19951228 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.9.45

Lecture Code: 19951228

 

Scripture: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam

Verse: 6.9.48

Date: 28-Dec-1995

Place: New Govardhan Farm

 

Transcribed By: Anuttama Gandharvika DD

Transcribed On: 16-Oct-2019

 

First Level Proofer: Chaitanya Appana

First Level Proofed on: 11-May-2020

 

Editorial Changes (non voice): Usha

Date: 5-Jan-2021

 

STATUS: Completed

 

Source:

https://archives.Jayapatākā swami.com/courses/304945/lectures/5000909

Title:

vande 'haḿ śrī-guroḥ śrī-yuta-pada-kamalaḿ śrī-gurun vaiṣṇavāḿś ca

śrī-rūpaḿ sāgrajātaḿ saha-gaṇa-raghunāthānvitaḿ taḿ sa jīvam

sādvaitaḿ sāvadhūtaḿ parijana-sahitaḿ kṛṣṇa-caitanya-devaḿ

śrī-rādhā-kṛṣṇa-pādān saha-gaṇa-lalitā- śrī-viśākhānvitāḿś ca

 

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on December 28, 1995 in New Govardhana farm, Murwillumbah, Australia. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 6th Canto, Chapter 9, Verse 48.

 

kiṁ durāpaṁ mayi prīte

 tathāpi vibudharṣabhāḥ

mayy ekānta-matir nānyan

 matto vāñchati tattva-vit

Translation:

O best of the intelligent demigods, although it is true that nothing is difficult for one to obtain when I am pleased with him, a pure devotee, whose mind is exclusively fixed upon Me, does not ask Me for anything but the opportunity to engage in devotional service. (Spoken twice by GM with devotees repeating)

Purport by His Divine Grace Śrīla Prabhubad:

When the demigods finished offering their prayers, they anxiously waited for their enemy Vṛtrāsura to be killed. This means that the demigods are not pure devotees. Although without difficulty one can get anything he desires if the Lord is pleased, the demigods aspire for material profit by pleasing the Lord. The Lord wanted the demigods to pray for unalloyed devotional service, but instead they prayed for an opportunity to kill their enemy. This is the difference between a pure devotee and a devotee on the material platform. Indirectly, the Lord regretted that the demigods did not ask for pure devotional service.

His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami: Thus, end the Bhaktivedanta Swami translation purport to The Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, 6th Canto, 9th chapter, 48th verse in the matter of The Appearance of the Demon Vṛtrāsura.

Om Tat Sat.

So, the devas offered their prayers to The Lord and The Lord has granted them His blessings so they could ask The Lord for anything at that opportunity but in fact they were able to see The Lord surrounded by His sixteen personal attendants decorated with ornaments.

The devas saw The Supreme Lord in that posture and they fell down and offered their Obeisance’s and offered the prayers. But ultimately what they were asked asking for was that Vṛtrāsura could be eliminated by The Lord.

Vṛtrāsura was so powerful that he could not be killed by the devas.

So, when they had no other hope they went to The Lord and The Lord appeared to them being satisfied with their devotional service. But instead of asking for pure devotional love for Kṛṣṇa, they asked to get rid of the enemy after and offer many beautiful praises to The Lord, so here in this verse.

The Lord is saying; it's true there is nothing is difficult to achieve for someone who has pleased Me He was kind of correcting because before He had said pure devotees are sheltered, they can achieve anything, its but they actually don't want anything else but to serve Me, they don't ask for anything else but to serve in pure devotional service.

Similar situation happened, happens [00:05:19] the devas get put into difficulty and they have nobody to turn to but The Lord.

In one way it keeps them in their place so to speak. Keeps them aware of their limitations and helps to remind them to surrender to Kṛṣṇa. There was a demon Shankasura who had a boon from Brahma, he was in the, in the, by that boon he could not be killed by the devas.

So, he was looking for the devas to kill them.

So, they were all hiding in a middle on the, mount meru, couldn't be discovered by the demons. The demon decided that he would destroy the devas by taking the personified Vedas and destroying them, so that way Vedic knowledge would be finished and his theory was that the devas would be finished. Putting that plan, demons are very creative.

So, he went up to Brahmaloka but meanwhile the personified Vedas got dream that Shankasura was out to get them.

So, he just, as soon as he got, he saw them escaping and he went chasing after them but they went into the ocean.

Actually, they dissolved themselves in the water, so by being dissolved in the water, couldn't be found. Shankarsura he didn't know, he just them going in the water and then he followed them in the ocean. He was looking everywhere, all over the ocean trying to find them.

So, while he was looking for them then the devas they said this is our chance and they went out and went by the side of the milk ocean in order to call, to ask Viṣṇu  for His help.

But Viṣṇu was in yoganidrā  that time and nobody wanted to just wake Him up because He might not be pleased.

So, they thought what could we do that will please The Lord, most of all. So, they, someone said He is most pleased when you chant His holy names.

So, they all began to chant, Indra, Vayu, Surya, Agnidev, all the different devas, they had a big kirtan, kartals, mridangas.

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare

Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

(GM is singing, doing kirtan)

and the kirtan went on and the sound of the transcendental name they reached.

The Lord Viṣṇu and He woke up from His yoganidrā and He was very very happy to see all the devas chanting His holy name.

Actually Viṣṇu, most of all is happy when someone is just serving Him, actually in pure devotion but even they were just chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, even they had some other motive to awaken Him but even then, He was very pleased.

He said this is the happiest time, this is the happiest day for Me to see all the devas chanting.

 So, on this day if anybody chants the Holy name, I would give them very easily my special mercy so they can come to me in pure devotion. You know what day that was; Ekādaśī.

It was Ekādaśī  tithi , so since that was one of the reasons why chanting the names of Kṛṣṇa on Ekādaśī  brings so many multiple effect, so The Lord is sweet then everything can be achieved, the pure devotees just want His pure devotion so the devas want to the have the attention of Lord Viṣṇu  and then He asked them what did they would like. They had again the opportunity to get His pure love, but instead they said my dear Lord we are being harassed by Shankarsura, if you could kindly save us.

So, they get the opportunity now and again to ask for the highest benediction but they often failed to do so, say this is so but the Lord is very merciful. So then, He say it's alright if that is what you want have Kashyapa hold water in his hand and Kashyapa held his hand, cup with water, Kashyapa muni and there is [00:10:20]  microscopic with fish appeared in [00:10:22]  like a little you could barely see it (not sure), the glass it was getting bigger and bigger filled up his whole hand and there was no room, I mean it was getting bigger and put in through a little well but it got bigger than the well, put in the lake it got bigger than the lake then finally put it in the ocean and it got bigger and bigger and bigger.

When Shankarasura saw that gigantic transcendental form of Matsya avatar and naturally, immediately he was attracted to that form, of course the demon they are attracted in another way.

He was attracted that O here is someone I can fight with and kill; this must be a deva or something. For Kṛṣṇa reciprocates with everyone so the demon aimed to kill Him so then the demon was killed by The Lord.

Matsya avatar is a different incarnation, He saves the Vedas.

So, He took the Vedas and in this particular incarnation had dissolved in the water, He took them out from the water and gave them back to Lord Brahma and Lord Brahma in turn handed them to different rishis to be responsible for the different parts of Vedic knowledge and in this way the order in the universe was established again.

So The Lord He does, it was in the Padma Purāṇa it was mentioned that I was looking at glories of Ekādaśī  which seemed to hear the tidbits how the devas when they get put in these difficulty and sometime they are success from getting out of it and then sometimes, that time they should only by Kṛṣṇa's mercy that the devas can do anything or anyone can do anything.

But in case they are not able to get out of it and they actually have to personally come to The Lord and ask for His help, oh that's another opportunity to them.

Really here we see that apart from telling us what's the position of the devas are in relation to The Lord, the most important thing here is that glorification of the pure devotees whose mind is exclusively fixed upon Me and the pure devotee does not ask Me for anything but the opportunity to engage in devotional service.

Devotional service is itself the highest benediction. To actually be able to serve The Lord to His devotee, serve The Lord is the perfection but most people in the material world who are devotees of God, they worship God in order to achieve something else. We are reading about how the, some of the Christians they have half night prayer meetings to pray for people who have some disease or some personal problem to overcome with problems or pray to The Lord to have someone be freed from a demon or a whatever.

So, devas (not clear 13:20) we have forcing approaching The Lord but they are asking for some mundane purpose.

Actually, devotional service the idea is that we can serve The Lord for His pleasure, it's a mystery for most people. Even for the great devas may not except for the pure devotee they are not able to fix their minds on pure devotional service. It is so rare in the universe and we are so fortunate that Chaitanya Mahāprabhu has come to give us this love for Kṛṣṇa freely.

If, if someone pleases The Lord, they can achieve anything. Lord Chaitanya said that in order for us to please The Lord we need to please His devotees. Pure devotees are spiritual masters, The Tulasī, The mother Ganges, The Holy Dham, The Bhagvatam.

By respecting the things which are connected to The Lord one is able to please The Lord, because it is mentioned in a seminar after the recent floods, we had in Māyāpur I really got (not clear) hard to forget about The Ganges and about the total implication of the flooding.

Lord Chaitanya said that when The Holy Dham of Mayapur floods then the whole world should be flooded with love for Kṛṣṇa; its indication, Prabhupad revealed that.

So, when we were flooded in Mayapur then we were looking up some of the glories of The Ganges in The Bhāgavatam, Chaitanya Caritāmṛta, Chaitanya Bhagvat.

We found that how The Ganges has a very personal relationship with Lord Chaitanya. The Yamuna had also combined with The Ganges in Mayapur, its from, not from Allahabad and in Mayapur they are combined and there was a pastime mentioned.

One devotee was, one sage was meditating on The Ganges saying his Gayatri with, in the water up to his chest and all of a sudden, The Ganges water started rising up, rising up and coming right up, practically covering up his face and going down and coming up, going down.

What is going on here. Why is the water suddenly rising and falling like this and he looked and he saw there was a golden boy running alongside The Ganges and sometimes go away further from The Ganges and The Ganges water would come up, up trying to keep on touching Lord's lotus golden feet.

He goes in to The Ganges water goes down He goes up, in this way the level was coming even so much out of the water. Suddenly the sage saw his worship able deity, The Ganges personified come out of the water and offer Her obeisance’s to that boy.

Immediately he jumped out of the water and ran, what is this and from a respectable distance he was watching what is going on and he saw mother Ganges offering prayers of respect of obeisance to the boy, that my master please have your mercy on me that I can always serve you in pure devotion and then she went back in to the water and shhh disappeared.

She knew that she would never offer obeisance’s like that to anyone but Lord Viṣṇu . He went and offered his obeisance’s and prayed to The Lord and because The Lord was pleased with him for his worship of The Ganges and his prayers, that devotee requested to please reveal to me who you are.

So, Lord Chaitanya revealed He was Kṛṣṇa to that sage and told him that I have incarnated now in order to have my pastimes as a devotee if you like to watch them or participate, you are welcome, but don't tell anyone about this, what you know today until I leave. If you tell anyone there will be a disturbance of my pastimes and I will have to remove you from this world early.

So actually, the Ganges is so purifying that even if somebody is carrying bones to put in The Ganges and on the way, they die so they go back to Godhead along with the bones of the, I mean the person of whose bones the ashes are carrying.

So, if somebody ever asks you to take ashes to The Ganges probably the most safest service you could ever do. Even if airplane crashes you go back to Kṛṣṇa. So many glories of the Ganges.

Even the breeze coming from The Ganges is purifying just to remember The Ganges. Even if you are in distant place if you just say the name of GANGAAAAA, What name? Ganga (devotees chant loudly), Ganga, Ganga (devotees repeat). So, syllables Ganga is behaving is purifying (not clear) kept here like taking a bath and so many contaminations are washed away.

Of course, you are also chanting The Holy names of Lord Chaitanya which bring love for Kṛṣṇa. GAURĀṄGA!!!!! Gaurāṅga (devotees chant loudly), GAURĀṄGA !!!!! Gaurāṅga (devotees chant loudly) NITYĀNANDA!!!!

NITYĀNANDA (devotees chant loudly) and if The Lord is pleased, He can give. But the most important thing one can get and when we are reading about the glories of The Ganges, we found another interesting pastime about a devotee called Damasva, you know this pastime, Damasva pastime.

Damasva he was going to The Ganges and worshiping her as charnamrita of The Lord Viṣṇu as the sacred devotee of The Lord and he was offering aarti and then bathing in the water. He took a little water, part of water and took it with him, back home. On the way in that particular kingdom there was a brahma bandhu who was very sinful by nature and although he was born a brahmana family and was posing as a brahmana, he was a rascal number one.

He was a thief and a criminal but he had a high position in the government which you know quite normal i guess and there was a bull lying on the road, since I don't have much time, I have to tell this one quick.

There was a bull lying in the road and he was envious why this bull is lying in the road, blocking the way, picked a big stick and started beating the bull and the bull was really not bothering anybody, could have watched along the road  and although bull was pretty docile, but when he started beating the bull with a stick, he changed his mood.  Woooooooa [00:20:30] frankly what sound charging bull make with he made and he went and he gored that the brahama bandhu his name was kala, kalpa, kalakalpa got gored by the bull right in the heart and this opened up his chest and it was a direct hit to the heart, instant death.

As soon as he died, yamadūta it was like, alight boys come and get him, they were in like a fire drill, i mean they were in thousands, they were waiting for this one for a long time. (devotees laugh). They were in a hue, in horns, one of the major acts of this is the yamadūta in the universe, came to get kala kalpa.

But when they reached there, they were really frustrated, when they saw kalakalpa so possessed by the form taken in the hand of the Viṣṇu duta. Alright I forgot to tell you what happened. (devotees laughing) Something happened in between.

Yamadūta s were on their way, meanwhile Damasva walking around the road, Oh the piece I am missing that and he saw the dead body of that, of that, appeared to be brahmana, blood everywhere, he took some of the Ganges water and sprinkled it all over, the body, he took the tulasi prasad, sprinkled the Ganga water and he walked back.

So, when the yamadūta’s reached, alright you take him, we found that the Viṣṇu dutas are already there and they said what are you doing here, this is a sinner and they said no he had Ganges water sprinkled out, he is purified. Purified, what do you mean this sinner.

He was a robber, a cheat, he had a guest come over in his house when the guests were sleeping he, he murdered them and cut his body in little pieces and there he took all his money, he would get widows pregnant, have them have abortion, you know you look at this person, he belongs to us.

He belonged in hell and; and but what happened this Damsava, he was walking along, he saw whole bunch of yamaduatas completely cut off, and broken and bleeding with arms missing and leg missing and some carrying other wounded yamadūta s and he said what happened to you, you know, one yamadūta  was coming by and he was telling this whole story.

We went to get Kalakalpa and we had this discussion, we found that Viṣṇu dutas were there. We had a discussion, we were asking, we were claiming him and we said all the sins he did and everything but then the Visnudutas said, “Well that's true everything you said but the real thing is that he was sprinkled with the Ganges water and The Viṣṇu 's lotus foot touched and the Ganges can wipe out so many sins and all those sins are gone”.

What by a little Ganges water all his sins are gone, c'mon we are taking him, and the yamadūta s are coming forward they are going to take him by force from Viṣṇu duta and the Viṣṇu duta said you are so offensive, you are doubting the Ganges, you are, you are not understanding the, the glory of The Ganges, how the potency of The Lord's lotus feet does and the Holy Ganges can purify this and you are offending The Ganges, you are offending The Lord and you are coming to ask, you are going to attack us.

CHAKRAAAA, and Sudarshan Chakra or their personal and many more chakras whatever from where ever they came and just started chopping Yamadūta’s and making meals out of chopped head pieces and there was a massacare which you know in the history of Yamaloka will never be forgotten or the Universe. There were Yamadūta’s everywhere, wounded, killed.

So they fled from that place and the Yamadūta s told Damsava we made a very very big offence and we really really blew it and we are suffering for our offence and Damasva just stopped where he was and he said my goodness I just sprinkled little Ganges water on the dead body and all this thing happened and he immediately went back to The Ganges and started offering obeisance’s, I just taken the Ganges for granted I just thought it was you know just only holy river.

But The Ganges is so potent and so merciful and then he offered aarti and prayers and he composed beautiful prayers to The Ganges and the personified Ganges appeared to him on the crocodile carrier, vahana, carrying a lotus and conch and the beautiful moon colored white garments and said you have pleased me you tell me what you would like and he said all I want is to be able to have pure devotion for Lord Kṛṣṇa.

When I leave my body, I can be chanting The Holy names in your water, that's all I am asking.

So Tathasthaha, she gave her blessings and she went back in to Her water, disappeared from sight. Here was, here was another situation, where a devotee got the darshan even with Viṣṇu in this case of the Ganges, he only asked for pure devotion, only asked to be able to chant the holy names of The Lord to be touching The Ganges, didn't ask for any mundane thing.

So, the difference between a pure devotee who ask only for the spiritual blessing of devotional service and such devotional gift where the sakam devotees like the devas they have the other mundane concerns and they are preoccupied with.

So, this verse tells that Viṣṇu Himself is saying that pure devotee they only ask for pure devotion, of course when pure devotee is in difficulty then The Lord Himself He promises, "na me bhaktah pranasyati", My devotee won't perish.

So, He will protect His devotee one way or another. So, this opportunity that Lord Chaitanya has given us even though we are maybe born in Kaliyuga in different backgrounds all over the World, we have the opportunity to hold on to The Lotus feet of The Lord, chant His Holy Name.

Even Prabhupad gave us bathe in the Ganges or to read the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam and The Bhagvad Gītā, which are coming from the Lotus Lips of The Lord and His pure devotees and to associate with the sankirtan movement of Lord Chaitanya, which is flooding the world with the Love of Kṛṣṇa.

So, the greater benediction is simply to be able to serve The Lord in pure devotion and Prabhupad has given that opportunity and Prabhupad said that even if we can do a little service, The Lord will be very pleased.

Of course Prabhupad wanted us to do some big services like build Mayapur, distribute so many millions of books, do so many services which appear big to our personal perspective although for the devas they may not be big and Prabhupad said if you please the previous acharya and then he told to even Tamal Kṛṣṇa Maharaj[00:28:49] if you build the 30 story building in Mayapur, Bhaktivinod Thakur will take you back to Godhead hand in hand or something, open invitation to everyone.

If we can please The Lord, please His pure devotees, we can get special best thing of The Lord to have pure Love for Him, this is that Vedas told, that pleasing Prabhupad and previous acharyas and we can have the pure love for Kṛṣṇa, of course you can get anything else about, when we can have that most wonderful of all benediction why would you want anything less.

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare

Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare.

So, we have 4 minutes for Questions, somebody has a, don't ask me a long question.

Devotee asks question (not very audible)

His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami: It’s not wrong but it’s not pure devotion, it’s not wrong, it’s not an offense or something but it’s not pure devotion, it’s not transcendental. Their focus is on their bodies, they are devas, they have a material body as a deva, we have material body as a human being.

Devas bodies are much better equipped than human bodies, they live millions of years so on their mystic powers but still in spite of that they have their limitations sometimes when they reach some amount of problem they get, preoccupied with that.

So, they have a separate interest, the whole point is that they have its mentioned in the 3rd canto Bhāgavatam by Kapila Dev that they have some devotees who have a desire for liberation, some have desire for some material aaaa benefit or someone has a desire for getting back at enemies.

So, whether it’s in goodness, passion or ignorance but all of them have a separatist mentality for The Lord. Their motives are not in total harmony with Kṛṣṇa but the pure devotee is in total harmony. He wants what The Lord wants. That's why sometimes a guru is sick we may pray to The Lord if it please you, please see that our spiritual master health is tell his or whatever he may recover from this illness or something like that but we add 'If it please you' but ultimately want to do what The Lord pleases if its willful to The Lord, we would like to have our spiritual master with us, we may pray like that. We don't just pray give me this but we want to always do what’s pleasing [00:31:51] something which are not spiritually related even then we add 'if it so please you' even devotees pray for the protection of the temple, they may pray to please The Lord. This means that we accept that ultimately whatever The Lord does, its good. The devas, they didn't want, they wanted to assure that they got whether its demon that was you know the bottom line if it so please you please give the demon otherwise, we don't like them. They are attached to that position of being a deva, having that particular service as a deva, just a different perspective.

Question of where their attachment is, they are great devotees, we cannot disrespect them, we have to always respect them. Sometimes devotees criticize the deva and that's the worst thing to do.

In Nectar of Devotion it said that you should never disrespect, they are great devotee but there is a slight differentiation. They do have some mundane motive which is separate from the pure devotional interest.

Therefore, pure devotee, even worship able by the devas, even respectable by them because pure devotee is in harmony with Kṛṣṇa, totally. We are trying to cultivate pure devotional service by the mercy of Chaitanya Mahāprabhu  and Śrīla  Prabhupad.

Śrīla  Prabhupad ki Jai,

Srimad Bhagvad ki jai,

Nitai Gaur premanande,

Hari Hari Bol

(devotees chant).