19870811 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.10.20

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on August 11th 1987 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2nd canto, chapter 10, text 20.

Jayapatākā Swami: Sri Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā ki

Devotees : Jaya !

Jayapatākā Swami: (leads the reciting of the verse, synonyms and translation with devotees repeat)

nāsike nirabhidyetāṁ
dodhūyati nabhasvati
tatra vāyur gandha-vaho
ghrāṇo nasi jighṛkṣataḥ
(ŚB 2.10.20)

nāsike — in the nostrils; nirabhidyetām — being developed; dodhūyati — rapidly blowing; nabhasvati — air respiration; tatra — thereupon; vāyuḥ — air; gandha-vahaḥ — smelling odor; ghrāṇaḥ — sense of smell; nasi — in the nose; jighṛkṣataḥ — desiring to smell odors.

Translation: Thereafter, when the supreme puruṣa desired to smell odors, the nostrils and respiration were generated, the nasal instrument and odors came into existence, and the controlling deity of air, carrying smell, also became manifested.

Purport: The nasal instrument, odor, and the controlling deity of air, smelling, etc., all became manifested simultaneously when the Lord desired to smell. The Vedic mantras confirm this statement in the Upaniṣads’ statement that everything is first desired by the Supreme before the subordinate living entity can act upon it. The living entity can see only when the Lord sees, the living entity can smell when the Lord smells, and so on. The idea is that the living entity cannot do anything independently. He can simply think of doing something independently, but he cannot act independently. This independence in thinking is there by the grace of the Lord, but the thinking can be given shape by the grace of the Lord, and therefore the common saying is that man proposes and God disposes. The whole explanation is on the subject of the absolute dependence of the living entities and absolute independence of the Supreme Lord. Less intelligent persons claiming to be on an equal level with God must first prove themselves to be absolute and independent, and then they must substantiate their claim to being one with God.

Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Swami translation and purport of text 20, chapter 10, canto 2 of the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam in the matter of Bhāgavatam is the source of all actions.

Jayapatākā Swami: So here, the punchline is that “less intelligent persons claiming to be on an equal level with God must first prove themselves to be absolute and independent, and then they must substantiate their claim to being one with God”. The impersonalists always claim that they are God. They claim that they are the Supreme Person but they do not show any of the symptoms of the Supreme Person, in terms of being the absolute or being independent. Kṛṣṇa, when He was there in this planet sometimes He may have followed the normal procedures just in order to give a good example but quite frequently when it pleased Him, He would do something which is totally impossible for any ordinary person. He would establish it and in fact, He was the absolute. Just as He ate the grain of vegetable from Draupadī’s pot, and He satisfied all of the sages, all of the disciples of Durvāsā Muni. In this way He proved that He was the absolute. When Kṛṣṇa was in a battle, but He got the message that Rukmiṇī was requesting Him to come and save her, to accept her as His queen. Then, He left the battle for which He is known as Raṇacora or one who left the battle. He gave up the battle which a kṣatriya never does. And He went to save Rukmiṇī and made her His queen, one of His queens. So Kṛṣṇa, if He wants, He may follow the kṣatriya rules, if He doesn’t want He can follow, do whatever He want. Of course, that people like to show their so called independence but then, when they try to imitate Kṛṣṇa by being so called independent, they get the reaction. But Kṛṣṇa, there’s no bad reaction. Although He did very independent things, He never could be…uhh , His position could never be reduced or affected in anyway even when He did act totally independently and He did act on the absolute platform. On many occasions, much for the education of everyone. Just as He showed the Universal Form on the battlefield of Kurukṣetra that’s acting on the absolute platform. Nobody but the absolute truth can show the Universal Form. When He accepted the princesses that were captured by .. it was Bāṇāsura is in’t it or Narakāsura, Bāṇāsura sixteen thousand princesses, then although He showed His independence because technically according to the society, they were outcasted, they had been kidnapped, they were touched by a man. In those days it meant that you couldn’t marry them. Only.. not only virgins but only women that had never had any association with anothe…, with a man, they could be accepted as wife. But Kṛṣṇa accepted all of them , purifying all of them, showing His independence, showing His absolute nature by giving each one of them a palace. Who can give sixteen thousand palaces to their sixteen thousand queens? And then He would enter into each of the palaces at the same time. Who can do that? It is totally absolute. Someone might try to imitate it trying to have 4-5 mistresses and say he’s trying to imitate Kṛṣṇa or something. This is simply offensive and the person will simply go to hell for his vikarma - sinful activities. Nothing about Kṛṣṇa that ever approaches anything to do with material sin or piety, it’s always acting on the absolute platform. But sometimes we might mistake that whether Kṛṣṇa is acting in the absolute platform or not, so just to clarify the matter, He does something which is totally impossible for a conditioned soul, that anyone who knows about the nature of the material world and the nature of the spiritual world can understand what He is doing is totally on the spiritual platform. No one can make 16,108 expansions in this material world - neither the greatest yogi nor any demigod can do exactly what Kṛṣṇa had performed. Similarly no one can show the Universal form except for Kṛṣṇa. So although Kṛṣṇa has pastimes which appear very similar to the human activities He clarifies the matter very emphatically by showing His absolute nature and His independent nature whenever He desires to do so.

So Prabhupāda said here that anyone claiming to be on an equal level with God must first prove themselves to be absolute and independent. I was explained how in a recent, not too long ago maybe you’ve heard this before that how there was this one yogi, one of a bhogi-yogi, with a lot of hair, he was claiming to the people that he was going to Jagannātha Purī temple and bringing back hot prasāda. And there when they open up the temple door, there he would be sitting, they close the door, they open again he would be gone. Then after about half hour they open it again there he would be sitting with all hot prasad. People would come up and bow down and say “guru, swamiji, you know have all mystic power you are going about 300 miles/kilometers say from uhh…, Jagannātha Purī.” How can he bring hot prasāda except by mystic power? Of course he also imitated.., tried to imitate, through his imitation of Kṛṣṇa by messing around with other people’s wives. So there was a complaint made to the secret police. They did an investigation and they found that few hundred metres from the temple, there was some smoke coming from the ground. So one day when they closed the temple they opened it up, opened the temple, looked it up, they found a trap door went on underneath and then they found there was a tunnel leading under about you know some distance away there was an underground kitchen and they were cooking up the Jagannātha Prasāda. (Devotees laugh). Some cooks were there and then he would take the hot prasāda, put it there, people would come and claim that he is God and give him all kinds of donations and things and he would enjoy all type of illicit activities. So the secret police showed all the villagers this is what your avatāra is doing. (Devotees laugh). They took the avatāra with his big hair and they pulled out the hair one by one. While the police were filling out the report, they didn’t notice what they were doing.(Devotees laugh). So people they want to claim to be God but they are not independent.

I once went to one of the Śaṅkarācāryas of Purī. He’s no longer with us, he’s new one. But that time I was very new to India, I didn’t know anything. I was sent. Now of course probably I would be much more tactful dealing with any religious leader. But I was sent try to get entrance into the Jagannātha Purī temple. And the Jagannātha Purī authorities told me you see the, you give a letter from the Śaṅkarācārya we will accept. So I went to see him. So he had Radha-Kṛṣṇa deities and we had many discussions about different topics. But then at point he just said that He was Kṛṣṇa. Of course, he said that most people who are born outside of India could never become Hindus. But they could aspire next life to be born Indian, then be Hindu. Be born in a .., it’s a hereditary thing. That was his base. Although I don’t know exactly how, what birth you have to take to become God. That he didn’t explain. But somewhere he was feeling that he had become Kṛṣṇa. He had become God. So then I was saying, I said why you are worshiping Radha and Kṛṣṇa? If you are God, then why you are worshiping Radha and Kṛṣṇa? He said that I’m worshiping myself.(Devotees laugh). Ahamopāsanā. I said Radha-Kṛṣṇa They are looking very beautiful but you are becoming very old and wrinkled. (Devotees laugh). He said this is my līlā. (Devotees laugh). I said, but that līlāeveryone is doing, (Devotees laugh) we like to see you reverse that līlā. He said I do not desire to do so. (Devotees laugh) . So he was not showing any independence from the material nature. Kṛṣṇa when He spoke in the battlefield of Kurukṣetra, He was 125 years old but He was still looking like a young man, 20 years old young man. As He has a spiritual body. But for all of the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs līlās, they could not turn back the time, could not stop the passage of time. We see in the modern world, people don’t like to see the colours of life. There’s disease, there’s old age. People like to put this out of site. In fact, in the hospital, one of the things that happens is people die. This also people don’t.., put out of site. So when someone dies in a hospital, then they try to remove the body in such a way no one would see. Because if they see then that disturbs them. So like the basic facts of life, which are to kind of give us some awareness that we are not independent. We are all dependent on this material nature. Therefore we should consider how we should link up with the Absolute Lord, how we can become protected by the Supreme independent, how we can solve these problems of life. These things are just like swept under the rug. They are taken away from the vision. Someone gets sick take them to the hospital, then you just get the report uhh.., death confirmed, finished. You see, the actual vision of death and everything this is not seen by the general people. Similarly if someone’s sick of course, send them to the hospital. Each individual life people may experience but it’s not so evident in the western world. And old age, when someone gets old, they don’t like to keep their old parents in the house and they send them to some old folks home. Yesterday I saw one of our devotees just maintaining a nice medical centre for old people. The children, they have difficulty maintaining the old people. Of course especially if they become invalid.., invalid, so then they send. And to see old age you see in its extreme phases of course is something very educating. That we have to go through these phases. It can make one somewhat detached from material life. But these things are more or less kept out of sight, no one likes to see the old people. So it may be they are another race of people, we don’t become like that, we are gonna stay young forever. Everyone becomes old if they live that long. They all become old, they go through these phases. The truth is they are not independent. They are dependent on this material nature, and the material nature is dependent upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead. These verses in the Bhāgavatam are showing us how everything is coming from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The material nature is not independent. Just as the Brahma Saṁhitā says that Durga, she has.., she is doing creation, she is doing maintenance, she is doing destruction. Sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana śaktir eka but how she is doing it? Chāyeva.., She is like icchānurūpam, chāyeva, she is acting according to the desire of the Supreme Personality of Godhead as faithfully, as a shadow follows the movement of one’s hand. You may not see how she is doing. Just like an expert servant, gets an indication from the master. It’s not that the master has to have string and then move the servant around like a puppet. If the commander tells his subordinate officers you do this, you do that, they immediately go and they execute the orders of the commander-in-chief. How they are going about it? They know that is their qualification, they can carry out the orders. Māyādevi may appear independent, you may not see that there is any other controlling because it’s a personal relationship, whatever order she gets from Kṛṣṇa, from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, she performs. When Kṛṣṇa wanted to appear she called…, He called His Yogamāyā, said you prepare things in the womb of Devakī, you move Balarāma to the womb of Rohiṇī and I’m going to take shelter in the womb of Devakī and appear there. She goes and does it. This is the nature of the spiritual energies. They do it just as a expert minister carries out the order of the Prime Minister or the President or King, or as an expert officer in the military carries out the order of his commander. They do it immediately. In this material world we are dependent on material nature, and the material nature is dependent on Jagannātha Swami ki

Devotees : Jaya !

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Jagannātha! Lord of the Universe ! So because He is independent, therefore He doesn’t grow old. Because He is absolute, He can show the Universal form, He can expand into 16000 forms or unlimited forms, He can lift Giri Govardhana with one finger at the age of 7, He can do all this, He doesn’t have to go through, you see reformatory processes. Sometimes the impersonal yogis they do certain meditation and at one point they say, “now I have become God”. God doesn’t have to become God, He is always God. He is Absolute. Kṛṣṇa was the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the womb of Devakī, and in the lap of mother Yaśodā. Just as when He was sucking the breast milk of mother Yaśodā and Pūtanā came to poison Him, easily defeated that great powerful witch, demoness even though He was having a little infant form, He is the same Absolute Personality of Godhead. Whether Tṛṇāvartāsura lifts Him up in the air or whether Indra puts a big deluge in Vṛndāvana, He just lifts up Giri Govardhan. He is always Kṛṣṇa, He’s always the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Whether in Vṛndāvana, whether dancing with the gopīs, whether speaking on the Bhagavad-Gita in the battlefield of Kurukṣetra or whether with the queens in Dvaraka, Kṛṣṇa is always absolute and independent. So someone claims that they are the Supreme Godhead, then they should prove first that they are absolute and independent. Otherwise anyone can…, any madman can claim anything. The infamous islands are filled with people claiming they are Napoleon or George Washington or Mao Tse Tung. Similarly there are many āśramas filled with mad men claiming they are Kṛṣṇa. Let them prove it. Let them lift Mt.Everest on their little finger before everyone for 7 days you see. Not that even a great yogi couldn’t do that, but they don’t even have that much mystic power. The great sages, the great ṛṣis, the great mystics, who could even create planets, they bow their head down to Kṛṣṇa, when He is standing in His little child form. Because He is the Supreme independent, the Supreme Absolute. We are not against…, we feel concerned about such transcendentalists that they are misleading themselves and their followers. They are going to suffer for misleading so many innocent people. We are also concerned for their welfare, that they should give up falsely claiming to be the avatāra of Kṛṣṇa. And they should themselves surrender to Kṛṣṇa and become situated on the transcendental platform of pure devotional service. This is the nature of the devotees. They are not envious of anyone. They are the well-wishers of everyone. They even desire that the demons could become devotees. That is Lord Caitanya’s mission. Even the demons, He would make devotees. Jagāi Mādhāi are evidences in this case. As well as Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī was claiming to be God - Nārāyaṇa. But Kṛṣṇa made him a devotee. Lord Caitanya made him, Lord Caitanya blessed him to become a devotee by His preaching. Of course it is not easy, to try to convince an impersonalist - so called  avatāra to surrender to Kṛṣṇa. This is not possible for the ordinary person, therefore we cannot imitate. But at least we can preach to the innocent people, to those who are not yet bewildered to think that they are Bhagavān. That they can understand who is Bhagavān? Who is the absolute? Who is independent? And they can take shelter of that Supreme. Why do we take shelter of Kṛṣṇa? Because He is absolute and independent. Because He is independent, therefore by taking shelter of Him, one becomes independent of the material nature. Be dependent on Kṛṣṇa means, to be independent of everything else. Otherwise in the material world, everyone is dependent. We are all in the material world having two choices - either to depend on the control of the three modes of material nature which are acting mechanically and sometimes even harshly, or to be under the tender care, loving care of the Yogamāyā - Subhadrā devi, under the care and shelter of Lord Śrī-Kṛṣṇa who protects us through His own internal potency. Always those who are foolish, they think they are independent. Some yogis are sitting, meditating.., that so called yogi, modern you see.., they are sitting and thinking “now, I am making the sun rise”. (Devotees laugh). They can only make the sun rise, they have to look at the newspaper, when the sun rises normally, that time they can meditate and make it rise. Who has made it rise an hour early? Or set an hour late? But they cheat themselves they think now I’m making the sun rise, now I’m making it set, now its setting…, Whether they think or not it’s going on. Their thinking is inconsequential has no relation but somehow you see they get themself totally psyched up to identify themself with Bhagavān. That they are God, they are the Absolute. They are foolish. They should see that how they are dependent in this material world. Then they should take shelter of the Supreme Absolute. Not by thinking they are one with Him in all respects, by seeing that they are qualitatively one. They are the same spiritual nature - Saccidānanda - eternal, blissful, knowledge. But then they should see that they are very small and He is unlimitedly great, therefore they should engage in His service. This is the natural reciprocation, the natural position.

Sometimes Lord Caitanya, He would come and He would give people love. He would give them His love but then He would also give them knowledge. One time He was approached by some Buddhist monks, One Buddhist Abbot - one guru. He discussed with them and He showed them very clearly using the Dhammapada, using Vedas, using logic, using argument, He showed them the truth. They were.., they had no more argument to deny Lord Caitanya’s proposition but they left that place. The guru, He made a plan - we have to get rid of this Caitanya, He is spoiling everything. This is not sincere. Someone is discussing, he has philosophy, he should discuss whatever the better argument, whatever the better understanding, they should accept. The sectarianism, that one simply sticks with one idea even though he cannot substantiate it, creates fanatics, creates dogmatism. People they don’t know their own teachings. It doesn’t require that they should know their teachings. They should just claim to be a part of one school or the other. And then they fight with everyone else. If they knew the teaching, then they could see what is the actual basis. Then they can see all they don’t have to. What they, what they.., they can at that time could have a worldwide understanding. But in the kali-yuga, even in the time of Lord Caitanya, this nature was particular. Monks, they went back and decided now we have to get rid of Lord Caitanya, they prepared some food but it was contaminated food. To try to make Lord Caitanya fall down from the spiritual platform. They thought He was an ordinary monk like them and then if you feed Him some contaminated food He will fall in the mode of passion and ignorance and then He will be finished. So they went with that food as it is if it were some prasāda. You come and take this is our prasāda. Before they could even offer to Lord Caitanya, from nowhere a big bird came, picked up the plate, lifted it high in the sky and let it go. The plate fell right on the head of the buddhist monk guru. He fell unconscious on the ground and his followers were there. Oh ! What happened? What happened? They turned to Lord Caitanya - save our guru, save our guru, save our master, our head. He said yes you can save him, you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa in his ear. You chant

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare 
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare 

So they heard the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra and they all initiated by this.., by Lord Caitanya and then they chanted in the ear of their guru. In this way the guru became their disciple. (Devotees laugh). So Lord Caitanya, He was very merciful. Actually devotees are very merciful. Just like I saw in that old folks home, they are playing some tapes and lectures sometimes, and they got some prasādam. This way the devotees are merciful. Even the people don’t understand, they are getting the benefit. They are getting some prasādam, they are hearing, in this way their destination will be better situated. The devotees, they are giving so much benefit to the society at large. Foolish people think oh they are parasites. They don’t realise that they are doing the most important function for the society. They are awakening the people to their real spiritual knowledge, to their real spiritual happiness. They are saving them from unlimited sinful reactions. But just to remain independent that they don’t have to depend, if you are a salaried person then you all tend to have to just follow whatever the boss says right. So to remain independent for any service given someone appreciates yes you are doing a good work, you give a donation. If you don’t think that anything is being done, it’s a donation and you have a liberty to give or not give. Nobody can say that someone’s a parasite if they are getting a donation. Because they are being given willingly by people. The criterion should be people should willingly give. Not that they should be cheated into giving some donation. They should be able…, be convinced that the work being done is worthwhile and good and of their own free initiative they should contribute - yes this is a good cause. Of course in the previous time, general people did not have to give donations to the devotees to this extent, a little milk, a little grain that was enough. Because previously the government was Kingly government. They would subsidise religion. They themselves would donate profusely to brāhmaṇas and priests and so on. So therefore there was no need for pressing the general people for finance. Simply some grains for festivals and things like that was enough, some flour, some ghee, some fruits. Financial needs were met by the head of the state. But now it is a democracy government is separated from religion so people vote their own government but they have taxes do not provide any money for religious work. In fact, even governments give tax exemption. That means the government is also authorising, yes it is valid and.., and to donate for charitable and religious purposes. It is a service to the society. They are providing a service, therefore it’s tax exempt. So that means all over the world there is recognition that this is a valuable aspect of social development giving spiritual and religious guidance and services. So those people they think that they are parasites or something they don’t, they are just simply empty words. They don’t know the actual activities of Kṛṣṇa conscious devotees and how they are benefiting the society at large. So they should be gradually educated. Then they will retract those words. No, this is actually very valuable service. So just as Kṛṣṇa, He desired that the world would be created so one by one, the things are happening. So in different avatāras He has different desires. So in the avatāra of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He desired let the people all become God conscious, let them become Kṛṣṇa conscious that is His special mercy. So we can take advantage of His desire to give us mercy by chanting

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare 
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare