The behavior of a perfect person

Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya! Hare Krishna! Thank you for joining us. This morning recitation of Srimad Bhagavatamfrom canto 7, chapter 13, text number 19, ‘The behavior of a perfect person’ is the chapter’s title. Please repeat,

kavihkalponipuna-drk
citra-priya-kathahsamah
lokasyakurvatah karma
sese tad-viksitapiva [SB 7.13.19]

kavih — very learned; kalpah — expert; nipuna-drk — intelligent; citra-priya-kathah — able to speak palatable words that are pleasing to the heart; samah — equipoised; lokasya — of the people in general; kurvatah — engaged in; karma — fruitive work; sese — you lie down; tat-viksita — seeing them all; api — although; va— either.

Translation and Purport by Srila Prabhupada ki Jai!

Translation: Your Honor appears learned, expert and intelligent in every way. You can speak very well, saying things that are pleasing to the heart. You see that people in general are engaged in fruitive activities, yet you are lying here inactive.
Purport:- Prahlada Maharaja studied the bodily features of the saintly person, and through the saint’s physiognomy could understand that he was intelligent and expert, although he was lying down and not doing anything. Prahlada was naturally inquisitive about why he was lying there inactive.

kavihkalponipuna-drk
citra-priya-kathahsamah
lokasyakurvatah karma
sese tad-viksitapiva

Hari Hari! Some activity there in the sky! Perfect person is being talked about here. There are many speakers, Narada Muni is speaking to Yudhistira Maharaja, Sukadeva Gosvami is speaking to king Pariksit and Suta Gosvami is speaking to the assembled sages and then Srila Prabhupada is speaking to us and I am speaking to you and later on you could speak to others. This is a shaili, this is a style of Bhagavatam. Radha Rasabihariki Jai! So dialogue within a dialogue within a dialogue!

Suta Gosvami is quoting Sukadeva Gosvami, he quotes Narada Muni and then he is also quoting Prahlada Maharaja through his addressing or talking to this Sri brahmana uvaca. Tomorrow or day after tomorrow Brahmin will begin speaking and he will be speaking about the perfect person. Already some of the qualities of that perfect person are mentioned in here by Prahlad Maharaja. So ‘you are kavi, you are very learned,’ yeah Srila Prabhupada is mentioning in the purport that Prahlad Maharaja is right there with this brahmana, who is also mentioned as avadhut, and soon we should be mentioning that this avadhut, this brahmana is none other than Dattatreya. Is it here? It is right here.

So Prahlad Maharaja is talking to that Dattatreya. Prahlada Maharaja is addressing that Dattatreya, he said, ‘you are kavi’. So as he has studied the body language and some vibrations that coming from this personality, he did the study and mentioned few findings. What are the findings? You are kavi- you are very learned, kalpah- very expert, nipuna-drk- very intelligent, citra-priya-kathah- your talk is citra-vicitra, wonderful, amazing, at the same time priya, also very dear, very pleasing to the heart. Pleasing to the heart is what, pleasing to the heart that pumps the blood? Could heart be pleased? No! In the heart is residence of the soul. Soul resides in the heart, so pleasing to the heart meaning pleasing to the soul. From bottom of my heart, we say, from bottom of my heart, or from the core of my heart. So within the heart, that core of the heart is where we stay. So this talk is pleasing to the soul. And samah, equipoised, and look what is wrong with you, something like that, lokasya kurvatah karma, people all around you are, all running around and getting ready, lokasya kurvatah karma, they are busy, they are active, running around, but look at you, sese- you are just lying down there, tad-viksitapiva- you are seeing right in front of you, you are seeing everyone busy-busy, the whole rat race is on, but you seems to be disinterred and you seems to be busy with something else, sese tad-viksitapi.

So this is the enquiry. This is the observation and comment by Prahlada Maharaja. This is seventh canto. Lord has already made His appearance and Prahlada has been blessed and now Prahlada is a king and is a ruler and is moving about. He has come across this avadhut, this Brahmin and is about to have a dialogue. Well he is enquiring and that Brahmin would respond. And this Brahmin, this avadhut is going to be talking about the perfect person. He himself is a perfect. So then it is easy to talk, right. He will just talk about himself. He is a perfect. So talks from his experience, from his realizations, because he walks the talk.

bole jaisa chale tyachi vandavi paule (Marathi).
And this perfect person is Lord Himself. This perfect person is Dattatreya, avadhut. Just to remind you that Lord Krsna is source of all incarnations, you know that. And there is a whole list of incarnations. 22 of them are mentioned, not 24. It should have been 24, but only 22 mentioned in the third chapter of 1st canto. So as he begins, Suta Gosvami is giving the list of incarnations, then he comes,

sastham atrer apatyatvam
vrtah prapto anasuyaya
anviksikim alarkaya
prahladadibhya ucivan [SB1.3.11]

He talks about the sastham, the sixth incarnation was son of Atri Muni and Anasuya and as Lord appeared at some point during His pastimes, He enlightened, ucivan, Lord spoke, Sri Bhagavanuvaca, like that Sri Dattatreya uvaca, ucivan. Prahladadibhyah, many so He spoke to many personalities, few are mentioned here, Alarka is mentioned here, Alarka and Prahlad is mentioned. We know He spoke to Yadu also.

I was born next to Dattatreya temple in my village. Just next door, my house where I was born next door is a house where Lord was residing, Dattatreya mandir. So very first Lord I worshiped, I went to darsana is Dattatreya. He is quite popular worldwide, but in Maharashtra He is very popular. Dattatreya, Digambar! Digambar means He doesn’t wear any clothes. The directions are His clothing, dikambar, dik is directions and that is His cloth. He is avadhut. He is so renounced, no bodily concept, what so ever, Digambar.

So Prahlada Maharaja met and is speaking to this Brahmin, this avadhuta, Dattatreya somewhere in Karanatak where Kaveri flows, earlier it is mentioned in the same chapter. Two places are mentioned, Kaveri river is mentioned and Sahya mountain is mentioned. Sahyadri, you know Sahyadri. When you go to Pune, you climb up, there is Khandalaghat, that mountain is Sahya, Sahyadri. It goes all the way down to Manglore. Anyways! And Maharashtra is divided into Desa and Konkan and what is dividing is this mountain. So that mountain in this same chapter. So in that region in the valley of that mountain on the bank of Kaveri, and the vicinity of Kaveri, somewhere this dialogue has taken place.

So this Dattatreya was born of Anasuya and Atri Muni, they performed severe austerities, so much so that the Lord was pleased and Lord made the appearance. And not just one Lord, three Lords appeared, Brahma, Visnu, Mahesh and as Atri muni looked right there, ‘hey how come? I was praying for one Lord but three of You are here.’ They said, ‘No we are three in one. We are not different.’ This is Gunavatar. Three together is a complete package. Brahma, Visnu Mahesh!’ So these three Lords gave benediction to this couple and all those three appeared as sons of Atri muni and Anasuya. Brahma appeared as Soma, that is Candra (moon), Somavar (Monday), candra, Siva appeared as Durvasa muni and Visnu appeared as Dattatreya, three children. So this is that Dattatreya Bhagavan ki Jai! So yad yad acarati sresthas, Lord Himself is setting example of a perfect person, so that the whole world could follow that example.

Another dialogue, another enquiry, when Lord was about to, Lord Sri Krsna was about to leave the planet, syama tyaktva svapadam gatah, before leaving this planet, returning to His abode and when Uddhava found that out, then he wanted to go with the Lord, but then Lord Sri Krsna did some preaching to Uddhava, gave some instructions. So that time Uddhava wanted to know, ‘Tell me about the perfect devotee, what are his symptoms, what are his qualities?’ These were the enquiries of Uddhava, enquiring directly from Sri Krsna and this is the Uddhava Geeta. One is Bhagavad Gita and another Gita is, named after Uddhava, not named after Krsna, one Gita is named after Krsna, Bhagavad, Bhagavan’s song, the other one is named after Uddhava. Two Gitas! So while Sri Krsna was speaking to Uddhava, as Arjuna was enquiring, here Uddhava is enquiring. So that time the Lord gave the list of qualities, He gave list of 27 qualities. I was looking at those qualities.

The first quality mentioned here kavi, is a last quality that Sri Krsna mentioned in 11th canto. Kavi- learned, devotees are learned. So while this, not only Lord mentioned the qualities of a perfect devotee, but then He also sites an example of avadhut, this Brahmin. And Lord Sri Krsna made the reference to the dialogue between Yadu and this avadhut Brahmin.

Once upon a time, Lord Sri Krsna says, long long time ago, how the story goes, when Yadu met, Yadu came across this avadhut and which avadhut? This Dattatreya avadhut, Dattatreya Brahmin, Dattatreya avadhut! So there this Brahmin is talking, here he is talking to Prahlada Maharaja, there same Brahmin, same personality is talking to Yadu. And Lord Sri Krsna mentions, I am Yaduvamsi, My ancestor, when Yadu was ruling, when Yadu was on the planet, Lord Sri Krsna said, he met idle character, a Brahmin, avadhut and then they spoke, avadhut Brahmin and Yadu spoke. So when they spoke, that speech or dialogue, there is a mention of, yeah this Brahmin mentions that, ‘I take lessons from 24 Gurus. I have 24 Gurus,’ he says. ‘Oh you are kavi, you are learned. How did you become learned? ‘Oh I have 24 Gurus.’ And then he talks, same Brahmin, same Dattatreya, ‘I take lessons from Prithvi also. I take lessons from..’ There is a whole list.

The earth is tolerant, I take this quality from this person, this quality from that person, honeybee and honey and there is whole list, 24 of them. Prostitute is also in that list. One who makes the arrows sharp, ‘Oh just procession passed by here, did you take note of this?’ The person who was making his arrows sharp, he was so much absorbed in his sharpening the arrow activity, he said,’ what procession?’ They took 2 km long procession, procession was big, big bands and DJ set or whatever was there, he did not even noticed. He was so much focused, absorbed in what he was doing. So this avadhut said, ‘I made him a Guru. He is one of my Gurus.’ Fully focused on, on hearing, right? If your mind goes off, everything is stopped.

So as question was being raised by Prahlada Maharaja, you better hear directly from the Brahmin answering his questions or enquiry. That how come the whole world is busy, active, running around, making money, and even bhukti and mukti and siddhi, these parties were also busy, but Krsna bhakta niskam ataeva shanta. Answer is right there also. Bhukti kami, mukti kami, siddhi kami, everyone have kamana (desires), full of kama, kamamaihai (they say, I am in the kama, work). Come, festival is there, Damodara vrata, come here. People say what? Kurvit, they are busy, lokasya kurvatah karma, they are busy. They say, ‘see you later.’ I asked one person, ‘what is your name?’ He said, ‘my name is Karmarakar.’ Understood? He said, my name is Kar (do work), then Mar (die) and then take birth again and then again Kar and again mar, then kar and mar. Kar-mar-kar, what a nice name! But I thought not just he have been named Karmarkar but the whole world, the befitting, appropriate name for everyone, what would that name be? Karmarkar! Whole world is Mr. Karmarkar. This Brahmin will give the message; we cannot stop the Kar part. We have to be active, but different way, different activities.

kuberatmajau baddha murtevyadva ttvaya mocito bhakti bhajo kritoca, this verse was getting my attention this morning. Tatha prema bhaktimsvakam me prayasca, namokse grihome sti damodareha, so that’s the prayer. Enough of this Kar-mar-kar, because as soon as you do something, Kar, that makes you think also, and then you think and do or these days they even propose, you do first and think later on, this is ‘just do it’. Just do it, do not even think, just do it. If you feel good, ‘kuch kuch hota hai’, go by feeling, don’t think. Be a mental case, just be mental. Above the mind is intelligence, do not even think; do not use this intelligence faculty. Just go by feeling, thinking, feeling. Yeah then result of this is dhyayato visayan pumsam sangahtes upajayate, immediately as soon as a wrong thought, think of Maya, and only two things you could think about.

There are only two parties in this world, one is Krsna party and other one is Maya party. As soon as you think about Maya, zapatiya dhare (Bengali), zapatiya, zapatatela (Marathi- got haunted).So this world is very entangling, you are baddha murtai vyadvat, baddha, you can bound up, hriday granthi, rope between one person and another, there is knot. You don’t see the rope but asha pasha shataih baddhai, bondage, asha pasha shataih baddhai, Krsna says, kama krodh parayanah, people of this world are expert, parayana, in what? Kama krodha parayanah, expert in kama and krodha and then asha pasha shataih baddhai, this gentleman, this brahman, he does not want to get bound up. He wants to stay out of it, this bondage. He is very cautious, very careful, thoughtful.

So what happens with this kuberatmaj? Kuberatmaj, the sons of Kubera! Any dearth of wealth there? The wealthiest person is Kubera. Ambani is nothing. But then you see what the outcome is? They became dhanandha, dhana-andha, that dhana (wealth) made them andha, blind. So much blind that Narayana! Narayana! Giver of Narayana, Nara-da, giver of Narayana was going, he has been in the heaven up there. There was some mixing mingling, whole naked show of the topless bottomless shameless ladies, when they noticed that Narada is passing by, they quickly ran to grab their clothes and they covered their bodies. But these kuberatmajau, they were two of them, they continued their nanga-nacha, nanga-dhadanga (naked dance). Shameless! And no etiquette, no shistacar! So Narada muni cursed, I curse you, you like to stay without clothes, that is your preference. So you could have a body in next life, that you don’t have to go to a tailor. Become trees! No clothes! This is your preference, you like to be naked, no problem. You could have body that wears no clothes. Become trees! And then they kind of came to their senses and they were begging, please not, please have mercy upon these wretched souls. Then Narada Muni said, too late! Curse had been already activated. But okay, I could do one thing for you. Certainly you will have to be trees, but trees not in Bombay, but you could be the trees in Vrindavan, trees in Gokul, trees in courtyard of Nanda Maharaja. And Krsna will personally make you free.

Satyavrat Muni is the compiler of this astak, Damodarastak. So he is praying, everyone is praying like that and he is praying, or he is teaching how to pray. So his prayer is ‘my dear Lord Damodara, tatha prema bhaktimsvakam me prayasca, please give me also please give me bhakti. Tatha, yahta- tatha, what is yatha? kuberatmajau baddha murtai vyadvat tvayamocito, so those Kuberatmajau, there are two of them, Manigriva and Nalakubera. So those kuberatmajau baddha, they were bound up, but You made them free and You gave them bhakti also. Not only they were made mukta but they were made bhakta. Mukti is nothing. I don’t care for mukti, he said earlier. No Mukti! Give me bhakti, the way those two sons of Kuber were given bhakti. We should also, we are hearing right now, we pray all the time, praying right now, praying during this month of Damodara, this is the prayer. So this month reminds us of that pastime of the Lord, the pastime that took place on Diwali. The stealing used to go on in the neighborhood, Krsna the Makhan-chor, but He did stealing right in the home. And then He was caught red handed, red handed or white handed? White handed! White because of butter all over. White handed, white face, everything white! So that was Diwali. So that day, these two sons, they came out of the tree bodies and they had darsana of the Lord and they had lots of benedictions. They also prayed to the Lord.

So tatha prema bhaktim svakam me prayasca, oh Lord to me also. These should be our thoughts, praying like this. Yeah? This thought should come to our heart, in our mind. HariHari! And then we could talk also those thoughts and prayers.

namo deva damodar ananta visno prasid prabho dukha jalabdhi magnam, jala,

I am absorbed. Anyway! Nice prayers! Study these prayers, understand these prayers, Damodarastak. Learning by heart, not learning by throat; they are in the throat but they are not in the heart. Prayers are coming from the throat, but heart is not involved. Not saying the prayer from within the core of the heart. Who is in the core of the heart? Soul! So making this prayer as soul’s prayer, soul is praying, our soul, my soul, your soul is praying. Hridayangam, not kanthastha, not in the throat, in the heart!

Gaur Premanande Hari Haribol!