19831220 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.2.19

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Svāmī on December 20, 1983 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, 10th Canto, Chapter 2, Verse 19.

sā devakī sarva-jagan-nivāsa-/ nivāsa-bhūtā nitarāṁ na reje/ bhojendra-gehe ’gni-śikheva ruddhā/ sarasvatī jñāna-khale yathā satī [SB 10.2.19]

sā devakī sarva-jagan-nivāsa-/ nivāsa-bhūtā nitarāṁ na reje/ bhojendra-gehe ’gni-śikheva ruddhā/ sarasvatī jñāna-khale yathā satī [SB 10.2.19]

Translation by His Divine Grace Śrīla Abhaya Carana Bhaktivedanta Svāmī Prabhupāda:

Jaya! Devakī then kept within herself the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the cause of all causes, the foundation of the entire cosmos, but because she was under arrest in the house of Kaṁsa, she was like the flames of a fire covered by the walls of a pot, or like a person who has knowledge but cannot distribute it to the world for the benefit of human society.

Translation: Devakī then kept within herself the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the cause of all causes, the foundation of the entire cosmos, but because she was under arrest in the house of Kaṁsa, she was like the flames of a fire covered by the walls of a pot, or like a person who has knowledge but cannot distribute it to the world for the benefit of human society.

Purport by Śrīla Prabhupāda:

In this verse the word jñāna-khala is most significant. Knowledge is meant for distribution. Although there is already much scientific knowledge, whenever scientists or philosophers awaken to a particular type of knowledge, they try to distribute it throughout the world, for otherwise the knowledge gradually dries up and no one benefits from it. India has the knowledge of Bhagavad-gītā, but unfortunately, for some reason or other, this sublime knowledge of the science of God was not distributed throughout the world, although it is meant for all of human society. Therefore Kṛṣṇa Himself appeared as Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and ordered all Indians to take up the cause of distributing the knowledge of Bhagavad-gītā throughout the entire world.

yāre dekha, tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa/ āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra’ ei deśa

“Instruct everyone to follow the orders of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa as they are given in Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In this way become a spiritual master and try to liberate everyone in this land.” (Cc. Madhya 7.128) Although India has the sublime knowledge of Bhagavad-gītā, Indians have not done their proper duty of distributing it. Now, therefore, the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement has been set up to distribute this knowledge as it is, without distortion. Although previously there were attempts to distribute the knowledge of Bhagavad-gītā, these attempts involved distortion and compromise with mundane knowledge. But now the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, without mundane compromises, is distributing Bhagavad-gītā as it is, and people are deriving the benefits of awakening to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and becoming devotees of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Therefore the proper distribution of knowledge has begun by which not only will the whole world benefit, but India’s glory will be magnified in human society. Kaṁsa tried to arrest Kṛṣṇa consciousness within his house (bhojendra-gehe), with the result that Kaṁsa, with all his opulences, was later vanquished. Similarly, the real knowledge of Bhagavad-gītā was being choked by unscrupulous Indian leaders, with the result that India’s culture, and knowledge of the Supreme were being lost. Now, however, because Kṛṣṇa consciousness is spreading, the proper use of Bhagavad-gītā is being attempted.

Thus end the Translation and Purport by His Divine Grace Śrīla Abhaya Carana Bhaktivedanta Svāmī Prabhupāda of the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, Canto 10, Chapter 2, Verse 19, in the matter of the “Prayers by the Demigods”.

Jayapatākā Svāmī: Here at the end of the purport, Śrīla Prabhupāda explains why Indian culture has fallen down from its... It used to be the richest culture in the world. Actually, Christopher Columbus was only looking for short trade due to India when he stumbled across the America. Because India was where all the gold, spices, fine cloth, silk, everything that was the valuable was coming from India. Then why later day India has the fallen down, a secret here is given that because they choked up, because they choked up the Bhagavad-gītā.

Actually, there were some leaders in India, the brāhmaṇas, they said that if any Indian went across the ocean, they lose their, their Hindu dharma, whatever you want to call it. They lose their religion. Somehow the religion would vanquish simply by crossing over a body of water. And up to the time of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, people believed that. Rāmakṛṣṇa’s disciple Vivekananda was practically the first Indian to ever leave India. And this type of mythology or type of superstition they have preached, and as a result no one would preach abroad, and no one preach to the non-Hindus, to the people who weren’t born.

So, although, the Bhagavad-gītā is not a sectarian science, it’s a universal science of God consciousness, self-realization, a post graduate course for all religions and cultures. But due to some very bigoted, limited view, this was never spread before to the other countries, to the other parts of the world.

Lord Caitanya, He came and said:

pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma [Caitanya-bhāgavata Antya 4.126]

“That in every down and village throughout the whole world, My message is going to be spread, going to be sung.”

So actually, bha… Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He started this saṅkīrtana movement. Now someone might say, “Well, Lord Caitanya started this saṅkīrtana movement in India, but then how can we understand that... Why didn’t He spread it throughout the whole world? How can we understand that He is actually Kṛṣṇa?” So many questions could come up.

So just like Kṛṣṇa, He starts the entire universe simply by setting it of in motion and like a domino series - everything one after another manifests. Similarly, Lord Caitanya in Navadvīpa, He only chanted Hare Kṛṣṇa, and in India, but that set off the entire movement into motion.

And Prabhupāda has explained in Caitanya-caritāmṛta that, “Now by the mercy of Lord Caitanya this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement has brought Lord Caitanya’s message all over the entire world. And it’s the duty of every disciple, of every follower of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement to try to expand it more and more. And that eventually this movement is going to spread over the entire universe, even onto other planets all over the entire universe from the Hare Kṛṣṇa Movement here.”

Already there are some evidences that preachers are already working on other planets. Although we don’t have all the evidence, but our previous ācāryas mention that their plan was to go to the other planets as soon as they finished the business here. So, they may already be there, starting the preaching, and from here also, the preaching is going to expand all over the universe. So, coming back to this verse, where Devakī is sitting in the, the prison of her brother Kaṁsa. And she is carrying Kṛṣṇa in her. So, she is become very beautiful, very effulgent.

Similarly, when Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu appeared in Navadvīpa, in Māyāpur, then He was in the, inside of Saci. And she also became so beautiful. And the different demigods, also came and offered her prayers. And when He took His appearance, then the demigods and demigoddesses from the higher planets, they came in disguise as village men, women just to see Lord Caitanya. Offering Him gifts, offering various presentations to Nanda, excuse me, to Jagannātha Miśra and Śacī devī. Actually, the pastimes are parallel.

The difference is that in the Kali-yuga, Caitanya Mahāprabhu coming as a devotee. So, He is keeping His identity hidden, where Kṛṣṇa is coming directly as svayaṁ bhagavān, the original Supreme Personality of Godhead. So, the other difference is that here Kaṁsa’s trying to kill Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa was going to kill Kaṁsa. But in Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s pastimes, Lord Caitanya doesn’t kill the opponent. But rather He gives them pure love for Godhead. And He in this way kills their demonic nature. He is so powerful that He is gives them love for Kṛṣṇa and makes them instead of inimical against Kṛṣṇa, makes them pure devotees. So, that is the unique and wonderful nature of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. That therefore He is described as:

namo mahā-vadānyāya/ kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāya te/ kṛṣṇāya kṛṣṇa-caitanya-/ nāmne gaura-tviṣe namaḥ

That actually Lord Caitanya is more merciful even than Kṛṣṇa. kṛṣṇāya kṛṣṇa-caitanya - actually more merciful than Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa, He killed Kaṁsa, and Kaṁsa got mokṣa, got liberation. He killed so many demons and most of them got liberation. Some also could achieve Vaikuṇṭha.

The liberation most of them got was simply liberation called sāyujya mukti, which is merging into the effulgence of the Brahman, or into the body of Kṛṣṇa. They don’t maintain their individual realization. Only a few like Pūtanā and other, one or two, they were able to achieve Vaikuṇṭha. Because of the way that they went. Because Pūtanā gave her own breast with poison on it to Kṛṣṇa, but then Kṛṣṇa took it, “Well, since I sucked her breast, she’s My mother.” Even though He had to kill her because she had poison on her breast, but Kṛṣṇa, He reciprocated, “Since I sucked your breast, you can be My mother in the spiritual world.” That’s a very rare benediction.

But most of them, they didn’t get the that benediction. They were inimical. They simply got… They thought they themselves were God - independent. So,in the impersonal realization, one thinks that one is the Brahman, and one is God. So He gave them that benediction.

But here Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He is so kind, more merciful, because He gave them love for Kṛṣṇa. He actually gave them pure Kṛṣṇa consciousness which is much greater than these other liberations. So now that we have this opportunity of taking part in the movement of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, we should take advantage of it.

As long as Lord Caitanya’s movement is here on this planet, you see, we have this opportunity to go back to Kṛṣṇa and to achieve this highest perfection. We should take advantage of it. Don’t leave the opportunity hidden or pass it by. We should take the maximum benefit from it. Actually, even if people take a little practice of chanting, they get such great benefit.

I was reading in one of the articles that was recently published about us. Some Dallas correspondent, he had read the “Chant and be Happy”. He wrote up his experience in the Dallas newspaper. How he was standing on the street, and somebody came up to him and told him that, “You should turn or burn. That God is holding you up like a fly over the, over the furnace, and that if you don’t immediately take God in your heart, He is going to throw you in the fire, and you’ll be burnt to crisp.” Then some Hare Kṛṣṇa devotee came up and hand him a “Chant and be Happy”. So, in comparison, “Oh, well let me read this.” And then he read it, and then he saw that you could chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, even though he didn’t shave up. You could chant Hare Kṛṣṇa even without being a vegetarian and going through so many rituals.

Basically, even in India, the people are very much afraid of giving up their sense gratification. They know that if you become a pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa, you become so mad after Kṛṣṇa that you forget about so many material attachments; they know that. So, they are thinking that if a person becomes so much in love with Kṛṣṇa, is so happy that even material things become insignificant. So, it’s not that it’s... But their looking at it from the very attached point of view: “I don’t want to give up my family attachment or my sense gratification attachment, or my business attachment,or my society attachment, or any of these attachments. That therefore let me not chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, or be part of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, except at a very great distance I might give them a donation or something.” This is the Indian point of view.

Many people are very afraid of becoming intimately connected. One family, their son became a devotee, they became very upset. They said, “Listen, you can come to the temple and do everything, but you shouldn’t become a full time.”

[break] ....have a respect. It’s just that they’re afraid themselves of losing any form of sense gratification. All these people are bewildered. If they’re actually sincere about becoming happy, and if progressively, step by step they’re feeling more and more happy, and if ultimately that happiness means that actually they’re mad after Kṛṣṇa, if that’s the highest happiness, then where is the problem?

But of course, some people, they’re not very intelligent, so they try to avoid due to attachments. That’s why Lord Caitanya’s followers would be, the intelligent people. That the very intelligent people, they’ll be able to, they’ll join Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s movement. But at least, everyone, if they start to take up the chanting, just like that writer said so, “Anybody can chant. You don’t have to change your lifestyle or anything.”

I was interviewed also by one radio interviewer here in the West, and I suggested, “Why don’t you try meditating and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.”

He said, “Well, I don’t want to shave my head.”

“No, you can chant without doing all these things. You can chant any time, any place.”

“Really? Well, if that’s so, then I’m more interested.”

And people haven’t really understood that anybody can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. And actually, the people who are living in our temples, they’re very advanced. They’re yogis. They’re people who want to actually achieve perfection in this life. But everyone can begin on the path of perfection by chanting.

Basically, the nama-hatta movement, which has been stated as the folk movement here in the West, is to get everyone in their own houses, in their own villages and towns, cities, to chant:

hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare/ hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare

Śrīla Prabhupāda, he said that, “There is no reason why in every country,why every country of the world, and in every place in the world, that every family can’t chant Hare Kṛṣṇa every day?” No reason, why somebody can’t chant Hare Kṛṣṇa in their house? Simply it is a question of promoting it and letting people know about this chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Those who are a little broad-minded, even a little inquisitive, they can try it. And by chanting if they get even a fraction, just a little bit of chanting, they’ll be able to experience the most sublime change in their lives.

hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare/ hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare

Basically, now due to their fear, to their paranoia, to their prejudices, they’re trying to keep this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra hidden. They’re not able to see the beauty of it.

Just like Devakī was having such a great beauty, but due to Kaṁsa keeping her locked up in the prison, no one could see. So somehow or another, we have to break free from this prison, which the media and different paranoiac people have placed, whereby the normal, not normal, the common person is not able to take the advantage and see, what is the real beauty of this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra?

That is only possible by all of you taking up the, the, the order of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and requesting everyone, from house to house, from person to person, to try and take up the chanting of

hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare/ hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare

Any questions?

Yes?

Devotee: Female devotees…

Jayapatākā Svāmī: Yes.

Devotee: …can they attain total, complete liberation without being married?

Jayapatākā Svāmī: Without being married. Ah, there is no such stipulation that liberation is dependent upon getting married. But it has been recommended very strongly that women should be married. But as far as being… What if a girl dies when she is twelve, or something? It’s not, it’s not lean on the soul that you have to get married to go back to Godhead. It’s a question of what consciousness you’re in when you leave your body. If you’re in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you’ll go back to Godhead.

In a general sadhana practice of devotional service, it’s conducive for women to be married and have a Kṛṣṇa conscious husband. If the husband is not Kṛṣṇa conscious, then there is a problem. But actually, the husband should be Kṛṣṇa conscious and the wife should be Kṛṣṇa conscious. In this way, they give each other association. I can elaborate. But we’re on short of time right now. But it’s not contingent on going back to Godhead, per se. That is not contingent on any material thing. It’s contingent on chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, serving the spiritual master, following his instructions. Hare Krsna.

Yes, Bhakta Matt?

Bhakta Matt: You stated earlier that our Hare Kṛṣṇa movement was started on other planets. (inaudible) what was the evidence?

Jayapatākā Svāmī: Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, one day, he was on the morning walk and looked up and said, “There is so many Kṛṣṇa bahir-mukhas. There are so many materialistic people - Kṛṣṇa forgetful people on the moon planet.” He said that, “We have to go there and preach to them. Bring them back to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.”

According to the Vedas, there are inhabitants on all the planets, but they don’t all live on the same vibrational level, the same consciousness level. They all live on different levels. That’s why in one planet, they may be on subtle beings, on another level altogether. And on one planet, there might be earthly beings, but on a different, complete metabolism and situation.

Just like on this planet, you have a dig in the earth, you find there are worms. You’ll find all kinds of things. You’ll find the plants are not breathing oxygen; they’re breathing carbon dioxide. You’ll find so many different things going on, even on this planet. You know, whether it’s the water, or the earth, or the air, everywhere you’ll find some form of living entity.

So, there is a verse saying that, “Living entities are everywhere, including in the fire, including in the other, all the different planets, there are different living entities. ” Even above the Earth, in outer space, there are different subtle levels with different type of like, well here, we might call it ghost or something. But there are different type of creatures, not, not necessarily ghosts, but other subtle beings on all the different levels, subtle or gross, whatever. But there are living entities everywhere.

So, on the Moon planet, it’s actually, that’s considered to be a higher spiritual level, or material level rather than, than the Earth planet. The Sun is considered higher other… Even some other planets are considered lower. But in terms of their basic developing of consciousness, this Earth, this Earth planet is considered in the middle. So, we eventually want to preach in all those different planets, wherever there are people that could be Kṛṣṇa conscious.

Since Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura expressed about going to the Moon planet, there is every chance that already the preaching begun on other planets. But that we don’t have the evidence yet. Which planet they went to? If they stayed in this universe, they might be preaching. But Prabhupāda said in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta that this movement has to spread all over this planet, then all over the universe. Which planet do you want to deliver next? (laughter)

Devotee: (inaudible)

Jayapatākā Svāmī: Next door neighbor. Work on this one first.

Devotee: We’ll of course. They still talk about the astronauts going to the Moon, and on… they just talked about…

Jayapatākā Svāmī: Have you seen it?

Comment: No. I didn’t see anything. I just heard…

Jayapatākā Svāmī: Were you there?

Comment: No… (laughs)

Jayapatākā Svāmī: Don’t they say seeing is believing?

Devotee: Right. How come they… (inaudible) …went to the Moon. You know? How can you know who to… (inaudible)?

Jayapatākā Svāmī: If they do or if they don’t do, the point is we just started to believe everything we read in the paper. Whether they go, or the astronauts didn’t go. What was the value of it? What was the benefit? $28,000,000,000,000. Someone got spent on it. What was the benefit?

Devotee: (inaudible) … I heard Śrīla Prabhupāda stated that the Moon was a million miles farther than the Sun, which makes it 94,000,000 miles away, then how can they possibly go?

Jayapatākā Svāmī: Their distances are all goofed up. We’re constructing a big model in Māyāpur and the distances that they’re saying, it’s a whole other long discussion. But we’re doing a lot of research according to the Bhāgavatam. And a lot of things, they don’t publish. Just like we were trying to match up things with the modern scientists’ view. But we can’t do it because the modern scientists don’t know what they’re talking about. (laughter)

Just like… and they cheat. They cheat like anything.

Just like, there’s this… there’s this society in Texas called All the Phenomena that Modern Science Can’t Explain. And there, they’ve found that when you send radio waves, that there is a place, just opposite from, just, there is two spots, just opposite from each other, and when you send radio waves, nothing ever bounces back. There should be a planet there, but they can’t see it. Things like that. And those two places match up exactly to Rahu and Ketu. But then they… they don’t tell anybody that. They call it a black hole or something. They don’t know, you know.

They just make up make up some name. Nobody knows what it is. So there all kind of things they do. You can’t, you can’t, if they don’t tell you all the things, they find. If they see something, it doesn’t make sense with their theory - they just don’t even tell anyone. Many Nobel Prizes, and different Pulitzer Prize different, whatever, they have to give them back when later on someone finds out that they cheated.

So, it’s very hard to try to match up. We tried to do this by matching up with their ideas, but then we found it so frustrating. Because as we try to match up one thing, then they say, “Well, you want to bend the truth.” Then you find out some more information from some magazine or something stating that they actually found this thing but didn’t reveal it for five years. And it’s very hard to actually…

So we were trying to… What we’re going to do is we’re going to present the Vedic cosmology, not caring anything for the… what their idea is and showing actually how things are going in such a unique way in our Māyāpur temple. So, this is going to revolutionize the whole concept of the astronomy.

I was just reading yesterday newspapers about Galileo. They said he was a debauchee. He just stole his disciple’s information. Actually, so many things were.… about were scandals about him. How he caught cheating in a certain thing, and... But just they hadn’t figured out any other, any other explanation from the gravity. But actually, there is not such a thing as gravity, per se. It’s another type of force. But not what they think - just a force of mass. But these things, we’re going to explain. It’s very technical, very scientific, and there are people that are work… working on this for the big Māyāpur temple.

Prabhupāda wants that we put the whole universe within that temple. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: Jaya om visnupada paramahamsa parivrajakacarya astottara sata Śrī Śrīmad His Holiness Jayapatākā Svāmī guru maharaj Śrīla acaryapada ki,!

Devotees: Jaya!

Devotee: Acaryapada ki!

Devotees: Jaya!

Devotee: Acaryapada ki!

Devotees: Jaya!