19860412 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.23.7

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on 12^th April 1986 in Atlanta. The class begins with a reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam canto 4, chapter 23, verse 7.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim 
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam 
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.23.7

titikṣur yata-vāg dānta
ūrdhva-retā jitānilaḥ 
ārirādhayiṣuḥ kṛṣṇam 
acarat tapa uttamam

titikṣur yata-vāg dānta 
ūrdhva-retā jitānilaḥ 
ārirādhayiṣuḥ kṛṣṇam 
acarat tapa uttamam

Synonyms: titikṣuḥ — tolerating; yata — controlling; vāk — words; dāntaḥ — controlling the senses; ūrdhva-retāḥ — without discharge of semen; jita-anilaḥ — controlling the life air; ārirādhayiṣuḥ — simply desiring; kṛṣṇam — Lord Kṛṣṇa; acarat — practice; tapaḥ — austerities; uttamam — the best.

Translation (by Śrīla Prabhupāda): Mahārāja Pṛthu underwent all these severe austerities in order to control his words and his senses, to refrain from discharging his semen and to control the life air within his body. All this he did for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa. He had no other purpose.

Purport (by Śrīla Prabhupāda): In Kali-yuga the following is recommended: 

harer nāma harer nāma
harer nāmaiva kevalam
kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva
nāsty eva gatir anyathā

(Bṛhan-nāradīya Purāṇa) 

In order to be recognized by Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one should chant the holy name of the Lord continuously, twenty-four hours a day. Unfortunate persons who cannot accept this formula prefer to execute some type of pseudomeditation, without accepting the other processes of austerity. The fact is, however, that one must accept either the severe method of austerity described above to become purified or take to the process of devotional service recommended for pleasing the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa. The person who is Kṛṣṇa conscious is most intelligent because in Kali-yuga it is not at all possible to undergo such severe austerities. We need only follow great personalities like Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. In His Śikṣāṣṭaka, Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu wrote, paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam: all glories to the holy names of Lord Kṛṣṇa, which from the very beginning purify the heart and immediately liberate one. Bhava-mahādāvāgni-nirvāpanam. If the real purpose of all yoga is to please Lord Kṛṣṇa, then this simple bhakti-yoga system recommended for this age is sufficient. It is necessary, however, to engage constantly in the service of the Lord. Although Pṛthu Mahārāja executed his austerities long before the appearance of Lord Kṛṣṇa on this planet, his purpose was still to please Kṛṣṇa.

There are many fools who claim that worship of Kṛṣṇa began only about five thousand years ago, after the appearance of Lord Kṛṣṇa in India, but this is not a fact. Pṛthu Mahārāja worshiped Kṛṣṇa millions of years ago, for Pṛthu happened to be a descendant of the family of Mahārāja Dhruva, who reigned for thirty-six thousand years during the Satya-yuga age. Unless his total life span was one hundred thousand years, how could Dhruva Mahārāja reign over the world for thirty-six thousand years? The point is that Kṛṣṇa worship existed at the beginning of creation and has continued to exist throughout Satya-yuga, Tretā-yuga and Dvāpara-yuga, and now it is continuing in Kali-yuga. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa appears not only in this millennium of Brahmā’s life, but in every millennium. Therefore worship of Kṛṣṇa is conducted in all millenniums. It is not that Kṛṣṇa worship began only when Kṛṣṇa appeared on this planet five thousand years ago. This is a foolish conclusion that is not substantiated by Vedic literatures.

Also of significance in this verse are the words ārirādhayiṣuḥ kṛṣṇam acarat tapa uttamam: Mahārāja Pṛthu underwent severe types of austerities for the express purpose of worshiping Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is so kind, especially in this age, that He appears in the transcendental vibration of His holy name. As is said in the Nārada-pañcarātra, ārādhito yadi haris tapasā tataḥ kim: if Kṛṣṇa is worshiped, if He is the goal of advancement, there is no need for one to execute severe types of tapasya, because one has already reached his destination. If, after executing all types of tapasya, one cannot reach Kṛṣṇa, all his tapasya has no value, for without Kṛṣṇa all austerity is simply wasted labor, śrama eva hi kevalam (ŚB. 1.2.8). We should therefore not be discouraged just because we cannot go to the forest and practice severe austerities. Our life is so short that we must strictly adhere to the principles laid down by the Vaiṣṇava ācāryas and peacefully execute Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There is no need to become despondent. Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura recommends, ānande bala hari, bhaja vṛndāvana, śri-guru-vaiṣṇava-pade majāiyā mana: ānande bala hari, bhaja vṛndāvana, śri-guru-vaiṣṇava-pade majāiyā mana: for a transcendental, blissful life, chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, come worship the holy place of Vṛndāvana, and always engage in the service of the Lord, of the spiritual master and of the Vaiṣṇavas. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is therefore very safe and easy. We have only to execute the order of the Lord and fully surrender unto Him. We have only to execute the order of the spiritual master, preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness and follow in the path of the Vaiṣṇavas. The spiritual master represents both Lord Kṛṣṇa and the Vaiṣṇavas; therefore by following the instructions of the spiritual master and by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, everything will be all right.

Thus end the Bhaktivedānta Swami Purport of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, canto 4, chapter 23, text seven, in the matter of “Mahārāja Pṛthu’s going back home.”

Oṃ tat sat!

Jayapatākā Swami: So in the previous ages for purifying oneself, these various severe austerities and penances were practiced. I have described sometimes before some of these processes like sitting with five fires, four one on each side, and then the midday sun and the hottest day of the summer when it’s over 120 degrees and you have four fires and you sit there doing meditation and transcend the pain and pleasure of the body. Then you go in a freezing winter, you go and the water is so cold that it would stop, it would be freezing. It’s just flowing right from the melted snow of the mountains. And you go in Hṛṣīkeśa, Hardwar (Haridvāra), and then by prāṇāyāma and generating yogic power, you make heat come in your body, and then you go inside the freezing cold water and meditate there. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Then like this. Nice.

Remember when were in Prayāga in Allahabad for the Kumba-melā with Śrīla Prabhupāda? Then Prabhupāda told all the devotees to go before maṅgala-ārati , take a dip in the Ganges. And there we saw how the sādhus, they take an early morning dip. When that time, it’s the month of January, February, it’s very cold. He was living right on the sand by the side of the river. They go and take a bath and they put ashes over their body when their body is still wet. So, the ashes stick to their body. And then just by the ashes on their body and their prāṇāyāma, they keep warm, that’s their only cloth, maybe a loin cloth, nothing more. But it was not so practical for the devotees to try to imitate those processes. Neither is it necessary, because the purpose is explained here in this verse, ārirādhayiṣuḥ kṛṣṇam is to be able to eventually become a devotee of Kṛṣṇa, to become detached from the material world and become then attached to Kṛṣṇa. Detachment from the material world is one thing, then the next thing is to become attached to Kṛṣṇa. If one is already becoming attached to Kṛṣṇa, there is no need of separately endeavoring to become detached from the material world. That will come automatically as we cultivate positive attachment for Kṛṣṇa. This is explained earlier in the first canto Bhāgavatam that by hearing and serving the Lord automatically, one develops renunciation from the material world.

vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ 
janayaty āśu vairāgyaṁ jñānaṁ ca yad ahaitukam
(ŚB. 1.2.7) 

Simply by rendering devotional service to the Lord, one spontaneously develops spiritual knowledge and renunciation.

So therefore, it’s not necessary to go through all these austerities. And to do those type of austerities is not that somebody just comes off the streets and sits down and goes in the freezing cold water, and they will get, first of all, swept away by the current. Second, I will probably catch pneumonia. These things require people. They go for years and years learn this yoga. Certain groups are learning some yoga technique, and they’re supposed to be able to levitate, but most of them are able to just hop up about six inches off the ground, and then they crash down again. Even that is after paying thousands of dollars and years of practice. So the point is that actually, in this age, it’s not practical to get into this mystic yoga process. And if you do it though, then there is no use in doing it halfway. Then you have to do the whole way. You have to actually become totally detached from the bodily platform by doing all these austerities, proving that you are not the body, by this type of gross austerities. For a devotee, by becoming attached to Kṛṣṇa, one can automatically become detached from the material situation.

The residents of Vṛndāvana, they were so attached to Kṛṣṇa that they didn’t care about anything except for Kṛṣṇa. They became automatically, totally detached from their bodily existence. Simply, Kṛṣṇa had to manage their bodily affairs, because they were simply absorbed in pleasing and serving Kṛṣṇa. They had no other intention or purpose in life. So, Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu was so merciful, He brought us the holy name. He brought us this process of Harināma saṅkīrtana, which, by chanting the holy name, one can spontaneously develop attachment for Kṛṣṇa, develop a spontaneous desire to serve Kṛṣṇa. This is the actual, the greatest gift.

When Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī offers his prayers, it’s a favorite prayer to the spiritual master, which Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura was practically one of his. I have heard it is one of his, or is his favorite prayer with a spiritual master. I hadn’t been able to get the opportunity of verifying that. But anyway, he often, he every day would say this prayer in his lectures. That is the prayer of:

nāma-śreṣṭhaṁ manum api śacī-putram atra svarūpaṁ 
rūpaṁ tasyāgrajam uru-purīṁ māthurīṁ goṣṭhavātīm 
rādhā-kuṇḍaṁ giri-varam aho rādhikā-mādhavāśāṁ 
prāpto yasya prathita-kṛpayā śrī-guruṁ taṁ nato ’smi

This verse, nāma-śreṣṭhaṁ, of course, being the best, the greatest, the most wonderful, so many adjectives in it. Fabulous. So nāma-śreṣṭhaṁ, the holy name, Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, which is the best of all the spiritual processes, the best and most accessible form of the Lord, the most merciful aspect of Kṛṣṇa, so nāma-śreṣṭhaṁ.

All these things he said. In the end it says, yasya prāptam prathita-kṛpayā śrī-guruṁ taṁ nato ’smi. Yasya means all these things. Yasya prāptam. I have received all of these things. How prathita-kṛpayā. Simply by the mercy, the kṛpayā of Śrī Guru am I spiritual master. So Raghunātha dāsa is originally making this prayer. These are the things which I am offering my obeisances to the spiritual master. He has given me all of these things. Therefore, how I am unlimitedly indebted to him. Raghunātha dāsa, of course, was one of the immediate associates of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, blessed by Lord Nityānanda. For us, Raghunātha dāsa here at New Pānihāṭi dhāma is of special importance because he was especially given the mercy of Lord Nityānanda and Caitanya and Pānihāṭi. And from Pānihāṭi that he went to Vṛndāvana, he went to Purī, Vṛndāvana, He was one of the most austere. He was the most austere, you could say, basically, of all the Gosvāmīs. Just showing that devotee can sometimes also be austere. Nobody can imitate what he did. It was a graphic example, because he was practically like a prince before, and he just showed his, just to demonstrate that simply by devotional service one can become totally detached. He didn’t do any mystic yoga process. He was totally through attachment to Kṛṣṇa. He became so detached; he was so renounced spontaneously that there was practically no parallel in the world. When he was praying obeisances to his spiritual mass to compose his prayer, he was thanking for all the mercy that the guru had given. So, the first mercy is the holy name nāma-śreṣṭhaṁ, because by taking the harināma from the spiritual master, we chant harināma. And this way our whole spiritual progress is guaranteed.

In that previous verse, Prabhupāda says that westerners can follow in the footsteps of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura by living in a temple which is transcendental to residents in a forest, and vow to accept kṛṣṇa-prasāda and nothing else, follow the regular principles and chant 16 rounds daily of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. In this way, one’s spiritual life will never be disturbed.

So, this is the process that we can follow. We don’t have to, we cannot follow the Six Gosvāmīs, who live under a different tree every night. Practically speaking, even in Māyāpur, we have, you know, bathrooms with sanitary arrangements and, you know, electricity, marble or terracotta floors, everything. But if I get bit by a mosquito or something, then we are completely finished, you know, Malaria or this or that, you know, how they are able to sleep every night. No mosquito net, no fans, no any, just under the tree. And, you know, never get sick, never get affected. This is not going to be imitating, hardly. I mean, in we see the... How for the devotees in the west is to go. Even though we try to provide them a nice facility, even then they consider it to be very austere, No hot and cold running water. No. You know, so many, just little things that people are used to in the west. So it’s obviously not practical to perform, and even Lord Caitanya never recommended the dry renunciation. So nāma-śreṣṭhaṁ manum api gave me the holy name manum, the Gāyatrī mantra has also been given so this by these two mantras, the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra and then to further strengthen that and give concentration and force in our spiritual life, the Gāyatrī mantra is given manum, the mantra, or the dīkṣā-mantra. manum api is also śacī-putram, and of course, Raghunātha dāsa, by the mercy of guru, he got Caitanya Mahāprabhu association. He tried to go directly to Lord Caitanya. He was chopped down when he went through ādi-guru Nityānanda Prabhu. Then he got Lord Caitanya. If he wanted to approach Lord Caitanya, we must go through Nitāi. We must go through the guru-paramparā, of which Lord Nityānanda, He is the ādi, He is the original. From there, we can go only to Lord Caitanya. Directly, we try to jump over the guru and go to Lord Caitanya. Lord Caitanya will give us a run around. He won’t accept us, like that.

So, by the mercy of guru, he got śacī-putram, he got the son of Śacī, Lord Caitanya, Śacī-nandana. And with Lord Caitanya’s most intimate assistant, His secretary, personal secretary was atra svarūpaṁ, Then Rūpa Gosvāmī, Raghunātha dāsa was able to personally live with Rūpa Gosvāmī. Both in Purī as well as in Vṛndāvana. But he was actually first given to Svarūpa Dāmodara. When Lord Caitanya entrusted him in Purī to be under someone’s guidance, He put him directly as the assistant of... That is why the notes of Raghunātha dāsa were used by Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja for writing the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Because Raghunātha dāsa had all the intimate notes of Svarūpa Dāmodara, he kept those. So first Lord, he got Lord, after taking mantra, Harināma-mantra, he got the mercy of Lord Caitanya by the guru. Then Lord Caitanya gave him to Svarūpa Dāmodara. Then after Lord Caitanya left the world, then Raghunātha dāsa had been ordered to go to Vṛndāvana. When he went to Vṛndāvana, he took shelter of Rūpa, Sanātana, rūpam, rūpaṁ tasyāgrajam, Rūpa and his older brother. His older brother is Sanātana Gosvāmī. Then he got the association of those two great Vaiṣṇavas. He considers that to have association of a senior Vaiṣṇava, who can give you association guidance that actually accepted this as a special mercy of the spiritual master. Because by having a strong Vaiṣṇava association, we can cross over so many obstacles put up by māyā. We can spontaneously develop spiritual desires, spiritual devotional qualities. So to be able to get association with the Vaiṣṇava is actually a very special mercy of the spiritual master.

We see that due to lack of association or lack of ability to take such association at its real value, even senior devotees fall away from the path of devotion. We have to cultivate this ability to associate with Vaiṣṇavas, because this actually gives us type of deep inspiration to advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is a whole other discussion. How to associate and how to reciprocate with Vaiṣṇavas using the six processes, dadāti pratigṛhṇāti. That’s another whole long discussion, which today marathon has time. So then uru-purīṁ, māthurīṁ goṣṭhavātīm. Then he got so many other. You got the association of the holy dhāma, Mathurā, Vṛndāvana, the residents of the holy dhāma. Then he got the association of Rādhā-kuṇḍa, Govardhana, rādhā-kuṇḍa giri-varam.

And in the end, aho, finally the most valuable of all, the real essence of everything, which is the fruit of all this association, all these blessings. What is the ultimate result? Aho rādhikā-mādhavāśāṁ. The transcendental intense desire to serve Rādhā and Mādhava. The whole world is running to serve Their senses. They have an intense desire to serve their senses, which is inspired by māyā. But the original desire, the pure desire, is to serve Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, to serve Rādhā and Mādhava. But because we are an illusion, instead of serving Kṛṣṇa, we are serving Kṛṣṇa’s external energy. Instead of serving his internal energy, Rādhā along with Him, Kṛṣṇa, we are serving the external, mahāmāyā. So how to reverse that? By all these types of association, by the blessing of guru, we can get Rādhā, rādhikā-mādhavāśāṁ. So here, this is the point.

This is the ultimate goal. Just as Pṛthu Mahārāja is doing all this austerity and hot burning fires, cold. Why? Because he wants the desire of serving Kṛṣṇa. That intense desire, that overwhelming lobha, lālasa greed to serve the lord. You can use greed when it comes to serving Kṛṣṇa, or you can use kāma lust, if it’s a lust to simply satisfy Kṛṣṇa’s senses, to serve him or lālasa. So that intense longing, that intense desire to let me serve Kṛṣṇa. When will Kṛṣṇa be pleased with my service? When will my service, will I be able to offer to him in a pure manner? That desire is totally transcendental. If someone develops that desire, there is no need of going through all the acrobatics or all the gymnastics or all types of extreme austerities. They have already reached the goal. All austerities, everything is only going for this end.

This is summum bonum. That is why Lord Caitanya said that the gopīs, the vraja-vāsīs, Yaśodānandana, all these devotees, they have created, they have achieved the greatest form, or they are performing the greatest form of devotional service, of spiritual life, because they are spontaneously all completely absorbed in simply trying to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate. Devotion means to serve Hṛṣīkeśa, (the Lord or the master of the senses) with His senses. We have senses, we have body, we have mind, we have words. Use everything in the service of Kṛṣṇa. That is the perfection. Even if we don’t have an intense desire to serve Kṛṣṇa, our mind is distracted with so many other desires. We should still try to serve Kṛṣṇa through devotional service so that we may develop that desire.

The chanting the holy name we discussed in the Kṛṣṇa-nāmāṣṭakam how it has so many great qualities of destroying karmas and freeing one from primordial karmas and giving one liberation and just so many different things. But the final thing, the real benefit of chanting the holy name is very quickly one develops a desire to serve Kṛṣṇa, which is devotion, which is the sumum bonnum. There is nothing higher than that. If you have the desire to serve the Lord, you are already connected with Him, you are already above the influence of karmas. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that if someone is situated in devotional service transcendental to the material desires, there were:

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

There is no anxiety, there is no suffering, there is no difficulty at all. This is mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā in this verse.

But we have to be very careful to protect that jewel, not to look away from Kṛṣṇa. As soon as we begin to desire something material, we start to meditate on the object of the senses. We start to feel anxiety. The anxiety begins as soon as we focus on, oh, if I don’t have this material thing, I’m not going to do it. Even if we have the desire, we should simply serve and depend on Kṛṣṇa. If Kṛṣṇa, whatever he gives, whatever he feels will benefit, will not obstruct us in our devotional service. Let it come through Kṛṣṇa’s own arrangement and not become dependent upon that desire for our satisfaction, be dependent upon Kṛṣṇa, who is the fulfiller of all desires. This is the austerity we perform is, of course, to give others Kṛṣṇa consciousness that is above and beyond the call of duty.

In one sense, we need it because we are in the western world. The devotees require more purification. Bottom line is, someone who can somehow or another simply chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, that is enough. Like Śrīla Prabhupāda said, it’s not so easy to just chant Hare Kṛṣṇa because we don’t have the taste for chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa because there is so much material association. Therefore, we need to burn off material effect offenses so that we can develop this spontaneous. So by attraction for chanting the holy name, so by preaching, by giving others an opportunity to serve Kṛṣṇa in this way, one is able to chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra purely, very quickly. So, of course, during the marathon, we have to learn to depend more strongly. You are very fortunate here that you are able to stay close to the temple.

I know that in some temples they do the marathon. They go day to day from one state to the next, and one often doesn’t have the opportunity of worshiping the Deities. One has to then simply depend upon chanting the holy name. We still have to chant our 16 rounds for a short time at least, little Bhāgavatam, Gītā. And then we go out and preach. Depending on the holy name in Kṛṣṇa, we go out and engage people in devotional service. This is an opportunity to refine our realization, to see how we can increase our devotional enthusiasm. It’s not a time when we should learn that, you know, you don’t have to attend maṅgala-ārati or something, but for preaching sometimes, if there is some great opportunity of preaching, then even if some temporal ritual is missed, it actually doesn’t impede one’s advancement in devotional service.

But under normal situations where it is not so intense, naturally we are more protected. We are kept more purified to have the pāñcarātrika worship of the Deities along with the bhagavad-dharma, Harināma-saṅkīrtana. Therefore, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura recommended that both bhagavad-dharma, pāñcarātrika-dharma, both the Harināma saṅkīrtana preaching as well as the deity worship could go side by side. So this is what we are doing. Prabhupāda said, he established ISKCON as a special offering to his spiritual master, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura. He has given us the system, preserving the essence of the teachings or even refining it for the modern day in a very practical way, for all of our purification. So you can take advantage and take shelter of Kṛṣṇa at this time. Any questions?

Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Devotees: Śrīla Gurumahārāja kī!
Jaya!!