19810726 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.1.17

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on July 26, 1981 in Bangalore, India. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam Canto 5, Chapter 1, Text 17.

bhayaṁ pramattasya vaneṣv api syād 
yataḥ sa āste saha-ṣaṭ-sapatnaḥ 
jitendriyasyātma-rater budhasya 
gṛhāśrāmaḥ kiṁ nu karoty avadyam

Translation by His Divine grace Śrīla A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda:(Aside: This is about Mahārāja Priyavrata) Even if he goes from forest to forest, one who is not self-controlled must always fear material bondage because he is living with six co-wives — the mind and knowledge-acquiring senses. Even householder life, however, cannot harm a self-satisfied, learned man who has conquered his senses.

(Translation with repetition) 

Purport by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Śrīla Prabhupāda: Prabhupāda says, Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura has sung, gṛhe vā vanete thāke, ‘hā gaurāṅga’ bale ḍāke: whether one is situated in the forest or at home, if he is engaged in the devotional service of Lord Caitanya, he is a liberated person. Here this is also repeated. For one who has not controlled his senses, going to the forest to become a so-called yogī is meaningless. Because his uncontrolled mind and senses are going with him, he cannot achieve anything, even by giving up household life and staying in the forest. Our first concern, therefore, should be to control the senses, and since the senses cannot be controlled unless engaged in the devotional service of the Lord, our most important duty is to engage the senses in devotional service. Hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate: bhakti means engagement of the purified senses in the service of the Lord.

Herein Lord Brahmā indicates that instead of going to the forest with uncontrolled senses, it is better and more secure to engage the senses in the service of the Lord. Even household life can do no harm to a self-controlled person acting in this way; it cannot force him into material bondage. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī has further enunciated this position:

īhā yasya harer dāsye 
karmaṇā manasā girā 
nikhilāsv apy avasthāsu 
jīvan-muktaḥ sa ucyate

“Regardless of one’s circumstances, if one fully engages his activities, mind and words in the devotional service of the Lord, he should be understood to be a liberated person.” Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura was a responsible officer and a householder, yet his service to the cause of expanding the mission of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu is unique. Śrīla Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī Ṭhākura says, durdāntendriya-kāla-sarpa-paṭalī protkhāta-daṁṣṭrāyate. The sense organs are certainly our greatest enemies, and they are therefore compared to venomous serpents. However, if a venomous serpent is bereft of its poison fangs, it is no longer fearful. Similarly, if the senses are engaged in the service of the Lord, there is no need to fear their activities. The devotees in the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement move within this material world, but because their senses are fully engaged in the service of the Lord, they are always aloof from the material world. They are always living in a transcendental position.

Thus end the purport by His Divine Grace Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Jayapatākā Swami: So Lord Brahmā was convincing Mahārāja Priyavrata, who was the son of the Manu that, it was not necessary for him to become a yogī and stay in the forest; that whether one is the yogī in the forest, or whether one is in the household, the same, the same control of the senses is required, in order to become prefect in realization of Kṛṣṇa, of God.

In fact, when one goes anywhere, whether in the forest, in a solitary place, there also one will find that these six senses including the mind, tasting, smelling, seeing, hearing, feeling, they are always pulling. Just like, if a man came home from work, there in his house, he is greeted by six wives, each wife is pulling in a different direction, “Come with me and enjoy, let me serve you.” Each sense is saying, “Taste me, feel me, see me, smell me, think of me,” drawing us to some sense object. So, if one has not learned to control the senses, then the mind and the intelligence will be taken, dragging the soul away from the Absolute Truth into material entanglement.

So, no matter where one is, one has to have the control of the senses. But controlling the human senses is very difficult. Because human beings, all of the senses are active. Take for instance, the animals. Their senses, usually one sense is most prominent. For instance, the moth; the moth, they are attracted by the fire, and they fly into the fire because of their sight, the sense of seeing, they go into the fire and they are killed.

Then there is the hunter. The hunter is playing a sweet tune on the flute and the deer comes to hear the song, being attracted by the song, by the hearing. Honeybee goes from flower to flower, taking honey. So, when the honeybee goes into to the lotus, and when the sun goes down, the lotus closes. And when that lotus closes, and the honeybee is inside, he is suffocated, by the smell. He was simply smelling the honey, he went inside and sometimes he is captured; and that is end of his life.

Then we also find that the fish in the ocean, in the rivers, in the lakes, there is plenty of food, for fish. Why is it, when the fisherman is hanging the hook with one worm or other bait, that the fish sees it and, he is so lusty that when he sees, he cannot resist, he has to eat it, even there is other food around he can find. But his tongue is so powerful that when he sees that tasty worm, for the fish it’s a tasty thing, he jumps and grabs it, and he is caught, and he is fried by the fisherman, or sold in the market to be fried only.

Simply being attached and that’s four senses. Then the fifth sense, feeling of all the sensations of touch, the sensation of sex life is the strongest. The Elephant is very powerful, very hard to capture. But they train the female elephant. And the female elephant stands and the male elephant is attracted, so he goes after her. And she leads him into a big trap.

I have been in Assam. There, I have seen in the jungles, they are having very big cages made. And they have the trained female elephant leading the male elephant into that cage, and they locked the door, he is caught, being attracted by that sense of touch, by that sexual impulse.

So, whether moth - by the sight, fish - by the taste, deer - by the hearing, bee - by the smell, and elephant - by the touch, you see, each animal has got a weak point. But the human being, all the senses are fully activated. Every sense is demanding maximum attention.

When we are preaching, we tell people that, “If you eat vegetarian food, offer to Kṛṣṇa, you will find that by taking prasāda, your heart will become very peaceful. You’ll be very happy.” But the tongue is so strong, “No, no, no. I must have my onion, must have my garlic, must have my fish and my meat.”

There is no need for health; you can see, everyone is so healthy, although they are not taking, even they are born in the country where only these things are given. In fact, one of these boys told me that, when he was child his parents told him, “You must eat your meat, you must eat it.”

He said, “I don’t want to eat it.”

“No, you must eat; I will beat you.”

And he spent two hours, playing around. He didn’t want to eat it. Forced.

“You have to eat.”

This is the Western influence. They tell everyone, “You have to eat meat, otherwise you will die.” This is all false propaganda.

Now, recently the health department directed medical research in America and Britain has found that, by excessive eating of meat - cancer, epilepsy, and many other diseases including gastritis are formed. Especially in hot climate, if anyone eats meat, guaranteed they will get all types of gastric difficulties and ulcers also possible.

So, there is no need, but we’ve been brainwashed that we have to have these things and our tongue is so strong that whatever the tongue is demanding, we must take. Like this, every sense is demanding. So, whether one thinks, “I’ll leave all this jhamelā, all these difficulty, family life, I’ll just go into the forest, I can’t take these income tax inspectors, the crying babies or the mother-in-law, or, whatever it may be.” you see, doesn’t, that won’t be the solution. Even you go in the forest, the senses will still grab you. There is no need to change where one is, one has to change the consciousness.

India, now 1981, got independence in ‘46… ‘47, so how many years gone by? Thirty-three?

Devotees: Thirty-four.

Jayapatākā Swami: I take your word for it. So, in thirty-four years, when the first independence was given at that time, throughout India there was post office. Yes? No post office?

Devotees: There was.

Jayapatākā Swami: Yes, in British rule there was no post office?

Devotees: There was.

Jayapatākā Swami: There was. Yes, many places.

Devotee: Even in the village.

Jayapatākā Swami: Even in the village, he says. So, my point is this. When the independence was declared, then those same post offices were used or did you tear them down and build new post office? Same ones. Same ones. Only the rubber stamp was changed. That was previously, “The British-rāj”. Now it becomes, “Aśoka-stambha, Bhārat-rāj.”. But the same building, everything same; same clerk, same peon, only rubber stamp change.

That is what is needed to control the senses. Now, you see, the human being has got the greatest intellect, but this intellect is simply going down, down, just like the vulture. The vulture has got greatest ability to fly high in the air. Each bird has got a certain capacity to fly up in the air. But we see that the vulture, they fly very high. But when they are flying very high, where are they looking only? They looking down, for what? For the dead bodies. Although they are flying high, they are only looking for the dead bodies. That is where their consciousness is.

So, in a present human society, they may be flying very high, but the consciousness is simply going down, on this body, which is going be die any at minute. What is this body but the dead matter? The objects of the senses are all dead matter– inert. The senses are serving the inert matters. The mind is being used to engage the senses, and the intelligence is also being employed in a… to engage the mind, and the ātmā that is simply going on after. So, everything is simply serving the dull, dead matter; static matter. And God is forgotten. No God. God is dead. Or if there is God, He is also… “God please give us some more dead matter to serve.” He is also only being asked, “Oh Īśvara, Oh Kṛṣṇa, give us some more dead matter.” Everything going down! But in a Vedic way, you see, “Tamaso mā jyotir gama - go out from dark place, go into the light - go out from ignorance, go into knowledge.”

This ātmā... ātmā is to be engaged in Kṛṣṇa’s service– Jīvera svarūpa haya nitya-kṛṣṇera dāsa. The intelligence is employed by the ātma to control the mind in the service of the soul. The mind is controlling the senses, following the dictation of intelligence. Senses are controlling the dull matter in the service of the… according to the direction of the mind. In this way, everything is being directed up.

One way is going up, all going directed to Kṛṣṇa; otherwise going down, so, depending which rubber stamp we’re using. There only these two rubber stamps. Either, we are serving the dead-matter senses, we are abaddha-jiv, simply being dictated by the stringent laws of karma.

bhūmir āpo ‘nalo vāyuḥ 
khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca 
ahaṅkāra itīyaṁ me 
bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā
(Bg 7.4)

These are the eight material elements - five gross, three subtle. Earth, water, fire, air, ether - the mahā-bhūta - five gross element. Mind, intelligence and false ego – mana, buddhi, ahaṁkāra - these are the sūkṣma-indriyas - subtle senses. These are the two material bodies. When the five gross senses, five gross element body is destroyed, then the ātmā is taken with the mind, intelligence, and ahaṁkāra into the next body, that is known as punar-janma. When one is liberated from both gross and subtle bodies, that is known as mokṣa.

apareyam itas tv anyāṁ 
prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām 
jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho 
yayedaṁ hāryate jagat
(Bg 7.5)

We are apareyam itas tv anyāṁ. We are aparā-prakṛti. We are another nature. We are jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho. We are the jīvātma, sanātana, mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ (Bg 15.7)- eternal. na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin (Bg 2.20)- we never born, we never die. We can’t be cut. We can’t be dried. We can’t be wet. We are the eternal jīvātma. But we are lost in this ocean of material energy, we forget. And we are identifying, “I am this body.”

Although we are so intelligent as human beings, we are bewildered and we think, “I am the body.” And we are being, instead of the servant of Kṛṣṇa or Kṛṣṇadāsa, we are go-dāsa, we are servant of our senses only, running after our senses.

jihvāra lālase yei iti-uti dhāya 
śiśnodara-parāyaṇa kṛṣṇa nāhi pāya
(Cc Antya 6.227)

One who runs after his senses, just like the dogs is running here and there, he can never achieve perfection in life. He can never achieve liberation or realization of Kṛṣṇa. So, there is no essential need of leaving family, going to forest. The real need is whether in family, or whether in temple, or whether one is single, or whether one is married, to transform one consciousness to divine consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, serving Kṛṣṇa, instead of serving the dead matter.

So here it mentions, “durdāntendriya-kāla-sarpa-paṭalī. protkhāta-daṁṣṭrāyate - that the senses are like snakes.” The black snake can leap out at any time. That means that the senses, they can any time, go out of our control. That’s why, to purify the senses, this is essential. If we engage the senses, there is two processes.

Śaṅkarācārya path means, the jñāna path, means, “Stop all action and simply read Vedānta and speculate in this way. Don’t create any more karmas, stop work.” Who can do that? Anyway, that is one path. That was used in a bygone age. But the path, which was chosen by Hanumān, by Arjuna, by so many great bhaktas like Kulaśekhara, by Ambarīṣa, was the path of action– engaging all the senses in the devotional activities.

If we engage the sense, not stop eating, no.. eat! Feast! But first, offer the food according to the Vedic system, rights, and offer to the lord as a naivedyam, take the yajña-śiṣṭā, take the prasāda. Then by eating that food, your senses are not stopping working,but they’re actually not creating any karmas. They rather being freed from karma.

You want to see something beautiful. So, make nice decoration, nice painting, nice movie about Kṛṣṇa and feast your eyes. You want to feel something, touch the feet of the devotees. Use the sense of touch, you can wash the pots, garland or make the garland, and in some way, you can engage practical service. Then smell. You want to smell? Smell the beautiful flower offered to Kṛṣṇa and the incense. Bangalore is famous for incense. Incense is perfect, when it is offered to Kṛṣṇa, then we take that prasādam incense and that enters into our nostrils, into our nose and purifies our consciousness.

Also for sense of touch, we use japa-mālā. By feeling the japa-mālā, we are using our sense of touch. And we are chanting, hearing the kīrtana, hearing the chanting. In this way, hearing, tasting, smelling, seeing, touching, all the senses are engaged. Even you can use your sense - produce many children, but make all of the children Kṛṣṇa conscious. Make them all devotees of Kṛṣṇa. Then even, all the senses shall be purified, even the sexual organs are being purified, if the byproduct is engaged in Kṛṣṇa’s service. So Arjuna, he was offered, “You go in the forest, sit on the deer skin, you simply meditate on your nose, and you just concentrate your mind in this type meditation, using prāṇāyama.”

Arjuna said, “It is easier to control hurricane or cyclone, but not the mind, by this process.” And Arjuna, he was not ordinary person, he was the śakhā of Kṛṣṇa, friend of Kṛṣṇa, he was the great prince, a king of the Pāṇḍava dynasty, Kuru dynasty, emperor of the world. He said, it was not possible for him. How is it possible for us? Who can simply give up everything and go in the forest and think that all the senses will be engaged? So, this is the practical way, engage your senses. No need to make them suffer in any way. Engage them, but in a purified way. By doing that, although the senses are like serpents, it takes the fang out, takes the poison out. If the serpent has no more poison, then what is the fear?

So Śrīla Prabhupāda has simply used this simple process of bhakti-yoga – Hṛṣīkena hṛṣīkeśa-sevanam bhaktir ucyate– engage the senses in the service of the master of senses. All over the world, and this is the proof that, “sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam - doesn’t matter what one’s upādhi is, one may be young old, man, woman, brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, or less than śūdra - by practicing, if anyone practices this system properly, under the direction of bona fide spiritual master, must be, his senses will be purified, his karmas will be destroyed, and he will be uplifted to the highest platform, because this process is transcendental.”

In Vaikuṇṭha, what is Lakṣmī, what is the Nārada Muni, Kumāras and all the great bhaktas doing? All the great Alvārs? There, only dedicating all their senses to the Lord. Even if we, most insignificant people practice in this type of engagement, purifying our senses, gradually as all our senses are engaged in chanting, hearing, tasting, serving and smelling everything about Kṛṣṇa then we will find our consciousness is out of this world. Our consciousness becomes vaikuṇṭha-maya - Ānanda-mayo ‘bhyāsāt (Vs 1.1.12).

brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā
na śocati na kāṅkṣati 
samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu 
mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām
(Bg 18.54)

This is how to achieve the parām, the supreme destination, freed from all anxiety all miseries– brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā. prasannātmā. ātma means soul, mind, and senses. Prasanna means satisfied, fully satisfied. When one consciousness is put in the transcendental realization, then ātmā, meaning soul, mind and senses are all satisfied. So, what is difficult about this process? It simply means, one has to change the rubber stamp. We have now rubber-stamped everything sense gratification, what is pleasing to our senses, we do. If someone doesn’t like, what they hear, they go away, “I don’t like it.”

They don’t try to understand, what is right, what is wrong, what is good, what is bad. Whatever they like, they do. What they don’t like, they don’t do. On the basis of what? What is pleasing to their senses. How long will we go on being slave to our senses?

We are serving our senses, day and night, like a very good slave, but our senses are never satisfied. They are always demanding, “More, more, more, give me more. aham mama, aham mama. Me, me, me. Give to me.” They’re demanding always more. So how long we want to remain a slave to our senses? So, when we changed our vision, “Now let me be the servant, loving servant of Kṛṣṇa, let me engage the senses as I want in the activities which will uplift my consciousness.”, then this a revolution.

janatāgha-viplavo yasmin prati-ślokam abaddhavaty api. It creates a revolution in the sinful lives of the people. Because automatically, the most materialistic, even the most sinful person, if he simple understands little bit, what to speak of the pious and religious people, immediately the whole life changed. And one, just like, in overnight, Bilati-rāj, Bhārata-rāj, māyā-jīvan, mukta-jīvan.

iha yasya harer dasye 
karmana manasa gira 
nikhilasv apy avasthasu 
jivan-muktah sa ucyate

Life becomes liberated when we engage our mind, words and senses in service of Hari. So, this is, in a nutshell, the basic purpose of this Kṛṣṇa conscious movement. We want that every family, every person, they should chant Hare Kṛṣṇa; they should purify their senses and taste the real happiness of life. Don’t sell out for less. This material happiness is insignificant, nothing, just flash a second.

We are sitting for half hour, our legs are hurting, our mind is impatient. Then we are thinking, if we get a little fan, nice air, then we are happy; get a little cool drink, we are happy. That means our happiness is based on suffering only. Our lust builds up, sometimes we become very lusty, we get a little release, ah, we think, “Now, I am very happy.” But we’ve been suffering so long! Little relief we get, a little, you can say, vacation from suffering, and we think that is happiness. But that is no real positive happiness.

Once one tastes, the nectar of this chanting, of the spiritual paramānanda, then he never gets fooled again, that this material happiness is a worthwhile endeavor. But people are very clever. We try to trick them, by any means, you just taste this paramānanda. But they avoid it very cleverly, by arguments, by so-called religious sentiment, they make so many excuses: “I have no time. I can’t do. I am already doing pūjas; I am doing this, I’m doing that.” Somehow or another, they will give some excuse and avoid simply chanting and taking some prasādam and merging themselves in paramānanda.

But we find that young people, who have not yet learnt this art of duplicity, hypocrisy, and all type of, you see, cunningness, they go on chanting and jumping up and down, and immediately they feel transcendental bliss. So, this is the proof, that anyone can achieve this, but if you are very deceitful for avoiding it, then we may cheat ourselves only. And miss out on the real happiness of life.

So therefore, we request everyone: “Be careful; beware of the mind which is very treacherous, trying to give so many false doubts, for us not to chant. Simply dive in and chant. Practice some extent; you will see for yourself.” You are all pious, religious people born in a puṇya-bhūmi. When people from all over the world are able to practice this, and get the real taste in a short time, that means it will take you very little time to reach the perfectional platform. A little effort will go the longest way.

So, thank you very much for listening so patiently, everyone. I also thank you for chanting so nicely. When we chanted, we lost all the consciousness, you see, aware, who is from what place, what duty, this, that we’re all simply that time united in a oneness of spiritual harmony, because our ātmā was in unity, in harmony with the Supreme ātmā. In this way, the whole world can also be unified. And all the hatred, enmity that is there will go away. Thank you very much.

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa
Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare 
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma
Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

Tonight, there’ll also be some plays, and then of course feast, and I think even a cinema in the end. Is there time for questions now?

Is there is any question? 

Question: No audio.

Jayapatākā Swami: The senses are controlled by the material energy.

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ 
ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate
(Bg 3.27)

Then one is actually being dragged by impulses of material nature only. That means māyā. So, when one is free from impulses of the material nature, that is mukta. So how to get free? There are two basic paths.

The one path is not recommended for Kali-yuga, but that was there in the past. People would simply go in secluded place and meditate. In this way, they would control their senses by prāṇāyama and by dhyāna. The other system is to control the senses by active engagement, in activities which are not material. Just as in Gītā it says, “One is offering yajña; the yajña itself is transcendental. The yajña-patiḥ is transcendental, the offering is being offered is transcendental. Everything becomes on the param-satya platform.”

So, when one is offering one’s senses, one’s body, one’s mind, one’s words as an offering to the lord, just like I am speaking, you are hearing; you are offering your senses and your mind. I am offering– I am not speaking only for your benefit, I am speaking for my benefit. By my speaking, my senses are being engaged in Kṛṣṇa’s service.

Only by being engaged in Kṛṣṇa’s service, can I remain in the transcendental platform. And by my speaking only about Kṛṣṇa, only according to the authorized guru-paramparā siddhānta, or conclusion of the scripture, whoever is listening, their consciousness is also uplifted to what extent they can understand or they are fully listening with concentration. So, in this way, when our senses are fully engaged in activities, which have nothing to do with material activities, that is mukta. Anything to do with Kṛṣṇa, with Viṣṇu is transcendental. Therefore, by engaging our senses in Viṣṇu-related activities, “jīvan-mukta sa ucyate - then our life becomes liberated, because those actions produce no reaction.”

Whatever action we do in material life, that produces a karma reaction, which is binding us. If I give in charity to an ordinary person, I get in a next life, same amount back. If I give to a brāhmaṇa, who is half-educated, I get double. If I give to a qualified brāhmaṇa, who knows how to do, ah, who is just an ordinary brāhmaṇa with no special qualification, I get ten times back; then if he is qualified in performing sacrifices, then I get 100 times back. If he is a Veda-jñā, that means he knows the Vedānta-jñā, he knows the conclusion of the Vedānta, then I get, you see, crores of times back. And if he is a pure devotee, who is a completely transcendentally situated, I get unlimited. So, as I am giving charity, that means I have to take even another birth to reap the result of the charity.

That’s why in Gītā, Kṛṣṇa says, “Whatever you give in charity, whatever you do in tapasya, whatever you do as an offering, everything you should do only on My behalf.” Because whatever we do on Kṛṣṇa’s behalf, He accepts the karmas. But what we do on our behalf, good or bad, we have to accept the karma. Even the good karma means we have to take birth. Birth means again death. Whoever is born must die. Whoever dies, must again be born. This is the law of material world. We are born to die, we die to be born. And birth means old age, disease, and other types of problems.

So māyā means when we are acting in illusion that, “I am this body, I am this mind, I am a product of the material energy.” And mukta means, “I am a nitya-jīva, I am a bhagavān-aṁśa, and I’m the part of the Lord, I have nothing to with this material energy and we act in that knowledge.” Then we’re liberated, we are mukta. So māyā means illusion - To act as we are not. We are not this body. We have to leave this body in no time, but we are working day and night, as if we are the body. That’s māyā.

And when we act, “I am the possessor of the body, this body is a vehicle; I’m the nitya-jīva, I am the spirit soul, pure spirit soul, then, that’s liberated. Is that clear? Satisfied?

You had a question.

Devotee: Yeah. It’s not needed one to leave the house and settle in the forest. One should not go to āśramas, it means? For realization, one doesn’t need anything like going for seclusion. If that is the case, why the… in the olden days they have got an idea of settling themselves in the forest for concentration?

Jayapatākā Swami: I said, there are two paths. There are two paths. That even if one goes in the forest, unless his senses are properly trained, even there he can fall down. But this process is such, so powerful, that this other process I mentioned, one cannot practice. The process of aṣṭāṅga-yoga in the family, in the house, while the refrigerator is chugging, and air-bus is going overhead, and the lorry is going outside beeping the horn, and the rickshaw-wala is fighting for two paisa more, and he is trying to mediate in his front porch, never can he get samādhi by that form of meditation. He has to go off in a quiet place, where you’ll find a quiet place today? Even over the Himalayas Aeroflot is going, you see. So, we are chanting.

Outside the lorry could be going, air-bus can be going, but when the hundred and fifty people were all singing Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, that mantra is cinmaya śabda, śabda-brahma. That vibration itself is shielding everyone into the transcendental atmosphere. Then automatically, as we are concentrating on that vibration, that śabda-brahma, then we are actually in the Brahman consciousness. And the more we can focus ourselves in the chanting, the more the dust is taken off of the cetanā, consciousness, and pure vision comes.

In the past, in Satya-yuga, there was dhyāna. kṛte yad dhyāyato viṣṇuṁ - In Satya-yuga, the dharma was, yuga-dharma was dhyāna. Because Satya-yuga means peaceful. tretāyāṁ yajato makhaiḥ - In Tretā-yuga, there was the home yajña, agnihotras. dvāpare paricaryāyāṁ -In Dvāpara-yuga, the process was temple worship, paricaryā. That means arcanam. Kalau tad dhari-kīrtanāt - In this Kali-yuga, the system is Hari kīrtanam. In each yuga, there is one yuga-dharma.

When that Māyāsura – I was telling only earlier today– he grabbed on the feet of Arjuna and he was about to be, just killed by the Sudarśana. But Kṛṣṇa forgave him, because he took shelter of the Mahā-Bhāgavata, the devotee of the Lord. So, at that time Māyāsura, he offered to Arjuna, “Let me give you yantra-jñāna. I will give you the science of machines, how to make all kinds of machines.”

Kṛṣṇa said, “Don’t give it. We don’t want it. You’ll ruin everything. That’s for Kali-yuga. Instead He told, “You can make that, one…” He made that sabhā at Hastināpur. What was the name of that?

Devotees: Māyā-sabhā

Jayapatākā Swami: Māyā-sabhā? No. It had some another name.

Devotees: Māyā-sabhā

Jayapatākā Swami: Māyā-sabhā, accha. So, today, we have this yantra-jñāna. Not only do we have yantras, but we have all so many break down, noise, trouble, pollution. That was kept out of the, even Dvāpara-yuga, they didn’t need it. Only they were going by so much siddhi, psychic mystic powers. They didn’t need all these yantras. Now we have yantra-yuga; so, this is Kali-yuga, age of iron. In this age, the process is Hari-kīrtana of the nine-fold bhakti, śravaṇa, kīrtanam, the first two mentioned. We are not saying other process is not bona fide, bilkul ṭhīk - definitely bona fide.

But, for Satya-yuga, Tretā-yuga, Dvāpara-yuga; not for Kali-yuga. Kali is too difficult, but in Kali-yuga, if you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, in a short time you will find perfection, just as you would find in Satya-yuga by dhyānam, you get in Kali-yuga by nāma-saṅkīrtanam.

Just like if you go in the drug store and you say that, “My dear druggist, give me one good medicine.”

The druggist will say, “What type of medicine you want?”

“I want a good medicine.” You see.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“Never mind what’s wrong with me. You give me a good medicine.”

He’ll say, “You are a nut. All my medicine is good. One is for the head, one is for the foot, one is for the skin, one is for the belly. What’s wrong with you, my friend?”

“You don’t bother with what’s wrong with me. You give me a good medicine. That’s enough.”

He’ll say, “Get out! I can’t give you anything like that! Because all my medicine is good.”

So, in the dharma, all the dharma is good. But what is our disease? That is what happening today. Different dharmas are saying, the other dharma is bad. That’s not correct. How can dharma be bad? Dharma must, by definition, be good. The only thing is what dharma in this day and age, in this circumstance, will be the most effective for us.

So, we are not saying any dharma is bad. We are not saying dhyāna is bad, we are not saying worship of this or that one is bad. Each has got its own value, but in this particular day and age, we have got, just like now we have got such a strong disease. We need a special booster shot.

Even Vālmīki, he was dasyu. Dasyu means Dasyu Ratnākara. He was given Rāma nāma– “marā marā marā” he was chanting, which came out, Rāma Rāma Rāma, by Nārada. And by chanting Rāma-nāma, although he was such a violent man, he was purified. So, this is not a new process.

Mṛgārī the hunter. He was like half-killing animals, he was given only the name. This name is the most powerful purifier. From yugas, it is there; not only this yuga, but in other yugas, other processes were also effective, so people were more inclined to do that. But in Kali-yuga the other processes, they won’t even give you the result. No guarantee of any effect.

So how can you tell if the medicine works? If there’s epidemic, and you give the medicine in epidemic, if the people get a cured, then you say that medicine is good. So, where is the worst materialistic epidemic? Then in Western world, the full epidemic. Everyone is diseased by materialism. How many souls are being delivered? That proves the medicine works.

Everyone who is taking the Harināma medicine, they are getting cured, that’s why this is known in the Vedas as mahouṣadhi, the great auṣadhi for the Kali-yuga disease.

Is that alright?

Devotee: In that, it’s written, Rāma was worshiping Śiva. So, if it is the case you mean to say that was not powerful?

Jayapatākā Swami: Rāma has every right to worship Śiva. Just like Kṛṣṇa, He is driving the chariot for Arjuna, therefore he is known as Pārtha-sārathi. Because Śiva is vaiṣṇavānāṁ yathā śambhuḥ – he is the greatest devotee of Lord Rāma. He is chanting Rāma’s name, always on his rudrākṣa, he is always chanting Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, because he is the expansion of Mahā-saṅkarṣaṇa, who is only the expansion of Rāma. So Rāma has every reason to worship His devotee. Because the Lord is always known as bhakata-vatsala. He always like to put His devotee in the superior place.

Kṛṣṇa is only taking the inferior position with Yaśodā, but how about all the times? Even in that particular līlā, Śiva came out and said, “There’s no need for You to worship me, You Yourself a Lord.” And even Śiva himself, just like he did tapasyā to be admitted as a gopī in Kṛṣṇa’s rāsa-līlā. And he was made as the gatekeeper, Gopeśvara for Kṛṣṇa’s rāsa-līlā. And like that, there are so many pastimes in the Purāṇas.

So actually, Lord Brahmā in his Brahma-saṁhitā said, “There is no difference between Viṣṇu and Śiva; Viṣṇu is like milk, and Lord Śiva is like yogurt, like dūdh, dadhi. So, from milk only, dadhi is made. And dadhi and milk are all milk– there is no other substance. There is no other second material there; only that the yogurt cannot be rechanged back to milk. There’s a slight difference in the quality, but… or you can say in the taste or the flavor, but the substance is more or less the same; same thing, milk product.”

Devotee: What is the duration of Kali-yuga?

Jayapatākā Swami: (Four million…) 432,000 years. We are 5000 years going now. Another 427,000 years to go. Then Satya-yuga. Listen, after 10,000 years from now, Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s movement will already have reached the peak and will start to decline again by the powers of māyā. So, you should not think about 400,000 thousand years. You should finish up within this next 10,000 years, all your re-birth and go back to Kṛṣṇa, because after that, you see Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He is delivering very quickly. With Caitanya Mahāprabhu, there are five associates Nityānanda, Advaita… Advaita is Mahā-Viṣṇu and Sadāśiva combined in one. Even Śiva is there in the līlā with Caitanya Mahāprabhu.