19851120 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.5.18-21

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on November 28th, 1985 in Bangalore, India. The class begins with a reading from the Srimad Bhagavatam, 1st Canto, Chapter 15, Text 18 to 21.

narmāṇy udāra-rucira-smita-śobhitāni
he pārtha he ’rjuna sakhe kuru-nandaneti
sañjalpitāni nara-deva hṛdi-spṛśāni
smartur luṭhanti hṛdayaṁ mama mādhavasya 

Translation:

O King! His jokings and frank talks were pleasing and beautifully decorated with smiles. His addresses unto me as “O son of Pṛthā, O friend, O son of the Kuru dynasty,” and all such heartiness are now remembered by me, and thus I am overwhelmed.

śayyāsanāṭana-vikatthana-bhojanādiṣv
aikyād vayasya ṛtavān iti vipralabdhaḥ
sakhyuḥ sakheva pitṛvat tanayasya sarvaṁ
sehe mahān mahitayā kumater aghaṁ me

Translation:

Generally both of us used to live together and sleep, sit and loiter together. And at the time of advertising oneself for acts of chivalry, sometimes, if there were any irregularity, I used to reproach Him by saying, “My friend, You are very truthful.” Even in those hours when His value was minimized, He, being the Supreme Soul, used to tolerate all those utterings of mine, excusing me exactly as a true friend excuses his true friend, or a father excuses his son.

so ’haṁ nṛpendra rahitaḥ puruṣottamena
sakhyā priyeṇa suhṛdā hṛdayena śūnyaḥ
adhvany urukrama-parigraham aṅga rakṣan
gopair asadbhir abaleva vinirjito ’smi

Translation:

Emperor, now I am separated from my friend and dearmost well-wisher, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and therefore my heart appears to be void of everything. In His absence I have been defeated by a number of infidel cowherd men while I was guarding the bodies of all the wives of Kṛṣṇa.

tad vai dhanus ta iṣavaḥ sa ratho hayās te
so ’haṁ rathī nṛpatayo yata ānamanti
sarvaṁ kṣaṇena tad abhūd asad īśa-riktaṁ
bhasman hutaṁ kuhaka-rāddham ivoptam ūṣyām

Translation:

I have the very same Gāṇḍīva bow, the same arrows, the same chariot drawn by the same horses, and I use them as the same Arjuna to whom all the kings offered their due respects. But in the absence of Lord Kṛṣṇa, all of them, at a moment’s notice, have become null and void. It is exactly like offering clarified butter on ashes, accumulating money with a magic wand or sowing seeds on barren land.

Purport: As we have discussed more than once, one should not be puffed up by borrowed plumes. Prabhupāda says: All energies and powers are derived from the supreme source, Lord Kṛṣṇa, and they act as long as He desires and cease to function as soon as He withdraws. All electrical energies are received from the powerhouse, and as soon as the powerhouse stops supplying energy, the bulbs are of no use. In a moment’s time such energies can be generated or withdrawn by the supreme will of the Lord. Material civilization without the blessing of the Lord is child’s play only. As long as the parents allow the child to play, it is all right. As soon as the parents withdraw, the child has to stop. Human civilization and all activities thereof must be dovetailed with the supreme blessing of the Lord, and without this blessing all advancement of human civilization is like decoration on a dead body. It is said here that a dead civilization and its activities are something like clarified butter on ashes, the accumulation of money by a magic wand and the sowing of seeds in a barren land. Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta purport and translations to the text 18-21, chapter 15 of the Canto 1, Srimad Bhāgavatam, the chapter entitled, “The Pandavas retired timely”

So as you might have understood from this, this was just after the departure of Kṛṣṇa from the world, when Arjuna was protecting Kṛṣṇa’s wife and different Visnudutas in the dress of cowherd boys came and stole away the wives and took them back to Vaikuṇṭha where they belong. But Arjuna’s point of view, he was defeated by some ordinary farmers. So he could see that all of his power was gone in a second. In fact Yudhiṣṭhira advised him, “Might as well throw your weapons in the water! They are now of no use.”

 Sometimes, we feel, that our achievements are by our own endeavour. We fail to recognize or remember, that actually any achievement of any value can only be achieved, by the blessings of the Lord. So many civilizations have come and gone in the world, but they have left no lasting impact, but the Vedic civilization even though India has been under foreign rule for over thousand years, still Vedic civilization, the impact could never be erased, in spite of their most dedicated endeavour on behalf of various types of yavanas and mlecchas. And now by the divine will of Kṛṣṇa, in His most merciful Avatar, as Sri Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahaprabhu, again the Vedic culture has extended to all parts of the world, through the endeavour of His empowered representatives, His Divine Grace Abaya Caran Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, you can see that, he does not ... as we say ... pull his punches, or mix his words. He very straightly said, that this civilization without God consciousness is a dead body, without a soul. Civilization means to make progress in life, otherwise what is the question of civilization, and what is progress if ultimately we are not making spiritual progress along with whatever economic development is achievement. If in this lifetime, I am very wealthy, very rich, famous, beautiful or educated but in my next life if I take birth as a pauper or diseased or ignorant or worse, then what is the value of all my work of this life. So civilization should be organized. God centric means that all the people will make progress. Whatever happiness I have in this life, the next life I will have more happiness, or I will have complete perfection, but I won’t not go back down, then that’s progress. Otherwise in these 60-70 years we can achieve some success, then again next life if we are in narak or in some horrible situation, in this planet or another, then what is the use?