19960414 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.14.38

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on April 14th, 1996 in Denmark. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 7.14.38.

Translation: O King Yudhiṣṭhira, the Supersoul in every body gives intelligence to the individual soul according to his capacity for understanding. Therefore the Supersoul is the chief within the body. The Supersoul is manifested to the individual soul according to the individual’s comparative development of knowledge, austerity, penance and so on. 

Purport: In Bhagavad-gītā (15.15) it is said, mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca: the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His localized aspect gives intelligence to the individual soul as far as he is able to grasp it. Therefore we find the individual soul in different high and low positions. A living entity with the body of a bird or beast cannot take instructions from the Supreme Soul as adequately as an advanced human being. Thus there are gradations of bodily forms. In human society, the perfect brāhmaṇa is supposed to be the most advanced in spiritual consciousness, and further advanced than the brāhmaṇa is the Vaiṣṇava. Therefore the best persons are the Vaiṣṇavas and Viṣṇu. When charity is to be given, one should take instruction from Bhagavad-gītā (17.20): 

dātavyam iti yad dānaṁ dīyate ‘nupakāriṇe 
deśe kāle ca pātre ca tad dānaṁ sāttvikaṁ smṛtam 

“That gift which is given out of duty, at the proper time and place, to a worthy person, and without expectation of return, is considered to be charity in the mode of goodness.” One should give charity to the brāhmaṇas and Vaiṣṇavas, for thus the Supreme Personality of Godhead will be worshiped. In this connection, Śrīla Madhvācārya comments: 

brahmādi-sthāvarānteṣu na viśeṣo hareḥ kvacit
vyakti-mātra-viśeṣeṇa tāratamyaṁ vadanti ca

 
Beginning from Brahmā down to the ant, everyone is conducted by the Supersoul (īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe ‘rjuna tiṣṭhati [Bg. 18.61]). But because of a particular person’s advancement in spiritual consciousness, he is considered to be important. Therefore, the brāhmaṇa Vaiṣṇava is important, and, above all, the Supersoul, the Personality of Godhead, is the most important personality.

 
Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Swami Translation and Purport to text 38, chapter 14, canto seven of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in the matter of “Ideal Family Life.” 

Jayapatākā Swami: So Nārada Muni is explaining to Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira about the ideal family life. For everyone, whether they are in family life or whether they are in the renounced order of life. It’s important to know in the universe who is important. In family life, it’s important to know, and those who are… otherwise have to engage in dealings with the material world. It’s important to know in this material world, who is important. Just like you need to know what’s the relative importance of a Prime Minister and a Minister, and a Member of the Parliament, Mayor and the local authorities, and elected representatives and government officers and policemen and so on. If you are totally an avadhūta in the Himalayan mountains, then these things don’t matter. So they are not so important. But if you have to deal with the material world, then you need to know. Otherwise… say some policeman comes or some big official comes to the temple, and then someone who is dealing with that person says… well, starts to mistreat that person, because… although we shouldn’t mistreat anyone, but it is improperly with a person, because it doesn’t understand what the importance of that person is. So when we deal with the material nature, we need to know the relative importance of things in material world. Similarly, we need to know in spiritual nomenclature what is the importance of different personalities. So someone says, I want to use my money for the best possible purpose. Then giving that money to the most important person or to serve his purpose will achieve the best possible result.

So Prabhupda has given here a clear instruction that in this world, the most appropriate person to donate one’s wealth is, to Kṛṣṇa and His devotees. Because Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme. And that is mentioned in the previous verse, in verse 35 (excuse me) 36:

 
jīva-rāśibhir ākīrṇa aṇḍa-kośāṅghripo mahān
tan-mūlatvād acyutejyā sarva-jīvātma-tarpaṇam

 
Translation: The entire universe, which is full of living entities, is like a tree whose root is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Acyuta [Kṛṣṇa]. Therefore simply by worshiping Lord Kṛṣṇa one can worship all living entities.

 
Jayapatākā Swami: So for householders, they need to know who to respect, who to use their surplus income for. They need to know these things. Why there are all these differences. The Māyāvādīs, they try to say everything is equal, but everything is not exactly equal. There is differences. There is a difference in the intelligence of an insect and intelligence of an animal, an intelligence of a bird, and there is an intelligence of a human being. Within humans also, there is certain different levels of intelligence. The big thinkers and entrepreneurs, they have different kinds of intelligence. Common labor may have another kind of intelligence. And in their own sphere, their intelligence has got certain values. Why these differences are there? Because of their different kinds of body, their capacities, their spiritual advancement. Sometimes in spiritual life, you find even a very simple person by material calculation, can become very advanced spiritually. And then be endowed with very high spiritual intelligence. For someone who is very materially intelligent, because of a lack of spiritual penance, austerity and practices, their intelligence gets stolen away by māyā—māyayāpahṛta-jñānā [Bg. 7.15]. And they fail to realize the basic truths of life. Therefore, someone who has spiritual knowledge is considered superior to someone who has only material knowledge. The brāhmaṇas, even a simple brāhmaṇa, who may not be as cunning or expert in material knowledge as some of the kṣatriyas or the vaiśyas. But because he has spiritual knowledge, he was considered superior and respected in Vedic society.

I think, I told you the story about that example given by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura about watering the root of the tree. “The foolish priest and the foolish gardener”. There was once a landlord who had... He was like in the feudal system of India. He was a lord. He had many employees working for him. Under the kings, there were lords, who were in charge of certain areas of land had tenants on the land. So one day he went to see his garden. When he went to see the garden, then he saw inside the garden was his gardener. And as soon as the gardener saw his boss came, he wouldn’t really show off that he was doing a good job. So he put a ladder by the side of the tree, and he climbed upon the ladder. And he proceeded in taking the watering can and watering all the leaves and fruits of the tree. So the landlord was saying, “What are you doing? Why are you watering the leaves and fruits of the tree? Why don’t you water the root?” He said, “Watering the root would be too easy. We are doing that every day. I want to show you that I am doing more than the normal. You see, I thought, this root is very ugly thing. It’s under the ground and kind of, you know, twisted and everything. And the leaves and the flowers and the fruits are so nice to look at. Why should we just give the root the water? Let’s give today all the leaves and the fruits and the flowers to water. That would be much better. Don’t you agree? What do you think?” “It makes no sense at all. If you put water on all the flowers and the fruits, you are going to ruin them. You are just śrama eva hi kevalam. You are simply wasting your energy. The tree takes the moisture, takes the nourishment through, takes the water through the root and takes the sun through the leaves. So you put the water on the root and let the plant take the sun through the leaves. This is what is made for you. Give the water the root. Don’t be over intelligent. Just do what you should do.” “Okay, okay. This was a lot of work anyway. If you want me to put on the root, then I will do that. It’s all right.” “What kind of employees we have nowadays, they are just not like they used to be.”

Then he went to his temple to see the deity and he saw his deities, but he couldn’t see the pūjārī. He wondered, “Where did the pūjārī go?” And heard the pūjārī’s voice chanting mantra “svāha, namaḥ, byom namaḥ” in the side. So he said, “What is going on?” So he went and then he saw there the pūjārī was sitting with a big plate of mahā-prasāda in front, and on his arms and body he was covered with rice and dal. He said, “What is going on?” Just kind of look, just peek from the door. Just see what he is doing. Then he saw that he was, first of all, he took a little dal… and he took some dal in both the hands. And then he chanted the mantra, yeṣāmdālam karṇakāyobhyam—O dal, I offer you to my ears, he put it, “Ahhhh!” (laughter). “What is doing? Stuffing dal in his ears?” Then he took some of the sweet rice, and now to offer the sweet rice to the nose, he chanted, yeṣām-pāyasam parama-annam nasikāyabyom— then he took the chutney to offer to the eyes, yeṣa-chutney locanāyabyom— “Stop it! Stop it! What are you doing? You are going to kill yourself. What are you doing?” He said, “Who is that?” You know, there is some water, wipe it. “Oh, my lord! Yes!” “What are you doing? What is this insanity? Why are you putting dal in your ears, sweet rice up your nose and this chutney in your eyes. What are you doing here? Why are you covered with all the prasāda?” “My lord, every day I am feeding the stomach through the mouth. The stomach just sits there and doesn’t do anything. The other senses are working, hearing, seeing, smelling, working. So I said, let them enjoy the prasāda one day.” Good idea? “So therefore, I am feeling all the senses of the prasāda!” “Are! You fool.” The landlord said, “What are you doing? Every sense has got its own purpose. But what do you think the teeth and the tongue, and the stomach is for? That is their job is to chew and digest the food. And from the stomach the strength will go all over the whole body But if you put the food inside your eardrums and up your sinus conduit and whatever this sino-area and into your eyes, you are going to go deaf and you are going to create infections and you may die from the infection and you are going to hurt your eyes.” “It’s really hurting. That chutney was too much. All right, so what is your suggestion? I suggest that you feed your mouth in the future and forget feeding the other senses. They will get the nourishment through the mouth and through the stomach.” “All right, my lord, I will take your advice.” “What a crazy pūjārī!” The landlord left. So you understand the Purport of this story. Acintya, what is the Purport? Do you know the Purport? You don’t know it? Anyone knows the Purport of this humorous story? Yes, when we serve Kṛṣṇa, why is that? What is Kṛṣṇa like in this analogy? The root of the tree. Very good. And in the body, it likes feeding the ears, the nose, what? The stomach. Aha. Sometimes they have these humorous stories but then they figure out what the meanings are. Laughing so hard. So Prabhupāda, that was his... We feed Kṛṣṇa. Everything we do should be connected to Kṛṣṇa. And by connecting everything to Kṛṣṇa, then that will do the welfare for the whole universe. It may not be visible. I mean, of course now scientists have studied and cut apart a tree and seen how this nourishment is going up from the root. But just by normal observation, you might not see that, well, how does giving water on the root, how does that benefit the leaf? But it works that way. So similarly, someone may not figure out or just understand, well, why would I want to serve Kṛṣṇa; if I just want to benefit the world? It would be much better to go and give charity to every individual.

That is the normal common sense that people have today. But nobody can serve everybody. There is so many suffering people, poor people and people are difficulty in the world. How can we possibly. How can anybody serve every single person? So you had to choose. Okay, well, I will serve these people. Let me serve the homeless or the foodless or the people who are having this kind of disease. Let me give my money to the paraplegic or the so they pick out a particular area to give, so they are selective. But actually, we should give to the root of the tree. Things should be done in such a way that Kṛṣṇa is served and that way everybody receives the benefit. How they receive the benefit is one of the mysteries. It’s like the mystery of nature, how you put water in the root. It comes up, but it does that. If you serve Kṛṣṇa, everyone benefits. Therefore, the devotees of the Lord are considered to be the most charitable people because they are doing that charity to everyone. When we serve Kṛṣṇa, we are serving everyone. Therefore, we are the servant of everyone. And this is why the devotees are prayed to:

vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca
patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ 

They will be merciful to them, fallen, to all living entities. So supersoul is with us, He is with everyone and how much we are aware of supersoul, how much He will reveal His presence to us is dependent upon our development of knowledge, austerity, penance, and so on. Some people, they are not aware of the supersoul at all. Supersoul for people of a good character is evident as the conscience. You should do this, you shouldn’t do that. They get some inner voice and conscience telling them to do or not. So that is the advice from the supersoul. Of course, generally, people cannot understand whether it’s their mind telling them or their conscience. Therefore, one needs a spiritual master. By accepting the spiritual master, he is the external guru. Then he clarifies, what is it that Kṛṣṇa has authorized for us. And supersoul is known as caitya-guru or the internal guru. So, he is guiding us from within. And as we become more and more purified then the supersoul is able to communicate more directly with us, we are able to receive His communication more clearly. A very sinful person is not open to receiving conscience – the good advice. So they become very close to the advice of the supersoul. As one becomes more advanced in penance, austerity and religiosity, they become more guided by the supersoul, more open to that guidance. And the pure devotee, Prabhupāda explained, he is receiving direct guidance and instruction from the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the heart. So if we want to get in touch with the caitya-guru, then this is the procedure: We had to become more advanced, more developed in knowledge, austerity, penance. So Kṛṣṇa helps us from within, and Kṛṣṇa is also helping us from without as the guru. 
Today, Bhaktin Elizabeth is preparing to receive initiation. And initiation is a formal acceptance of a guru, acceptance of the spiritual master, and the whole disciplic succession, that means a dedication to serving Kṛṣṇa eternally. And a service is offered through the disciplic succession through the spiritual master. Everything we do, whether the guru is physically present or not, everything we do, we offer to Kṛṣṇa through the guru. And the disciple considers that any mercy that they are receiving is being handed down through the disciplic succession and through the guru. So the credit for any blessings is also given to the guru. That’s the humility and Kṛṣṇa conscious attitude of the disciple.

Prahlāda Mahārāja, who received the supreme blessing of Lord Kṛṣṇa, and he was saved by Narasiṁhadeva. He was able to see the Lord face to face. Lord Narasiṁhadeva put His lotus hand on his head and Narasiṁhadeva offered him that he could have any blessing he wanted. He said, “What do you want?”

These Deities names are Nitāi-Gaura? Gaura-Nitāi?

So when he asked Prahlāda that, “You can have anything you want,” then Prahlāda, he said, “Don’t tempt me, please. Because I am born in a materialistic family and we always attracted to material things. I am not serving You because of any motive that I want something in exchange, something material in exchange for my service to You. And if at this time I can only remember that the only reason that I am here standing before You receiving Your mercy is because of the instructions and the blessing of my spiritual master.” This is the difference between the Māyāvādīs, the impersonalists, and their relationship with the guru and the devotees. The impersonalists, they want to become one with God. They want to merge into the impersonal jyoti. And their service to the guru is finished, when they merge into the brahma-jyoti, they think, now I have become God. So they kind of step on the head of the guru to plunge into the jyoti. When they dive in, then, “Goodbye guru, now I am God.” Of course, they don’t become God. They just want a little drop of light going into the ocean of light, and they can fall down from that position. They always remain one drop, one particle, one spirit soul. But they respect guru. But it’s a kind of a business relationship. I worship you give me a blessing; I be… you are God and I become God. Some kind of really strange situation. But this situation is different in the Vaiṣṇava. There even though the Vaiṣṇava achieves God realization, they are still grateful to the guru and respectful to the spiritual master. The spiritual master is respected not because he is God, but because he is very dear to God.

I remember when Śrīla Prabhupāda arrived in Boston in 1969, after coming back from India. We were all anxious because we didn’t know whether Śrīla Prabhupāda would come back from India. And it was a long time. So when he came, it was something very inspirational. And I was living in Toronto at that time as a… Toronto and Montreal as the president there. And then I came down all east coast, all the devotees that gathered together to meet Prabhupāda in the airport. And there was a big kīrtana going on. Hundreds of devotees were there, and we got to know someone came and said, the plane had arrived. Prabhupāda has gotten off the plane. So the devotees were just jumping and dancing and so excited. And then there was a window where you could actually see into the custom area, but they had put some kind of, you know, what do you call these type of things, You know, this like a screen, but these were solid screen, like a barrier, so you couldn’t see. And the window was there, and you could, you know, if you really jumped high, you could see little beyond it, there were people. But then normal vision, you couldn’t see. But so the screens were about screen panels or maybe 6ft high. So the kīrtana was going all of a sudden used to Prabhupāda lifted his hand above the screen, so you could see his bead bang. And immediately everyone knew it was like “Prabhupāda!!!!” and jumping. One devotee somehow, I don’t know, he hit himself or someone hit him with a karatāla in the eye and the blood was pouring down, but he was just so ecstatic, he is jumping. And then the newspaper is seeing this person jumping and bleeding. So that’s when they take the shot, right? They always go like the fly goes for the cut. But even they were impressed. They were saying, wow, he must have been in some supernatural state because he is bleeding and he’s completely happy and blissful, doesn’t even aware that he is cut. And so the kīrtana was going on and finally Prabhupāda came down out from the custom. Now we try to be more sedate things in the airports. And those days they weren’t prepared for us either. And all of a sudden, all the devotees just hit the deck, just paid their obeisances. So here in the distance were all the kind of other passengers and under the television was there and everyone. And then they say, everybody paying their obeisances and then it’s pretty much for the average person in the western world, you see people bowing down to somebody. And then everybody had come with a garland. All the hundreds of devotees, everyone had a garland. So they did a guru-pūjā right in the airport, and they are offering their guru-pūjā. And everybody came up. It was like a Vyāsa-pūjā. There was so much spontaneous offerings, and they came and offered garland. So the garland were coming, piling above, up to Prabhupāda’s eyes, you know, he couldn’t see them. He would take off the pile, and then they would come up, build up. Everyone be offering garland, take off. More garlands are piling up. And the newspapers, and they were like, what is going on here? What does this mean? And Prabhupāda must have sensed that they were passively being confused about why everybody is offering so much worship to another person. So when finally all the reception and pūjās were over and everyone was sitting down, and then he gave the class. I used to remember that the guru is respected because he is a representative of God, because he is the representative of the Lord. Therefore, he is offered all kinds of respect. And the guru always considers himself to be a humble servitor, in spite of all the respect that is offered. So he is the humble servitor of God. And he spelled it out God, G-O-D. However, if the guru thinks that he is God, then he is not G-O-D, God. He is opposite, he is D-O-G, Dog. So Prabhupāda made this point. Of course, most contemporary gurus in the world are probably in the other category. By that definition, most spiritual preachers from the India side are usually Māyāvādīs. There are Indian Vaiṣṇavas. But they hadn’t been. Now a few are getting out and preaching. Before, they hadn’t done so much. So mostly people are exposed to the impersonalist. And they are considered to be offensive, although they are respected for their renunciation and certain level. But by the Vaiṣṇava categorization, they are actually offensive to the supersoul and Kṛṣṇa, by them assuming themselves to be God; rather than a servitor of God. So these differences are there in philosophy. In the Vedas, it says that a Vaiṣṇava can be a guru, and a non Vaiṣṇava should not be.

avaiṣṇava guru na sa syād 
sad vaiṣṇava śva-pacaḥ guru 
[Padma Purāṇa]

A non Vaiṣṇava cannot be a guru, a bona fide guru. A person, even if he is born from a low, a substandard background, but if he is a pure Vaiṣṇava. He should be accepted as a guru. He can be accepted as a bona fide guru. So all these advices are given, these lessons are given in the Vedas.

So these things are being taught here. The king Yudhiṣṭhira. Next verse explaining how disrespectful dealings began in Tretā-yuga. So gradually Deity worship was introduced, worshipping… Satya-yuga people respected everyone, they know supersoul is in everyone’s heart. They respect everyone. Right now, in Kali-yuga, there is so much disrespect. We make all the difference. Instead of seeing everybody as having supersoul in the heart, everyone is a part of God. We should respect all living entities. They make the differentiation that we are humans, we can eat animals. There is no need of eating animals. There is enough vegetable food, even animal products like milk, if it’s produced from cows that are fed normal, vegetarian food is quite healthy and safe to drink. Nowadays, they are feeding the animals, the cows, animal products. And this is causing the passing through England. You always read about the mad cow disease, the big thing, because they were feeding horrible, unmentionable things, byproducts of the slaughterhouse to the cows, who are basically vegetarian. And that created this type of disease in the cows and gets passed on to the humans is now what they are fearing. There is some evidence or suspicion to that respect. But normally when you feed cows grass and things are supposed to be fed, then there is no problem. So there is no need of killing the cow or killing animals, because there is enough food for human beings without killing animals. But if there is life in death circumstance, there might be some occasion when one would have to eat meat. But at the present time, it’s not required; because of the transportation system of the modern world, it’s really not necessary in most parts of the world. So we make that distinction, and we human beings are making the distinction. Just like what went through, all the massacre in Bosnia, someone is distinguishing, even they were friends. But I am a Muslim family, I am a Serb family, I am a Croatian background. And then they are killing each other, or in what is that country in Africa where the Tutti, the Tutsis and the Tushtis, or the Tutsis and the other, the two tribes who had been living together, they started killing each other. And hundreds of thousands of people were massacred, killing each other. And India, we faced this consciousness also that for 50 years ago, the partition of India, when Hindus and Muslims were fighting with each other. Occasionally things happen, even today. So this kind of body consciousness, where people are seeing that my body or my category of body, my ethnic grouping, this isn’t mine, this is important, and they hate others. So spiritual life, if we want to have respectful dealings in the world, which are based on a real, permanent platform, it comes from understanding that everyone is a part of God. The bodies may be different, but the essential spirit soul is the same part of God, and therefore everybody should be respected. But as spiritual knowledge is covered, the disrespect begins to increase. And now we are in the last phase of the four yugas. So there is so much disrespect, so much lack of respect for others. So this body consciousness is dehātma-buddhi, it’s a big problem in the modern age. We have developed in other areas, but in spiritual knowledge, we are very much blind. Prabhupāda used to say, the west is blind. They need to team up with India, spiritual vision. Even sometimes he use the example that India may be economically poor, but spiritually there have a good vision. So, like a blind man could take a person on his shoulder who has vision, the two could team up. Andhapaṅgu.

 
Now, in Śrīvāsa Aṅgan, we find that Lord Caitanya, He was also evaluating people according to their vision of things. One day, one brahmacārī came along, who was not a Vaiṣṇava. He was a yogī-brahmacārī, who had been meditating into Himalayas. And somehow, he came down to Navadvīpa and he visited Śrīvāsa in Śrīvāsa Aṅgan. And he asked Śrīvāsa, “Can I have permission to attend the kīrtana with Lord Caitanya?” And he looked and he saw the brahmacārī wearing deer skin and matted hair and a stick and his kamaṇḍalu. And it looked pretty austere. He thought, “Well, I would like to let you stay, but I just can’t give you permission. Because you are not a Vaiṣṇava.” “No, no, but I am a brahmacārī, and I practiced. I really want to see Lord Caitanya’s kīrtana.” He said, “Well, I can’t give you permission to join the kīrtana. Maybe you can stay in my house and look through the window. That’s about all I can tell you right now.” So that evening, when Lord Caitanya came with all the devotees and they started chanting, we mentioned yesterday about the mother-in-law pastime. Where Lord Caitanya was chanting, and He didn’t feel ecstasy. Well, here again, Lord Caitanya was chanting, but after a while, He just stopped, and He said, “I am not feeling ecstasy again. What is happening, Śrīvāsa? Why the second time I am not feeling ecstasy? A few months ago, this thing happened. Now why is it happening again?” So this time Śrīvāsa immediately suspected. “Well, the only time this happens is when some non devotees peeking on Lord Caitanya. And I told the brahmacārī, he could peek from the window.” So he said, “Well, I think there is a brahmacārī in my house, and he is looking at the kīrtana.” “Brahmacārī?” “He was a yogī brahmacārī.” “Bring him here.” So they bring out, here comes the little young yogī with his kamaṇḍalu and his stick and the deer skin and matte hair. And he comes out, doesn’t bow down to Lord Caitanya. He just kind of comes up, stands there, and then Lord Caitanya asks him, “So who are you?” He says, “I am a yogī, brahmacārī.” “What is your purpose in life? What do you?” “I am trying to realize Absolute Truth.” He said, “What are you doing here in Navadvīpa?” Didn’t really have a good answer for that. He said, “You know, you are supposed to be. You think you are very spiritually advanced. You are very powerful yogī. The yogīs belong in the Himalayas, meditating in a solitary place in the forest. You are coming here to the big city is not going to help your yoga practice. Actually, you are very proud. You think you are very renounced. But although these devotees are living here in the city, and most of them are householders, they are much more spiritually advanced than you are, because they have dedicated everything to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Although they are physically possessing so many things, they don’t possess anything, because everything they are offering to the service of Kṛṣṇa. Well, you are carrying your false ego with you, therefore, you are not qualified to be in this kīrtana. I am very sorry, but you cannot stay here. Show him the door.” And he was taken out. Shown the door, and the kīrtana started again.

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

And the yogī, young yogī was sitting outside, and he was hearing the kīrtana and said, “Wow, I really got chastised by Lord Gaurāṅga. But what He said was true. It’s very boring sitting in the forest. I came here in the city. People respect me. Some donation or something. Surely it was my false ego that caused me to come. Those devotees, I could see when they were chanting, they were completely absorbed in the chanting. They weren’t thinking about anything. I’m trying to meditate. My mind goes here and there. Very difficult. Actually, I was totally unqualified. It’s true. I was completely unqualified. What I can’t understand is, how is it that Lord Caitanya was so merciful? He knows everything. He knew I was there. Why did He let me even see that kīrtana? I could see for 15 minutes, half an hour. He let me see the kīrtana. I am so unqualified. But He was so merciful. He allowed me to see the kīrtana.” And he just started crying, feeling himself so blessed by the Lord. And he allowed him even to see the kīrtana, although he was so unqualified.

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

So then Lord Caitanya stopped the kīrtana. “Stop!” “What’s wrong now?” “Where is that yogī?” “No, no. He is outside.” “Go get him. Now he can come and join the kīrtana. Now he is ready.” They went out there. He was out there crying, and they brought him in. And Lord Caitanya… immediately he bowed down to Lord Caitanya this time. And Lord Caitanya, “Now you can. You have understood, now you can join the kīrtana.” Nitāi Gaura Sītānātha Premānande! Hari Haribol! So Lord Caitanya, He has come as devotee, but supersoul is His expansion’s expansion, expansion. He knows what everyone is thinking. We can never hide anything from Lord Caitanya. And if we approach Him in a very humble way, then He is very kind and He wants to give His mercy. If we approach Him very proudly that we don’t want to, by thinking we are very qualified, then He has been instructed by Advaita Ācārya not to give mercy to such people easily. So we are to approach Him in a very humble way that we can get His mercy. Śrī Śrī Nitāi-Gaura kī jaya.

Any questions?  

Devotee: It’s regarding going back to the example of the roots and the trees were discussing before. I am sure there is a lot of nice devotees, who are offering nice worshipping to the roots and to Kṛṣṇa. So I wonder why there is still so many people suffering in the world? Does that mean that, that service is not done in the proper way, there are some mistakes in our path? Kṛṣṇa is not satisfied?

Jayapatākā Swami: Well, what percentage of devotees are offering worship to the root? And what percentage of people in the world are still not doing that? Still doing the sinful activities. At the present time, I think that the number of people worshipping the root is very much less, very small percentage. But because there are people worshipping the root, therefore things are not so bad. You think things are bad now; peek ahead in what happens in the end of Kali-yuga, when things get really bad, when everybody stops worshipping the root. How things degenerate? Right now, because people stop worshipping the Lord. In the west, the percentage of people going to church is down, according to the statistics. Maybe there is a few more Hare Kṛṣṇa devotees starting to worship, and we like to increase their number. But in general, religion is, in many places is going down. In some places, it’s going up also. But I don’t know all the national statistics, but I heard many of the organized religions are complaining that their attendance is going down. The priests, shortage of priests in the west, and in many of the countries, in fact, they are importing priests from India and from other places to serve in some of the western places. So there is not a high point right now in spirituality in the world. There is a degeneration, and even with the seasons are becoming disrupted to some extent. Of course, there is a lot of imbalances in the world. If we increase the wors… But still there is....I mean, things are not all that bad. You do get rain, you do get some… It says, as Kali-yuga progresses after the end of the golden age of Lord Caitanya, things get so bad that people cut down (trees). I mean, now people are becoming a little conscious about nature, which is at least a step in the right direction, that we are destroying nature, cutting down so many trees and imbalances and polluting the ecology, it is like a step in the right direction. By these types of imbalances, so many disturbances are created. If you respect the laws of Kṛṣṇa, then we are not supposed to cut down trees for unnecessarily. There is certain restrictions. All these things are already there in the Vedas. What we are supposed to do and what we are not supposed to do, and we are supposed to respect nature. We are not supposed to kill animals unnecessarily. So all these kind of disturbances that we are facing in the world, you can trace them back to not following the instruction of Kṛṣṇa. The majority of people don’t follow the laws of God, even if they give lip service to some of them, but usually they don’t follow. So that’s why there is so much problem going on. Why isn’t it totally bad? Like it was predicted. And when the Kali-yuga goes on, the rain clouds come and they thunder a little bit, but there is no rain.

For 30 years, there may be no rain in some countries. In India and some parts of India, a few years ago, when Prabhupāda was there was a drought in central India. For three years there had been no rain. And then Prabhupāda… they did a big yajña. They had a very big yajña offering fire sacrifice to Tirupati. But it was the fear, even they have a referee that sees whether they chant the mantra properly. And then they have a referee to check to referee. And then the referee couldn’t call all the mistakes. There’s so many mistakes. And he missed some mistakes. And his referee said that he is missing. And it was like the whole ended up big smoke in everybody’s eyes. And I was just like, it was a disaster. And there was no rain. And Prabhupāda said, he is wasting so much money. Because in the Age of Kali, this big yajñas takes so much ghee and they spent a million dollars on it. So instead, they should be feeding the people, prasāda. You see, system here is we offer food that is cooked in ghee and then feed the people, feed the brāhmaṇas and Vaiṣṇavas first, and then feed every after they are fed, feed everyone. And we have (yajña) small a few drops of ghee, not a thousand kuṇḍas. Then Prabhupāda, he organized the fire sacrifice in Hyderabad. Not a fire sacrifice, he ordered a Harināma sacrifice. And he said, we will chant the Harināma and this will bring rain. And he started chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. And it immediately started raining… It started raining at that time. So people may be doing different services to Kṛṣṇa. Some little result is coming. But if you want to get the full result in Age of Kali, we should worship Kṛṣṇa the way He wants to be worshiped in this Age, and that’s by chanting His holy names.

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

More and more people chant. You’ll find that things will improve much more. During the time of Yudhiṣṭhira… of Parīkṣit Mahārāja, he had the whole kingdom chanting. And he said there wasn’t these disturbances, that even Kali, he couldn’t find it. He was offered a place you can go where there is slaughterhouses and where there is prostitution and gambling and there is, you know, killing of animals. What is the other one? And intoxication. He said, these places don’t exist in your kingdom. This is like telling me, I can live in some of these places, but they don’t exist, your kingdom, because everybody is chanting the names of God. People aren’t even interested in those things. There, you had a situation, and at that point, people were not having these kind of problems that we are facing today, but the majority of people, that it was so rampant, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that Kali couldn’t even get a foothold. He said, there is no place for me. I can’t even get a place. There is no place where these things are going on now. Do we have that situation today? We are just trying to get a foothold for Kṛṣṇa consciousness, right? In some countries, it’s like the governments are trying to ban us. And, you know, like in some of the bhaktas here from Armenia. Armenia… wasn’t Armenia that they came and hit the devotees, and one devotee was all bloody and everything, and many devotees. And so even the governments are not protecting us in many places, although some people doing religious activities and that’s why some rain and some things are going on. This is a mix, there is good and bad. When they get completely atheistic, it becomes completely bad. When you are partial, you get partial.