19930503 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.10.9

Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 7.10.9

Type Of Talk:

Morning Class

Book:

Srimad Bhagavatam (SB)

Date:

Monday, May 3, 1993

Collection:

Enlightenment 7

Audio player:

19930503_Srimad_Bhagavatam.7.10.9_Auckland_New_Zealand The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapataka Swami on May 3rd, 1993 at Auckland, News eland. The class begins with a reading from the Srimad Bhagavatam, 7th Canto, 10th Chapter, 9th Verse. Translation by His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. O my Lord, when a human being is able to give up all the material desires in his mind, he becomes eligible to possess wealth and opulence like Your’s. Purport by Srila Prabhupada: Atheistic men sometimes criticize a devotee by saying, “Well, If you do not want to take any benediction from the Lord and if the servant of the Lord is as opulent as the Lord Himself, why do you ask for the benediction of being engaged as the Lord’s servant?” Śrīdhara Svāmī comments, bhagavattvāya bhagavat-samān aiśvaryāya. Bhagavattva, becoming as good as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, does not mean becoming one with Him or equal to Him, although in the spiritual world the servant is equally as opulent as the master. The servant of the Lord is engaged in the service of the Lord as a servant, a friend, father, mother or conjugal lover, all of whom are equally as opulent as the Lord. This is acintya-bhedābheda-tattva. The master and servant are different yet equal in opulence. This is the meaning of simultaneous difference from the Supreme Lord and oneness with Him. Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta Swami Translation and Purport of Text 9, Chapter 10, Canto 7 of the Srimad Bhagavatam, in the matter of Prahlada, the best among exalted devotees. So Prahlad Maharaj was offered a benediction by Narasimhadeva for his ah... devotion to the Lord. Prahlad Maharaj is offering this prayers in response, that how I was born in atheistic family, and so naturally I am attached to material enjoyment. So please don’t tempt me with this illusions. I am very much afraid of material conditions. I desire to be liberated from materialistic life, it is for these reasons I have taken shelter of Your lotus feet. And then there is a series of verses where Prahlada Maharaj in his prayers to the Lord, he explains what is the basis of being entangled in the material world. How by material desires one is entangled. How if a devotee thinks that, “Let me worship the Lord and in exchange for that I will get material benefits. That...that devotee is like the businessman, or merchant, Ok I will give you this, in exchange you give me that, but actually the process of devotional service is on the basis of loving exchange, the devotee is grateful to the Lord for so many things as loving the Lord, and so out of that devotion the devotee is simply offering things to the Lord without asking anything in return. Prahlada mentions that if I want something from You for my service, than I am not qualified. Nobody is qualified as a pure devotee if they want something back materially from the Lord. So then he stated this point that there is no need of our being anything other than master and servant. You are my master and I am Your servant, there is no other relation. The same came out when Ramchandra, He offered Hanuman, that Hanuman could have anything that he wanted, but Hanuman didn’t want anything even though Ramchandra offered him liberation, but Hanuman stated that he didn’t want anything that would come in the way of the relationship os master and servant. Simply wanted that relationship, but Ramchandra insisted that what it that you want. So then Hanuman since he had to ask for something, he said actually how he felt so much affection for Ram but out of ah... like awe or reverence he was not able to fully express how much affection he felt for Ram. So he asked one time if he could just embrace Ram. He felt like a son for the father, he felt so much affection, in a very simple way he wanted to just wanted to embrace Ram like a son embraces a father. So then Ram accepted and embraced the Hanuman. So there is a famous picture somtimes you see of Hanuman embracing Lord Ram. So the devotee they don’t want something material in exchange for serving Krishna. Prabhupada gives a example if you go to some multibillionaire and then he says, “OK, What do you want? What did you come here for?” “I want the ashes from your cigarette tray as a some souvenir or something.” What is the use of wasting your time......wasting his time. You are going to go you should get something worthwhile. Material life...any benediction material is bound to be finished. If you are going up to the supreme personality of Godhead, why get something temporary, you can even get that from the devas. Get the highest benediction which is to be His eternal servitor. So then he said if there is any benediction I have to ask may be that I have no material desire, then he explains why this material desires, the lusty desires how they completely vanquish all of the good qualities of a human being, all their strength, memory everything. And now in this verse it is explaining, how when we can give up all those desires then anyway we become eligible to possess wealth and opulence like yours. Separately in other words a devotee doesn’t have to ask for wealth or opulence. If they give up all material desires and have pure devotion automatically they become eligible. So that’s why Srila Prabhupada in a purport is saying, “Well, so in a round about way by asking to be a servant of the Lord you are getting ah... the same weath and opulence, what is the difference?” Atheists they always they try to denigrate or criticize the position of the devotees. The devotee is always fixed in the service of the Lord whether a servant, friend, parent or lover. And to be in that type of intimate association with Krishna naturally you have to be on the same or similar level, to say that the President and all his immediate associates, they also wear very nice suits and everything, even though they may be policemen and bodyguards and they may be you know may be people of various salary groups but still they look like a respectable, similarly dressed people, they may be slight difference but it ‘s nothing. It’s not like one of them 8.12 you know. So to be serving the Lord, one should.. is automatically eligible to be very opulent. In this regard Prabhupada was mentioning how in South India, in the Sri Sampradaya, how the Pujaris, they are having Gold earrings... diamond earrings. So Srila Prabhupada was saying since they are serving the Lord, who is the most ah... wealthy, possessor of all wealth, it’s only appropriate that His servitors also can have diamond earrings. They should also be opulent. So that’s not that the devotee wants to become God, or wants to independently have any material opulence for sense gratification. It’s just a very nature of ah...serving the Lord that He automatically just 9.08 almost equal opulence. So one does gets all the facilities and the devotee doesn’t get entangled by those facilities because ah...they don’t have material desires, they simply use ah... whatever facilities they have for krishna’s service. So it is a very important point that we have to give up all the material desires in our minds to be able to get that type of facility, because Srila Prabhupada’s only desire was to serve his spiritual masters orders. So he couldn’t have so many ah... temples, so many millions of dollars of properties all over the world, but ah... he never used anything for anything but for Krishna’s service. In fact I remember I was sitting in Calcutta with Srila Prabhupada and some man came and asked him some...some businessman came and said, “Srila Prabhupada can you show us some miracle?” You know there are some babas, some people in India they show miracles, they pull our rasagullas, or...of course Bhakti Siddhantha Saraswati Thakur said that, what is that somebody can produce a rasagulla, you can buy one in the market for 50 piece, he said it’s not a very important ah...matter. Infact one of our life members is a musician, he tells us a stories how he went to see one of the famous babas in South India and uncovered that actually what he was doing was magical tricks. He said you were with me in the magic school in 1940’s so and so, and you were my colleague and now you are doing.” he said, “don’t talk all this things .......,” He come and see me behind, and he said what you are doing, you are showing off that your bhagavan but you are just doing ah... this slight of hand, in your cloth you are hiding all the things and you are doing, So I am...so you are doing the same thing so I, what’s the problem, but I say I am a magician, I don’t say I am God, you say you are God” “But it’s for a good purpose anyway. (laughter) I am getting people to do good things, they are doing hospital, school and so many things, so what’s the problem? If this gets them off, that by doing a few magic tricks, they are so foolish, they think I am God, then what’s the problem, you see, it’s for good work after all, you don’t disturb it. I am not harming anybody. Anyway we were all friends and, so somehow he convinced the magician that he shouldn’t make any big exposa when he presented it like that, but then one of the disciples of the baba put an add in the paper, some...some 11.54-55 magician came to see and he was turned into a goat for nine days and they showed the picture of the goat in the paper. (laughter). So the magician got, they are calling me that I was turned to a goat... alright that’s too much. So then he revealed this whole thing in the newspaper, and the people don’t care also. They want to believe, it’s like ah... Prabhupada said, cheater’s and the cheated, they want to believe this type of thing because it easy, instant religion, they don’t have to do anything, very simple. So anyway, this type of religion is ah...very prominent, where people are simply offered some kind of material facilities and then you see that ah... that so many of these ah... Godmen, when they get some opulence, then they start buying all kinds of Rolls Royces and different things and driving it out. They don’t know what to do actually with their money, they are just trying to show it off. Use it for some useless purposes, in fact it took like so many years for us to finally convince Prabhupada that we could buy him a couple of Ambassador cars when he came to India. He didn’t want to use anything for himself. So when this businessman came and asked Prabhupada, “Can you show us some miracles.” He said, “What is the use of all this things?” “You want to see a miracle. I went to America with 40 rupees, 8 dollars ... in those... 8 dollars in those days and after 6 years I have 40 million rupees, 40 million dollars worth of properties all over the world by spreading Krishna consciousness. So it’s not a miracle?” “That’s a miracle.” What is the use of all this rasagulla business. So Srila Prabhupada, he had all the unlimited opulence. Then he said that even though I have so much so much opulence Krishna has given, but I can’t stay in any temple more than a few days. So I have been cursed, like the curse of Narada Muni by Daksha, I got the same curse. So I can only stay a few days in every temple, maximum. This is the nature of the gostyanandis. Also that whatever facility they get, they want to use that also for helping other conditioned souls to get back to Krishna, so that they can go back to home, back to Godhead, so that they can develop pure devotional service. The devotee just doesn’t want to serve Krishna alone, why not have other people also get the benefit, get the mercy of being able to serve the Lord. This is Prahlada Maharaj’s special mood, even though he went to the school of the demons, he was preaching into all the other students.

Actually he was risking his life in a sense that if they discovered that they were trying to kill him, and thus what happened, he got all the students to chant Hare Krishna and he got caught, and his father ordered that he should be assassinated, somehow or another. Of course he was protected by Krishna. So even though they tried to kill him in so many ways, throwing him off the mountain, putting him in the snake pit, trying him to crush him by elephant, boiling him in oil, nothing worked. So Hiranyakashipu, he got so upset, you know , “Why is it...where did you get all your power”, can’t figure out whey he couldn’t kill his son, so when Hiranyakashipu had done so many austerities and got the blessing from Brahma, so he got all this power, but he couldn’t figure out where did the son get all the power from. Then Prahlad said, “I get my power from the same place you get your power from. I am getting my potency from the supreme Lord, where do you think you get yours from. Nothing is independent of the Lord.” Of course that was the one thing that this atheists didn’t want to hear. There was a supreme Lord, he was so envious about Visnu, so he considered that his son was enemy because he was talking about God, so he tried to kill him, so on the story unfolds, very soon we are having Narasingha Caturdashi where we will be celebrating the appearance of Lord Narasinghadev. So the basic idea that Prahalada is giving us, this is how we can simply focus all of our energy on serving the Lord. Even if somebody wants opulence, that opulence comes. And if somebody wants things for material purposes, then he so elaborately explains that it is simply self-destructive and foolish. So in this one.. if they really can deeply meditate upon the instructions of Prahlada Maharaj, then they can completely be fixed up in pure devotional service. So Prahalada is one of the mahajana’s. Mahajana yena gatas to pantha, we follow the footsteps of mahajanas, then we are guaranteed to have success in devotional service. So what he says is also authoritative. Instead of... the devotees they follow these great souls, they follow the mahajans, but in the material world people, even the so called independent thinkers, they generally tend to follow others, instead of following mahajanas they follow the mood of whatever is going on. This is being described just like when there is a school of fish swimming in the...in the river, so the fish are going from this side to that side. They tend to go all at once. He said that the fish goes into one head, the fish goes into the net...into the fisherman’s net, then they all get caught. So material society people generally seems go like that as pools of fish, they try to go this direction or that direction, by a little independent exercise of intelligence they are just going according to the trend at that time and so the devotees, they remain in a transcendental position, thousands of years the devotees have been wearing the same clothing, they are following the Vedas and teachings of mahajans, so they become fixed in transcendental thoughts. So they change as the material trends are changing from this side to that side. So historically, there are usually the devotees are out of the trend. So doesn’t matter whatever the trend is but the devotees are somewhere else. So it is a very common thing that people will be criticizing the devotees thinking that they are out, doesn’t matter whether it is the 20th century or whether it was a 18th century or whether it was the 1st century or the...5000 years ago, materialists are in one mode and the devotees are in the other. Just as Krishna explained in the Bhagavat Gita, what is the time of awakening of a self-realized soul is the time for sleeping for the materially engrossed person. What is the time for awakening for the materially engrossed person is the time of sleeping for the self-realized soul. So we may think that “Well, today it is difficult being a devotee, many people are criticizing or they consider we are a little different but it is the same all the way through it, it doesn’t matter, you might think that well in India it is different. It’s a little different in India, no doubt. They accept, they respect sadhus to some degree, but still if somebody son wants to or daughter wants to be a devotee, then the whole family, in the most cases it’s quite common that they all get really upset, that why you want to be a devotee, don’t do so much religion, don’t do too much religion. You know little bit is alright, go to the temple, do a little puja and when you get old then you think about it, now you are young, now you should enjoy, this religion is meant for when you get old and you are about to die then you surrender. It’s like this the saying, Udai Khoi Govindaya Namoh, you know the expression. There was a man, Gopal Bhar, he is a famous courtier of one king called Krishnachandra. So he was walking along with a basket on his head of puffed rice. All of a sudden a big gust of wind came and blew the puffed rice out of the basket into the air, it’s like going to be scattered all over. It’s flying in the air, so the Gopal Bhar, he folds his hand and he says, “Udair khoi” o puffies in the air, “Govindaya Namoh”, I offer you to Govinda. Since the ... as long they are in the air, they are still pure, so he can offer, so I offer it to Govinda. As soon as it gets to the ground neither he can offer it nor he can eat them, who is going to pick up all the puffies scattered all over the three worlds. So it’s like .21.50-52..when something is finished, there is no more use for it you know, suddenly the government come in and says ok you go too much property, we are going to take your property away from you, or you are going to, you have to pay your back taxes, you are going to loose, so “ok let me get this thing to the temple, may be I can...” there is no use for them anymore, ok ...that...that point give it to Krishna, to the Krishna temple or so they call that “Urai Khoi Govindai Namoh” , when it’s already out of hand, ok I will give it to Krishna. So basically people use the same idea in their own life. Ok when the life is in the fag end, they figure it that there is no more chance for enjoying, then you know give you life to Krishna, but not now, now it’s your youth, you can go out and party and you can do so many things, why would you want to surrender now, they don’t understand. So that same concept is there in India, everywhere, although people maybe more pious, they don’t exact for the same reason, they say ok be a devotee but not so much, like that, we are not that envious against Krishna” but still they don’t want their family members, and they can’t understand why someone would be chanting japa, why they would be doing so much devotional service, also this is their misconception about liberation, that they think you enjoy bhoga, and then tyanga, in the end you renounce everything and merge. Nobody understands how devotional service is actually the greatest happiness. Devotional service is actually perfection of life. As Krishna explains in Bhagavat Gita, su sukham kartum avyayam, so this is susukham, this is most joyfully performed, most happily performed, avyayam that is indestructible, is ever lasting, but people don’t understand that, they don’t have that understanding, they are thinking that this material world is the best thing, and because of the impersonal idea, they don’t feel very attracted to the spiritual world, whenever things finish in the material life, then alright, then merge because what is the use of living anyway, it’s already over. So Caitanya Mahaprabhu by coming down and giving us Krishna prema, by giving us Krishna Bhakti, he revealed to everyone the great wonderfulness of service to Krishna. Infact Srila Prabhupada explained that how in a big feast, the children they like to go for the sweet ..24.23-24...., they don’t have the patience to wait for the desert, they would rather have the desert in the beginning, you see while normally you go through the bitters and the salty and finally in the the end you have the desert. So like that the children like to have the desert right away from beginning to end. So Lord Caitanya, He is actually giving us the desert first, he is giving us the nectar. Usually one has to go through so many different purifications before one can taste the nectar of Krishna consciousness, but Lord Caitanya is giving that nectar immediately. So very quickly by somebody chanting Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishn Hare Hare Hare Ram Hare Rma Rama Hare Hare, they are able to experience the transcendental bliss, and when we experience that transcendental happiness, than then naturally devotee feels very attached to Krishna, very much connected with Krishna.

So Lord Caitanya is giving us a very great mercy, otherwise it will be very difficult to be detached in material life, from material desires. But Lord Caitanya, by giving us that ecstasy first, by giving us so much spiritual bliss first, then it’s ah... so much easier to than detach oneself, but the... in the ten offenses to the holy name, one of the tenth offenses is to be inattentive, or even after hearing so many glories of the Lord to still maintain material desires. Even after chanting Hare Krishna and getting so many transcendental ecstasies if still one is clinging on to material lusty desires, then actually it is a very big obstacle on the path of self-realization.

So here Prahalada, he is very outspoken about this topic that devotees are not qualified, if after everything is said and done, they are still maintaining all this material desires. So if you want to give any blessings, bless me that my mind is free from all these...because if our mind is free from all these desires, then automatically we get to serve you as a servant, or friend, or parent, a lover and we will be able to have anyway all the opulence that you have. Not that he wanted the opulence, he is just... just showing how... what is the value of this opulence and then the opulence is there. So this things we have to thoroughly ah... consider, actually every devotee, just as Krishna says in Bhagavat Gita to Arjuna, “Be a yogi, be a yogi, we have to all learn to control our minds, we have to release our minds from different thoughts and desires come up, we have to evaluate these thoughts. As a devotee becomes more experienced than they can distinguish what is a material desire and what is a Krishna conscious desire. If someone doesn’t know they can find out from the spiritual master or senior devotees or shastras, what is the material desire, if you are in doubt and ask, one doesn’t think that... not sure that something is purely spiritual then one should ask. So in this way one is able to distinguish and when the mind suddenly comes up with some off the wall, some materialistic thought, then the intelligence should immediately put up ah... warning flags and should reject that. Srila Bhaktisiddhantha Saraswati Thakur, in Vaisnava Key, advocated one should preach to the mind, he was talking and preaching to his mind, that mind what type of Vaisnava are you, you are thinking about this and sometimes new devotees would say, “Prabhu I am not a pure devotee” think i am a pure... not a question that... at any point even a pure devotee considers that he is a pure devotee as such, but point is that we try to become pure devotees. It’s not that “Prabhu, I am not a maharaj, I am not a pure devotee.” We are in the Krishna conscious movement to become pure devotees. We are here to fight the war. Somebody decided to take initiation, and somebody decided to take shelter of the spiritual master, that means that they have committed themselves to battling with Maya and try to become pure devotees. That means the fight is with who? the fight is with our own mind which is being affluenced by illusion. It’s one thing if 29.00 “I am not a pure devotee”.....we can understand you are not initiated, or someone is just visiting or coming, whatever they do that’s good, but specially if somebody has taken shelter, have a spiritual master made that step to surrender then where is the excuse to say, “Prabhu I am not a pure devotee”. Nobody is saying that you are a pure devotee but we are trying to be pure devotees. Even in the neophyte platform of trying to be a pure devotee, that is pure devotion. Prabhupada explained that pure devotion is in different stages, just like you get a green mango or green banana, like this ah...export oriented countries of fruit, they pick the fruit quite green like we have a temple in ah... Equador. Equador is one of the big banana producers, you can drive from miles and miles, nothing but banana trees. So one day, one time there was some problem, the ship didn’t come in time and the bananas were all in the dock but they ship the bananas months ahead so they are very green but they calculated that when the ship came a week late all this bananas would be overripe by that time they reach the America or Europe wherever they are sending. So they said that we can’t send this and who is going to buy 10,000 tons of bananas all of sudden in the country, so they just said come and get it, anybody who wants he can have free bananas. So we came with a pick truck and filled up one whole truck, 10 tons of bananas. In one attempt they got all the bananas packed up, all super green, after couple of weeks they all ripened, they had you know banana chutney, banana ..........(laughter) So here there was a green banana, you know...give it sometime and it ripened, green bananas they all ripened. So devotional service is like that, in kanista adhikari or neophyte stage, one is like green banana, but if they stay in devotional service eventually it becomes ripe banana; green mango becomes ripe mango. It seems in India they use the example of mango more often because if you leave the mango on the tree to ripen, the birds, the thieves everyone wants to steal your mango. So they take off the mango early and ripen in the house, it is a very common thing but everybody has bananas around their house, apparently no one was that much in the stealing bananas in those days, wasn’t a bit problem. So the bananas they don’t ripen in the tree more often. It’s the same principle. So the point is we are badly in Krishna consciousness with our mind, to fix ourselves up in the service of the Lord, when the material desires comes we have to reject that, we have to put the... if the mind keeps bringing up again we have to fix it...we are not strong enough to go to some devotees, some other senior devotee or the spiritual master, this particular thought or desire is coming in my mind, I am not able to eradicate it. When we have questions, that keeps, we can see with our intelligence that how it is not beneficial for us, how it is destructive for us, that is the whole battle, that is the whole austerity of devotional services, is to rid our minds of all these desires. When we stop actively desiring material things we become peaceful. When we are desiring instead how to serve Krishna, how to serve Guru and Gauranga, the mind become peaceful. Srila Prabhupada uses the example that as soon as we start to desire something material then we become dissatisfied. The nature of material life is as soon as you desire something you are dissatisfied. You don’t have a.... even though the devotee is always desiring when will I get the mercy of the guru, when will I get closer to Krishna, when will I ..., still in that desire you feel....although ......he is dissatisfied, he is not having Krishna......inner peace is there, thinking about Krishna, desiring Krishna gives another kind of satisfaction which is inexplicable, because even desiring Krishna is not different from being with Krishna on the spiritual platform, but materially if you desire your cake is not the same as having it. Once you have your cake, you have it, you don’t have it anymore. Anyway we are talking about ekadasi cake today. (laughter) So great devotees of Lord Caitanya, some of them are pure like they have material desire but actually they didn’t like Pundarik Vidyanidhi, he was a rich landlord, so he had so much wealth. In order to act in his profession he had to put on a certain profile. People wouldn’t respect the Lord and wouldn’t pay their taxes if you didn’t look like you know really important and powerful. So he go around in a palanquin...palanquin and he had so many servants, so one time Mukunda Dutta brought ah... Gadadhara Pandit to see him when he visited Nabadwip, and then Gadadhara Pandit saw Pundarika Vidyanidhi, in his house there he came in and he saw, he was surprised, he expected to see Mukunda Dutta, “Come this is a wonderful Vaisav, Pundarik Vidyanidhi, you should come and see him, he is a remarkable devotee.” 34.49-50 “Sure I love to see, meet the devotee, when he went to see, then he sees that Pundarik Vidyanidhi is sitting on like all silken cushions, a big like a mattress, and there is a big brass ghee lamps and tapestries on the wall, everything is like you know like very opulent, it’s like coming into some princess’s ah...quarters, and then Pundarik Vidyanidhi is wearing you know silk cloth, he is sitting there, and he has somebody putting oil in his ear, two servants putting oil in his hair, another two are fanning him with chamaras, and he is just sitting there. Then Mukunda Dutta 35.30-33...talking to him many things like news about Chattagram, the place where he came from, so Gadadhara Pandit is like looking around, is this a Vaisnava? Just like Gadadhara was a life-long Brahmachari, very simple, everything was quite a austere brahmana, then he was seeing all this type of Chatriya opulences, and he was wondering what’s going on? Did I come to the right place? Is this a devotee or is this actually just a sense gratifier? Then Mukunda Dutta could sense the vibration coming from Gadadhara, and ah...then he took, then he started to sing a bhajan, a padabali kirtans like special lila-kirtan of the pastimes of Lord Krishna in Vrindavan, how Krishna as a child, how he was ah.... approached by the witch Putana, and how Putana came... wanted to poison Krishna but Krishna sucked her breast milk and of course also took her life. But because she came to Krishna even disguished as a mother, so something superficially there was some motherly ....36.50....there, so Krishna accepted even that token motherhood and ah...elevated her to the position of his mother in the spiritual world. From that you can understand that somebody comes to Krishna, sincerely trying to be a servitor or trying to be... approaching Krishna with some particular rasa or some particular ah... devotional service how Krishna will never forget them, even if a demon is coming, what to speak of a devotee is approaching? So all this realizations are really trying to be a servitor, trying to be a friend, trying to be approaching Krishna with some particular rasa, or some particular ah...devotional service how Krishna will never forget that, even if a demon is coming, what to speak if a devotee is approaching? So all the realization were being very eloquently sung by Mukunda Dutta, and as soon as he started to sing the pastimes of Krishna, then Pundarik Vidyanidhi, he became completely enthranced, you could just see, like he was totally fixed and that’s a song...singing was going on, and he started to experience tremendous separation of Krishna, and when he started expressing how Krishna gave the mercy to Putana, he just couldn’t contain himself anymore, he was just saying “Krishna, Krishna, you are so merciful, even you are delivering the witch Putana, you are so merciful, he said, “Krishna, Krishna, Krishna,”, the... more he heard the glories of Krishna he became more impatient, more overwhelmed with separation, he started to sh...ripping his clothes, “Krishna , Krishna”, like he went mad, “Krishna...” the tapestries were smashed, the pillows we.... “Krishna, Krishna”, he went wild, when he hears the word Krishna, he can’t contain himself, tears are flowing from his eyes, he is just going, “Krisha, Krishna” going hysterical and then Gadadhara said, “My God, I never seen anybody you know except Lord Chaitanya who has so much love for Krishna, he is like...he is obviously not attached to these things, he is attached to Krishna, 39.08-39-14 like destroying, remember how I was anti when I was a little child, when in the living room set in the wrong place as you know, sitting on the floor all the furnitures were covered with sheets, they were so concerned about you know not spilling anything on the apostry, so here the living room is totally spssh..., ok so you have to start all over again, bring in a new set. Then Mukunda Dutta you know he finally stopped the kirtan, Pundarik Vidyanidhi went “Krishna, Krishna completely, overwhelmed in separation, crying”, and Gadadhara said, “wow did I make a aparadha?” I thought he was a materialist and then he has got so much love for Krishna, I have never seen anybody, so much spontaneous love, now I committed this aparadha, I thought he was a materialist, judging in just by his external things without actually knowing his real attachment for Krishna, and then he revealed this to Mukunda Dutta, then he though may be the only way I can get free from this offense is...I have to take him as my guru, because the guru is so merciful that he always forgives his disciple, even the disciple makes so many offenses the guru keeps forgiving and giving blessings. So he went and asked Chaitanya Mahaprabhu what He thought, and He agreed, “Yes this is a good idea, you take initiation from Pundarik Vidyanidhi”, and so Lord Caitanya personally arranged, actually when Pundarik Vidyanidhi came, Lord Chaitanya when he first came to Nabadwip, even Lord Caitanya stated crying out, “Pundarik, Pundarik, Pundarikaksha...”, reminds , so now devotees just started, he started calling Vishnu, Vishnu. Vishnu’s name is Pundarik, Pundarikaksha, lotus eyed. .41.10...Pundarik, Pundarik, but actually Lord Chaitanya was feeling separation from Pundarik Vidyanidhi, he is also known as premanidhi, Pundarik Premanidhi, Lord Chaitanya said this is official name, because he was a pandit, he was Vidyanidhi and some king gave his ..41.24 and so he became Lord like that, or his father was gave him......but actually he was a great pandit, you go to him and he would give so much knowledge, but also he was...Lord Caitanya given the name Premanidhi, the ocean of love, when he came to see Lord Caitanya, Lord Caintanya immediately embraced him, and the two were embracing each other, they were crying, Lord Caitanya loved Pundarik Premanidhi so much. So devotee may have so much opulence automatically but their attachment is for Krishna, so that opulence doesn’t bother...doesn’t become an impediment. The materialist may...”ok give me the opulence first and I will take the devotion later.” This is not the point. That’s just being trite, joking because that opulence without Krishna consciousness will destroy you, with Krishna consciousness that opulence doesn’t have any problem. Pundarik Vidyanidhi is the third branch of Lord Chaitanya’s tree, he appeared in East Bengal which is now Bangladesh. We are very fortunate that his birth place has come under our ISKCON service, we have a temple there, Pundarik Dham, the birthplace of Pundarik Vidyanidhi. Pravavishnu Maharaj was the co-GBC with me there, he has helped a lot giving.. getting some donations in the...from different parts of the world, imagine a lot of 42.54-56... so he has helped to do some development there, there is a very beautiful temple and a nath mandir, there is a guest house for devotees, like that there are so many nice things. Nearby Mukunda Dutta’s house, Vasudev Dutta, he took all the sins of all the people in the world, his house is also within a few hundred metres of Pundarik Vidyanidhi’s house, we have built a temple at Vasudev Dutta’s house. Every year at Pundarik Vidyanidhi’s appearance day, about 100,000 devotees come there for a big three days festival. For hours we just go on glorifying Pundarik Vidyanidhi. It’s Actually there is so many pastimes about him. In this place like Bangladesh, in Bengal there is so many holy places. Prabhupada made a trust even to ...protect this holy places, it’s called Bhaktivedanta Swami Charity Trust. Because Pundarik Vidyanidhi’s birth place was falling apart, local community approached the charity trust, they gave 20,000 takas donations to them just to do some repair work. After that they became so inclined towards ISKCON, one of them said, “why don’t we give the project to ISKCON, they can manage it nicely.” So then it was given to ISKCON. Afterwards charity trust doesn’t normally give money to ISCKON projects, it gives to the other undetected projects. In this way, there is a Narottam Das Thakur’s birth place, right now we are just ticketing Hari Das Thakur’s temple in Bena0pur, the place where ....16 years he was living where the prostitute came to approach him, where he was chanting 300,000 names for 16 years, that place is now being given over to ISKCON, should be finalized in the next month or so. I just went to Bangladesh and they negotiated everything and now before they have all kinds of strains, but now they are giving without condition. It’s a special opportunity to protect these places of Chaitanya Mahprabhu, government there is Islamic government. 100,000 people, 20 million of them... 100 million people, 20 million are Hindus but they are poor, most of them, and government is Islamic, so they don’t care much about the...., they don’t care anything about the Vaisnava tirthas, unless it has some tourist value, maybe in the future so many Australians and Newselanders and American’s and people, Europeans would go to visit these holy places. That the government will see this as something they should protect, but now we are the only people to protect. Anyway this Pundarik Vidyanidhi, he showed another type of lifestyle, another type ah...of nature, he showed that opulence that’s being discussed here. Actually Visvabhanu Maharaj, who took birth as Pundarik, and Visvabhanu was the father of Radharani who became the Guru of Gadadhara. So the guru is also known as gurupita, spiritual father, in the Chaitanya pastime and he is a material father and material whatever you know normal father in ah...Radharani’s, Krishna’s pastime. So we take advantage of this opportunity Prabhupada is giving us, to serve Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, getting so much mercy to engage in the sakirtan movement, and the devotees practically they can experience , we go out to distribute books, or we do fund raising, we give the everything to Krishna, how satisfying it is, how one gets so much energy, one will never get that kind of happiness just by taking the money for oneself and not giving anything to Krishna. So in this way, Prahlada Maharaja actually he becomes practically the empire of the whole universe after his father, but then he of course gives everything back to the devas, let them handle their area, and he takes his area. He has so much opulence but he is not asking for that. All he wants is devotion for Krishna, that’s what we should fix in our mind what we want...we want to be pure devotees whether we are in a ripe or unripe state, we want to be pure devotees, we want pure devotion for Krishna, we want love for Krishna, so we have to act sincerely to progress in that way. And just like Prahlad Maharaj, even if 47.14.....previous he wanted different types of opulences, Krishna gives that, that’s not a very thing, but the devotees doesn’t get polluted by that if they are in a proper devotional attitude. Anyway thank you. Hare Krishna. Any question? JPS: What is you name Devotee: JPS: unconquered. Unconquerable. Devotee: JPS: Well, He doesn’t want material desires, not for being liberated but for serving the Lord. So hee wanted not to have material desires period, one thing but he very clearly qualifies that, that he want’s not to have material desires so that he can serve the Lord, it’s in the next verse thus explained, “Let me offer my obeisances unto you, that actually the reason why he wants that is that he just wants to serve, in the previous verse he said, “I am your unmotivated servant, you are my master, I don’t want anything, any other relationship, I simply naturally your servant, so natural for me to serve you, so why should get anything in return, so for that, that is my nature to be your servant, I don’t want anything, and I only pray, I have to pray for something, don’t let any material desires come, why? Because they would interfere with this relationship. Then instead of serving you naturally out of love, this desires will make me want to be a distraction in the natural flow of loving service. You can see that...because you can see that, actually this doesn’t exist in the material life, even though the children may sometimes serve the parents but you know, they want so much different types of gratification, otherwise they get really get impatient, even though within the husband and wife relationship there may be a lot of service but there is also sometimes so many demands or there may be some material reciprocation, that it is not given and people... the relationship doesn’t maintain very nicely, so in material life even though there may be sometimes this type of friendship or serving relationship but it’s very much based upon the gratification of material desires. If someone doesn’t gratify the friend’s desires or gets in the way of the friends gratifying his desires, and all of a sudden that relationship becomes very strained or here we have a unique situation where in spiritual life, we can see this are the regular relationship, in material life they are the perverted reflections. Prahlada said I am your servant, servant... you are my master, this is the position, we don’t...I don’t need anything else, don’t want anything to come in the way of that. So this is really transcendental, there is nothing to do with material relationships. Material relationships are pure like this, in this regard ah...Hussain Shah once asked by one of his ah..., he was asked by his minister, “who is this Chaitanya Mahaprabhu?”, and his Hindu minister was afraid to say, “Well He is ah...incarnation or He is the great devotee or He is a great Guru or anything”, he said, “No He is kind of mendicant kind of...” Because he thought that being a Mohammedan ruler maybe he would be envious of Lord Chaitanya if He glorifies Him too much, so he said, “You know just a fakir, goes around and ah... few people follow Him”, but the Hussain Shah said, “No, I don’t agree.” You my Lord, you are the emperor, you are naradeva, you are representative of God, ah...in earth or protecting the people, so you tell us what you think, because what you think would be closer in line. So then ah... the emperor, He said that, “I think that He is non-different than Allah, He is non-different from Khuda Hafez and the ministers were shocked. Here the mohammedan emperor is saying he is not different from Allah, God. So what makes you think like that? He said, look at...why are you serving me. I am serving you because you are the emperor, and I like you and I respect you. No you are serving me because I pay you, if I didn’t pay would you work for me, you won’t work for me. None of my generals would work for me, nor my governors, nor even the clerks, if I didn’t give material things to my wife I don’t think she would stay with me either. Everything in this material world is based upon, we have give people material things, otherwise it doesn’t work, but Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, He is not giving anybody anything material, but people are chasing, even my own ministers left me and they are running after Him, what does He give them, nothing, nothing material, that means he must be not different than God, He must have some godly potency, otherwise nobody is going to go after Him. Only God can do that. Only he has something to give, that people don’t want anything material. Even that emperor, he could realize that there was a difference between spirituality and material life...existence. And he could appreciate that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, even He could appreaciate, He was not different from Allah, ....he was somehow representing the that Godly potency, any other questions? Devotee: JPS: Nityananda is the eternal associate, so He is even more merciful than Lord Chaitanya, He is even more merciful. So first we go to Lord Nityananda for His mercy, and by His mercy we get the mercy of Lord Caitanya. The two are inseperable, they are always together, Lord Nityananda He is even more magnanimous, He is less discriminating. Lord Caitanya doesn’t discrimate, but then He might slightly discriminate, but Nityananda He doesn’t discriminate at all, otherwise how could He even...Lord Caitanya wouldn’t have attempted to try to deliver Jagai and Madhai on His own, but Lord Nityanada went. So Lord Caitanya delegated that supreme mercy of the hopeless case is Lord Nityananda. That’s why we approach Lord Nityananda, because one drop of His mercy can deliver us, He is so merciful, but they come together. You don’t get Lord Nityanada without Lord Caitanya, so it’s part of the same incarnation. In the Bhagavatam it explains, the Lord comes with sango, pango, parsadam. Astasanga parsadam. Sango panga means His own expansions, Nityananda is expansion of Lord Caitanya, so you can’t separate, He is only the expansion. Lord Krishna is the original. Nityananda is His expansion, Advaita is His expanded avatar incarnation. Gadadhara is the energy, Srivas and other devotees are also his individual energies, pure devotees, you see Lord Nityananda is the expansion of ah... His ah...Lord Caitanya, He is got ah...this supreme mercy also, that He gives even more liberally. What’s your name. Any other questions. Devotee: JPS: I remember I went to see Srila Prabhupada in Mayapur and paid my obeisances and said Srila Prabhupada, I want to serve you life after life, and then immediately said, “why do you want me to come back again?” (laughter) Something like that, why don’t you... why do you want me come back, and I had to think about it after a while, so then I realised, changed and then said, “ Srila Prabhupada, I want to even serve you life after life.” If Krishna desires, than the devotee will take birth again, the devotee accepts that, he simply wants to serve the Lord, but the devotee’s natural desire is to be with the Lord, want to serve the Lord directly. So the Lord lives in the spiritual world. Now when one is more advanced in Krishna consciousness, he desires to serve the Lord and the place is ah...secondary, but in the beginning stages of devotional service also like that, person is first time hearing about the spiritual world, it is natural, he is intelligent if that person, desires why am I going to be in this material world, I shouldn’t be in the material world... in the spiritual world, and that’s the proper, intelligent choice. So it is quite natural and intelligent to want to be ah... in the spiritual world, but then when one is more advanced in devotional service instead of just wanting to be in the spiritual world which is still not directly focussed on Krishna, instead more of his focus of serving Krishna. If you are serving Krishna automatically you will be in the spiritual world. Wherever Krishna is, that is the spiritual world, even if you are in material world, it is as good as being in the spiritual world, there is no difference. So for the devotee serving Krishna means spiritual world. We want...we don’t want to ... not attached we have to be in the material world either, finally when we serve the Lord, that is unconditional, also the devotee prepared to serve the Lord, quite happy to serve the Lord even in the material world. That type of ah...attitude develops as one becomes more and more attached to Krishna. In the initial stage that attachment for Krishna when it is not fully developed, the desire to go to the spiritual world maybe easier to relate with. As one becomes more attached to Krishna, then it is a question of serving Krishna as the predominant and the place is not so relevant, but wherever Krishna is the spiritual world, back to Godhead also means to go back to serving Krishna is in the spiritual world, He only comes in the material world to deliver the conditioned souls, to manifest His pastimes. Devotee: We discussed last night in the class. Was that for Kolavecha Sridhar? GBC made a standard for GBC members, you know what the definition of that is, on the broader sense for the whole society what would be the different, how that could be applied ah...wasn’t really dealt with this yet. As soon as something eventually works out with one’s individual spiritual master, or the authorities based on one’s own ah...circumstances, that’s why devotional service is ah...personal, we have a spiritual master and he explained to him what is the financial situation and how we are doing, he can give us some advise, give us some instruction, “you can do this”, than if we get some blessing like that from guru, that means that alright that is authorized, Well I could reason the opinion but than ones guru may think that well that’s not enough for the... So this kind of, when we are talking about individual person applying, this is a general principle we should give 50%, so that should include rent, should that include food that we offer to Krishna, is that counted in, 1.00-10...(laughter)..there is so many, what about health is health counted in, you know. Kolavecha Sridhar had his own land but I am renting, so we get rid of so many issues, so that’s something that is best to deal with ah...disciple can deal with his guru, devotee can deal with local authorities and get some advice, because if there are this... it’s the general principle and if somebody wants to apply that in a more specific way, they got some specific circumstances in Krishna consciousness, they can discuss that. I remember one devotee came up to Prabhupada, he said I was... I fell behind ah...200 rounds in the Japa, what should I...So then Prabhupada thought for a second. “so alright I am giving you a clean slate, from now one don’t miss.”, who else could do that, who else could say ok ..01.01.05-06..back to counted a zero, not necessarily no......so on an individual Guru is responsible to get you back to Godhead, so that he is also, part of it is that ah...this is part of it. The grihastas have to be... remain in the proper devotional attitude. Nitya siddha he lived a little under the poverty line but he kept up his devotional service , he strictly gave 50%, so there are this examples, and more we can follow this... the examples, obviously we will be more protected. But in case that somebody has that so many complicated circumstances, you can discuss with the guru and see what the guru advices, if the guru simply becomes too complicated they can approach the GBC, they can have a big Isthagosthi, and try to work it out. Devotee: JPS: .You had another realization while you are speaking. Seems like ah... in the 20th century, one of the new things which has comes up is the credit rating. Previously you had to work to get some money so that you can buy something, but now we have a little bit of a credit rating, people now you can get things on credit, the people would give you the things first and you just have to pay time payment, then you can have it. Of course if you don’t pay... say got a car, you are making a month of payment, some point of time if you stop making payments, police will come looking for you and take the car, you are backlogging again. So the people take it lightly while I don’t have to make my payments, pretty soon they don’t have the car anymore, they turn the hi-tech car dodging from the police or something. So in this sense Lord Caitanya, He sees that basically we are all spiritually bankrupt, and for us to build up a capital and pay for our devotional service is practically inconceivable for anything but few people. So he is doing it, he is giving us. In a sense he is giving us in advance, this opportunity to do devotional service.

We do have to pay, we have to make payments. We have to chant 16 rounds, than have to attend the... through our devotional services and spiritual practices and worshipping the guru and respecting the devotees and so on. If we do that, if we keep up with our payments and we stay in devotional service, but if somebody takes a you know... familiar...takes it...thinks a lot I have this, we shouldn’t say, we don’t have it permanently until we are back to Godhead, until we get our realization we have our spiritual form, and we actually at that point, you know it’s like when we pay for our car they give you the title, “ok so now it is yours.” When you got your spiritual form and you are in the... and you are looking at yourself, till you know you are a cowheard boy or a cowheard girl or you are something or whatever you might be, and then you are serving Krishna in the spiritual world or some other universe in the material world, then you know you have made it. Until that time, you know than you are going to automatically you know, in devotional service....it’s not that already, until that time you have to go on making your payments. You have to go on giving back to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he is giving His mercy, you are in devotional service and you didn’t do much to get it, but you have to keep on giving to stay there.

Sadananda Krishnaprem Das 08-10-2015, Mayapur