Prabhupada said, “you are most of nothing and you are not most fallen if that person wants to take position.” If someone says, “I’m fallen but someone is most fallen than me I cannot stand it. No he is more fallen, I want to be, my position has to be most fallen.” He said, “I am most fallen Prabhupada” You are not most of anything. You are somewhere so again most fallen.

In conclusion Prabhupada says, “One cannot associate with Krishna unless he has fully received the favour of inhabitants of brajbhumi” Therefore if one wants to be delivered by Krishna directly he must take to the service of the residents of Vrindavan who are unalloyed devotees of the Lord.

We also bring Krishna, our temples, our Vrindavan, Radha Gopinath is here, Radha Rasbihari there, Radha Giridhari there.  These places are Vrindavan non-different, extensions of Golok Vrindavan and in some ways being in Vrindavan just have, try to fit into this spirit of Vrindavan following in the footsteps. You had only Radha Gopinath before and then you added Lalita and Vishakha. So how many more could you add. They were there not only Radha Gopinath was there, Lalita and Vishakha they were also there. They just manifested few years ago. They just manifested and lot many more devotees and from Braj around Krishna. He is never alone. So those devotees and new batch is trying to get in there become part of the team. So following the footsteps was part of the team are our acharyas. ‘mahajana yenagatah’ they have gone all these there. They are part of the team and we are following their footsteps. These acharyas, these devotees so they are following gopi, we are following them. Then following and following, we enter that spirit, the Golok spirit which is higher than the Vaikuntha spirit.

Raganuga bhakti is what is being talked here. By practicing what si the other kind? Raganuga and the Vaidhi bhakti, by practicing  vaidhi bhakti that leads you to Vaikuntha  planet. ‘Raganuga’ raga means attachment to the realm of Braj and become anug. ‘Anu’ means again follow and ‘ga’ means to go. Following in the footsteps of those devotees of Vrindavan, Raganugabhakti. So followers of Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu they end up in Vrindavan because they are following in the footsteps of residence of Vrindavan. Of course we always chant the names of Radha Krishna

‘Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare,  Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare’

And there’s  Radha Krishna, there’s a Radha Krishna Radhe Krishna Krishna Krishna Radhe Radhe. So by chanting Radha Krishna’s names, cultivating all the humility,  Krishna is testing us all the time, He is watching us all the time and He just want to see pure unalloyed devotion that His devotee, His aspiring devotee is for Him, for Krishna then that person is allowed the entrance into his association unto his abode. So what is what has been presented to us by Srila Prabhupada is the topmostthing.

Of course where did Srila Prabhupad get all this from, from Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. ‘anarpita chiram charit karunaya avatirnaha kalao’ in this kaliyuga Lord Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared, very kindly appeared. ‘samarpitam’ in order to deliver what? ‘Unnat ujwal rasa’ ‘unnat’ the topmost rasa and ‘ujwal’ the brilliant rasa also and that is the madhurya rasa. ‘sri radhika madhav yora parmadhurya leela gunarupanama vande guruh sri caranarvindam’.

Our acharyas are known for what? They get together. What did Caitanya Mahaprabhu do with all those Ramanandaraya and Swarupa damodar?  Always heard about Krishna Radha, Krishna.of course Caitanya Mahaprabhu wants to have Krishna, Radharani wants to hear about Krishna, Radha Krishna Radha Madhava “pratiksana asvadana lolupasya”. So from that down in the parampara and all the way upto Srila Prabhupada and his books and his whole realm another dimension is being added, which started of course with Madhvendrapuri. He was specialized in this madhurya lila, the specialized. And that is where we branched off from the line of Madhavacharya, Madhavacharya line exists, we also exist. Where do we get connected, Madhurya, pure and like that. So added dimensions is this ‘madhurya lila gunarupanamnam’ which is of topmost kind. There is nothing higher, nothing superior. So this has been offered to us. While Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and the parampara and Srila Prabhupada and his books, the prem ‘krishna prema pradayate’ and what we have in our possession in this world is ‘kama’ and just the counter aspect, counter substance.

The spiritual sky is prema, the shadow of that is kama in this material existence. So more we get prema, more we get free from kama, free from lust. So kind of, kind of prema this madhurya lila. Hearing this madhurya lila pastime as per prescription of the acharyas who acts like a doctor and he gives the medicine. And as one takes this medicine, ‘kama rog, bhava rog’ then by taking this dose of hearing Krishna books and scriptures from authorized person in recommended amount of doses. What works for you? What works for me, for someone else?

Then they take right kind of doses. It will cure one completely from the kama. And this kind of provision, this kind of medicine is only available in this ISKCON shop, Iskcon center, Iskcon place which is Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s place. This kind of  complete dose of prema and different prema, this prema, dasya prema, and other prema, sakhya prema, vatsalya prema, madhurya prema.

Ramanandaraya and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s dialogue there are gradations one higher than the other and when Ramanandaraya mentioned the Radha Krishna’s prema, radha Krishna madhurya lila that prema. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu satisfied Yes, yes I’m satisfied. This is it! Otherwise you say, “hey this is external. Say more, say more, say more.” And as Ramanandaraya said  “Radha Krishna prem, Radha Krishna madhurya lila and oh! This is the topmost.” So topmost thing has been handed down all the way to us and so like that.

Laxmi, She was performing austerities and given lots of gratification comforts. But one thing she was not giving up was this pride and as a result she was not able to enter. So we also have the opportunity to enter that realm and things which did not worked out for Laxmi. We should learn from others mistake. Laxmi is kindly placing herself in that position. This is Lord’s pastime taking example here look at Laxmi. Look look from long time, she did this didn’t work. So something else or find out what went wrong, rectify and improve and do it differently. And that  is the mood of surrender, false pride. Of course the supreme thing in this regard. Chaitanya mahaprabhu has said, “trinadapi sunichena tarorapi sahishnuna amanina mandena kirtaniya sada harih” always doing kirtan and kirtan doesn’t always mean only you pick up the kartal and chant, dance. That is also of course kirtan. Kirtan meaning  glorification of the Lord.

Radha Rasbihari temple was being built and Prabhupada was staying right there and someone proposed Srila Prabhupada,”we should get another location down town or some distance away. There is lot of noise, sound, thak-thak, this this, that that.” And Prabhupada says I’m not disturbed. For him he said  this is like music to my ears. All those sound, this is music. This is nice. Prabhupada considered even those sounds thak-thak and whatever as some kind of kirtan was going on. yuktavairagya’ How much you could extend the kirtan even that could be a kirtan.. so this is not limited.

This printing press is ‘Bhaktisiddhanta’s. He would have printing press right in front of deity. In Calcutta he had his printing press so that deity could see the printing press. He placed the printing machine so that the deity could see and all the sounds were there. And the sounds were described as ‘brihad mridanga’. You could hear few blocks down the road but this one you could hear far and wide everywhere. So kirtan in ISKCON is popular.

I am going sankirtana. Where is your mridanga? Where is your kartal? No, no. I have books in bag and I’m going to distribute books. This is sankirtana of course. Some devotees started distributing candles and that also became some kind of candle distribution. No scandal but candle. Sankirtana glorification of the Lord is kirtan, ‘kirtaniya sadaharih’ which includes lots of devotional service that we perform that is glorifying Krishna this way or that way or different ways. And this will go on ‘kirtaniyasada harih’.

Conditions are those, conditions ‘trinadapi sunichena’ ok this trinadapi should be taken care of. What about ‘amanina’ and ‘mandena’ also when this is done. Then the result equals to what? This results in kirtaniya sada harih. All the time kirtan is possible. And with this kirtan as we perform, then there’s a ‘mama janmani janmanishvare’ I do not even care of course for another birth or births. Every birth I just care for ahaituki, that’s the point ahaituki devotional services. No motivation ‘sastrabhakti bhagavati akinchana’ a few verses before you have gone through this, akincana – Prabhupada is translating that as unmotivated. It is easy to deliver discourse and say this. But really to come to the point of making our devotional service. So that Lord is pleased and He could grab us. Be with him.

I thought this could be very easily done. When I was a new bhakta at Juhu temple and my service was to go beg rice from door to door, that was one of my seva  – bhikshamdehi, tandulamdehi – ‘give me some rice for food for life’. Prabhupada was sending us; rice was not available in the free market, so we have to beg it. So sometimes, some people would ask me question like, “have you seen? O! You are always talking or you are always talking to us about Krishna. But have you seen Krishna?” then I used to or may be not say every time to everybody. But I used to Iin my mind command on, “give a break, give a break”. You know I have just joined. Give me at least six months you know, I have just joined. Give me at least six months. You know give me at least few years. Then you ask me, “have you seen?” then I’m going to say, “yes, yes I have seen him”.

Hence I have the right to speak to you. So I was thinking. This was just two years home work, and I would be seeing him, seeing the Lord. Then I could speak. So more than few months and few years were passed still wonder,” “where is Krishna? Where is Krishna”? ‘He Radhe vraja devikecha lalite’. Of course Krishna was there with those six go swamis running here there running. Are you on the top of Govardhan right now? Are you on the bank of Jamuna? Where are you? For them, wherever they were Krishna was with them. For us we wonder where Krishna is. Where is he? Where are you? Why are you taking so much time? So I was thinking it was an easy task. But it’s quite a task. You give up this. Give up that. Follow the 4 regulative principles. Even more things to give up. To give up pride,  pooja, pratistha and labha. These are even you have more subtle things. There are some rocks in the water, little pebbles. You could just pick them up, take out. You could get rid of some rocks, little pebbles. But what if the water is sugar solution? Water is homogeneous material. Cannot separate those things from water. Then it’s harder to get in. You pick up with a prong, pieces of rocks, pieces of fine grains of sugar mixed in the water. So get rid of some things is easy. Some more things we need to get rid of. So this is of course Prabhupada gave us one lifetime….

Radha Gopinath ki jay!

Nitai Gaur Premanande hari haribol!

Srila Prabhupada ki jai!

Iskcon Chowpatty ki jai!

Day 7 – May 29

Location – Rameshvaram (Tamilnadu, India)

Ramanujacharya fed mahaprasad to the fish in Chandra pushkarni and although their bodies stayed back but they attained their eternal constitutional form and returned to Vaikuntha. You also can attain your transcendental form.

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Namacharya Haridas Thakur, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur, all the Gaudiya Vaishnava acharyas and Srila Prabhupad are feeding the people of this universe the holy name. Ramanujacharya fed grains to the fishes – Anna para bramha. We have been fed Krishna in the form of His name. We are hearing His name, assimilating it and becoming Krishna conscious. So one day when we shall leave this body, whatever has to happen to this body, people will take care, but we will accept our actual svarupa, constitutional form and return back home, back to god head. This is our prayer.  From one perspective we are leaving the association of this dham but what will go with us is the holy name. You will become old. Then you will not be able to do tirth yatra, yajna, etc. This holy name is simple and till the end of your last breath naam sankirtana is possible. So this is Veda vani – harer naam eva kevalam, so please become strongly established in the holy name. To not have complete faith in the holy name is also one of the 10 offences of the holy name.  In spite of hearing all the glories of the holy name, still maintaining attachment to the material world is an offence against the holy name.

You are all chanting and dancing in the kirtana, then all your sins are getting destroyed. This body is called a tree and there are the birds of sin on this tree. If you want to chase away birds on a tree, you clap your hands. Of course someone can throw a stone and fire a bullet, but easiest way is to just clap hands. Then we give up some hesitation and start dancing. When love increases for the holy name, for Krishna, then we give up hesitation. Then all the sins on the tree of this body start leaving us. Till we have less love, we hide and chant and do not bring our beads in public. Srila Prabhupada asked one lady in Delhi, do you chant? She said, I chant in my mind. Srila Prabhupada asked her, do you also eat in the mind?

The result of this yatra is the attainment of the holy name, or the taste for chanting and the taste for hearing Krishna katha. When there is chanting and dancing going on, we do not fall asleep.  This is Yuga dharma. But during katha, we may fall asleep. Of course katha is also dharma.

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has distributed the pearls and diamonds of the holy name. For the Vishvarup darshan (Mangla Arati darshan of Lord Ranganath) only 80 devotees can take darshan so all were running to grab the opportunity to see the form of the lord. Some were standing since morning 1:30 am. But as soon as the doors opened even the late comers stormed in ahead of them. There were no rules and regulations being followed. Everyone was just running and jumping over from the barricades to take darshan.

So there was day 1 of the yatra and then there is the last day of the yatra. So today is the concluding day of the yatra and some of you will be leaving toady evening itself, whereas some will leave tomorrow morning and some tomorrow night. Have you stayed in such a big family even? It is said, ‘One kitchen one family.’ So this was a very big family. Not just this but everyone on this planet is our family. They all belong to Krishna and I belong to Krishna so they also belong to me.

Sadhu sannyasis leave behind a small family but then we get a bigger family, he vishva chi majhe ghar, vasudhaiva kutumbakam. When we will go back to the dham, then all the dham vasis will become our family members. Our narrow vision broadens and we become more accommodative in yatra.

Today on our All India Padayatra is in Badrinath dham, while we are in Rameshvaram. Iskcon padayatra is active since last 27 years. So some members of our family are in Badrikashram.

Every Hindu wants that in this lifetime I must complete the four dham yatra. One of this is Rameshvaram. Three years ago we went to Badrinath and there Kedarnath is the jyotirlinga. Last year we went to Dwarka and there Somnath is the jyotirlinga, and here Rameshvaram is a jyotirlinga.

For Rameshvaram, some can say Ramasya ishvarah – the Lord of Rama is Shiva. Some can say ramah ishvar yasya sah. Ram is the Ishvar of Siva. So in two ways you can understand this word. Like Haridwar is also understood as Haradwar.

Lord Rama came to Chitrakut, Ramtek, and Nasik on the banks of Godavari. Then He went to Kishkindha, he was walking as a Vanvasi. On the banks of Godavari, Sita was kidnapped. And searching for Sita, Rama and Lakshman came to the banks of Pampa Sarovar and met Shabari. They saw Jatayu and performed his last rites. Then they met Hanuman at the same place. He took them on his shoulders, to the peak of Rishyamukh Parvat where Sugriva used to reside and Hanuman was his minister. Rama and Sugriva had the same problems. Their wives had been kidnapped. Both of them did friendship in the presence of Fire.

So first Lord Rama helped Sugriva and killed Bali. Then the army of monkey which belonged to Sugriva, helped lord Rama. Someone from the army found a bag of ornaments. There are some ornaments here that fell down from the sky and a lady was shouting Rama…Rama. She threw this bag here. When Rama heard this, he felt very strongly that this must be Sita. With this thought His throat became choked and His eyes were full of tears. Thus He was not able to see the ornaments. So he called Lakshman and asked, do you recognise if these are Sita’s earrings. Na ham janami kundale, no I cannot say, I have never seen her face. But when he held the ankle bells he immediately recognised, yes these are certainly the ankle bells of Mother Sita. I used to see them whenever I offered my obeisances. So they started searching.

Hanuman came here to Rameshvaram and Jatayu’s brother Sampatti showed him the direction in which Raavan had taken Sita. So Hanuman took a flight from Gandhamadan Parvat with so much speed that some trees, stones etc. Flied along with him. Rama was very happy when Hanuman returned and with great pleasure He embraced Hanuman. This was the best gift. Would you also like to have the embrace of the Lord? You will have to serve him like Hanuman. It is not so cheap. Who says Rama will not embrace. We don’t do service like Hanuman. Rama is ready to embrace.  Then Rama proceeded towards Lanka with a huge army, mostly of monkeys and a few bears. Their commander was Jambavan.

With all his army the Lord came to Rameshvaram. Lanka is 800 miles or 100 yojanas from here. How to cross? Some said we can swim across, or go by boats. Then Vibhishan came and proposed let us make a bridge. When Hanuman had reached Lanka, he had heard the chanting of the name of Sri Rama. He was shocked to hear this chanting of Sri Rama in Lanka but then he came to know this is the house of Vibhishan. Vibhishan helped Hanuman and gave him the address of Sita in Ashoka van.  Vibhishan was always giving good advice to his brother. Sri Rama is unconquerable. He is the King of Ayodhya, the place who’s king can never be defeated.  Please forget about fighting with Him.

Ravana became upset with him and told him, you are my enemy therefore you do not want to support me in my war, you go away from here. So Vibhishan left Lanka and came to Rameshvaram with Hanuman and with him also came four ministers. He was received by Lord Rama in the place called Kodanda Rama .There the whole army of Lord was sitting and discussing about how to proceed. When they saw Vibhishan coming, they became ready to fight with him. But Vibhishan said, I have come to take shelter of you, please accept me. And lord Rama gave him shelter. And on today’s day the temple is closed because today is Pattabhisheka (Coronation ceremony) of Visbhishan. Lord Rama did coroneted Vibhishan even before Ravans’ death.

Lord Rama sat on the peak of Gandhamadan Shikhar and fasted for three days, requesting the sea god, but there was no reply. So He became angry and He took his bow and aimed towards the sea. The whole Indian Ocean started getting distracted as if tsunami waves are coming. The aquatics were getting disturbed, so the sea god came forward and apologised. Then Rama put forward his proposal of making a bridge.

Then all the monkeys and bears started making a bridge. These monkeys were not ordinary; they were all demigods and great devotees. They would stamp the stone with the name of Sri Rama, by the touch of His name, all the stones started floating. What happened to the law of gravitation? The stones were nirjiva (dead matter) and by associating with the holy name, they started floating as if they got life in them.  If we get associated with the name of Rama, we will be liberated as well. Everything outside the dham is bhava sagar. Keep chanting constantly and then when you go back to Mumbai, you will not drown in the ocean of ignorance or else you will drown.

The bridge made by the Lord was 800 miles long and 80 miles broad. Once they reached there, both the armies fought with great valour and it are described in detail in Ramayana. Ravan was killed on the day of Dassehra.

Because Ravana was a Brahman Lord Rama had to atone for Brahman hatya (the sin of killing a Brahman). Before he left for Lanka lord Rama offered flowers and water to Shivlinga and said, I am going to kill your devotee, so please forgive me. When the lord offers respect to His devotees, then his position increases even more.

First they sent hanuman to get a Shivalinga, but it was getting late, so Sita made a linga and by the time Hanuman came back, till then the Puja was done. He became disappointed that I brought Shivalinga from so much distance but the worship is already done.  So he was pacified that the one you brought will be served first and then the one made by Sita will be worshipped. In this temple both the Shivlinga’s are worshipped.

As long as we chant and hear Krishna katha, we are in the present tense. We are not affected by the kaal (Time). Hearing is not the end, it is just the beginning, now remember the katha and assimilate in your heart. And the yatra also does not get over here, it begins now.