19861031 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.9.43

The following is the lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on October 31, 1986 at New Talavan farm in Carriere, Mississippi. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7th canto, chapter 9, text 43.

 

naivodvije para duratyaya-vaitaraṇyās
tvad-vīrya-gāyana-mahāmṛta-magna-cittaḥ
śoce tato vimukha-cetasa indriyārtha-
māyā-sukhāya bharam udvahato vimūḍhān
(ŚB 7.9.43)

 

Translation: O best of the great personalities, I am not at all afraid of material existence, for wherever I stay I am fully absorbed in thoughts of Your glories and activities. My concern is only for the fools and rascals who are making elaborate plans for material happiness and maintaining their families, societies and countries. I am simply concerned with love for them.

 

Purport: Throughout the entire world, everyone is making big, big plans to adjust the miseries of the material world, and this is true at present, in the past and in the future. Nonetheless, although they make elaborate political, social and cultural plans, they have all been described herein as vimūḍha — fools. The material world has been described in Bhagavad-gītā as duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam — temporary and miserable — but these fools are trying to turn the material world into sukhālayam, a place of happiness, not knowing how everything acts by the arrangement of material nature, which works in her own way.

 

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni
guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ
ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā
kartāham iti manyate

 

“The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities that are in actuality carried out by nature.” (Bg. 3.27)

 

There is a plan for material nature, personally known as Durgā, to punish the demons. Although the asuras, the godless demons, struggle for existence, they are directly attacked by the goddess Durgā, who is well equipped with ten hands with different types of weapons to punish them. She is carried by her lion carrier, or the modes of passion and ignorance. Everyone struggles very hard to fight through the modes of passion and ignorance and conquer material nature, but at the end everyone is vanquished by nature’s laws.

 

There is a river known as Vaitaraṇī between the material and spiritual worlds, and one must cross this river to reach the other side, or the spiritual world. This is an extremely difficult task. As the Lord says in Bhagavad-gītā (7.14), daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā: “This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome.” The same word duratyaya, meaning “very difficult,” is used here. Therefore one cannot surpass the stringent laws of material nature except by the mercy of the Supreme Lord. Nonetheless, although all materialists are baffled in their plans, they try again and again to become happy in this material world. Therefore they have been described as vimūḍha — first-class fools. As for Prahlāda Mahārāja, he was not at all unhappy, for although he was in the material world, he was full of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Those who are Kṛṣṇa conscious, trying to serve the Lord, are not unhappy, whereas one who has no assets in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and is struggling for existence is not only foolish but extremely unhappy also. Prahlāda Mahārāja was happy and unhappy simultaneously. He felt happiness and transcendental bliss because of his being Kṛṣṇa conscious, yet he felt great unhappiness for the fools and rascals who make elaborate plans to be happy in this material world.

 

Jayapatākā Swami: Auditorium in the top uh.. mall of the city, there’s not so many malls in the pier. Like, in the centre of the pier, a big auditorium and over a thousand people were there, all very high. As a result, people were very impressed by the Vedic wedding ceremony. They said “Oh ! this is very spiritual”. Because we explained at each point what are the different obligations of husband and wife, what are the concepts behind it, the law of karma, reincarnation, different things, people could appreciate.

 

So within the Vedic culture, there are so many rules and regulations of so many different rituals that are there, whether garbhādhāna-saṁskāra, or marriage, uh or marriage, garbhādhāna-saṁskāra, then after 3 months of pregnancies, or 6, 8 months of pregnancy, birth, all these different things, all meant for purifying the family situation for raising Kṛṣṇa conscious children. When they start gurukul, there’s also a ceremony. It’s actually a special ceremony. 

 

When Lord Caitanya first is going to start His studies, then the father does a sacrifice, prays to Viṣṇu and personally puts the pen in His hand officially for the first time and has Him write the name of Kṛṣṇa. Like this there’s a whole ceremony, when someone formally starts studying in the gurukula. There are so many ceremonies, which are meant to get the blessing of Kṛṣṇa on the children, and to purify the whole situation. So the people in the west, they are totally amazed by… Actually we use these as various preaching programs, giving the first grains, it's very interesting to the people. Especially for who are pious to see that how our culture is so filled with spiritual consciousness.

 

So, in contrast, of course, we have material situation, everyone’s making plans to be happy. Everyone’s making plans to be happy. What’s very interesting was recently in South America, they had a thing broadcasted in the television where they were interviewing different Americans and each were giving their opinion about how the world should be better and this and that, all the big big plan, and at the end they asked, “are you happy?” Not one said yes. Don’t be abstract. We will be happy in the future. So, it is that thing that this material world we are very pragmatic. It’s a duḥkhālayam, there’s bound to be suffering.

 

The real happiness in the material world, doesn’t come from sense gratification. Because sense gratification produces suffering. So whatever sense gratification we enjoy in the one hand, we are going to suffer some other kind of inconvenience on the other hand. So there’s no perfect situation here in the material world, and the best you can do is the shying off, balanced sense gratification. But that’s not ultimately satisfying. So nobody wants to balance. Unless you have spiritual life, unless there is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, sense gratification itself, whether balanced or whether in excess, it doesn’t produce satisfaction.

 

Of course, those in the mode of goodness, the brāhmaṇas who have a little, very balanced life, they actually become kind of peaceful in the material sense, so they feel self complacent. Sometimes the people who are living a little natural life, little pure life, they feel little bit of relief from a lot of the excessive sufferings that one gets in the material world, by acting excessively, by acting irregulatively, irregularly. But that, little bit of peace that they get is in itself not, that’s not the ultimate objective either. Because, that is also not pure happiness. Simply it’s a reduction of the miseries that people are getting because of previously being too much in the mode of ignorance or passion. What is really needed is a positive spiritual happiness, and that comes from practising Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

 

So, Prahlāda Mahārāja, he can see this lack in society. The people are making so many plans, they are going ahead very enthusiastically. But actually they are foolish, because ultimately nothing is going to produce that real happiness that they are looking for. That is produced by being Kṛṣṇa conscious. 

 

Recently in the October issue of the AMNY magazine, they produced the whole series of articles on longevity. How to make the body live longer? And they are spending millions and millions of dollars trying to extend life, trying to find out which hormones cause the body to age and which lack of hormones stop. so they have worked out that if they just get another 30,40,50 million dollars, then they are gonna be able to extend possibly, may be, the value of the life, by taking various injections and things by 50%. In other words, if you are 65 years old, you look like you are 40, and if you are 100 years old you look like you are 65 and so on. Of course, eventually, you are gonna have to die anyway.

 

Of course, then there’s the fear with people that they say, “well, it don’t look like we’re gonna have a breakthrough before I die”. So they are investing in the new techniques of freezing the body. So that they can have hibernation. So as soon as they figure out what chemicals to push into the body, then they can be re-thawed out and cured from their disease. Like this there some materialists making so many plans, spending so much money, trying to figure out how to make the body live a little longer, how to extend the life. But eventually, the... but then even there they admit it. 

 

Like the Spanish people are looking in Florida for the fountain of youth. Because they have seen different drawings which showed people getting old, like in the Indian Aztecs or whatever, showing them getting old and dipping into some kind of water and coming out and being young. So they took it to mean there’s a fountain of youth. They’re looking everywhere. But now, after studying it, some of the other scientists, after studying Indian philosophy, they say, “this is simply symbolical reincarnation.” You get old, you die, you take a new birth again, new young body. Going in the ocean of birth and death, you dip in, come out again. Simply uh... that, at that time then they also found that the Aztecs’ language is non-different from the language of Bangalore in South India, the Kannada language. And that they have Vishnu Deities, and that the king, the queen, the king had tilak, of the Aztec king in the Mexico and the queen had a little dot on her forehead. And like this, they found so many things now. There they recently found a Viṣṇu Deity in Mexico. And the Mexican government was so embarrassed that their culture is coming from India that they donated the Deity to India. So they wouldn’t have to keep it in the museum and explain (laughter). And so the Indian ambassador came over, whatever, minister took it back to India.

 

But, like this way, people are really avoiding the fact that the Indian culture is the original culture of our world. The Indian culture is actually providing us. We should look to our roots. You hear all the roots, roots, roots, look to your roots. And they go into the jungles and try to find where we came from. But actually, the whole civilization is coming from India. 

 

Recently, I took ātma-tattva prabhu to the Epcot to show him that so we get an idea as we wanna make a Caitanya world in Māyāpur. And of course, it was really boring. But I was showing him how they keep showing the history of the world. And they show how there were cavemen, and then from cavemen it came Egypt, and from Egypt came Europe, and from Europe came America. And America is like that, that’s it you know, that’s the top.

 

So, but you know, how did they just go from cavemen to Egypt? And they show how the Egyptians' to Arabian culture gave the number system to the world. Arabian number system. But in the book which I gave Yogendra prabhu on Vedic arithmetic, mathematics, that mentions, then I actually asked when I was in the Middle-east, and there it mentions that  in Arabia, their number system, they call the Hindu number system. Because it was brought from India by the paṇḍitas to the old sheiks in the desert there, who were marking their camels, and even the dates and things. They had some pearls in Arabia, in the Persian Gulf. That’s why there came up trade between Persia and India. So these paṇḍitas came and taught them the number system. In fact, before in Europe, in the Roman number system there was no zero. Zero didn’t exist. So it’s very hard to make complex mathematical calculations without zero. The zero concept, Māyāvādīs love this. Zero concept came from India. (laughter) Māyāvādī… But the idea of zeros and the decimal system, all this is from India. That’s how we have lakhs, crores, kharabs these are all decimal system. Everyone’s proud we are from Arabia, from Egypt, but actually this all I call, either it seems to me almost to be cheating. That somehow, they are just purposefully avoiding a very obvious fact that India is the origin of the culture of this world.

 

Now the language and etymologists, they always say that this is the Latin-Aryan or this is the Slavic Arabic. Because they say that language Sanskrit is the mother tongue of all the Latin languages and even all the Germanian. So, they can’t avoid that the language is coming from the Sanskrit. Then why not the culture? 

 

Why not look back to this original culture and see what they... now have degenerated due to the various castings of time. Actually the people, they feel, “oh this Hare Kṛṣṇa is something”. Still they don’t know we are their roots. We are their roots! The Indian culture or the Vedic culture is the root. They shouldn’t feel alienated. They’ve been alienated by purposeful uh fudging of the uh... of the propaganda that has been presented to them. So that they never think Indians like something where yeah really, far out something, you know starving people. They never … What is the connection between the west and Egypt?

 

Egypt is simply uh a transit point of the culture coming from India to Europe. In fact, they didn't even know how much relation it has, at all. It is said that Egyptian culture also came from India, because they worship rock, the Sun, they worshiped different demigods, which can also be traced back to Indian culture. So, from that point of view, people could learn something by what is the ancient culture.

 

But in any case, Prahlāda Mahārāja’s point is that in past, present and future, there’ve always been big plans to enjoy this material world. But these plans, unfortunately, are failures. They don’t work. So, why don’t we see what will work. And he presents this is what works. If you are Kṛṣṇa conscious, this works. This is actually what makes people happy, because we are combination of matter and spirit. If we neglect the soul, simply by making material adjustments, no matter how many material adjustments we make, we won’t be happy. So we have to take this desire, or this idea, this hope within us. But this one obstacle that's keeping us from being fully Kṛṣṇa conscious is we harbour a hope that, may be, somewhere, somehow, someway, in this material world, we can be happy by sense gratification. And That is the māyā. That is the illusion. There is the enjoying attitude. So then, when we get some opportunity to enjoy, we think, now, this is the way. This is the chance. And then instead of taking shelter of Kṛṣṇa, we try to take shelter of sense gratification. 

 

We should thoroughly eradicate this last bastion of illusion and just take it completely out of our consciousness, that there’s any hope, there’s any way to achieve real peace or happiness in the material world except for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is hopeless. By Kṛṣṇa’s own definition, it is duḥkhālayam , it is aśāśvatam. It is a place of suffering; it is temporary. That mean that no matter how much you try to get happiness, there is going to be suffering. No matter how hard you try to make a permanent arrangement it’s going to be finished. Whether they extend their life by 20% or 50% or whatever, there’s going to be complications, anyway they’re going to die sooner or later. So, there’s no real solution materially.

 

The solution is given by Kṛṣṇa, given by great souls like Prahlāda Mahārāja, is living a natural balanced material life, directed towards the aim of satisfying Kṛṣṇa, towards devotional service. That is the best use of the body. Without the Kṛṣṇa conscious touch, there’s no, there’s no resolution.

 

I was once invited to speak by the Ford Institute of Development in Kathmandu, the capital of the only Hindu kingdom in the world, Nepal, on religion and science and development. This is unusual a topic. But their point that different scientist… I was the key... keynote speaker, but there were other people who were giving the introduction. So it was a formal seminar. And at that time they said that, “we’ve been doing a lot of development and spend millions of dollars. We find that, in spite of that real material development, or happiness of the people that we wanted hasn’t increased. Maybe they had a mud house, some places they have wood house, or they had a wood house might now have a brick house. We’ve been able to do some things like that but the people are not happier. And sometimes even social problems increase." They said, how, uh.. "we saw one superficial problem, we’re having other more real problem about character, morals, social justice and so on. So, somewhere we are failing. Somewhere our development work, despite of so much of effort and investment, is not producing that which we want. So, what is wrong? May be, religion has the answer.” So that I was asked to speak on that. Even the materialists, the real intelligent, intellectual materialists, they also understand that it’s not working. 

 

Now, in Poland, trying a so much socialistic propaganda and everything, being a Warsaw block, that... now, they also have their own punk movement, where the youth, they are fed up, they are tired of it. They don’t want to hear anymore about Marxism, like that. They don’t know. So they think, may be the western democracy. But then, western way also has punks. So, they are fried out with the western way. So people are getting more and more disgusted. But because, what we present, here’s the positive alternative, this is the positive alternative. This is not destructive, this is not perversive, this is not, this is very constructive, this is very positive, this is very complete. But because the people are so fixed in their atheism and demoniac, or materialistic ideas, or because they have the prejudice against anything which is not their culture, something like that, they immediately no, no, it is cult this Hare Krsna, we don’t want to, we got our own plans, and then they just ignore us, instead they go ahead, making all their plans, which are just going to create more and more problems.

 

So what happens is, that drives the youth to the negative aspects, to negative alternatives, and they become more and more and more negative, and they become punks, and worst they become terrorists, and they become drug addicts, frustrated. And the society is, “what is the solution? What is the solution? We have to have a stronger police force, we have to..." But then they say, “we have to have heavy police force, because 20% of Americans are taking marijuana. So we have to tighten up a bit.  About 20% of Americans are taking marijuana, then, how much can you tight enough with the police force, if one of every 5 people is breaking that particular law? Immediate, I mean, they make these plans and when you read it and you just think, “what are these people doing ?” They are just totally in illusion. And, unfortunately, you go to these big people and you try to explain something to them, they are so fixed in their materialistic plans and so attached to their little brainstorms, they don’t want to hear.

 

So what did Prabhupāda say? He said, “Therefore we are going to the people, door to door, house to house to convince them of this Kṛṣṇa conscious movement.” This is what Lord Caitanya ordered even Nityānanda and Haridāsa :

 

śuna śuna nityānanda, śuna haridāsa
sarvatra āmāra ajñā karaha prakāśa
prati ghare ghare giyā kara ei bhikṣā
bala kṛṣṇa, bhajo kṛṣṇa, kara kṛṣṇa-śikṣā 

 

Listen Haridāsa Ṭhākura, listen Nityānanda prabhu, take My order and go to every house and beg the people to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa - bolo kṛṣṇa, bhajo kṛṣṇa - to worship kṛṣṇa, koro kṛṣṇa-siksā - and to read Kṛṣṇa’s teachings.

 

This is Lord Caitanya’s order to get people to read Kṛṣṇa’s teaching. That is Prabhupāda’s books, Gītā, Bhāgavatam, Kṛṣṇa’s books. Bolo Kṛṣṇa - to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare (devotees chant), to chant harināma. And bhajo kṛṣṇa - to worship Kṛṣṇa in their home. This is the Kṛṣṇa perfection at home, Nāma-haṭṭa, boat program.

 

This is the particular order of Lord Caitanya, specifically to go and meet the people especially if you have a demi… demo… democratic country, but the people can eventually be convinced of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then there are leaders who are Kṛṣṇa conscious. When there are leaders who are Kṛṣṇa conscious, then maybe they’ll add a little sense to all their plans. Right now it’s the blind leading the blind. So, Prabhupāda wanted that the people should see the Kṛṣṇa conscious devotees as being so upright, straight-forward, honest, that they’ll naturally want to hear from them. Then, when the devotees speak to them, people will be very open and receptive. So in this regard, of course we have a long way to go. But, gradually by being open, by being conscientious, by cultivating those people who are favourable, and getting people who are in society to cultivate their friends, their known people. In this way, in a type of chain reaction, the preaching can expand. Uhh..

 

Our Nāma-haṭṭa type of preaching are where we try to get people to chant. What are they going to do? Sitting in their home, what are they going to do? The point to do is get them to engage in preaching also. Get them… I have a disciple who is a quality control of the match factory, Swedish match factory in India. He is in-charge of the quality control and he has his personal program, that from his salary he gives every month a 150 uhh rupees, and he buys books and he goes to each person in the factory and he gives them one book. And he asks them if they like they can give a donation, anyway it’s a personal gift from him. If they like to give to his book fund a little thing, some, they give something. Whatever he gets, he again buys more books and gives out to more people. So in this way, he from a 150, when he gets 50% back, comes 225. So he said, even the communist union leaders of India, even when they saw him he is going around, “Hey ! when am I going to get my book?” and they got a book also. And, everyone’s become very favourable. So, now he wants to know what are the next programs he can do. Because he has almost covered all the 6000 employees in his big factory. So, over a period of a couple of years. So, eh… there is other programs nowadays he is doing as well, but he is continuing on the book distribution. So, just that one fired up folk member, he can also do so much preaching.

 

But we have, it requires just like we go on saṅkīrtana, we wonder how to distribute, then Kṛṣṇa inspires with some ideas, with some mantras or some means or some ways, some ideas how to rescue Lakshmi or how to do saṅkīrtana. Similarly, in every sphere, like Prabhupāda wanted us to establish varṇāśrama in America, he wanted us to establish in the western world the varṇāśrama system, to have Kṛṣṇa consciousness, to reach the people, to organize the society in a more God conscious manner.

 

And actually we see that, if we just study what are the problems of today, just like, for instance, they are concerned, that so many high school teachers are having illicit sex with the high school students. In other words, instead of being brāhmaṇas in gurukul, where they are strict and the teachers are strict and everyone’s trained as a brāhmaṇa, because it’s much a yavana culture, so these teachers to get.. give good grades to the students are exploiting students. And the parents are concerned, what to do. But they are not able to do anything.

 

Then that’s why in the Vedic culture, those who were the teachers are brāhmaṇas. And brāhmaṇas are by definition, those in the mode of goodness, who don’t engage in illicit sex, gambling, intoxication or meat-eating. They lead a very simple life and a pure life. And they impart their knowledge to others. While the kṣatriyas and other people, they are not the teachers in the gurukul. They are the kṣatriyas, the people that run the government. And they sometimes get into a little drinking, or little thing, because they are in politics and it is very heavier, and sometimes they get into a little bit of illicit activity. And there’s some little scope for kṣatriyas, because of the nature and the danger and the risks that they take in the physical sense, to perform their duties.

 

Like this, the society is structured in such a way that, if there were different laws for different occupation, if there were different historic, you can see that if varṇāśrama was established, not in a caste, not in a birth system, but in a system of a type of social organization, with an overall Kṛṣṇa conscious or God conscious objective. But actually, these various social problems are one by one are surfacing in the western world, they could be much more easily controlled. Anyone who has any kind of a person to be certified as a teacher, they will have to go through certain, they have to be a, be trained in that way. Not simply academically, but morely in character wise, they have to be certified. And if they don’t live up to that standard, they are given certain, what is the reward for that. Well a brāhmaṇa is given certain, if we had one world government, a brāhmaṇa is given a certain facility. He is able to travel. He doesn’t need a visa anywhere he goes. Because he is supposed to be imparting knowledge to others. Well, for the other people, like the śūdras, for them to travel, there is some restriction. Because their travel may be just to cause trouble.

 

So, it’s all, of course, we are talking about 10000 years from now Kṛṣṇa consciousness is still going to be in the world. Then after some years, society may change drastically. It’s not something that, well seems even possible to happen immediately. But things can happen step by step.

 

We have, we have the vision, where we want to take society. No one else has any vision. They don’t have any idea where society is going. They’re just trying to keep their whole economic things juggle balancing. They’re just, somehow or other trying to keep the things afloat. As far as figuring out where everything is going, they don’t have a slightest idea. It’s just going by accident. It’s totally out of hand. It’s not in anyone’s control. So Kṛṣṇa conscious devotees have an idea, have a concept.

 

And if we keep on preaching that to people, we become more and more conversant with the varṇāśrama concept, with the Kṛṣṇa conscious concept, then we can gradually change society by Kṛṣṇa’s mercy. It has that power without any doubt. We have to ourselves become thoroughly convinced that the goal of life is not sense gratification; the goal of life is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then we can change other people. So long as we are having this idea, that may be there’s a way that materially we can be happy, then we’ll not be able to easily convince other people to give up sense gratification.

 

So then pure devotion means what? We give up our enjoying attitude. We don’t no longer want to enjoy the material world. We want to engage the material energy in the service of Kṛṣṇa. Rāvaṇa wanted the material energy to enjoy it. That is the difference. But Yudhiṣṭhira, he was given the material energy to engage in Kṛṣṇa’s service. So there’s a difference between the attitude of the devotee and the attitude of the demoniac. So within us, of course we are neither pure demon or pure devotee. We have mixtures in attitudes within us because of the association with the material world. Those who are devotees have more divine quality, and less demoniac. But we have to root out the demoniac quality. Lord Kṛṣṇa explained in Bhagavad Gītā what are the demoniac qualities. We have to root those out. We have to take them, we have to purify ourselves from those by practically engaging in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. When we see something that’s demoniac, something materialistic, we take it away. Eventually by the mercy of great devotees like Prahlāda Mahārāja and Śrīla Prabhupāda, we come up to that pure position where actually we’re detached from the material desires.

 

We are actually we are, just as Prahlāda said I am happy anywhere I am. Why, because I’m thinking always about Kṛṣṇa. This is the perfectional platform to always be thinking about Kṛṣṇa, serving Kṛṣṇa, talking about Kṛṣṇa. In the material platform, we never talk about Kṛṣṇa, we never serve Kṛṣṇa. We simply want to serve our senses and we want to talk about everything else. We want to do everything else. This is the extreme.

 

So, in the devotional life, when we are living in an āśrama, we learn to be silent. In India, of course, they have these mouna babas, people that don’t speak, they just sit there. And people think they are great sādhus and then they write letters to everyone. You know, it's like, you want to say something, you speak to them and they answer you in giving you letters. You probably say “what is that? they are not speaking but they are thinking and they are writing.” Even for some years on, they do this sometimes. They put on a show and they do not speak for few years. So Prabhupada is, "That's better they don’t speak, when they speak, they speak nonsense." (Laughter) But that’s not the real silence.

 

Silence means to only talk about Kṛṣṇa. Talking about Kṛṣṇa doesn’t mean that any devotional service we talk about. We don’t talk about how Bhakta Bill is doing such a nice job preparing the tractor or something. Even those devotional service, because we’re worshipping the Deity at that time we just chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. How while cooking nice tomato chutney for the deity, how some little baby’s got a boil and the mother has got a new technique for squeezing out the pus or something. (Laughter) That may be devotional service, there may be a time and place, but that’s not the thing we discuss, while we’re cooking the tomato chutney for the Deity. We think that time that we’re cooking for the Deity and it’s to be offered. So there’s a time and place for things. And we should do the thing and be Kṛṣṇa conscious and try to refine and control our mind so that we are actually silent.

 

Silent means we don’t talk, but we talk about Kṛṣṇa con which is appropriate for that time and place. Just like, it may be devotional, but we don’t talk about cleaning the bathrooms while eating prasādam. It’s just not the proper thing to do. Although the tendency is always there, but it’s not the proper thing. When you’re talking to a neophyte person, you don’t tell him all about how such and such senior devotee has had some difficulty. Because what is it going to help. Some people always have difficulty in the material world. They try to be in Kṛṣṇa  whether they’re junior or senior, sometime it may happen. But you don’t discuss these things with neophyte devotees. Because they are just trying to themselves figure out what is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If they hear that some senior devotee has difficulty, it sometimes bewilders them. And if you want to explain further, you’d have to explain the whole thing. Then they have to have enough brain to be able to digest it. They have to have a enough philosophical basis. So, better not to enter into something, unless you can’t completely give a proper explanation. So, like this, in silence, or in controlling our mind, gradually we also become more and more conscientious of what things at what time will be pleasing to Kṛṣṇa. 

 

Finally in the culmination of that is explained in the Nectar of Devotion about rasābhāsa, that even certain dis… topics present like the mood of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, and the mood of Yaśoda and Kṛṣṇa are different. One is conjugal, one is vātsalya. So these don’t mix. Conjugal and maternal or paternal love does not mix together. So you can’t mix in other words, the mother is not ever, a pure paternal love is not mixed with any kind of conjugal. It seems, it’s a different attitude, it is totally different situation. And if somehow somebody mixes the two, then it becomes a rasābhāsa.

 

So, that’s in a very high level of tasting transcendental mellows, which Lord Caitanya, He had Svarāpa Dāmodara check all the books and literatures that are written, to see there was no rasābhāsa. And then of course, you know, that something which eventually we hope to attain to, is able to understand all these different subtleties between relationships of Kṛṣṇa and His devotees. But then that same thing in a grosser level, has its application on the daily activities, what we say, what is appropriate at a particular time and circumstance.

 

So the nectar in the Caitanya Caritāmṛta says that we have to become expert in Vaiṣṇava etiquette. The Vaiṣṇava etiquette is one of the things that a person needs to know before they can get love for Kṛṣṇa. If we offend the Vaiṣṇavas, someone may be a great manager, but in his management if he offends Vaiṣṇavas, then he may not get love for Kṛṣṇa. So where is their ...? So a person has to know how to manage and how to be a Vaiṣṇava, how to serve and how to be a Vaiṣṇava.

 

So we are always trying to refine our understanding of Vaiṣṇava vyavahāra, how to interrelate with the devotees, this is very important. We may chant our 16 rounds, all the 4 principles, but we may not relate with other devotees in a mature way. This is the characteristic of kaniṣṭha-adhikārī.

 

We are trying to become a madhyama-adhikārī. Madhyama-adhikārī means we are friendly with the other Vaiṣṇavas. Kaniṣṭha-adhikārī is little bit proud, little bit separatist attitude sometimes. More easily they can fall into them, not necessarily but generally that they are proud either of their being very pure. Sometimes even Prabhupād said that, "the pūjārīs, they used to become a little self-righteous and think that these devotees are coming in from Saṅkīrtana with their dirty clothes, and they are not you know, so together and their vans are messy and this and that, and you know, we are really together, pure and everything and they start a little bit of a feeling." And Prabhupāda said, “don’t look at the saṅkīrtana devotees with that type of materialistic eye.” He warned, even in some purport he has mentioned how he warned his pujari that, “don’t think this because you are worshipping the Deity and you are very clean and pure in that way that’s your dharma”. Those who worship the deities have to be very clean and pure and if they’re not it’s an offense. But just these other people, they may not be physically, externally as clean. Just they’re going out in the dust and the dirt and are doing saṅkīrtana in the street. But their service is not less dear to the Deity than a pūjārīs. They are giving their energy for spreading harināma-saṇkīrtana.

 

So like this within this Vaiṣṇava vyavahāra it goes right into very essential concepts of pleasing Kṛṣṇa. And so once sees beyond the superficial, sometimes we may get little proud, we may think, well, I’m chanting, you know, I’m doing my, I’m doing my duty why is anybody saying anything to me? And we develop a little bit of separatist attitude. Kṛṣṇa exp uhh… Kapiladeva explains that whether through anger or ignorance or passion or goodness we can have a separate attitude, but that is not pure devotion. Pure devotion has got no separatist attitude from Kṛṣṇa. It’s completely juicy, it’s completely surrender to Kṛṣṇa.

 

So even being a devotee, we have to see that whether within our devotion, there’s a mixture of passion, ignorance or goodness. Ignorance means, that sometimes in our devotion, we get angry. We are.. Not that we may get… Angry can be dovetailed in devotional service, that is not necessarily māyā. But we are in service out of anger. I’m going to show them, I’m a better devotee, I'm going... this type of like that anger, it’s not relevant. Rather than I’m going to serve Kṛṣṇa and I’m going to please guru and Kṛṣṇa, I’m going to show them. You know, then it’s like, it’s devotion, it’s doing service, but instead of being to please Kṛṣṇa and guru, it’s to show them, I’m going to teach them, I’m better than the other, or something like I’m going to get back, I want to, well, we’re taking out. It’s dovetailed but it’s not pure. So therefore, it doesn’t completely satisfy.

 

Or if someone’s doing devotional service but is always bitter. “My authorities, they never give me a break and we never get to, dah dah duh duh…” They always you know, have some bitter attitude. This is all different aspects of mode of ignorance. Or if someone they are doing devotional service but they think why I got to work, I’m new devotee but I got to get a good facility, I want a very comfortable life, it mean beyond and above their call of duty, their prime objective is devotional service with comfort. Or to get to the heavenly planets or some mystic powers or some kind of profit motive is there, lābha. Or to get some kind of respect from others, but may be not in an angry way but in more of a desirous way. This is all in the mode of passion.

 

This also is a separate, it’s not so pure, just to please guru and Kṛṣṇa.

 

So naturally these things are there in devotion. We can see these different thoughts maya tries to introduce and tries to colour. First we are devotional, there are pure desire and she tries like to mix a little tint, yellow, red or blue, and tries to colour. We have to always be washing, washing our laundry. So to speak, washing our consciousness in the pure nectar of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, of chanting and taking out all little pins that māyā tries to introduce. Even why we do something is very important, this no one else can see outside. Everyone is doing the same thing. But internally, why we do something? We have to refine that, we have to analyze. When the mind is saying yes, let us do this, this is the profit or good out of this. Quite not… Don’t think like that. Think in a Kṛṣṇa conscious way. This is the māyā way of thinking. The same activity, can be done is pure devotion, or can be done in good devotion, or passionate devotion, or ignorant devotion.

 

These things were explained in the third canto. So why is Prahlāda Mahārāja totally satisfied? Because he has got tīvreṇa bhakti, he is completely in pure devotion. His only desire is to please guru and Kṛṣṇa. He has no other desire and to see other people be happy. So that’s why when we hear about the pastimes of Prahlāda, a little bit rubs off. We should focus on what is it different? Why is Prahlāda so great? Because his attitude of devotion is so pure. His only desire is to... even he is offered all types of opulence, he is offered anything, but he never wavers in his complete conviction that he simply wants to serve guru and said, “I’m not a businessman”. When Nṛsimhadeva offered him, you want mystic power, or you want … “I’m not a businessman, I’m not serving You that I want liberation, that I want something. I’m serving You for Your satisfaction, and I want You to be..., I want to serve You eternally. Please give me more devotional service." A devotee, a pure devotee doesn’t serve with the idea that I have to serve this much and let me stop. 

 

I hear that when I was touring in South America, there was one devotee little bit in the mode of ignorance and had left the movement or left little bit. He was trying to tell the newer people, kind of pollutes them, "watch out , these gurus, they simply want to give you service. They always want to give you service." (laughter). I was yeah, that’s our job to give service. That’s our service is to give service. Because, by serving, that is the nectar. That is how we get purified. Always trying to give service. That is there. Everyone is being given service, then those people who are giving service, they’re your friends. Whether they are the temple president, or your kitchen head cook, or whoever, saṅkīrtana leader, they need service. The service is the only thing that keeps us away from maya. If we’re not doing service to Kṛṣṇa, we’re serving māyā.

 

So Prahlāda Mahārāja he is always serving Kṛṣṇa. Therefore he is always happy. But then he sees these other people, they are suffering. Just like Vāsudeva datta, he was happy in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. He was totally in bliss with love of Kṛṣṇa. But then he saw all the people in material world, they are working hard trying to gratify their senses and they are suffering. So he went to Lord Caitanya and he pleaded to Him. “Lord Caitanya, please. Somehow by Your mercy I got this nectar of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. I’m always feeling Kṛṣṇa conscious and happy. why all these people are suffering? Please give all of their karma to me. Let me take on all of their sinful reactions; let me suffer for them; let them all go back to Kṛṣṇa; let them taste the nectar. Why.. better why…  one person could take all their karma, why shouldn’t one take all their karma and let them go. Why should so many suffer? Let me suffer for them and let them take it. Because, even if I’m suffering materially, because I can chant Your Holy name, I’m going to feel blissful. But they have no hope for being blissful because they don’t know about devotional service. So give them devotional service and let me take all their suffering for them. Let me rot in hell, let them go back to Kṛṣṇa”. Of course, Lord Caitanya, He started crying when He heard this. How compassionate Vāsudev datta is! He started to embrace Vāsudeva datta. 

 

Where in the history of the world is there anyone who has volunteered to take all of the karma of everyone even they are not his followers? I mean the demons, the devotees, everyone. We know some great people, even who had sacrificed their life in various ways and they say that anyone who follows them would be delivered. But those who don’t follow, they can rot in hell. They can burn in… in inferno in uhh?

 

Devotee: inferno 

 

His Holiness Jayapataka Swami: Inferno. Yes. That’s how we say in English. In the eternal fire. So there’s a contrast that we see here Vāsudeva datta. He was so merciful that when he gave his mercy, there’s no condition. This is the mood of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Even the most demoniac person. Even Nityānanda was struck by Jagāi and Madhāi. "Just because you beat me on my head, I won’t give you prema? I won’t give you love for Kṛṣṇa because you beat me? Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa." And this is the mood of Vāsudeva datta, Lord Nityānanda, the mood of Lord Caitanya’s followers, to give this mercy somehow or other to everyone. Of course, we have so much mercy that Lord Caitanya is like a ocean of it. And to people, you can hardly give them a drop.

 

It is frustrating sometimes that the people, you like to give them so much mercy, but they are so spiritually bankrupt, that hardly you can give even a drop to them, and if you give two drops, they are overdosed. So somehow or other just by engaging them in little service, by hearing the Holy name, by giving them little prasādam, they gradually, gradually they build up. I met a person who is a devotee now and he said, yes he just became a new bhakta or bhaktin, I forget about. But I remember, he said in 19… some like 10 years ago, on 3 occasions, I saw the saṅkīrtana party in New York, in in Los Angeles and in Miami. Fortunate he was in other zone but, He saw the sankīr… but he saw the saṅkīrtana in three places, now the person has come and surrendered. So, even by seeing the harināma, that can take its effect, after a period of time they get delivered by getting a book, they read it, after years.

 

There was one editor of a newspaper in India. He became uhh… he became a life member because someone, his relative said become a life member. He had a book sitting on his bookshelf, he never read it. Never, he never heard anything about Kṛṣṇa consciousness and really he did his publishing. One day, out of the sky blue, just because every day he looked at the Bhāgavatam that is sitting at his shelf, one day, he picked it out of his shelf and read it. He opened it up and read it, a few pages. Immediately he was stunned. What is this book! And he started reading and then he read it and then he started nearly reading something like this where Prahlāda Mahārāja said some revolutionary statement that I’m not afraid of material existence, because like it’s so only for fools and rascals who were making a rotten place. He just opened up and you know, read one of these revolutionary statements that we find in the Bhāgavatam, throughout it and immediately you know, after reading he just couldn’t stop. And he kept reading and reading and then he looked up to devotees and then he just started to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. And everybody got amazed to hear this materialistic editor of industrial magazine, he suddenly becomes a fanatic of Hare Kṛṣṇa. You know, he’s chanting all the time, chant 16 rounds and everything. And he’s a big brāhmaṇa in India, he’s from South India. So he says “Yes, I know the Puruṣa Sūkta and the Sahasranāma, just know it like mechanically. But I never had any idea who is the Absolute Truth? Nobody ever told me. Is it Śiva or Brahmā or somebody? Here it is so clear that Kṛṣṇa is the Absolute Truth. He is the Absolute." He’s going and getting all the ministers because he’s the editor of the newspaper, so all the ministers wanted to publish few things about them. So he is very politically influential. And that just because that book, someone somehow got the book on the shelf. He didn’t even read it. “After years, I had the books for three years I never read them once and when I read it, it changed my life.” Now he’s very (coughing)  enthusiastic. 

 

Ofcourse that means only in India, people buy whole sets of books and don’t read it. (laughter) But they say it works in different ways. Kṛṣṇa consciousness seeds we spread and when they’re going to fructify, in this life, or next life? We’ll never can say. But our job is simply to give out this mercy to every person, to every house as much as we can. And eventually it starts to take its effect. Even in the present kind of religious revival in America is definite due to Śrīla Prabhupāda’s preaching. It has changed the whole karma of America, the whole karma of the world. So we have to just become very dedicated instruments in Prabhupāda’s hands, to the disciplic succession. We have to become empowered by Kṛṣṇa. Each preacher, each saṅkīrtana devotee, each other involved, they actually get empowered by Kṛṣṇa. You know, we all read about how these maharathīs can fight against literally thousands and thousands of people. It is one of those things the nāma-aparādha. You don’t wanna tell people the glories, you don’t want to tell people the glories of the maharathīs because it seems inconceivable how one person could fight against ten thousand people. So just they think alright next page. But actually they can do it. Because they are not having just human power. Of course, you know that’s another,... but devotees who could understand it. But actually they do various tapasyās and they get certain type of supernatural powers to be able to fight. They get actual like power from, from Kṛṣṇa, from different demi-gods and so on. They do tremendous tapasyās. These maharathīs, there is only you know in the whole battle a few dozen or so rathīs and maharathīs and so on. They are people who have done tremendous austerities and may get like blessings from great sages and gurus at that time were very powerful. Even Arjuna got weapons from Indra and from different people from other planetary systems. So they have this extremely great power and of course, so that mean they are empowered mainly in the material sense, they get the power.

 

But the preachers, we get the power from Kṛṣṇa. Just like after the end of the Kurukṣetra battle, Arjuna was gonna get out of the chariot and Kṛṣṇa told, “No, don’t get out.” 

 

Arjuna: Why? 

 

Kṛṣṇa : “Wait”. 

 

Oh no, actually, Arjuna was saying Kṛṣṇa, “You go out first”, then Kṛṣṇa said, “no, no you go”. Then Arjuna gets down, walks away and just he ran you know and then Kṛṣṇa, He gets out of the chariot. As soon as Kṛṣṇa steps out of the chariot, boom, like a nuclear explosion, all things just exhilarates, sparks, and flames, smoke, suddenly this huge beautiful chariot which was given by,  who is it ? Indra? Or Sun god? Someone gave this. 

 

Devotee: Varuna

 

His Holiness Jayapataka Swami: Varuna? Agni gave him, Agni gave him, yes it was given by Agni. It was completely ashes, nothing left off. Arjuna was bewildered. “What happened?” And He said that, “So many people were throwing curses, secret weapons and all kind of things on you, that this this chariot, if I wasn’t standing, it would’ve been disintegrated to ashes long time ago. Because I was present, I was holding it up. You had to leave. As soon as I left the chariot, “boom” it’s finished."

 

So it is like that, the devotee sometimes people they throw their different malefic, you know, desires against. But if a person just remained like Prahlāda, who was always a simple surrendered devotee, no matter how much his father tried to destroy him, he couldn’t be destroyed. Prahlāda was never envious against his father but  anti culprit ... anti-fathers. No Prahlāda was never envious of his father, this is his father happened to be a demon who was envious against his son. Actually, Prahlāda was always the well-wisher of his father. The devotee loves his parents. It’s a natural thing in the parents. Normally the devotee parents love their children. That’s the natural thing. But Hiraṇyakaśipu happened to be a you know a demon. So in spite of his son loving him, he hated his son, because the son was a devotee, and not a demon like him.

 

So, if we remain simple devotees, if we learn this, this somehow we get the blessing of Prabhupāda and Prahlāda. We can pray for that, that we can just always be fixed in devotion, we get empowered, we can preach. Even though there may be so many obstacles, somehow Kṛṣṇa protects the devotee. Even though we’re put in different difficulties, somehow, when we are preaching in the west always is some difficulty come. I was personally thrown into jail when I was preaching in Montreal. But somehow the chief of police was my friend. Because I somehow had good relation with him so then when he found I was in jail, he nearly got me taken out. But when you are preaching there’s always a certain risk that one takes. But wherever we are, whether we are in jail, whether we are outside or whatever, we shouldn’t be puffed up and think, “I’m a devotee, therefore I’m free”. But we should try rather to please Kṛṣṇa. Try to avoid, of course offending people but try to please Kṛṣṇa and by Kṛṣṇa’s own mercy. Without that, out of pride, we should you know do things which are rash, thinking that Kṛṣṇa will protect us, that’s another perversion. Rather just by being surrendered to Kṛṣṇa and trying, once can experience how Kṛṣṇa does help the devotee. That comes causelessly, causeless mercy, confirmed! By your sneeze.

 

So, in this way, instead of being absorbed in other things, the preacher should be absorbed like Prahlāda. That if I could engage these people in service, I’m helping them. Even though superficially they are demons, and of course, Hiraṇyakaśipu was a demon, he was killed by, or delivered by, by Nṛsiṁhadeva. But Lord Caitanya, His mood is even these demons if we engage them in service, then eventually their demoniac aspect is killed. But there what’s left is their devotional aspect. So they’ll become devotees. So our mood is that we try to engage people in service and we imbibe ourselves benefit. We are doing them a service. But in reciprocation, we like to give something as far as possible back, we like to give them as much spiritual knowledge as they could accept. Directly or indirectly we try to engage them. Knowingly or unknowingly they benefit. This is our objective, is we try to benefit the whole society.

 

We are here not simply for ourselves but we are here for helping the entire society to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. This is our ultimate objective. This is a voluntary option we simply provide. And we want to improve the facility, so we can provide a more attractive option for them, so it's more hard for them to refuse. But our objective is eventually to get everyone this positive alternative of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness so they can become Kṛṣṇa conscious, and they can become free from the suffering of the material world. And they can also experience the same bliss of Kṛṣṇa consciousness that Prahlāda Mahārāja has handed down to us through Śrīla Prabhupāda and Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. 

 

Nitāi-Gaura Premānande !

 

Devotees: Hari Haribol !

 

His Holiness Jayapataka Swami: Is there any questions? Pablo?

 

Devotee: What is more important for a Vaiṣṇava? To remain a brahmacāri or to beget a child?

 

Jayapataka Swami: Of course more important. It’s an individual situation. Individual. Prabhupāda explains in the 8th Canto Bhāgavatam that we have to work from wherever our position of strength is. The example that’s said, the elephant was fighting against the crocodile. But the crocodile and elephant were in the water. So the elephant was becoming weaker, and the crocodile was becoming stronger. So the elephant was getting to not able to fight. So he start to pray to Kṛṣṇa to help. So in this verse Prabhupāda explains that the devotees should be physically, mentally, and spiritually strong. And it gets to be a bit of an energy drain.

 

In other words, for them, the mind is being distracted that a lot by different thoughts. So it’s a constant thing that a person has to work at. Of course, everyone can do it, but it seems to be like an energy drain, or possibly one will be more peaceful and productive in a family situation. So basically it depends upon each individual.

 

Generally our program is that people should first of all practise the brahmacārī life as far as possible, and become strong, and after some time, then the Spiritual master and the senior Vaiṣṇavas, they can help to advice one, whether they should enter into the gṛhastha-āśrama, whether they should try to remain in the brahmacārī ashram for some more time, or in some cases, whether, rarely, someone should take sannyāsa.