19941204 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.22.49

The following is the lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on 4^th December 1994 in London. The class begins with the reading from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam,4th canto, chapter 22, verse 49.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.22.49

vainyas tu dhuryo mahatāṁ
saṁsthityādhyātma-śikṣayā
āpta-kāmam ivātmānaṁ
mena ātmany avasthitaḥ

Translation: Amongst great personalities, Mahārāja Pṛthu was the chief by virtue of his fixed position in relation to spiritual enlightenment. He remained satisfied as one who has achieved all success in spiritual understanding.

Purport by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda: Remaining fixed in devotional service gives one the utmost self-satisfaction. Actually self-satisfaction can be achieved only by pure devotees, who have no desire other than to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Since the Supreme Personality of Godhead has nothing to desire, He is fully satisfied with Himself. Similarly, a devotee who has no desire other than to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead is as self-satisfied as the Supreme Lord. Everyone is hankering after peace of mind and self-satisfaction, but these can only be achieved by becoming a pure devotee of the Lord.

King Pṛthu’s statements in previous verses regarding his vast knowledge and perfect devotional service are justified here, for he is considered the best amongst all mahātmās. In Bhagavad-gītā (9.13) Śrī Kṛṣṇa speaks of mahātmās in this way:

mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha
daivīṁ prakṛtim āśrītāḥ
bhajanty ananya-manaso
jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam

“O son of Pṛthā, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible.”

The mahātmās are not under the clutches of the illusory energy but are under the protection of the spiritual energy. Because of this, the real mahātmā is always engaged in the devotional service of the Lord. Pṛthu Mahārāja exhibited all the symptoms of a mahātmā; and therefore he is mentioned in this verse as dhuryo mahatām, best of the mahātmās.

Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Swami translation and purport to canto 4, chapter 22, Text 49 of the Śrīmad -Bhāgavatam, in the matter of “Pṛthu Maharaj’s meeting with the Four Kumāras”

Oṁ tat sat

Here the secret for self satisfaction and peace of mind is given. It can be achieved by becoming a pure devotee of the Lord. By celebrating Prabhupāda’s centennial in Māyāpur and Bengal, starting the November 15^th, November 15^th they have a special Padayātrā going from Śrīla Prabhupāda’s place of worship in Māyāpur to his place of birth in Calcutta. But in order to get all the politicians and everyone to participate, because in India they are allergic to religious things publicly, so they called up the Padayātrā for world peace and friendship. But then remember Śrīla Prabhupāda’s peace formula:

bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ
sarva-loka-maheśvaram
uhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati

So this idea, jñātva mām, knowing me, He is saying, jñātva māṁ śāntim ṛcchati, knowing me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible is a common feature. For the peace formula, one should know that Kṛṣṇa is the enjoyer of all sacrifices and penances and offerings in religiosity. That He is the friend of all living entities and here is the description of mahātmānas is that they always worship the Lord with single minded undeviated mind and consciousness and they know the Lord to be the Supreme Personality of Godhead and inexhaustible, original. So we use that theme to tell everyone that if they really want peace, they should become a pure devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa. So worked out alright. First, I was afraid that this was a very corny line, but it is okay for preaching because that is the actual secret to peace in the world and then individually people need to be engaged in the devotional service to Lord Kṛṣṇa. The self satisfaction, everyone is hankering for being self satisfied. And the tendency generally in the material world of course, people try to get some satisfaction by satisfying their senses. they don’t know their real self. They don’t know that (07:37) They try to self satisfy by satisfying the senses.

Since the senses are totally different from the self, in spite of serving the senses very diligently, regularly, still they are not able to achieve any kind of fixed satisfaction. Except when we change our perspective, realize we are the spirit and the way to get satisfaction is to serve the Supreme spirit, of whom we are part of. And the best way to serve the supreme spirit is by serving His pure devotees. By serving the pure devotees of the Lord, then one is able to please the Lord much easier and more quickly than even by serving the Lord directly. So that’s another special feature. So we know that Śrīla Prabhupāda when he was worshipping Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana, he was not feeling satisfied on one level. On another level, he was very happy to be there in the holy place. But he was feeling the need to serve his spiritual master. His spiritual master had instructed him to preach. Normally, most people can just stay in Vṛndāvana and that will be enough, especially if they are in old age. And many people find this duality between external activities and our internal purification. But then the secret of Śrīla Prabhupad is that he took up the service to guru and Kṛṣṇa as the actual process of purification and depended completely on the mercy of guru and Kṛṣṇa for whatever blessings. Actually, Śrīla Prabhupāda never left Vṛndāvana, because the real Vṛndāvana is not limited only to the physical area in the world but it is also a kind of consciousness. Just like when we are in the temple, the temple is also a residence of Kṛṣṇa. So it is not different from Vṛndāvana. And if our consciousness is following in the footsteps of the vraja-vāsīs, in so far as that is totally dedicated to serving the lotus feet of guru and Kṛṣṇa, guru and Gaurāṅga, then that is also not different than being in Vṛndāvana.

So in this way if Śrīla Prabhupāda had remained in Vṛndāvana, what would have happened to all of the conditioned souls that are here today, able to listen to Bhāgavatam class, able to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Śrīla Prabhupāda did not do anything for some kind of mundane pratiṣṭha for some mundane accumulation of name and fame. If he wanted that, he could have just gone to New York, made a couple of devotees and brought them back and everybody would be about the same amount of praise. First initial thing. He could have spent the whole time in India, collecting disciples, showing off his disciples, showing off his foreigners. He didn’t do that. He kept travelling around the world because he wanted to see Kṛṣṇa consciousness established all over the world. He wanted to see that people who normally wouldn’t get the mercy of Kṛṣṇa would get delivered. That was especially the request of Advaita Ācārya. When Lord Caitanya was in Navadvīpa at the beginning of the pastime, just after starting His saṅkīrtana pastimes, He had revealed who He was. He just joined a cult of devotees and send one or two changes ways from being a kind of very belligerent student and professor and intellectual and became a devotee and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, wanting association with the devotees. He was very humble, He would go down to the Ganges, He would help the old people from the water and help them up onto the shore and try to make amends for all the naughtiness when He was a child, especially all the brāhmaṇas and making pranks. Now he was very humble. He was praying to all the brāhmaṇas that please give me your blessing. And He would get these fantastic blessings that you are going to completely deliver, the whole world. You are going to neutralize all the demoniac influences in the world. He used to get all these really nice blessings from the brāhmaṇas. These blessings from the brāhmaṇas were infallible. So you see one day Lord Caitanya, He called Rāmdāsa Paṇḍita, the brother of Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura, Śrīvāsa Prabhu of the Pañca-tattva and He told, why don’t you go, you should go over to Lord Advaita and you should tell him this message. You should tell him that, that Lord for whom He has fasted, whom he has worshipped the shaligram shila, the Lord for whom he has cried in ecstasy, the Lord for whom he has shouted loudly the holy names and that Lord is now present in Navadvīpa. You just tell him that. So Rāmdāsa was so excited with this assignment. He just walked off and he was so kind of amazed by the whole situation. He forgot because apparently Advaita recently moved something. Somehow, he forgot, he didn’t where Advaita’s house was. So he asked around where his house was and he found that he was standing right in front of his house. He went right into the courtyard, there was a series of small huts and apparently in the center there was an open courtyard. So he went there. And Advaita Ācārya was worshipping his śālagrāma-śilā doing pūjā or something. As soon as he saw… He said, “Why? Why should I believe it? How can I be sure anybody could say. So many people say that (14:01 - 14:31 - 14:36 - 15:02 15:19 -15:22)

When Advaita heard that he jumped up. Hariiiiiibooool Hariiiiibol. I have brought him. I have brought him from that spiritual world. I have brought him. Haribol!!! What did he say? Devotees say “Haribol! Haribol”. He said loudly. Haribol. You have to get absorbed in the pastime. So, he was dancing in ecstasy and Rāmdāsa was like wow this is like pretty amazing. Then all of a sudden again his mood changed. How do I know he has come. Could be a bluff. Could be an imposter. He told him, I am not coming. I am not coming. What I am going to do is I’m going to sneak in the back of the village and hide and see If He is really my Lord, if He is the Lord of my heart, He would know everything and He would call me. He would know that I am there. I will bow down to His Lotus Feet and if He is my Lord, He will put His lotus feet on my head. Otherwise, you know he is just a bluff. You tell Him I am not going. Meanwhile, his consort, Sītā Ṭhākurāṇī, she was standing there with the whole ārati tray. So what are you doing? what’s that for? If He is the Lord, I’m going to need this to worship Him. (laughter). She was a very expert wife. Always thinking ahead, whatever will be needed. Most perfect devotee. So Advaita and his consort, they went off and Rāmdāsa went back the other way, he headed back to Lord Caitanya. That time Lord Caitanya was there, He was in āveśa. He was in a special mood of Kṛṣṇa. He was in the mood of Caitanya, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He was not in the bhakta-mood at that moment. As soon as Rāmdāsa came and paid his obeisances, before he could say anything. Lord Caitanya, He started calling out, Nāḍā! Nāḍā, which was the nickname of Advaita. I know you are hiding in a village come out. Come here right now. Stop hiding. Advaita was surprised, came out. Sītā was following like behind. He came out and offered his obeisances at a distance to Lord Śrī Caitanya. And Lord Caitanya came and put His lotus feet on the head of Advaita. When Advaita looked up, we could see the glory of Lord Caitanya. He could see Lord Caitanya in transcendental form. So Lord Caitanya, producing so much effulgence from His body, that the whole universe was invisible. All you can say was Lord Caitanya, the brahma-jyoti coming and you can see all of the associates of the Lord. And Lord Caitanya said, alright. You have called me into this world, now you tell me what you want? What is it that you want? No, I am happy. No, actually Lord Advaita, first he was so happy to see Lord Caitanya dancing in ecstasy Haribol Haribol! I brought Him. He has come. He has come. I have brought Him down from the spiritual world. Haribol! Gaurāṅga Gaurāṅga Gaurāṅga. He was dancing up and down in ecstasy. He was paying his obeisances. He was so ecstatic. Then Lord Caitanya asked him, why you brought me? Now tell me what you want. Then Advaita said I am so happy You are here. What more do I want. Arrey.. you brought me all the way from the spiritual world and you don’t want to ask me what is your purpose? You have to ask me. You have to tell me what you want. See if you ask the Lord to come and if He offers a blessing or benediction or boon, you have to ask something. That is His special quality in the form of the Supreme Lord. He is always giving some boons, some blessings. But Advaita wasn’t, He was so happy, just that the Lord came, and he didn’t know what to say. Lord Caitanya kept insisting, you have to tell me what you want. So then Advaita thought and then he said, alright. This is what I want. Normally in every incarnation, you delivered the great kings and the brahmanas and paṇḍitas and mahātmās. But in this incarnation, I want that your message should go to those who normally don’t get to chant, don’t get the opportunity to be Kṛṣṇa conscious, to be God conscious. We go to the most fallen souls. Let them all get the opportunity to be Kṛṣṇa conscious, to get love by Kṛṣṇa. Give your love of Kṛṣṇa to everyone. So Lord Caitanya said tathastaḥ, so be it. So Advaita said, I want two things and the second boon, second part of the question, he said, normally see those people who are really puffed up, who really think that they are very advanced in devotional service, very proud of their mundane situation, don’t give them your mercy. He said alright. Tathāstaḥ. It’s a two edged sword. You see all the Ācāryas, they are praying. Like Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura,

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya-prabhu dayā kara more,
tomā vinā ke dayālu jagat-saṁsāre
patita-pāvana-hetu tava avatāra,
mo sama patita prabhu nā pāibe āra

You are the patita-pāvana. You are the deliverer of the fallen souls. But there is no soul more fallen than I am. Therefore, I should get your mercy first. Actually, Rūpa and Sanātana, they were saying that we need your mercy Lord Caitanya. We are more fallen than Jagāi and Mādhāi. They presented themselves so humbly. Lord Caitanya said you are breaking my heart. I can’t take it where they are just, they kept presenting themselves in such a humble way. So how do we remain humble? By always being the servant of the servant of the Lord. This is the secret to being humble. Always depending on the Lord’s mercy and well this is the main thing. Now I don’t need the guru’s mercy so much. I can just make a run for it.

But if you always humbly serving the servant of the servant of Kṛṣṇa and depending always on the mercy, always thinking we have no personal qualification except the mercy of guru and Gaurāṅga and there is some chance we can remain humble and get the blessings of Advaita Ācārya. Isn’t it? So, I was reminded because Śrīla Prabhupāda, here he has come and he has delivered the people who really had no hope, no chance. Now few people are coming to the west and trying to preach bhakti, getting some courage after seeing Prabhupāda’s success. But initially nobody. They thought it was right there right off. Western world means right off, you know.

He got with some church company, and we were at such a high risk and say we were worth the travel risk.

So fallen that they were so hopeless, don’t even bother. But Lord Caitanya’s mercy is unlimited. Blessing is there for those who are hopeless, fallen. And Śrīla Prabhupāda, he just brought that mercy over, all over the world. So we want self satisfaction. We get by pleasing the Lord. How do we please the Lord more than by helping His devotee who has taken up this personal confidential obligation to fulfill the boon of Advaita Ācārya and who is bringing so many new devotees back into the fold of devotional service. Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā says that there is no one who is more dear to me than someone who explains this science to the devotees. So now we are in the Prabhupāda marathon. This is a great opportunity to give out this mercy to so many souls who might not otherwise have that opportunity. The first line is the book distribution because that’s how the people get the contact with Śrīla Prabhupāda, with Lord Kṛṣṇa, with Lord Caitanya through the books. Of course, we have to be more expert so that every effort or the sacrifice that the book distributors do, the great yajña that they are doing, the fruit is out to be achieved so that when people do come to the temple, they are very well received, taken care of. They are given Gaurāṅga!

So that their experience of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is very favorable and so that they can know about what is the purpose of life and know about this philosophy. So when they come we get their names, someone may get good contacts and then followed up, contact is maintained in invitations and letters whatever some kind of interested people, if you just keep the contact. This is very interesting. As one devotee heard how do you become a devotee? He became a devotee. As I came to the temple and I got a book. I was in kind of māyā. But this one devotee kept writing me. Because I was interested and because I got this letter and I got a phone call So, they kept bringing me back to the temple. And that is a very senior devotee now. In fact, even our temple president of _____ He told me that, that in the beginning some devotee kept phoning him up and kept telling him, please come. We are having Sunday feast. Some guru is there now. some... they kept encouraging him to come. Since the result of that effort by the devotee, so otherwise without a little extra personal touch, probably he wouldn’t have made it. Māyā is so strong, so many distractions. So it was that special mercy by some devotee to care, to see that that person get delivered from the conditional life. Repeated birth and death, total ignorance of the eternal devotional service to Kṛṣṇa. So that combination of going out and giving everyone the books and then having people who are actually to be conscious of following up on local people, as many people take the books and they may go to some other country, so other distant places, they would lose touch. At least, those who are in contact with our temple, then we can follow up. If he is a nice person, we can send them that person’s address that we happen to have it to the temple where they might be residing or the Nāmahaṭṭa. And that’s kind of comprehensive, it’s like you are not letting the assets slipping, through the fingers like. We are not losing what we get. This is a very practical way of bringing home as much as the harvest home that is possible to Prabhupāda. There is a saying in Sanskrit. Sosyatam gṛham āgatam

You know what that means? soshya is the harvest. So the harvest is really, when its home in your store room, right. Like a farmer may see he gets a full field of rice. Everything is there so wonderful, but what if a big hailstorm comes along or some cyclone or some kind of thunderstorm may crack all the grains right on or somebody comes just before harvest and steals it or takes it away? Or so many things you can just imagine. So until the harvest has got back to your silos in your store, properly dried and stored, then that’s the real objective, that’s when the harvest is truly harvested. So the whole thing is you have to plant the seed, you water the seeds and then you bring the harvest. What is the harvest? So Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, he used to use that saying quite a bit in some different ways. Sometimes he used to say a new devotee would be really fired up and the new devotee is more enthusiastic than anybody in the whole temple. Something like that and he would say, śoṣyatām gṛham āgatam, let the harvest get home. Okay now its still in the growing state, we get the seed it is a long way before we get the harvest of getting back home, back to God Head, back to Kṛṣṇa. Till then, the enthusiasm has to continue all the way through, that we have to see. That’s the test. So sometimes he used it in that context. In other context you can say that, well we want to see that all seeds we are preaching, all the books that we distributed, all the people we contact, as many as possible, you want to see they get back to the spiritual world. They actually become devotees, either way the devotees in the temple or devotees in their home, chanting. He want the whole world to chant, Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

So I always was inspired with book distribution. I have been doing book distribution since I was a new devotee and i can see the importance now that they see that gradually the temples are following up on the book distribution and so more the people they get the books and when they have questions when they do come by they are getting taken care of and they are getting further cultivated so there is a much higher percentage of success of harvesting in the sense of birth for us for Kṛṣṇa, bringing them back to GodHead. And they are getting the books and they are getting back to GodHead also in a very short time. So this is very inspiring. of course now we also through the book distribution our construction of the big temple in Māyāpur the vedic planetarium that Prabhupad had instructed us to do, that’s also going on. That was one of the reasons i am coming often to London now as because right now we are in the planning stage. Now the architects have gone for the next 3 months, we don’t need you. We are gonna roll our sleeves up and take all the information and gave us to do some work.I wont see them till after Gaur Pūrṇimā probably. Any way depends on Kṛṣṇa atleast we have that design process.Second by for some other reason. But they are very enthusiastic, every one is quite enthusiastic. Like today we are going to use some structural engineers. You see these are all very mundane activities, architects, engineers, somebody came in so they devotee went in contact for a long time. This is my first association with devotees through you as there are so many devotees. But this is some kind of business but actually he is doing such an austerity.

Devotees can look at each other because although we are discussing you know, somebody thinks like that because nobody because we are just thinking like how we want to do this for Śrīla Prabhupad. How Prabhupad would be so pleased. It’s like publishing a book or even going out on sankirtan. I believe that having such an amazing facility in the world for preaching Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, for glorifying Caitanya Mahāprabhu. It is going to change the entire demography or whatever the entire vision of the world for Caitanya Mahāprabhu and that was ofcourse Lord Nityānanda had predicted that we wanton adbhut mandir, an astounding temple. That was to spread the message of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu around the world. So that is also every book that is distributed that certain bits of that book goes to help in that special yajña. Just a few days ago i mentioned at the manor here couple of days in the class but a few days ago when i was in india I found that there was, wasn’t aware but some one mentioned to me that Śrīnivas Ācārya had a vision of spiritual form of Navadwip. After going on Nawadwip Parikramā, he had this amazing dream where he saw that, Lord Caitanya showed him that in my pastime I was living in a grass hut and my spiritual abode is this amazing palatial area with a golden protecting wall and he saw the whole spiritual form of Navadwip with jeweled bathing ghats and gardens and fountains and everything very opulent, luscious with so many trees everywhere. And it gives us a little blueprint for a landscape architecture, try to reproduce the dream, the vision that Śrīnivas Ācārya had as much as possible. The jewel bathing ghat, how long the jewels remain there Kaliyuga. May be few marble or other things which are precious we can do

But It was amazing because the Pancatattva worshipped in this vichitra, very colourful, very variegated temple. And so many devotees from east,west, north, south _, they couldnt recognise many of them, like Ramaṇanda Rai and the different devotees from Orissa and from Vrindavan, Rūpa and Sanatan. Devotees had not seen but now he was able to see them. Remember he was having that separation, he couldn’t see, now he could see Rūpa and Sanatan and everyone and I guess Jīva Goswami also. Then he could see devotees from the south India, Venkata Bhaṭṭa and so many other devotees from the west. Anyways the thing is he couldn’t recognize, there were so many devotees and they were all there at the temple chanting and worshipping Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu and pañca tattva through the Harinam sankirtan.

And he saw the vision of all the devas like the different higher planetary systems, the devas were worshipping Lord Caitanya. He saw Vaikunta, saw Lord Narayan’s pastimes in Ayodhya. Like this he saw the Goloka Vrindavan, he saw the rāsa-līlā and so many other līlā, before that Mathurā, Dwaraka ______. So Prabhupad said you make a Vedic Planetarium. On the one hand, you show the scientist practical preaching just to establish that validity of the vedic vision of the universe and existence.And it also shows the 4 dhamas, Devī, Mahesha, Hari and Goloka as mentioned in the Brahma Saṁhitā. So here the vision itself is of the temple where Lord Caitanya is sukaloi, the place of transcendental happiness. When you go there, you see and we see Vaikunta, Ayodhya. So exactly what we are planning to do. Those temples will have the exuberance and parks with Ayodhya and Vaikunta. everything. That’s what Lord Caitanya’s residence in Navadwip is. 550 years ago Śrīnivas Ācārya had this vision of this transcendental residence of the Lord just like, pretty amazing that how the Lord, how the things are coming down and everything is happening by the Lord’s desire. Somehow we can remain fixed at the lotus feet of Śrīla Prabhupad to fulfill these desires of the previous ācāryas. That will be the success. By their mercy, we can achieve love for Kṛṣṇa.

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare

Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

Time for questions> Any questions?

Not clear question 39:41

Not really contradictory. If one is actually being gradually awakened, then it is not a srama eva hi kevalam. Sometimes, people might be sticking to a process which is not really a dharma. In the name of dharma, or it may be a dharma it may be a sub religious principle. Just like being honest. It is a sub religious principle. It is a part, it’s not a dharma in itself. Just if you are honest that is a religion. But it is a quality of religion to be honest. But religion means your relationship with God. Dharma means the development of your relationship with Kṛṣṇa. If you have a series of sub religious principles and no understanding and no consciousness and no relationship, and knowledge of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then by doing all those things you simply are going to be in karmas. You are not actually progressing out of the material world. We have to have some connection with the absolute truth, with the Supreme Personality of GodHead. That is the point. Sometimes people stick to some idea which might have appear to have some relation with Dharma, but it might only be a sub religious principle or may be that one is already a graduate. Just like if someone goes in first grade, but they never graduate. Every year, they go back in first grade, first grade, first grade, first grade, they never go to second grade. They just stick to the same thing. Some principles are there to purify us, we go to the next grade. But some people like this hold on, first grade till the end. I will never leave first grade.I love my first grade. Until i am 100 years old I will be in the first grade, primary school. Does this make sense? What is the use of going again and again and again the first grade?Once the first grade finishes, you learn your a aa,ee ee or you learn your ABCs and go on to the second grade. So some religious principles are there to train us and bring us up the next level. But if the person never goes on to the next level, then after a time you can say that he is wasting his time. Or, he is just putting his effort but he is not going ahead. It’s like someone is running the wheels but the brake is on because it is not moving. You take off the brake. Go ahead. You can say that there is some benefit, He is not going back. At least he is staying in the same place. What does he say? Doesn’t say he is falling. It is said that you are putting energy but you are not getting the fruit. You are not getting the fruit from that because you are not going ahead. So, what is the progress, how we can measure our progress, how much we are developing our consciousness of God. How much we are developing our consciousness of Bhagavān? Our attraction to hear about Bhagavān. It is a personal test. Since as you say, everything is meant to bring us to that end. And every practice we are doing is to gradually purify us and make us more attracted to serving and hearing about the glories of Kṛṣṇa .So we can judge our own personal consciousness, am I more attracted to serving Kṛṣṇa? Then I am making progress. Am I more attracted to simply, more attracted to the cinemas and more attracted to this and that, then we know that I am still very neophyte. I have to get more association and build up my attraction to Kṛṣṇa. That is not really a contradiction. We have to see it from the right perspective. If we do even a beginning activity, you get a little more some inspiration. We go the next activity, next, so you are making progress. This is when someone gets stuck up and they are not increasing in their, then you should know something is wrong. Somehow you get in the mud and the wheels spin in the car and they don’t go forward. For some reason they got stuck up. So the energy is being spent but they are not making progress from that point. So it is actually a very progressive statement that we should analyse our own progress and see that we are making progress. That could apply to people at different levels. Some one may be in a very neophyte or may be even a little more advanced. We can get stuck up at any level. So we want to keep on progressing and if we are not progressing and at some point we just get stuck at the same level, then we should be consulting with Guru with Shastra and we see what is the problem. Even Vyasadev asked his Guru Nārada Muni, why I am not feeling satisifed. Because if we are progressing spiritually, we should be satisfied. You should feel some inner satisfaction. So Vyasadev wasn’t feeling satisfied and that is going to be described later on in the later chapters. It was also an inspiration for VyasaDev to write the Bhagavat Shastra, Bhagavat puran. Because after writing all the vedas, he wasn’t feeling happy in his heart. Until he wrote Bhagavat, then he felt peace of mind.

Question: A devotee should meditate on which form of the Lord and while worshipping the Lord what should be the mood of the devotee? Is it the mood of Vaikuṇṭha in all reverence or in the loving mood? Who is going to reciprocate?Rādhā Kṛṣṇa or Laxmi Narayan? With worship or without?

Ofcourse Lord Caitanya recommended that we all worship Kṛṣṇa. But if somebody is very much attached to another form of Vishnu, other than Kṛṣṇa, like Ram or Narasiṁha or some other form, then in some case, He made exception when He saw that they are very sincerely attached to that form. But otherwise, if one does not have that kind of very strong fixation on a particular form, and they are open to more or less than any form of Vishnu, then worship Kṛṣṇa because that is the original form. But when we worship Kṛṣṇa from this conditional state, we cannot imitate being one of his brajavasi or cowherd friends or anything. We cannot just immediately come and put an arm around the Deity and go out with the cows because that would be all artificial. So initially we approach the Lord. Although we worship Kṛṣṇa, we approach Him in awe and reverence. We approach Him in mood of service as a servitor in the mood of dāsya. But we hear about Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes and we hear about His majestic aspects, His Avatars all the cantos of the Bhagavat tell about different incarnations, we hear about all the incarnations that have been scheduled. And we also hear about Kṛṣṇa’s own intimate pastimes,own revealed pastimes and in this way, then gradually we get attracted to the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa. But we know that what Kṛṣṇa is doing is not some mundane activity. Because Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes are very much human-like. So we don’t know Kṛṣṇa’s position as the supreme Vishnu. Anantadeva, Ananta Vishnu. We don’t know that He is the supreme Vishnu. Then sometimes we could get confused if we hear about Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes and think that what He is doing is like a human being. You won’t understand the inner significance of it. So therefore, first it is recommended that we know all about the Vishnu Tattva, the basic essential factor and then when we understand how Kṛṣṇa is the supreme Vishnu, we can understand that although He is doing this activity, He is stealing butter from monkeys, it is not that He is a thief. He is the proprietor of everything. What He can steal? But some how monkeys have come and they are great rishis and sages who have come in the form of monkeys and He is playing and giving them the nectar, food from His own hands. Or from His mother’s point of view, Oh He is my little child and He is stealing the butter. What butter is left for me to feed Him. She is also simply concerned out of love. So she is chasing after Kṛṣṇa, would you stop stealing the butter? And Kṛṣṇa is running away and playing and all these things. So these very great people are pandits, sometime they can figure out how God is running around, stealing butter. But for the devotees, once they understand Kṛṣṇa’s position, naturally even they feel attracted by all these activities. Because it shows how God can also come down to a very personal, loving relationship with His devotees. He leaves all of His majestic side and He just becomes intimately connected with all His devotees and loving relationships and that has got very beautiful attractive features. More beautiful than features of Narayan. But if we make a mistake and think that Kṛṣṇa is an ordinary human, then we would be big aparadhi and offender and we would fall down from our position. Do not get that confusion.and not misunderstand Kṛṣṇa’s position. Therefore we have to worship in a awe and reverence and formally follow in His planet. In that way, we are worshipping in a sense like we would worship Lakshmi and Narayan although we are worshipping the form of Kṛṣṇa and Balaram. But then we also remember Kṛṣṇa and Balarams pastimes, we do Govardhan pūjā, we do Janmastami, we do many jhulan yātrā, we do so many different pastimes, from this way devotees gradually get attracted to this loving form of the Lord. So it is, this is the prescribed procedure. So when one gets very advanced and in their devotional service, they naturally become attracted to serving Kṛṣṇa in a particular mood and that time they serve Kṛṣṇa following some resident of Vrindavan. That’s called raganuga. But we don’t artificially imitate that. We first start with sadhana bhakti and then gradually these things are developed by the mercy of Guru and Kṛṣṇa.

Not clear 51:52 51:52 51:53 51:58 51:59 How does a guru inspire

There are 5 rasas. 4 of them are active and one is passive. The Guru, we worship the Supreme Personality of GodHead through the Guru. We cannot directly approach Kṛṣṇa. We have to go through the Guru. Since we are to worship the Lord in the mood of dāsya, then as we are developed, some people remain in dāsya, it is not like material thing that one is better than the other in some mundane sense. There are different devotees have got different relationship with the Lord. Some one’s relationship may be dāsya, may be sakhya, may be vātsalya, may be in servitude through friendship, parental or conjugal. We have to do our devotional service in this material world in any case in the mood of dāsya until such time we are awakened to any other rasa if we need to have any other rasa if we happen to have any rasa. So the Guru is the one who controls and guides and acts as the transparent via media for giving all this understanding. He introduces us in the spiritual world to Kṛṣṇa and to the associates that we have to assist. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Thank you.