19821111 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.1.59 with Bengali Translation

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Svāmī on November 11, 1982 in Śrīdhāma Māyāpur. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 4th Canto, Chapter 1, Verse 59 with Bengali translation.

tāv imau vai bhagavato
harer aṁśāv ihāgatau
bhāra-vyayāya ca bhuvaḥ
kṛṣṇau yadu-kurūdvahau
(ŚB 4.1.59)

Translation: That Nara-Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi, who is a partial expansion of Kṛṣṇa, has now appeared in the dynasties of Yadu and Kuru, in the forms of Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna respectively, to mitigate the burden of the world.

Purport: Nārāyaṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and Nara is a part of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Nārāyaṇa. Thus the energy and the energetic together are the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Maitreya informed Vidura that Nara, the portion of Nārāyaṇa, had appeared in the family of the Kurus and that Nārāyaṇa, the plenary expansion of Kṛṣṇa, had come as Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, with the purpose of delivering suffering humanity from the pangs of material burdens. In other words, Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi was now present in the world in the forms of Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna.

Jayapatākā Swami: So here, many technical informations are being provided about the nature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and His part and parcel living entities. One is it describes that in this particular incarnation, they come in two forms, Nara and Nārāyaṇa. Nara is a form of a human being, and Nārāyaṇa is the form of God. So the Nara is the portion of Nārāyaṇa, the human being is a portion of God. In other words, the individual soul is part of the Absolute Truth. Just like there is the sun and the sunlight, both are always together. You see, what is the meaning of sun if it has no light or heat? But the very simple example is given that if the sun comes into our room, the sun light we can feel the presence of the sun, we don't say the sun is in our room, it's the sunlight. So, there is difference between the light and the sun, although they are connected.

Although we can feel that the connection with the sun, the sun is not there anyway. The other thing that is mentioned here is that when Nara Nārāyaṇa came that was thousands and thousands of years before the time of Kṛṣṇa. But this Bhāgavatam was being spoken while Kṛṣṇa was still on the planet. So, they are saying that the same Nara and Nārāyaṇa have come in the forms of Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna, when this particular discussion is going on.

Here Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna are at the same time on the planet. Arjuna said… Kṛṣṇa told Arjuna that, “You were present when I was speaking to the Sun god, the science of the Bhagavad-gītā. And then Arjuna replied that, “How is it possible?” He said, “The sun-god, Vivasvān is senior in birth to You. How am I to understand that in the beginning You instructed this science to him?” This is Text 4, Chapter 4 of the Bhagavad-gītā. He said, “The sun-god, Vivasvān is senior in birth to You. How am I to understand that in the beginning You instructed this science to him?”

So, Kṛṣṇa replied,

bahūni me vyatītāni
janmāni tava cārjuna
tāny ahaṁ veda sarvāṇi
na tvaṁ vettha parantapa
(Bg 4.5)

Translation: The Blessed Lord said: Many, many births both you and I have passed. I can remember all of them, but you cannot, O subduer of the enemy!

Jayapatākā Swami: This is the difference that, the soul, individual spirit souls are ever existing, they are never destroyed, so also Kṛṣṇa, but Kṛṣṇa never forgets, we forget. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā:

vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya
navāni gṛhṇāti naro 'parāṇi
tathā śarīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇāny
anyāni saṁyāti navāni dehī
(Bg 2.22)

That as a person puts on new garments giving up old ones, similarly the soul accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.

So actually in this material world there is a very great duality, in that although we are not the body and no matter what we do to make the body satisfied, you see, we won't be satisfied because we are not the body, we are the spark of light in the body, the consciousness which is making the body alive.

So today the modern world does not at all have the slightest clue about this spiritual understanding as given in the Bhagavad-gītā and the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So instead of trying to realize the consciousness which is beyond the body, instead of trying to realize the permanent truth, everyone is simply engaged in satisfying the body, in increasing the body's comforts.

I saw a big exhibition at the Walt Disney World which is called the Epcot, the uh… the world of the… the world of the future. There they are trying to show that by modern technology man has reached perfectional stage, has reached the perfectional stage.

So, this is the thing is that in the attempt to enjoy the… to enjoy the senses more and more, practically speaking the tempo has increased to practically a mad race, and no longer is there any direction that one can see, beyond simply satisfying the senses and the economic needs of the moment. Instead we can see that, in their plans to be happy they are actually making the world, a more terrible place to live in.

Recently the nuclear control department of, I believe it is the United Nations or the American government, they said by the year 1990, within the next eight years there is a 2% chance that there will be a major nuclear accident which will kill a minimum of 100,000 people. Recently, when I was in New Orleans, one man took his girlfriend, one driver of the train took his girlfriend on the train, and they were drinking together, and she was on the driving seat. She made a wrong turn on the track and derailed the whole train. Seventeen chemical cars were overturned, and the whole city had to be evacuated; 100,000 people.

And that chemical was so dangerous that if anyone breathed it, they would immediately die. So, the scientists, they are taking their money to do the whims of the big industrialists and they are trying to make so many plans, but we see that the world is becoming a more and more dangerous place to live in. but the actual solution is that the people in the world have to change their consciousness to actually become habituated to a more natural way of life. You can't blame the scientists or the industrialists, because after all people are buying the things from them. They're making what the people want to buy. You see, so unless the people themselves learn to lead a more natural way of life, there is no possibility of changing the course of the world.

Of course, the way they are heading now, a war in which the present-day civilization will be destroyed is very imminent, and then they will be forced to live a natural way of life or die. So even if someone sees that, well, there are defects in society, unless someone has actually has spiritual knowledge, and is actually trying to become self-realized, then the person cannot help but simply serving the senses, which means that one will be forced into this whole rat race, and into the whole illusory activities.

So, it says here that the avatāra, the Supreme Lord descends into the material world for the purpose of delivering the suffering humanity from the pains of material burdens. So similarly Caitanya Mahāprabhu who appeared here in Māyāpur dhāma, He came especially to deliver the people of this iron age of machines.

One time, Śrīla Prabhupāda told one of his secretaries, that we can all live at… when the secretary was complaining that, “There is going to be a war and so much difficulty, what to do?” Then Prabhupāda said, “We can all live just on this side of the Ganges river here in Māyāpur and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.”

He said, “No, no, no, that's not possible! We can't live outside of the city.” He said, “I am too used to the… I'm too used to the machines. If I can't hear a refrigerator at night, I won't get to sleep!”

Prabhupāda said, “Yes, you Westerners, you are addicted to machines.” He said, “There is a story in Bengal which I can tell you.”

“One time there was a gṛhastha, householder, and he was calling the people, if anybody was hungry. It is the Vedic custom that if anybody is hungry then the householder before taking his own meal, he should feed any hungry person. Actually people complain that there is… you can see in the Vedic civilization there was no need for Social Security or for uh, Welfare checks. If anybody was really hungry, well… if everybody is inviting anyone on the street to take a meal, obviously there is only a few percent of the people that are hungry, then automatically the society itself picks up the burden.

So, there was one fisherman who was there carrying his basket. He said, “Well, I haven't eaten yet.” So then the man said, “Alright, come in, but leave your basket outside, it smells so bad!” So he brought in the fisherman, and in the courtyard, he fed that man sumptuously. Then he asked the man that, whether he has any place to stay there for the night? He said, “No, I don't have any place to stay. He said, please, you stay here tonight. So that person, the fisherman went to sleep, and the householder went to sleep. In the middle of the night, the call of nature caused the householder to get up about one in the morning, and he saw that that fisherman was turning and tossing and turning and wasn't sleeping properly. “Hey, What's the matter, why are you not sleeping?”

“I just can't get to sleep.”

“Why, why, why you are not able to sleep?”

So, then he said, “Well, always my whole life, I always had my basket with me, and without smelling my basket I can't get to sleep! (laughter) Without smelling the smell of rotten fish I can't get to sleep!”

So, then the householder said, “Alright, bring in your basket, I don't want a guest to be inconvenienced in my house.” Then immediately the fisherman can get to sleep. So Prabhupāda was telling this story and he started laughing,“Ha, ha!” Slapping his leg, he said, “You westerners, you are just like this, you can't smell some oil, some machine, you won't get to sleep!” So actually all that needs to be done is simply to change the reference point. Once we understand we are not the body, immediately everything changes. Just like they have a saying, are you eat to live or live to eat?

So, in this way, whether… right now people are living to eat, they are living just to enjoy the body, but actually the body is meant to be used in order that we can live eternally by realizing our soul, by realizing Kṛṣṇa, by realizing the spiritual truth. You see, the first thing that a human being should ask is, “Who am I?” And then by proper intellectual contemplation one can easily understand that we are not this body. Just like if… if we bind our arm with a tourniquet, with a rope, then suddenly we lose all the feeling in our arm as soon as we cut off the blood circulation. So at that time practically speaking the hand is dead.

The Bhagavad-gītā says that the jīva-ātmā, the spiritual spark is situated in the heart and through the blood, the consciousness is expanded out throughout the body. Spiritual spark, jīva-ātmā. Actually this body is dead, it's made alive only because the spiritual energy is there in the body. Body is an intricate machine produced by the material energy. You see, but the actual energy source, the power pack that is in the form of the spiritual energy. That is who we are, we are the spiritual energy.

Death is simply when that spiritual spark leaves the body, then the body is no longer activated. Every body goes through six changes. It is described in the Vedas that once the soul enters into a seed or an embryo or an egg depending on the type of life it is, then from that point, it goes through six changes. First there is birth, then there is growth, then there is uh, maintaining for some time, produces by products, children for instance, then it decreases, then finally death. You see, from death then the soul is again freed from the body and then the subtle mental body goes on and again enters into another ovum or into another womb and again starts the whole transition again.

So, if we live simply to maintain this particular body that is said to be the greatest foolishness. Because this body is bound to be finished sooner or later. Instead we have to keep the body healthy, keep the body well kept, but devote all our spare energy beyond that for understanding the real spiritual nature of our existence, the eternal nature of our existence, scientifically. You see, otherwise in this material world there are three modes, and these three modes they take the consciousness of the conditioned, materialistic, materialistically conditioned souls to different mentalities. materialistically conditioned souls to different mentalities.

Mode of goodness is where one wants to help other people, one wants to do uh… good works. Mode of passion creates a mentality where one simply wants to work for one's own immediate interest, or for the interest of one's family, or nation, for profit. And the mode of ignorance, that's when one becomes bitter and angry, and becomes disgusted with different things, and so they get absorbed in intoxication, or in anger, or in uh, vengeance, or just different kind of bitterness, madness. You don't find one person that just has one of these qualities; generally, you find a mixture, different percentages of each. But all these three consciousnesses, they are all on the bodily platform doing good for other people's bodies, getting profit for one's own body, or just being disgusted over the miseries and pains, and the uh, misuse of the body.

You see, so this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement because the vision is completely beyond the bodily platform, we are talking about the actual spiritual energy or the living force which is propelling all these bodies. Therefore, this has nothing to do with the whole material world at all. Actually this is the reason why human beings have got enhanced intelligence, is to go beyond this material duality, the material illusion and see the real permanent basis.

So, if a person simply wastes his life trying to chase after the different whims of the body it is considered that the life is completely just… completely wasted. It is completely misuse of the opportunity of a human birth. So here in India, the basic original culture was all based upon achieving spiritual realization. Because when people know that we have another life after this they naturally think about the next life equally or more than the present life. Nowadays of course the influence of the present artificial age is so strong that here even though the customs are maintained, the underlying philosophy to a large extent has been gradually forgotten here in India.

So the thing that we have to do in India is simply to remind the people the philosophy. They already have the basic understanding, but they have forgotten the philosophy. They have forgotten the spiritual knowledge. You see, even if somebody knows, it is like a theory. They really don't believe in it anymore because of the Western influence.

…the philosophy to the west and we very willingly took it up because we were looking for something better and when we practice it immediately, we got an effect, immediately we could feel the difference. So when someone practices then you can get the effect. Just giving lip service won't do anything. Who worships Kṛṣṇa, who does the practical self-realization, he will be elevated. And those who are talking about it, or don't know anything about it, they are simply under the material influence. They won't be able to see beyond the material illusion. So even if somebody here has spiritual, some philosophical understanding, they don't practice, they don't apply it, they won't get the actual benefit, here or anywhere. The Bhagavad-gītā therefore says that the knowledge, you see, greater than knowledge is actually performing the sacrifice, performing the practical self-realization process, because that is the fruit of knowledge.

So, in conclusion, therefore because it is so difficult in the present artificial age to find any ideal circumstance to practice self-realization, a very simple process has been given which can be practiced anywhere, anytime, anyplace, by anyone. Whether you are on top of the mountain, or whether you are at the bottom of the pit, anyone can practice the process given by Lord Caitanya. Somebody desires, anybody can chant

hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare
hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare

It is not very difficult. Look at the children, even the children are able to chant. You see, any part of the world, whether it is China or America or anywhere, as soon as someone starts to seriously practice the meditation, reads Bhagavad-gītā, they can immediately feel contact with the spiritual energy. But if somebody, even if they may be with devotees, or they may hear some of the philosophy, if they don't actually chant, if they don't actually concentrate on the form of self-realization, then they'll always remain distant from actual understanding of what is really going on outside of the material purview.

Lord Caitanya is saying, “jīva jago, jīva jago, gaurachanda bole, kota nidra jāo maya pisacīra kole - Wake up, wake up sleeping souls, why are you sleeping on the lap of the witch Māya?” Māyā means material illusion. Wake up from this illusion. See what it is beyond this temporary world. So that is up to us to wake up. You see, if we are woken up, we can wake up. But if we are already awake, and we are making believe we are asleep then it is very hard to wake that person up, you see. It's impossible. If a person already can see that the material world is definitely illusion, can already see there has to be something beyond it but still just due to attachment, just due to some uh, artificial attachment, due to some uh, lethargy or some other type of material hang up, is just neglecting to actually try to go into the spiritual-realization. In other words, the person is awake already to the illusion, but is pretending to be asleep, you cannot wake that person up. He is not sincere. He is a hypocrite.

So that is why Lord Caitanya, actually His mercy is for everyone. Anyone can become very advanced in self-realization, can realize the self, can realize God, the Supreme Person, the Absolute Truth face to face, the spiritual light, the spiritual expansions, the spiritual world, if simply the person is sincere, simply the person is not a hypocrite, it is very easy to achieve all these realizations. But even after realizing the falsity of the material illusion in a materialistic world, if the person still simply remains in other forms of materialism,what is the use? Bengali So therefore Lord Caitanya says “Wake up, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, be happy.” Thank you very much!

[Break]

... the sufferings just as Śrīla Prabhupāda said here with the purpose of delivering the suffering humanity from the pangs of material burdens.

Are there any questions?

Question: (Inaudible)… to the Mahā-prakasa?

Jayapatākā Swami: No, it says that He is present. It says Nara Nārāyaṇa are present in Kṛṣṇa. That Nara is present in Arjuna and Nārāyaṇa is present in Kṛṣṇa, because Kṛṣṇa is able to assume unlimited forms. For every incarnation, He assumes a different form, but He doesn't lose His consciousness, He never forgets. So, in that way within Kṛṣṇa, because He is the original form all the other forms are included. Just as Lord Caitanya, from His form He produced Rāma, He expanded to Varāha, Narasiṁha, all the forms came out. So, Nara Nārāyaṇa are also within Kṛṣṇa.

Not that Kṛṣṇa it says, that Nara Nārāyaṇa is aṁśa, it says He is a part. In another part in the Bhāgavatam it says that Kṛṣṇa is the amśī, that He is the… He is the whole. So the part is definitely going to be present within the whole. So, Nara Nārāyaṇa, these previous incarnations as great sages are also present within Kṛṣṇa. Nara Nārāyaṇa came in that particular time and place to help the people to get self-realization. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa in the original form, within Him Nārāyaṇa is there and within Arjuna, Nara is there, and Arjuna is also the part of Kṛṣṇa if you see the whole thing. It was very clear, just the technical way it was written.

It says, “That Nārāyaṇa the plenary expansion of Kṛṣṇa had come as Kṛṣṇa.

Nārāyaṇa has come as Kṛṣṇa, Varāha, everyone. But they are all part of Him. That means within Kṛṣṇa all these avatāras are there. So Kṛṣṇa, He can manifest any of those particular moods. You see, you won't find Narasiṁhadeva dancing with the gopīs! That is not His mood. You won't find Varāha churning butter or something! You won't find! Each has got a particular mood, you see. There are certain things that only Kṛṣṇa does that They don't do. But Kṛṣṇa, you will find in His avatāra, He can become angry and defeat, that is not the Kṛṣṇa mood, that is the particular mood that when Kṛṣṇa only manifests that mood that is present in Śrī Narasiṁhadeva, or in some other avatāra. So within Kṛṣṇa, He has all these different rūpas, and all these different forms, and different moods.

So, you can say that… You can say it either way, you can say Nārāyaṇa has come in Kṛṣṇa, or you can say Nārāyaṇa is the part of Kṛṣṇa, He has come, it is a technical thing. (Inaudible)

Question: He says, “Your incarnation as Nara Nārāyaṇa.”?

Jayapatākā Swami: Yes, Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna. That means that, Kṛṣṇa says, bahūni me vyatītāni janmāni tava cārjuna. You see that, “You have taken many births, so have I. But you forget. I don't.” That means Kṛṣṇa also appeared before as Nara Nārāyaṇa. The difference, it is the same Kṛṣṇa, it is not like different Godheads. There is one Absolute Truth. But sometimes in a different form, Kṛṣṇa is only showing a very small percentage of His total capacity. It is the same person just He is not showing the full what He can do.

A person goes on stage maybe he just sings one act, but he can actually sing, dance, stand on his head, walk on a tight rope. He shows just one thing. You see. It is not his whole ensemble, it is not his whole act, he can do so many things. So, Nara Nārāyaṇa is just showing His austerity and His knowledge,mainly the austere aspect. And Nara has come with Him Arjuna, so the same they are coming, but sometimes Kṛṣṇa is partially manifesting sometimes fully manifesting. The full manifestation, the original manifestion, the original form is Kṛṣṇa. It is the same person; it is just different percentages of how much He is showing.

Question: So, my question is, when Kṛṣṇa comes, He directly comes from the spiritual world, but in the Kṛṣṇa book it is said, “He was an incarnation of Nārāyaṇa.”

Jayapatākā Swami: It's one and the same thing. It's one and the same. When Kṛṣṇa comes down from the spiritual world, then within Him also Nara Nārāyaṇa are there. The point is why Mahā-Viṣṇu is addressing because Nara and Nārāyaṇa are individual souls and Nārāyaṇa came together. They were a team and they together gave spiritual knowledge. Like when Varāha came it was a one man… one God show, I mean it was… He was there all alone and He just came and did His... When Trivikrama came, or when other people, they had different… the Supreme Person was there but He didn't have a counterpart, then He came with at the same time to disseminate knowledge. There were different pastimes, different situations. But the situation of Nara and Nārāyaṇa where that Nārāyaṇa came down, and with Him there was an individual soul who was His constant companion who was disseminating spiritual knowledge together with Him, and they were just never separated, and the form of Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna, once Kṛṣṇa left Vrndavana, He was always with Arjuna, practically constantly. They'd sit together, eat together, they were fighting together; everything they were doing was together. He spoke the Bhagavad-gītā with him, together. He arranged his marriage together, whatever, everything was together.

So, in that sense you can see that that particular mood of the Supreme soul and the individual, in that type of relationship is same in Nara Nārāyaṇa, or very similar as in Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna. So Mahā-Viṣṇu was particularly addressing the relation, because both Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna came. So, from that we can understand that this relationship which Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna have is eternal, that even in other avatāras, certain avatāras when Kṛṣṇa comes and He has a friend like that a constant companion, that that is also incarnation of Arjuna.

Kṛṣṇa is… Kṛṣṇa is an incarnation of Nara Nārāyaṇa, and Nara Nārāyaṇa is a part of Kṛṣṇa. That means that the same function that Nara Nārāyaṇa who were serving Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa also serves. But it is not limited there, You don't… It is not a full stop. It is a semi colon, beyond that there are so many purposes. In other places you find that Rāma has come as Kṛṣṇa. Then you will find other quotes, other incarnation has come is also Kṛṣṇa. And then you find how is it possible that Nara Nārāyaṇa has come as Kṛṣṇa that Nārāyaṇa has come as Kṛṣṇa, Viṣṇu has come as Kṛṣṇa, that Rāma has come as Kṛṣṇa that is explained because kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (ŚB 1.3.28). Kṛṣṇa is the original form. All those forms are within Him.

When it is the same person… you can say that the prime minister came, uh, as a… he was driving a car, so came as a car driver. So you can say the car driver came as the prime minister, it is the same… Here in the material world there are two different people. You have the car driver and the prime minister. But in Kṛṣṇa and Nara Nārāyaṇa there is no difference, so you can say Nara Nārāyaṇa came as Kṛṣṇa or Kṛṣṇa came as Nara Nārāyaṇa. It is the same thing. Because… just so that you wouldn't make that mistake, in the Sanskrit it qualified it first who is the origin, it says Harer aṁśa, who is the part and who is the whole harer aṁśāv ihāgatau, that Nara Nārāyaṇa are the aṁśa, aṁśa means the part. Just so that later on when it said that they have come again as Kṛṣṇa, it mean that Kṛṣṇa also is fulfilling a similar purpose as this incarnation, but just so you wouldn't get confused and think that Nara Nārāyaṇa are the origin, He first of all qualifies that They are aṁśa, They are the part. Doesn't say Kṛṣṇa is the part. In other places Kṛṣṇa is the whole; it is the same writer of the whole Bhāgavatam.

Is that alright? Alright, anything else? That is why I said that this verse deals with a lot of technical things.

Jayapatākā Swami: Six changes, janma birth, growing, maintaining, by-product, decreasing, and then destruction, death. Baby is born, grows, stays twenty to forty. You stay more or less the same, produce some children, by-products, gradually gets old, and then death. Same thing for human beings, same thing plants. Plant seeds sprout, grows, flowers, produces seed or fruit, wilts, dies. So plant, fish, human, all form of material life, wherever the jīva-ātmā is there, you will find these six changes. Those changes you won't find in steel, in just this… a chair, a wall, you see because they don't have the soul, they don't have the spark of life, they don't have the living consciousness, they don't go through these changes. That is the difference between matter and spirit, because the presence of the spirit, this matter changes. 

Is that alright? You could follow? 

We're ready for darśana, Hare Kṛṣṇa!