19860427 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.17.24

The following is a lecture given by HH Jayapataka Swami on April 27, 1986 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The class begins with a reading from the Srimad Bhagavatam First Canto, Chapter 17, Verse 24.

Jayapatākā Svāmī: (Leads the Verse, Translation with devotees repeat) (Reads Purport)

tapaḥ śaucaṁ dayā satyam
iti pādāḥ kṛte kṛtāḥ
adharmāṁśais trayo bhagnāḥ
smaya-saṅga-madais tava
[SB 1.17.24]

Translation by His Divine Grace Srila Abhay Charana Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada: In the age of Satya [truthfulness] your four legs were established by the four principles of austerity, cleanliness, mercy and truthfulness. But it appears that three of your legs are broken due to rampant irreligion in the form of pride, lust for women, and intoxication.

[Aside: Here who speaks English raise your left hand. Okay for those who don’t, see, who can translate, who knows, who is bilingual here? Who knows Tamil, English? Aneka Singa, you tell those people who don’t know English to sit next you, people who know English shift this side. And as I am speaking you just, then give translation in a running way. Is there any woman doesn’t know English? Everyone seems to raise their hands.]

Purport by Srila Prabhupada:

The deluding energy, or material nature, can act upon the living beings proportionately in terms of the living beings’ falling prey to the deluding attraction of māyā. Moths are captivated by the glaring brightness of light, and thus they become prey to the fire. Similarly, the deluding energy is always captivating the conditioned souls to become prey to the fire of delusion, and the Vedic scriptures warn the conditioned souls not to become prey to delusion but to get rid of it. The Vedas warn us to go not to the darkness of ignorance but to the progressive path of light. The Lord Himself also warns that the deluding power of material energy is too powerful to overcome, but one who completely surrenders unto the Lord, unto the lotus feet of the Lord can easily do so. But to surrender unto the lotus feet of the Lord is also not very easy. Such surrender is possible by persons of austerity, cleanliness, mercy and truthfulness. These four principles of advanced civilization were remarkable features in the age of Satya. In that age, every human being was practically a qualified brāhmaṇa of the highest order, and in the social orders of life they were all paramahaṁsas, or the topmost in the renounced order. By cultural standing, the human beings were not at all subjected to the deluding energy. Such strong men of character were competent enough to get away from the clutches of māyā. But gradually, as the basic principles of brahminical culture, namely austerity, cleanliness, mercy and truthfulness, became curtailed by proportionate development of pride, attachment for women and intoxication, the path of salvation or the path of transcendental bliss retreated far, far away from human society. With the progression of the Age of Kali, people are becoming very proud, and attached to women and intoxication. By the influence of the Age of Kali, even a pauper is proud of his penny, the women are always dressed in an overly attractive fashion to victimize the minds of men, and the man is addicted to drinking wine, smoking, drinking tea and chewing tobacco, etc. All these habits, or so-called advancement of civilization, are the root causes of all irreligiosities, and therefore it is not possible to check corruption, bribery and nepotism. Man cannot check all these evils simply by statutory acts and police vigilance, but he can cure the disease of the mind by the proper medicine, namely advocating the principles of brahminical culture or the principles of austerity, cleanliness, mercy and truthfulness. Modern civilization and economic development are creating a new situation of poverty and scarcity with the result of blackmailing the consumer’s commodities. If the leaders and the rich men of the society spend fifty percent of their accumulated wealth mercifully for the misled mass of people and educate them in God consciousness, the knowledge of Bhāgavatam, certainly the Age of Kali will be defeated in its attempt to entrap the conditioned souls. We must always remember that false pride, or too high an estimation of one’s own values of life, undue attachment to women or association with them, and intoxication will divert human civilization from the path of peace, however much the people clamor for peace in the world. The preaching of the Bhāgavatam principles will automatically render all men austere, clean both inside and outside, merciful to the suffering, and truthful in daily behavior. That is the way of correcting the flaws of human society, which are very prominently exhibited at the present moment.

Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta Swami purport to the text 24, chapter 17, canto 1 of the Srimad Bhagavatam, in the chapter entitled, ‘Punishment and Reward of Kali’.

Om Tat Sat!

Jayapataka Swami: Here, the king Parikshit Maharaj, is talking to the bull of religiosity. Previously, the bull was standing on four legs naturally. But he could see that three of the legs have been broken. This is very important verse, because it gives us the understanding of what is the age of Kali.

In the age of Kali, three legs of religiosity are crippled - cleanliness, austerity, mercy. Only truthfulness, in some percentage remains, as a principle, that people try to maintain. We can see that, in the modern world, people think that, free love, sex life, intoxication, all these things, they consider to be quite… meat eating… quite unobjectionable. Nobody thinks that these things are wrong in the general, modern society. But they complain, if a leader misrepresents the truth to his followers.

In America, when Nixon lied, he was impeached. When one minister in England didn’t tell the truth and he was caught, he had to resign. So, still this idea that a person should be truthful is something which society accepts, in principle, in practice something else. But they don’t even accept the principle that you should not eat meat, or you should not be able to mix freely with women, or that you should not take intoxication, simply the degree is there. Intoxication is accepted, but whisky is okay, heroin is not. Or, sex is alright, but, then they have certain limitations, that they want in some places, and some places they have none. In this way, these principles, give us an idea, how the age of Kali is actually progressing.

We can see that although, this is written five thousand years ago, that it’s evident today. With so many examples, how this is right on. This is giving the exact explanation of our situation today. Prabhupada has very clearly said that, “All this propaganda about world peace, is a futile attempt. So long as people are addicted to this kind of materialistic activities, unless the principles of religion are established, unless the principles of irreligion are eradicated from society, the call for peace is just so much hot air.” Ultimately speaking, nothing is going to come of it. What’s needed is that these principles of Brahminical culture – austerity, cleanliness, mercy and truthfulness, should be established. Unfortunately, just the opposite is evident.

Development of pride- actually people are so proud, although people are going to die any minute, yet they are very proud of their scientific advancement. Prabhupada repeatedly advices how they are not able to solve the real problems of life - birth, death, old-age and disease. This is very obvious, yet they are so proud. They are so proud of their so-called advancement.

That pride manifests in so many ways. Just like a person is proud of his sectarian religion. Their pride in their being in their sectarian religion is more than actually any real love for God. So, as a result, people are killing each other, over what their religion is, they are very proud of their religion. But they don’t even know what their religion’s teachings are, in most cases. Nor, are they interested to know. They are simply absorbed in pride. Since, I am the greatest person, and I belong to this religion, this must be the greatest religion. It’s actually what it comes down to. Somebody else is enemy of my religion, he is my enemy and therefore, he should be killed. This way people are manipulators.

So, we have Muslims against Christians in Lebanon. We have Hindus against Buddhists in Sri Lanka, Hindus against Muslims in India, Sikhs against Hindus in India, then Protestants against Catholics in Ireland, and so on and so forth. So, this false pride, whereby people don’t actually understand what is the real principles of religion, what is the actual situation of another person? They are so self-centered that they simply are concerned with their own pride.

When you read the newspapers, the leader of Libya and the leader of America, how they are calling each other different things, one thing that’s common is, definitely there is a tremendous amount of pride. Who is right and who is wrong is another thing, to what degree. No matter what they do, they think, what they are doing is right. Even if they are dead wrong, they think they are right. Unless there is some humility, unless there is some other consideration, then how can you create any kind of a unification or any kind of a peace?

So, where to get these good qualities? How to curtail such a thing, as pride? Just talking about it, “Don’t be proud” won’t go very far. What needs to be established is that the person if they are established in religious principles, automatically false pride reduces. If they are established in austerity, cleanliness, truthfulness and mercy; then they will be detached from false pride, over attachment to women and to intoxication. Therefore, the Krishna conscious movement is promoting these religious principles. And preachers of the Krishna conscious movement, they have to be themselves very careful to adopt and emulate these Brahminical principles, to show them as examples for the rest of the society.

If a preacher doesn’t show good qualities, rather shows bad qualities, then people will not take seriously what the preacher is saying. It’s said on a Sannyasi, Lord Caitanya said, even a small mistake shows up like a black spot on a white sheet. Prabhupada used this example. So, if we have a black wall, you don’t see a black spot or a brown spot. But then a white wall, if somebody just throw some ink there on the wall, then everyone will see. Oh! There is a black spot on a white wall. See, even a small defect in a sadhu or a preacher becomes very pronounced. So, we have to be very careful so long as we want to propagate Krishna consciousness not to allow any defect to become manifest. The preachers virtually crippled by this type of defect, when they come out.

Prabhupada used the word that a human society is going away from the path of salvation or the path of transcendental bliss. Rather this path of salvation and transcendental bliss has retreated far away from human society. The way to go back to godhead gradually goes further away from us when we take on all these sinful habits.

Prabhupada says here, if the rich people of the world spend 50% of their income on spreading God consciousness then the whole mass of the people being engaged in God consciousness, then the world could become very peaceful. Actually, people if they spend their income, as it mentions here, 50% for propagating God consciousness, it would be such a wonderful effect.

Prabhupada used to say that, there was one Mayavadi Guru, he would never touch money. He gave lecture that, when I, when money comes towards me, my hand goes away. Like a… you put money, the hand goes away. So someone give money, the hand will... Of course, secretary will take money. Didn’t go away from the secretary’s hand. But, he would, “I can’t touch money”. Just signs check. Or his secretary signs check. Pretty weird sadhu! People in India are attracted by these gimmicks. So they give lot of money to someone who doesn’t touch money.

Prabhupada, one time gave lecture that, “If money comes to me, I will take it with two hands. Give it to Krishna!” We are not shy to ask, to take money. because we are using it for Krishna’s devotional service. It’s not material, it’s spiritual. Whatever money Srila Prabhupada got, even he spent it before he got it. In the Bombay project, when he put the down payment for the land, and said he was going to buy the land for 14 lakhs, we didn’t have any money. The secretary said, “Prabhupada, we don’t have any money, how is it that you are buying the land?” He said, “Krishna will provide”. So, he was very bold in this way. Somehow or the other, then he pushed his disciples and pushed the devotees to raise the fund, when there was some important project. This is how things got done so quickly. He used to say that, if a brahman gets a million dollars, the next day again he’ll be a beggar. He will spend it on Krishna. So this way, the devotees, he enjoined them, that whatever you get, you spend it on Krishna as quickly as possible.

We don’t want to accumulate wealth. As soon as we get it, we want to spend it on Krishna conscious purposes. So, in this way, there is actually so much that needs to be done, publishing books, distributing prasadam, building spiritual centers, so many movies can be made on Krishna consciousness, so many books can be published. So many ways the people can be educated. There’s a tremendous need in society.

Generally, what happens, one man in India, he told me how… he is an industrialist. He said, I am going to give all my money to my children, and then I am going to come and become a devotee. I said, “This is Prabhupada, he advised against this. You give all your money to your family, then you come empty handed to Krishna. You work hard your whole life, and then your energy you don’t give anything to Krishna. It’s not very considerate. You are going to Krishna, He’s giving you mercy but you are not giving any of your energy to Krishna.” Person’s heart is where his money goes.

It is explained that, Rupa Goswami, he showed the perfect example by giving 50% from his accumulated wealth to service of Guru and Vaishnavas for spreading Krishna consciousness. The other 50%, he kept 25% for emergency and 25% he spent on his family. This is the proper way that one should divide wealth if they have it accumulated.

Prabhupada used to criticize – “Don’t come to Krishna empty handed, giving away all their money for family members, and then giving nothing to Krishna”. Rupa Goswami, the six Goswamis, practical! Wasn’t Rupa Goswami keeping 25% away, then how would Sanatana Goswami have been saved?

After Rupa Goswami left, then Sanatana Goswami started studying the Bhagavatam on the plea of being sick. Nawab Hussain Shah, first sent his physician, found nothing was wrong, one day he suddenly appeared in his house. So there Sanatana Goswami was reading the Bhagavatam with his brahmanas. Sanatana Goswami stood up to receive the emperor.

The emperor said, “What are you doing here, why are you not coming to the court and attending your duties? You are the Prime Minister”.

He said, “Well, I am not feeling any taste for this anymore. I would like to be relieved”.

Emperor became very angry that, “I want to go out and attack various kingdoms. Expand my empire. I need you to manage the Kingdom on my behalf. So, I can go out and do my campaigns.”

But Sanatana Goswami said that, “I am not… Don’t want to do it anymore”.

So, then king became so angry that he arrested Sanatana Goswami, so that he wouldn’t escape. Then he went out on his campaigns. So, Sanatana couldn’t get out of the prison, but he bribed the gatekeeper, the jailor! First he praised him – “ila ilaa mahal ma rasul illaha. That you are such a very great devoted person, you are very wonderful, and I want to leave for religious purpose, and you are very religious man, so you should kindly let me free.”

 He said, “How can I let you free? If I let you free, I will be killed by the king”.

He said, “I will give you 5000 gold coins and tallow it.”

“No! No! But how can I do that? It’s very dangerous for me.”

He said, “No, you just say that I died. I will never show my face up here again.”

“It’s very difficult for me”.

“I will give you 10,000 gold coins”.

 “Well, for the service of God, I can do it.”

So, because of keeping that little emergency fund, because the jailor was very religious, he accepted the donation of 10000 gold coins, and somehow, Sanatana Goswami was able to escape. So, in this way, we can see that, practical value of following Rupa Goswami system.

Somehow, people have to be preached this. It’s actually their duty to give 50%. It’s not that the devotees should come, pestering grihasthas, please give your 50%, please give a donation. The grihastha should be thinking that, “This money is liquid karma. Whatever money that I have over and above what I need for my food, for my clothing, my housing, my basic expense, whatever else I have, if I don’t give it to Krishna, this 50%, then I am simply holding karma. This money is simply going to cause me repeated birth and death. So, I have to use it for Krishna as far as possible. At least, 50%.”

Of course, if someone, just to... Bhagavatam says that, we are allowed to work for having a healthy body, for being healthy, for having clothes, shelter. So, this could be a subject of debate, what to do if a person’s income, is such that 50% doesn’t pay for the food, doesn’t pay for the clothing. In which case, one would have to get some special dispensation from the Guru, what to do in such a case?

Of course, Kolavecha Sridhar, he was a fanatic, you could say. Or, he was very much, he was very dedicated to this principle. He took an oath, that he’ll give 50% above, 50% of his income he’ll spend on Ganges Puja. So, all he was doing was selling bananas, banana leaves, banana flowers. In Bengal that time, in Navadvipa, that time of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, so he was hardly making any income. Because, selling Bananas in Navadvipa is like trying to sell palm oil in Malaysia. Palm oil is everywhere; we don’t need to. Or, trying to sell rubber, latex here. Everywhere it’s growing. So, there in Bengal, everywhere, every house has got bananas. It’s only rare person that wants extra bananas. So, somehow or the other, he was getting some income. Or whatever income he would get, immediately he would take 50% and spend it on incense, flower, whatever he would get, he would spend that on ingredients, and go to worship the Ganges, and he would take the rest and he would spend.

Of course, he was self-employed. He had his own land and he grew his own bananas. He sold them. But actually, he was very poor. His clothes were ripped, his house had holes in it. People used to criticize him. They used to say that, “Why you are living like this? In the sense, proper business sense is that, you should stop giving 50% to the Ganges, invest your capital for one year. Build up your capital, become, have a good basis for that, then you spend it. Then you, ah, after one year is over, you give 50%, you will have a bigger capital, so you have more income, in this way you can give more to Krishna.”

He responded that, “If I start that now, then what if I stop giving 50% now, what is the guarantee that after one year, I will start again? Once I get into the habit of not giving, then there will always be excuse to bring up little more capital, build up little more wealth, build this, build that in this way then, maya could catch me. Now I am very safe, I am giving 50%, somehow or the other, things are going on, I am not going to change.”

“But your clothes are ripped my man! Don’t you see you have got holes in your clothes?”

 He said, “It’s quite cool in the hot weather. All of my body is covered. What is the matter if there is a little ventilation?”

“But you have a hole in your roof!”

 “Well, we have to have the light in, come in somewhere, little light, fresh breeze, very healthy.” So these…

“Oh! You are very crazy!” And they’d all go off thinking that Kolavecha Sridhar is totally mad, wasting his good time and energy worshiping the Ganges.

Every night Kolavecha Sridhar would chant (HH JPS starts singing).

“Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare”,

Long into the night he would chant kirtan. So the materialistic neighbors, they started to complain, “Why is he howling all night? Nobody can get any sleep!” Someone said, “Oh! Because he is so hungry, he can’t sleep himself. Because he is hungry, he is just howling in the night.” Like this, all the people were so nasty there, just criticizing him.

But, then he had so many intimate pastimes with Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Mahaprabhu would come as Nimai Pandit and take bananas only from him. Although, sometimes he would do a change up on Kolavecha Sridhar, He would give, He would take the bananas and give a shortchange.

Kolavecha Sridhar would say, “Hey! You are not giving the right amount.” He used to grab back the bananas. “Give them back. Take your money. You pay the right amount or don’t take them at all.”

Then Nimai Pandit would say, “Aha!” Grab those bananas back again. “So you are accusing a brahmana, you are accusing Me of cheating! You think I don’t have bananas in My house? You think I need your charity? Why are you accusing Me like this? You are offending the brahmanas”.

Then Kolavecha Sridhar would get… “You are charging double, that’s why!! Take this, don’t cheat anyone.” Actually, he would only charge the right price. This way they were having so many different arguments and things. Actually, Kolavecha Sridhar’s heart would melt every time, he would see Lord Caitanya, and Caitanya, knew he was His pure devotee. So, He would just tease him in this way.

Actually, Kolavecha Sridhar was a very honest businessman. He would just charge exactly the market rate. He would say, “You test the market rate, you can buy wherever you like, you won’t get any cheaper than I am selling. This is the actual price.” But still Lord Caitanya would buy only from him somehow or another. So, in this way, even what normally profit he would make, Lord Caitanya cut into that already taking His percent. So, he was giving more than 50%. Because Caitanya Mahaprabhu would personally come as Nimai Pandit, He would take a little tax, by taking some of the bananas and giving less money. So, of course Lord Caitanya gave His mercy to Kolavecha Sridhar, gave him pure love for Godhead.

After the Chand Kazi Samadhi, aahh… after Chand Khazi was approached and defeated by Caitanya Mahaprabhu, convinced, he gave his order that, no one will disturb the Sankirtan movement of Lord Caitanya. Then Caitanya Mahaprabhu went with His followers and they took rest at the house of Kolavecha Sridhar. So, after all the processions and talking and kirtan, Lord Caitanya was very thirsty. So, He said, “Give Me some water.” Kolavecha Sridhar had no brass, he was very poor. He only had a broken steel cup, and just a clay pot of water. Then, Lord Caitanya saw his broken steel, cast iron mug, He went over and picked it up, and poured Himself a glass of water, while Kolavecha Sridhar had gone out to try to get another glass for Him. Because his wasn’t very… So, when he saw what Lord Caitanya was doing, he ran back, he said, “No! No! No! No! No! This is not fit for You. This is not suitable. I am getting You another glass. Don’t take from that”. He even went to… He was so excited; he even went to take it from Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Lord Caitanya held him back, drank the water and said, “Aha! This is the sweetest water!”

Lord Caitanya, even used this broken vessel of His devotee, giving His special mercy to Kolavecha Sridhar. Sometimes, if the devotee takes some austerity on behalf of the Lord, the Lord never forgets that devotee. Devotee becomes very dear to Him. So, as there are various devotees who are like Sanatana Goswami was a symbol of humility. Das Raghunath was a symbol of austerity. Kolavecha Sridhar is practically the top example of yukta vairagya, as an independent grihastha who was making his living for giving, the principle of giving 50%.

Although Rupa Goswami showed that, practically, but he was after all the finance minister. When he divided his wealth up, he divided up into boat loads of gold. Four boat loads. One boat load, for his family. One boat load, two boat loads for the brahmanas and Vaishnavas and Guru. Boat loads of gold in those days, even a boat load of gold today is quite valuable. What to speak of then? He was fabulously wealthy. So someone can say “Hey, if you give me billions of dollars I will also give 50%, Keep 50%”. Someone may say that. So in the other extreme, we have, which is legitimate to do. Another example we have Kolavecha Sridhar who practically didn’t even have enough, just barely to live. Not adequately living. But he still maintained that principle. So, like this we find in Lord Caitanya’s devotees that they live very strictly by principles, the principles of austerity, truthfulness, cleanliness and mercy that they very strictly avoid pride, attachment to sense gratification and intoxication.

Therefore, we should try to follow in the footsteps of those great devotees. People will know the modern-day devotees of the Lord Caitanya to have these types of qualities. Prabhupada wanted that. Doesn’t want that devotees should be known by any negative connotation. Falsely we may be accused, that’s another thing. But we shouldn’t do something where we are actually deviating from the religious principles. Otherwise, how can we direct the common man to follow these principles, if we don’t follow them ourselves? First a devotee, being in devotional service, sometimes can stretch, to find a way of, reason for stretching some of these principles, in a sense. Because the principles of devotional service are even higher than these principles.

Just like when Krishna told Yudhishtir to lie, or He didn’t… He just told him that, “Ashwathama is dead.”

Yudhishtir hesitated. He said, “There is Ashwathama, he is not dead.”

“Ashwathama was dead, Ashwathama the elephant was dead.”

“Krishna…”

He didn’t have faith, this little bit doubt was there when Krishna said, you just yell out Ashwathama is dead, knowing that it would crush Dronacharya’s heart. Then he would have Arjuna take the finishing or would have the special strike against Dronacharya. But Yudhistir hesitated. Yudhishtir is known as Satyavaak, he never told a lie. If anyone else said that, that Ashwathama is dead, then Dronacharya would just think that they are lying. But if Yudhishtir said, then he would think that this must be true. But Yudhishtir himself hesitated. “How can I tell a lie? I never told a lie.” So, by hesitating, to carry out Krishna’s order, he had to go to hell, for a short time. Krishna told, “If you say loudly Ashwathama, softly the elephant is dead, so, you are not telling a lie.”

So, see the principle of carrying out Krishna’s direct order is higher. But sometimes, devotees, they think that whatever I want to do for devotional service is Krishna’s direct order. Therefore, I am above all laws. But this is dangerous when we are preaching in society. Unless one does have a direct order from Guru and Krishna, we shouldn’t take, we should not ourselves become proud. “I am a devotee, whatever I do is right”. And then we do something which is wrong. We should be very careful to act only under the instruction of a higher authority. This way we are safe.

How to bring these people to the point of following these principles? If we tell the people, you immediately give 50% of your income, they’d say, “Wow! Watch out for this Hare Krishna movement, they want all our money.” If we tell people that, “yes, become a member of the Krishna conscious movement, and you’ll have to give up all intoxication and all meat eating, all gambling, all illicit sex, people will get frightened. Run! These people want to take away all the happiness of life. There is nothing left.” Actually, when this was told to one English gentleman, he said that, if we have to give up these things, then we might as well die. In the Bhaktisiddhanta, Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur sent one preacher, if we have to give up these things then there is nothing else left. This is life. They couldn’t imagine how they could live without these things.