19950606 Bhagavad-gītā 7.6

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on June 6th 1995 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The class begins with a reading from The Bhagavad Gītā chapter 7 verse 6.

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etad-yonīni bhūtāni

sarvāṇīty upadhāraya

ahaṁ kṛtsnasya jagataḥ

prabhavaḥ pralayas tathā

 

mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat

kiñcid asti dhanañ-jaya

mayi sarvam idaṁ protaṁ

sūtre maṇi-gaṇā iva

 

His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami: (repeats chanting of the verses)

 

Translation:

 

All created beings have their source in these two natures. Of all that is material and all that is spiritual in this world, know for certain that I am both the origin and the dissolution.

 

Purport:

 

Everything that exists is a product of matter and spirit. Spirit is the basic field of creation, and matter is created by spirit. Spirit is not created at a certain stage of material development. Rather, this material world is manifested only on the basis of spiritual energy. This material body is developed because spirit is present within matter; a child grows gradually to boyhood and then to manhood because that superior energy, spirit soul, is present. Similarly, the entire cosmic manifestation of the gigantic universe is developed because of the presence of the Supersoul, Viṣṇu. Therefore, spirit and matter, which combine to manifest this gigantic universal form, are originally two energies of the Lord, and consequently the Lord is the original cause of everything. A fragmental part and parcel of the Lord, namely the living entity, may be the cause of a big skyscraper, a big factory, or even a big city, but he cannot be the cause of a big universe. The cause of the big universe is the big soul, or the Supersoul. And Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme, is the cause of both the big and small souls. Therefore, He is the original cause of all causes. This is confirmed in the Kaṭha Upaniṣad (2.2.13). Nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām.

 

Translation:

 

All created beings have their source in these two natures. Of all that is material and all that is spiritual in this world, know for certain that I am both the origin and the dissolution.

 

Text 7

Translation:

 

O conqueror of wealth, there is no truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread.

 

Purport:

 

There is a common controversy over whether the Supreme Absolute Truth is personal or impersonal. As far as Bhagavad-gītā is concerned, the Absolute Truth is the Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and this is confirmed in every step. In this verse, in particular, it is stressed that the Absolute Truth is a person. That the Personality of Godhead is the Supreme Absolute Truth is also the affirmation of the Brahma-saṁhitā: īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ; that is, the Supreme Absolute Truth Personality of Godhead is Lord Kṛṣṇa, who is the primeval Lord, the reservoir of all pleasure, Govinda, and the eternal form of complete bliss and knowledge. These authorities leave no doubt that the Absolute Truth is the Supreme Person, the cause of all causes. The impersonalist, however, argues on the strength of the Vedic version given in the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad (3.10): tato yad uttara-taraṁ tad arūpam anāmayam/ ya etad vidur amṛtās te bhavanti athetare duḥkham evāpiyanti. “In the material world Brahmā, the primeval living entity within the universe, is understood to be the supreme amongst the demigods, human beings and lower animals. But beyond Brahmā there is the Transcendence, who has no material form and is free from all material contaminations. Anyone who can know Him also becomes transcendental, but those who do not know Him suffer the miseries of the material world.”

 

The impersonalist puts more stress on the word arūpam. But this arūpam is not impersonal. It indicates the transcendental form of eternity, bliss and knowledge as described in the Brahma-saṁhitā quoted above. Other verses in the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad (3.8–9) substantiate this as follows:

 

vedāham etaṁ puruṣaṁ mahāntam

āditya-varṇaṁ tamasaḥ parastāt

tam eva viditvāti mṛtyum eti

nānyaḥ panthā vidyate ’yanāya

 

yasmāt paraṁ nāparam asti kiñcid

yasmān nāṇīyo no jyāyo ’sti kiñcit

vṛkṣa iva stabdho divi tiṣṭhaty ekas

tenedaṁ pūrṇaṁ puruṣeṇa sarvam

 

“I know that Supreme Personality of Godhead who is transcendental to all material conceptions of darkness. Only he who knows Him can transcend the bonds of birth and death. There is no way for liberation other than this knowledge of that Supreme Person.

“There is no truth superior to that Supreme Person, because He is the supermost. He is smaller than the smallest, and He is greater than the greatest. He is situated as a silent tree, and He illuminates the transcendental sky, and as a tree spreads its roots, He spreads His extensive energies.”

 

From these verses one concludes that the Supreme Absolute Truth is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is all-pervading by His multi-energies, both material and spiritual.

 

Thus, end the Bhaktivedanta Swami translation purport to text 6 and 7 of chapter 7, Knowledge of the Absolute.

 

His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami: A little early we were discussing with Hari about the, he’s going to make a presentation to all the high school teachers, if I’m not mistaken, a geographical presentation about the Hindu dharma and other aspects of India.

 

So here we can see in Bhagavad Gītā very clearly states that there is a one source for everything. So basically, sanātana dharma is also monotheistic that we believe in one Supreme truth ‘Eka brahmā dvitīya nāsti’. As it mentioned in the first verse here as it from the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad that how Lord Brahmā is the primeval living entity within the universe, from him come so many different devas, humans, animals etc is the Supreme, beyond him there’s the transcendent.

 

So, the fact that there are many, just like Brahmā and there are many different devas who are managing the universal affair on behalf of the Lord. So, some people consider, well that they’re so many different Gods, but these are not the Supreme Lord, they are all important devotees of the Lord who have been invested with powers to do certain things in the universe. This like, I think everyone in the whole world probably heard of President of United States. But in India and other places they won’t know very much, I mean the educated people would know, but just ordinary people won’t know much about secretary of state, attorneys, or the in all different subordinate, they may or may not know, it’s not that everyone will know all the different positions.

 

Because in India we have Prime Minister, we have other names, but President they might know. I think at mostly people have heard probably of President. But they won’t know exactly what it means to be the Secretary of State or things like that.

So, like that people, some people they only know there’s God, they only know there’s the Supreme God, they don’t know that what is all administration, how He is making everything going, how everything is functioning.

 

But the Vedas have given a detail description about the different devas, about their powers, about their duties, about their relationships and their glories and how one can approach the different devas also if we want to.

 

Just like some people they go right to Governor of Tennessee; they may not go to President of United States if they want something on the state level they can go to state or they can even go to the county of head. But depending on what the level they want, they can go. So, the Vedas have described all these things, but in the very special places of the vedas it is clearly explained what is the relationship between all the different devas and the Lord.

 

So, for the people here in the west, it’s good if they can understand that also, sanātana dharma is basically monotheistic, we believe that one Supreme Absolute Truth or Param Brahmā. And the Param Brahmā, but some people consider Param Brahmā is the jyothi, some people consider the Param Brahmā is Bhagavān. But in the Vedānta sūtras commentary of Bhagavat, there it mentions

 

vadanti tat tattva-vidas

tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam

brahmeti paramātmeti

bhagavān iti śabdyate

 

The Absolute Truth is one, but the Absolute Truth is realized by different seers of the truth in different forms. These forms are known as Brahman or the impersonal jyothi, Paramātmā or the Supersoul who’s present in everyone’s heart, thus Bhagavān who is the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa, Narayan in the spiritual world. There’s only one Supreme Bhagavān, but He has many forms like Govinda, Rāma, Nārāyaṇa, Matsya, Kūrma, Varāha, Narasiṁha and so on. So therefore, He’s known as Anantarupa. But He’s only one Lord but He takes different forms for His different līlā. So that is the form of Bhagavān, He is sat cit ānanda.

 

The Supreme form is the original form is Kṛṣṇa, there’s also explained in Bhagavat after giving so many twenty-four different incarnation.

 

Now if you look in the encyclopedia and you see who is Kṛṣṇa, and many times it will say Kṛṣṇa is eighth incarnation of Vishnu. But actually, there’s not only ten incarnations of Vishnu. Many Hindus are thinking there’s only ten, but in the Bhagavat, in the, it says that there’s so many avatars that coming like waves in ocean.

 

How many waves are there in the ocean, who can say?

 

We have people are sitting in the corner, you know how many waves are coming in the ocean? So, it’s unlimited right! One after another they’re coming. So, like that avatars are coming every yuga. There is yuga avatar, manvantara avatar, guṇa avatar, so many kinds of avatars are there.

 

So, in Bhagavad, this first canto there was about twenty-four avatars are specifically mentioned. The most prominent twenty-four, not ten. How do ten avatar come, our great acharya Jayadeva while he was in Jagannath Purī, he wrote a beautiful song, the Daśāvatāra stotra which is become very popular all over India, the jaya jagadīśa hare. So, all the ten avatar, he picked out ten avatar, he wrote a stotra. Stotrams are very commonly written in ten verses.

 

So, then Kṛṣṇa in that song is the eighth verse, after Him came Buddha and Kalki, so He was the eighth, so that’s why they say the eighth incarnation of Vishnu. But the song is been sung to Jagannath Himself is Kṛṣṇa, and he’s saying jaya jagadīśa hare, you’ve come in the form of all the different forms.

So, like that sometimes you get the ideas that become very popular but there’s not for the very profound reason. That one of our acharyas, he gave the story that sometime what happens is that things become introduced within culture for very light reason. For instance, sometime you move the camera, slow the audio like interesting (laughing).

 

So, the people when they see their playback, they can see how bright the face that they count everyone else (laughing) and they’ll the feeling you know, for the. That one time there was a, there was a young girl you know that previously marriages were done in the olden times when they were very young. She was may be only twelve years old that she was being married. At that time, then it was very late and their wedding ceremony was going on, for her it was something very overwhelming. She saw that by the side of the ceremony that they came and they covered up a cat that was howling in a, in a, in a bad script.

 

But happened was that cat start making a lot of noise so that her mother told her boys that you put the basket over the cat so it doesn't make any more disturbance. She remembered that, later she became a mother, she had her own son everything, when it came time that her son was getting married then she said wait, in my family we have the tradition (laughing). At the time of marriage, we have to put a cat by the side of the homa (laughing). So, they’re looking all over the neighborhood (laughing) and one cat’s walking along, they are running and grabbing and trying putting under the basket. Actually, it’s the family tradition we have to do (laughing). So, like this sometimes things happen where some people they get, they include it but actually it’s not necessarily given in the Vedas. So that, that kind of thing is there.

 

So, it’s a very light reason why there’s ten mentioned by Jayadeva. But here in Bhagavatam it mentions for instance so many avatars like Kumaras, Sukara that means Varaha, Narada, Nara Narayana, Kapila, Dattatreya, Yajya, Rishabhadeva, Prithu, Matsya, Kurma, Dhanvantari, Mohini, Narsimha, Vamana, Bhrigupati, Vyasadeva, Rama, Balarama, Kṛṣṇa, Buddha, Kalki.

So, there’s about twenty-two, so many avatars are there, not only ten. So in this one, so Kṛṣṇa come chronologically 20th. But that’s not it says, but then also it says that it’s not the end of it. He’s saying

 

avatārā hy asaṅkhyeyā

hareḥ sattva-nidher dvijāḥ

yathāvidāsinaḥ kulyāḥ

sarasaḥ syuḥ sahasraśaḥ

 

O brāhmaṇas, the incarnations of the Lord are innumerable ‘avatārā hy asaṅkhyeyā’. Asaṅkhyeyā means innumerable, Hari, of the Lord Hari, Vishnu, like rivulets flowing from inexhaustible sources of water. Then also He says, ‘All the ṛṣis, Manus, demigods and descendants of Manu, who are especially powerful, are also plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord. This also includes the Prajāpatis.’

 

So apart from these they’re many other vibhūti, many great powerful entities in the universe those are also coming from the Lord and are His portion as well. Prabhupada explain, those who are comparatively less powerful are called vibhūti, and those who are comparatively more powerful are called āveśa incarnations. And then explains

 

ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ

kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam

indrāri-vyākulaṁ lokaṁ

mṛḍayanti yuge yuge

 

All of the above-mentioned incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the original Personality of Godhead. All of them appear on planets whenever there is a disturbance created by the atheists. The Lord incarnates to protect the theists. Just like Kṛṣṇa explains in Gītā ‘dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya sambhavāmi yuge yuge,’ ‘paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām’.

 

So, in this way we can see that how sometime in encyclopedia or different you get the definitions.

 

But of course, this is my theory that I’ve not seen from the Daśāvatāra stotra, otherwise I don’t find anywhere that Daśāvatāra is mentioned. But this become very popular, so everyone knows Daśāvatāra. When we do Bharatanatyam they always show Daśāvatāra and so many time usually Daśāvatāra. But we should not think there’s only Daśāvatāra. ‘avatārā hy asaṅkhyeyā’, there’s unlimited avatars. Someone more prominent, someone less prominent or well-known and it’s going on from yuga to yuga.

 

So, in this way the Lord is coming down when there is a need to establish religion in the society, to deliver His devotees, so He is coming down. And there is no limit to how many times and how many forms He can come.

 

So, we’re discussing that there is a need to actually change the encyclopedias and I saw one encyclopedia now they’ve given a different version. In addition to the traditional they added new, few new paragraphs where they’re saying that some people, they worship Kṛṣṇa as the original Godhead, so little progress is there. But it’s very important that we be able to present.

 

I was approached in Malaysia by some of the Hindu leaders and they’re very concerned that different missionaries and different people they were trying to tell the followers of sanātana dharma then they worshipping idols, of things like that and creating some confusion. And so, they wanted to know what, how these things could be explained and everything, so we discussed for a long time. Also, they wanted to know what to say to people when they’re on the death row and they’re about to get, to get killed, by you know they happened to get the death sentence. So, they allow the priest or someone to go, so one of the Hindu leaders, he was sometime being have to go and do these final prayers for the, for the criminals, for the people who’re about to take the capital punishment. So, then he mention to me that well, I looked at the, what the, I ask the hindu, the christian priest what do you tell the people when they’re about to die?

 

And he said, well I tell them it’s alright, we know you’re really innocent and before God you’re innocent and you’ve been misunderstood and everything will be alright, things like that. So, I was thinking well this say something like that, I said, that’s not according to our shastra you know (laughing), the, whether they’re innocent. If they are guilty the point Vedas say that by going to the capital punishment, they will get free from their karma and then they can, they’d get placed even in heaven swarga. They completely get a clean slate and because of taking that punishment. So then but more important the people say, what should I be thinking when I’m dying?

 

You know about to die they’re going to do whatever the system is and take me or whatever. I know what shall I be thinking at that moment? I told that the time of death they should be thinking of Narayan, by thinking of Kṛṣṇa, this is the Nārāyaṇa anta smriti. The time of death they should go on chanting, get them to chant the mantra

 

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare

Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

 

By chanting that, we can chant very loudly, but chant if they, or any some name of Hari they should chant. If they don’t want to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, some name of Hari let them chant and at death time if they remember the name of the Lord then they can go back to the eternal kingdom of God, back to Vaikunta. Thank you very much, I didn’t know what to say actually in that.

 

So, there’s a lot of meter on the world in different parts of the world people don’t know how is exactly, even our leaders, different groups, they want to know what to tell the people. And but we’re trying to do is actually get the people who are following our Kṛṣṇa consciousness or following the Vedas to be more united and to work together for spreading this knowledge of the Bhagavad Gītā and the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. Because no one needs in the world, this just needed more than anything. I discussed many times about this topic, people ask how is this going to help the world today?

 

You know in everyday we’re seeing in the headlines of the newspapers about the problem in Bosnia. They’re having a fratricidal war, people that were friends together, they’re killing each other. Now because one is a serb or someone’s a muslim or someone’s a qiraji and people who are neighbours they become enemies just because of this bodily identification.

 

And this is a big problem, we’re having Olympics in Atlanta, so everyone whether Olympics are creating a certain gathering of all the nations but still everyone is identifying and I’m from this nation or that nation. Then you get some nation wants to divide and suddenly they become many nations. So that’s not really the secret for uniting the world. Although if I say this Atlanta, I don’t know what will happen, the Mayor’s giving his own life for others. But the real need is not to really summon this national identification.

 

In ancient times there were nations and nations work together as teams, but that wasn’t only in the highest understanding. The highest understanding was that we are actually the ātmā, we’re the spirit soul. And that was the wonderful donation of sanātana dharma that all humans are of the same kind of spiritual nature. Not only all humans but all living entities including the animals also have the same spiritual spark or ātmā, the jīva.

 

So, in this way we can bring this universal vision in the human society instead of people identifying themself by all these different designations based on the body difference, political difference and so on. So, we can come to that level which is given in the Vedas of a true spiritual perspective. Then you find vāsudeva kuṭumbakam, the one whole world becomes one family under God. And that we need the cooperation of all the religion, of all the theistic people of the world to understand there’s only one God, they may approach in different way.

 

Recently had a meeting in Alachua, and one of the christian father he came and he gave a talk. And he said that he actually had been taking some instruction and he personally chants Hare Kṛṣṇa and believes that Kṛṣṇa is Godly father. But he was very much devoted to Jesus as the son of God. He remained as a christian priest but he chants Hare Kṛṣṇa, he’s unique situation to see this.

 

Now he was discussing, he said in 1965 the Pope, the Pope had made a declaration stating how, I don’t remember all the things but he basically he recognized for the first time that Hindu dharma was the way of worshipping in achieving God. And in certain words, he had said that, otherwise before this, they never given even recognition that there was such a religion as Hindu dharma which was a religion by which you could reach the Supreme Godhead.

 

But the, the Pope did recognize that they do worship the Supreme God and by the process of the Hindu dharma one could achieve that. So that was like a big breakthrough, in 1965 Prabhupāda also came here to the west. But he brought up the point that even most of the christian priests, even the catholic priests or even the other fathers then, but they’re still in the position. So even the catholic priests who are forced to follow the Pope, they don’t know that Pope said this. And many of them say things against the Hindu dharma or against sanātana dharma inadvertently.

 

Recently in North Carolina, one cardinal from Denver, he was saying how this is the pseudo religion, founder less religion.

 

So that we are, Hindu community had to approach him and speak to him and then now he is retracting what he is saying, what he said. But a lot of confusion, but in the world now there’s a certain interface ecumenical movement to create some cooperation. To make it effect of every person who follows Bhagavad Gītā, Vedas, they need to know very nicely, very clearly what the Vedas are saying.

So, if you don’t, if you interfaith you have to be very well grounded in your own faith. Otherwise, you go interfaith and you get, you won’t be able to present the thing properly to the other faith and you might even get bewilder yourself really what is the teaching!

 

The other big problem that they say, that they have, they mentioned was what is the idol? That was explains the Hari that this idol that we are, there’s a very bad translation and motivated translation of the word mūrti or vigraha. And the vigraha or the deity of the Lord is specifically a worship able form of the Lord. I know there is somewhere in the verse here there may be, there’s the form of the Lord that is worshipped according to the instructions of the shastras.

 

In Bangladesh recently I was just there, and in our Dhaka temple, in the liberation movement, the Pakistan forces had smashed the Rādhā Kṛṣṇa marble deity. And since then, Rādhā Govinda temple has been having this brass deity. So, we have procured some marble deity of Kṛṣṇa and they ask me to reinstall the deity for them. So, we performed the two-day ceremony of deity installation. And according to Vedas that mūrti before installation, that’s know as a bimba, bimba means the reflection. So, you take the, the statue which is made according to the scriptural description and the proper proportion. Not that you can just take anything and say this is Kṛṣṇa or this is Rāma.

 

Rāma must have the dinu, Kṛṣṇa will have the basi, that means certain form is there, that we can’t just imitate. If just you know make an imagination and say this is the, this is God, it has to be according to the scriptural descriptions. So, then we take that raw form, that, that statue and then we do certain ādivas. These are, these are propetories or ceremonies, these are what’s called the śilpa dosha ādivas. That when the śilpa, when the craftsman he carve that the statue, he may have put his foot, may be some dirt, or may, so you do an abhishek with water and things to purify the image. Then you do a sayanadhivasa which contains all other adhivas.

 

You can do jala, dhana, but his śayana includes all the other ādivas, there still like a purification for that statue so that it will be very pure inviting the Lord to come in the form of that.

 

So, there you’ll do with mantras, you do some more ceremonies and the deity is laid to rest in a special where on top of rice, paddies and other natural things. So, this is also takes away any kind of contamination or any kind of whole contamination from the, from the making process. Then on the actual day of the installation there are various ceremonies one can do, one is called samhar srishti niyas. There’s a interesting all the, by mantra all the material elements of that form are destroyed and recreated, samhar means to destroy, srishti means to create, recreated on transcendental nature.

 

So, by different prayers the Lord, that form is further purified. Then after going for this, this all these different mantras for each of the senses of the Lord are touched with the kusha grass and mantras are chanted while the homa is going on. Then there’s a ceremony called netra unmilinam, netra unmilinam means opening the eyes, up to this point the eyes have been wrapped by a cloth. Then we open the eyes and with the mantras you put honey on one eye and ghee on the other eye. And say now Lord you please see, we put on Rādhā and ask Rādhā to also see.

 

Then before you bring the little girls who are decorated kumārīs, tulasī, you bring all precious items, so many different items, there’s conch shell, bolt, all so many different types of items, that’s the Lord have the first vision, the Bhāgavatam, different scriptures.

 

So then after netra unmilinam, then there is another homa and then finally the Lord is formally called into the deity. After that very big abhishek is performed with so many milk and yogurt and hundreds of items. Then the Lord is called prāṇa-pratiṣṭhā, where the, while mantras are being chanted and the Lord is requested to come.

 

Actually, the priest does a ceremony for that, how he does that and how he has meditation, he calls the Lord in by mantra to be present as the deity form. So from that time on then the Lord He’s accepting to be present and accept all the worships to the deity.

 

So, there’s so many histories there in the, in India about the deities and the different pastimes. So, when the devotees are going before the deity, they’re not just for them, this not just an idol, or some kind of imaginary, this the Lord himself has agreed to come in that particular form. So, they’re not praying to a, anyone else, all we praying to the same Lord.

 

Prabhupāda gave a very crude example, once he said the, he had said that the (inaudible 37:44) is a crude example, he said like you have a post office box. So that post office box you can put the mail or you can put in the GPO, these all representing the same post office, there’s extension. So, we cannot able to go to the GPO in the spiritual world and put there, so the Lord if coming down to our level so that we can easily reach Him. People shouldn’t mistake that we were just putting the anything and worshipping, that will be idol worship, we also against idol worship.

 

Followers of sanātana dharma don’t accept you can worship anything and say this is God, that’s against the śāstra. You have to put something; you have to establish a vigraha only according to the Vedas. If something is against the Vedas then it’s not accepted by any bonafide sampradāya.

 

śruti-smṛti-purāṇādi-

pañcarātra-vidhiṁ vinā

aikāntikī harer bhaktir

utpātāyaiva kalpate

 

Anything not supported by vedas, upanishads, by the vedānta sūtra, by the purāṇas, Mahābhārata, Ramayan and the pancharatra and other bonafide shastra. If someone just does something because they feel like it, that’s the simply disturbance, that won’t be acceptable, has to be backed up by a scripture. People say understand we’re also against idol worship, we’re not worshipping idols, and what their definition of idol. This is word now is been used in India, but that also explain that the original english in the european translator they translated vigraha as idol to try to undermine the peoples faith. Thinking that this way they can undermine their faith because idol is the, is a very bad word in english, it means false God.

 

But in India nobody knows what idol means, everyone says you know we have our, worshipping our idol. But they mean to say we’re worshipping our deities, or vigraha. So, we have to be careful, if we use in the west idol, people think oh these people are really, you know doing the wrong thing. But rather people should understand all the deity form is a very great mercy, the deity form are very powerful. And I know that the devotees when I took them, showed them various ancient deities around India and told the pastimes, there all over the world they had from Russia, America, from different countries from poland, from south America. They really enjoyed and really felt purified to see all the different deities. Just like in, there’s a Khirachora Gopīnāth deity in the Remuṇā in Orissa.

 

His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami:

(aside:) Have you heard about that deity? Do you all heard?

 

His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami:

This is a very recent, very ancient, this deity was personally made by Ramachandra. When Ramachandra was returning from Laṅkā to Ayodhyā by pushpaka vimāna with sītā, then they were discussing about in the next yuga He’s going to come again and be a cowherd boy and then she said, what she wanted to see what He look like.

 

So, He stopped the pushpaka vimāna and He carved in a stone image of Gopīnāth playing the flute so she could see. So, then they gave that form to the brāhmaṇas then they began worshipping, worship since tretā yuga, very ancient deity.

 

So, Chaitanya Mahāprabhu’s guru’s guru who had found the Shrinathji deity.

 

His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami:

(aside:) You know the Shrinathji deity? In Nathdwara. Anyone here from Gujarat? You heard of Nathji?

 

His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami:

That deity was found by Chaitanya Mahāprabhu’s guru’s guru. That deity was personally worshipped by Kṛṣṇa’s son, grandson. But then when the mughals came that was hidden in a forest in Vraj. That was found by Mādhavendra Purī and then later that was shifted to Nathdwara.

 

So, when that deity was uncovered the deity told to Mādhavendra Purī, actually very hot I’ve been sit in the forest so long you get me some sandalwood. So, he went walking through south India near the Gaṅgā, he got on the way to Jagannath Purī where he could get some sandalwood from that Gajapati kings of Purī at that time.

 

So, on the way he was visiting this temple of Gopīnāth which he just on the, right now it’s in the border of Bengal and Orissa. It’s a very beautiful place, there’s an ancient Shiva temple, it’s so old. You had to go 25 feet underground, you go to out step because so old the ground is become higher. It’s very tough deep in the ground there’s seven rivers stay that were, there’s lot of puranic reference to that place. It’s about eleven holy thirtas in that place mentioned in the purāṇas. Always the Gopīnāth is very important.

 

So anyway, he went to the temple and they have a custom that they offered kheer, a condensed milk to the deity. So, every day they’re bringing that kheer in nine different clay pots.

 

So Mādhavendra Purī saw them carrying that clay pots of the kher that was hot, the condensed milk he could smell. Then he saw that I wonder what this taste like to offer for my deities in Vrindavan to Nathji. When he thought, then he thought, what have I done! This is the bhoga, when we offer the deity worship, we don’t think about what anything taste before we offer the Lord, only after He takes then we take it. So, he thought I done a great sin, I done a great aparādha, I was thinking what was the preparation taste like before it was offered. So, then he bowed down and he begged apology to the deity went and he was outside and he was just chanting and whole night he couldn’t sleep. He was just chanting, this great sanyasi thinking that I committed a great offence.

 

In the middle of that night that priest, he got a dream for the deity came to him and said that I have taken one of the clay pots of condensed milk and kept behind my dress.

 

There’s a devotee in the, in the marketplace and still there chanting, his name is Mādhavendra Purī, I, I kept it for him, you go and bring it and give to him. And the priest woke up and he was, how is this possible! Deity is telling me He stole one of he pots. He took his bath went and open the deity room and it’s about 1 o'clock at night that time. And there he saw behind the dress of the deity there was one of the clay pots kept. He became very astonished how this could happen! Then he went out and he was calling in the marketplace Mādhavendra Purī!

 

Who is Mādhavendra Purī?

 

Then the Mādhavendra Purī is the only one there and he said yes, I am Mādhavendra Purī and he came he said my dear great, you’re the most fortunate person in the whole world, there’s no one as fortunate as you. For you Gopīnāth is stolen His condensed milk (laughing). He never heard of the marble deity there’s also, that stealing the prasad for His devotee, so you are very fortunate.

 

Actually, Mādhavendra Purī he wasn’t thinking what is that kheer taste like, I want to enjoy it. He didn’t really commit any offence but he was so humble, you know he’s such a great devotee, he was so humble he thought himself to be at fault.

 

So, the Lord reciprocated with His humility and gave him the kheer. You want to know what this taste like for your deity, you take it. So that’s why from that time that deity became known as Khirachora Gopīnāth, the Gopīnāth who stole the khīrā, the khīrā.

So, and like this in all over India you find the different pastime of different deities are performing.

 

Thousands and millions of people, in a year millions of people are going to see Bālajī Tirupati Tirumala and they can tell you so many different experiences they had with that deity. Like that Śrī Ranganathan, Guruvayur, Jagannath Purī, Dwaraka, Badrinath, many different holy places and Vrindavan and many different pastimes are all connected with the deities.

 

So, the devotees and the deities have done some active reciprocation. But other people may not understand that, there is the problem. But we should have, we shouldn't have any doubt and the children and others they should be thoroughly trained to understand and appreciate about the deities and that these deities are not, what they say, the false idol or anything like that, that's a total misunderstanding. We can give a little bit idea that we're worshipping the same Supreme Lord. Then they could go a long way for bringing some better understanding amongst the different communities and for unity in the world. Only the theists can change the world, not the atheists. Bring about this change for the better, that can be done by the theist and our great acharyas they predicted in the future the Vedas are going to be the basis for the unification. Especially the Gītā and the Bhāgavatam are the cream of the, cream of the Vedic knowledge. So, they give the essence for unifying everyone.

 

So, we hope that Hari would be able to express the things very nicely and that everyone would be able to express nicely. They’re going to have here, of course our Kṛṣṇa vision, I think Friday you have here. And I hope that you everyone will try that; it’s been on the national or here?

 

(devotee:) (inaudible 48:25)

 

His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami: They have different shows for the youth and for the adults and they have all the picked, show of all the different deities around the world. I see there’s, there should be some, you don’t, they don’t say which temple but just show the deities.

 

But those deities are from South Africa, from South America, from Europe, from London, from Germany, from Australia, from America, from all over India. They just showing one of the picture, one of the shows is the picture. How these different, every temple the devotees are worshipping the deity. This is for focusing our mind, it’s one of the ways we can chant holy name of the Lord, or we worship His deity from, read in His teachings in Bhagavad Gītā., this is the basic system recommended for this age.

 

Either the Bhāgavata dharma of reading Bhāgavatam and chanting the holy names or pancharatra dharma of worshipping the deities according to pancharatra given by Nārada Muni. These two systems are recommended for kaliyuga, very simplified systems and especially chanting the holy names is the most effective. But we also need deity worship it’s also very helpful to focus the mind to keep our cleanliness.

 

So, this house is blessed because here the deities are here, we’re able to come and get their blessing from Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, Gaura Nitāi. We hope everyone will have deities in their home and make their home a temple.

 

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare

Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

 

Any question?

 

(devotee:) Question: (inaudible 50:34)

 

His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami:

When we invite the Lord in the deity form then we have to perform all the regular worship just like you have to serve your child or you have to serve the person being present and you can’t stop the worship. Where picture is, is one of the deity forms, some are a permanent installation and some are not installed.

 

So, at that time the Lord can be in a form of a painting, in wood, in stone, in a gem and metal and a clay pot, the different forms that He can take, so one of the forms is a painting. So, in the painting one can do āvahan, I request the Lord to be present there or in the clay pot. The Lord in a painting is there that image is not different but one is not applied, the painting form is not a form that we do a permanent installation.

 

If you offer the, any offering to the painting and you say the mantras the Lord can also accept, this is expressed in the śāstra. But if, but the painting you might not, you don’t make an particular offering then it’s not an offence, not the same type of a deity.

 

So, for people in their homes who’re not able to have the full Vigrahas, they can have also the paintings and by offering the flowers to the painting, or offering the different food stuff to the painting, in this way they can also. It’s also a form, a deity form of the Lord which is mentioned in the śāstra, but it’s less formal in the rules.

 

Like there is another form, they use sometime in India for yajyas they do the Kalasa, so they called maṅgala gāthā. They’ll install the deity by mantra, that pot they pot the garland and the coconut everything and that pot, clay pot or the metal pot with filled with water in different auspicious items. The Lord can also be called to represent in the form of that pot. But that is only installation good for one day, every day you have to reinstall.

 

Also, the clay deity, sometime they’re doing like for Durgā pūjā or some pūjā they’ll do the clay deity. Clay deity cannot be permanently installed, it’s not a permanent deity. So, they’ll have a Shaligram and every day they install the deity. So, there’s temporary installation and there’s permanent installation.

 

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