19960629 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.15.51

Following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Maharāja on June 29^th, 1996 in Zurich, Switzerland. The class begins with a reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam First Canto, Chapter Fifteen, Verse Fifty-one.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram
hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.15.51

yaḥ śraddhayaitad bhagavat-priyāṇāṁ
pāṇḍoḥ sutānām iti samprayāṇam
śṛṇoty alaṁ svastyayanaṁ pavitraṁ
labdhvā harau bhaktim upaiti siddhim

Translation: The subject of the departure of the sons of Pāṇḍu for the ultimate goal of life, back to Godhead, is fully auspicious and is perfectly pure. Therefore, anyone who hears this narration with devotional faith certainly gains the devotional service of the Lord, the highest perfection of life.

Purport: Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is a narration about the Personality of Godhead and the devotees of the Lord like the Pāṇḍavas. The narration of the Personality of Godhead and His devotees is absolute in itself, and thus to hear it with a devotional attitude is to associate with the Lord and constant companions of the Lord. By the process of hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam one can attain the highest perfection of life, namely going back home, back to Godhead, without failure.

* * *

Jayapatākā Swami: This verse and purport reveal something very, very important. Something that people are not usually aware of. One can associate with the Lord and with His devotees and associates by hearing narrations of their activities. Kṛṣṇa was on the planet five thousand years ago. That is a long time. Even history is very modern history or any kind of history is usually very speculative about what happened five thousand years ago, very scanty of course, so much detail is there about what Kṛṣṇa did at that time but other than that, it is very difficult for people to understand.

So, what to speak of having association with Kṛṣṇa seems like a long time but it is not limited by time or space. Any time, even pastimes that happened from previous creations, previous manifestations of the material world which have no direct connection with this manifestation. If we remember what the Lord did then, what His associates did, then we are getting their association through hearing. Lord Caitanya, this was the whole essence of His movement that we can associate with the Lord by hearing. Just like, now in modern society, it is quite, people in all times, they always like to associate with great people. Whoever people think is great in terms of their own definition. For some people it is a movie star, for some people it is a sports hero, for somebody it is a politician. In India, if you tell the people that the big movie star is coming.

Just like Bhakti Cāru Mahārāja, He is making movies, all kinds of movies. He is making the Prabhupāda serial. He is making movies on Lord Caitanya. So, one day in Māyāpur, some of the movie stars came to meet Him and He was meeting them to see whether He could use them in His movie. So, while they were waiting in the veranda to see Him, some of the guests or some of the visitors saw. And the word got out. “So-and-so movie star is there.” And suddenly there were these hundreds of people. All the ricksa-walas came in and the tea-shop owners and the public and so many people. They are all looking, you know, just to get a glimpse of this movie star. Then it became a disturbance, but people want to associate with someone who is important, well known, great. So, they went out of their way just to get that moment’s association, association means just looking, you know. Not very like intimate association. Actually, very dangerous. They cannot let intimate.

But can you imagine, if you heard that if it was Lord Caitanya or Kṛṣṇa or Prabhupāda were personally going to reveal Themselves to everyone at a particular time and place and everybody could associate with Them. Would you feel interested in being there at that time? What do you think? Definitely. That would become something really wonderful and everybody would want to be there.

Of course, seeing the Lord when He is talking and moving and smiling and everything, that is something very special. That is something very special and fully satisfies the devotee but actually we are able to associate with the Lord every day, every time they have this Bhāgavatam class, it is like, “Let us go and associate with the Lord. This is Lord’s association time. This is Prabhupāda’s association time”, because when we hear about the Lord, we are also associating. You might not think of it like that, but for all practical purposes, except some tremendous mercy of the Lord that He actually just does manifest Himself in a way visible to all of His devotees in an interactive manner. That is very rare. That only happens a couple of times. That is a very exceptional mercy.

Like in Kheturi. Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, he was in Kheturi dhāma. Narottama was organizing the installation of Deities. What are all the Deities there in Kheturi dhāma? Remember? Those are the different Deities there and he invited Śrīnivāsa Ācārya to come and kind to be the master of ceremonies or to organize the installation of the Deities and the festival. All the associates of Lord Caitanya were invited there. So, different messengers were sent and Śrīnivāsa Ācārya personally went to many places and invited the devotees from the different places, wherever there were the associates and devotees and disciples of associates still present. Katwa, and Jājīgrāma and Śrīkhaṇḍa, Navadvīpa. Śāntipura, Kuliyā, Kulīna-grāma and Kharadaha. And Pānihāṭi and all the places in between. So, one day they also invited Jāhnavā-devī to come. And she agreed to come. And she was not going anywhere, but somehow she agreed to come. This was after Lord Caitanya, after Nityānanda and everyone were out of this world, visible world, all the Pañca-tattva and even Haridāsa Ṭhākura had left. So, it was Jāhnavā-devī and a few others were the last associates. Acyutānanda, son of Advaita, he was there like the second, just a few of the current of the first generation and the second generation.

So, they were. Everyone had assembled there and there was a beautiful ārati being performed - kīrtana, bhajana was being sung by Narottama. Then when Narottama personally sang, so while the ārati was going on, the Deity started to manifest the personal aroma or fragrance of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa was spreading out His own bodily beautiful aroma. Everything about Kṛṣṇa is so wonderful. It is not only a visual wonderfulness. Like when the mother, His skin was so soft. The gopīs, mother Yaśodā, they were always worried that His skin is so soft on His lotus feet, that you just touch it and it turns color. So tender. How can He walk on those stones in the field? They would swoon. Unconscious, just thinking about the hard stones touching the tender lotus feet of Lord Kṛṣṇa.

His bodily fragrance would literally make a devotee, that could smell Him, do mad in love. It was such a wonderful scent of fragrance and then His visual beauty was incomparable. His voice, when the devotees hear His voice, it was so enchanting. His voice was so beautiful to hear Kṛṣṇa, His flute playing. When yogīs would hear the playing of Kṛṣṇa’s flute, they would become mad after Kṛṣṇa and they would start banging their head on the rocks in separation. It was just like become so attracted to Kṛṣṇa, they could not bear to be away from Him.

And of course, you all have some experience about tasting kṛṣṇa-prasāda, there are other aspects of this. So, in any case, the ārati was going on at Kheturi-grāma and the Deities were letting the scent, the fragrance come from Their bodies, Kṛṣṇa was manifesting. While ārati is going on, kīrtana was going on, devotees are dancing and suddenly they could smell Kṛṣṇa and when they smelled Kṛṣṇa, their heart just melted. Their body started to quiver. They started to be overwhelmed with the different ecstatic symptoms.

And it was, people behind, they did not know what was happening but it was like a wave coming out as the air was carrying the fragrance and then they would see the person in front, “Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa!”, just like fall on the ground and go mad. “What happened?” And they would smell it one after another. It was like the whole place became completely overwhelmed in separation of Kṛṣṇa. They were connected with Kṛṣṇa through smell. They were already connected through hearing and chanting. But this was something really intense. Another layer, another level of association.

Jāhnavā-devī, she had given the permission for the ārati to go on. She was the senior, like the senior-most Vaiṣṇavī president. And she was at that time responsible for the sampradāya to a certain extent. She was respected as the senior-most of all. So, in the previous verse, it mentions how Draupadī and Subhadrā, they also went back to the spiritual world. And there it says that without dying, they did not have to go leave their body. They could go back directly, just like the Pāṇḍavas. So, they became fully liberated. There is no difference. Everyone has some opportunity to achieve complete perfection, whether in a male or female form. That the body does not disqualify anybody. It is the question of developing devotional consciousness. Everyone has the opportunity to become fully Kṛṣṇa conscious.

So, anyway, in this way, the devotees in that kīrtana, they were associating. And it was such an intense time. So, when everybody was so ecstatic, there was already so much love for Kṛṣṇa. Then Narottama, he began to sing a song in deep separation, a song of the pastimes of the Lord. And the kīrtana was very slow and it was so thick with devotional meditation on Kṛṣṇa that it was kind of as if people were dancing underwater, almost like slow motion. It was just like they were all feeling so much love for Kṛṣṇa, so much deep connection with Kṛṣṇa. They were all just tied into this network of love. And the string that was tying them was this beautiful vibration coming from the mouth of Narottama, coming from his heart.

They were seeing the Deities, they were smelling Kṛṣṇa. I mean, it was a total absorption. We read last night from Bhagavad-gītā, we need to become absorbed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If we are absorbed, we can reach the highest perfection. Well, these devotees were totally absorbed. Everyone was locked in total absorption, and it became so intense. So, people were feeling so much separation.

It was like the kīrtana, well, you can go two ways. The kīrtana usually goes faster and faster. Instead of the kīrtana was going slower and more, but it was more intensively slower. Getting down to a very deep feeling of Kṛṣṇa. And then suddenly even Lord Caitanya, He was so merciful. The devotees were so much focused on Him at that time, everything was so Kṛṣṇa conscious. So, out of His causeless mercy, Lord Caitanya, He appeared there, visible to everyone, along with His associates from all the associates who had left the world, the visible world – Advaita, Gadādhara, Śrīvāsa, Nityānanda, the devotees from Nīlācala, the devotees from Vṛndāvana, the devotees from Navadvīpa. Devotees that never met each other, but had always heard about each other. They were connected by this type of association, by hearing and now they were able to associate directly in this kīrtana.

The Lord was there and this kīrtana was like for a day of Brahmā. It just was beyond time and space. Would be nice to have a movie on that one. (laughter) To be able to be there. Even by hearing about it, the joy the devotees felt when Lord Caitanya appeared, they went just like, “Haribol! Haribol!” And we cannot just how much happiness they were feeling. So much desire to be with Kṛṣṇa, with Lord Caitanya, there is so much and here Lord Caitanya was right there, dancing with them, smiling at them. Maybe some of them He touched. And everyone was in that kīrtana. What an experience! The devotees were just beyond. I mean, I do not have the words. I do not have the… I do not have the words to explain. I do not think there are any such words. What ecstasy, what joy, what jubilation, what happiness all those devotees were experiencing.

What ecstasy and total love of Kṛṣṇa, the mahā-milana with the Lord, the meeting with Him. Because they had felt so much desire to be with Him, so much vipralambha, separation. The Lord Himself, He did not stay away, He was there. And He satisfied them by His presence and associated with all the devotees. Everyone in Vṛndāvana they knew, all the devotees in Navadvīpa they knew. Not because they went there, not because they knew them by meeting them. I mean, Sanātana Gosvāmī or Rūpa Gosvāmī, they had traveled to Jagannātha Purī but not everyone. Many just stayed in Vṛndāvana. They did not come out and they heard about, “Oh, Lord Caitanya’s pastime with Rāmānanda Rāya, or His pastime with, say, Murāri Gupta” or someone but they might not have met all these different devotees.

Because not everyone went to Vṛndāvana. Not everyone was in all these other places. But now they were all together. So all the devotees who had a connection, just like we do not. Sometimes we hear about devotees from South Africa or Australia or different places, and we see in the saṅkīrtana newsletter, “Oh, this devotee is doing a nice book distribution.” We see some, but we do not always get to associate with those devotees. But sometimes when we go to Māyāpur, then we get to meet so many devotees from around the world. And to actually know these leading devotees in different areas of preaching, it is very exciting. Also, it is very gratifying spiritually but here to actually be with the Lord and all these eternal associates, what an experience!

Of course, at one point in this ecstatic year. Then, the Lord with all His eternal associates that were not in there. There is two kinds of pastime. It is called prakaṭa-līlā and aprakaṭa-līlā; prakaṭa-līlā means what is visible to the world. Even the Lord is visible to the world but the pure devotee will see the Lord in a different depth than others, but something is visible to everyone. That is called prakaṭa-līlā. And when the Lord is not visible to the world, only to some rare fortunate devotee but technically or officially, His pastimes are now invisible, that is called the aprakaṭa-līlā, the invisible pastimes. So, all those who came with Him from the aprakaṭa-līlā. They all disappeared with Lord Caitanya.

Suddenly the devotees were just left that were, you know, technically alive at that time. I mean. Devotees are always alive but they were, you know, visibly manifested in this world. Suddenly they realized Lord Caitanya had gone again with His associates, and they were just devastated again in separation. It was just like they just. Everyone was on the ground crying to not be able to see the Lord again and for a while they were just crying. The kīrtana stopped. It was like. It was like a disaster scene but then Jāhnavā-devī, she gave the instructions to Narottama, “Chant, chant again, chant.” And by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa again. They all regained their life. Otherwise, to be without the Lord after that intense association, it was like they would not even survive but by hearing again the holy name,

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare!

Everyone became revived. And it was also a very separation-oriented kīrtana because the Lord had just left their sight. Confirmed. So, Lord Caitanya, He had instructed we should associate with Kṛṣṇa by hearing, chanting His names. Hearing His pastimes, hearing His instructions. We can maintain that. This association is very important. The śravaṇam, kīrtanam is the basis. Reading the books, because that is another form of hearing. Giving out books is another form of kīrtana, because you are giving the book to someone else to read, so they can read, and they can start to hear.

Of course, different devotees will be able to hear with different degrees of absorption and concentration. And the more total. Like if all the time someone is trying to listen and they think, when is breakfast? I got to go today. You know, the mind may go off so that hearing may not be so much focused but if we can just give our total concentration for the forty-five minutes or so of the class, then that is actually we are being present with Kṛṣṇa. It is an audience, it is a direct connection. So just like people want to meet someone great. Kṛṣṇa is the greatest. Gaurāṅga is the greatest, the greatest of the great. Hearing about Śrīla Prabhupāda, a great devotee. In this way, our pure devotee, in this way, by hearing, we also are associating. And one type of association leads to more association and more and more and eventually it leads us to be with the Lord eternally.

So that is why it is so important that we hear Bhāgavatam every day, nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā [SB 1.2.18] naṣṭa-prāyeṣv abhadreṣu, nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā, even for someone who is contaminated, right? Naṣṭa-prāyeṣv, the abhadra, he is contaminated with so many bad habits and material contaminations and is not even situated perfectly in devotional service or anything by any means but if somebody regularly hears the Bhāgavatam. Then almost all of this unwanted material contaminations are cleansed away. That is how powerful the association of the Lord is by hearing, regularly hearing and chanting and reading, this is so important.

The Pāṇḍavas, when Lord Kṛṣṇa was present in Dvārakā or present in Hastināpura with them, I mean, you can take it for granted they are there, they are associating with Kṛṣṇa. Whenever there is a time that Kṛṣṇa is there. Naturally they are going to be associating with Him. At certain times, Arjuna would get more association, he was more intimate with Kṛṣṇa but there would be all of them wanted to see Kṛṣṇa every day.

That was the highlight of the day, to come and see Kṛṣṇa. That is why in India, you find like in Jaipur and Vṛndāvana and Māyāpur, different places, you find that where the Deities are manifested, the devotees all come just to have just a little association with the Deity. Sometimes people say, “Well, what is that? They are just coming and seeing ārati for ten minutes.” They are associating with Kṛṣṇa. Even they are just coming to see the ārati for that half hour. It is an opportunity for them to associate with the Lord.

We need to associate with the Lord to bring us up spiritually, to awaken us and to increase our love for the Lord. Someone who is very contaminated, by associating, gradually they get awakened. Sometimes someone is very contaminated, they see the Deity, they do not get so much of a feeling but by taking prasāda and chanting and hearing some philosophy, that type of association may be more effective in the beginning. Sometimes it is associating with a devotee and having a friendly relationship. That kind of association may be helpful. And as they get purified, then they also start to appreciate the Deity. Different people are attracted by different types of association in the beginning and when you are purified, all types of association. Any remembrance of Kṛṣṇa is something very intense.

There was that devotee of the Lord mentioned in Nectar of Devotion. He was riding on the elephant, and he looked, and he saw just a peacock feather lying in the jungle. He just saw the peacock feather. As soon as he saw the peacock feather, immediately he remembered Kṛṣṇa. Remembering Kṛṣṇa, he became so ecstatic that he went into a trance and fell off the elephant. If you get so much in love of Kṛṣṇa, you know, you should not drive practically. I mean, it is like could be dangerous somehow because of Kṛṣṇa, he did not get hurt. Usually, you fall off elephant as you had to be hurting. But he had a soft fall but actually when you get so much in love with Kṛṣṇa, you become sometimes people. It looks like people do not understand. What is this person like? A little crazy things – jumping up and down in kīrtanas and shouting out, you know, sometime loudly. GAURĀṄGA! Like a madman or something and then Nityānanda would suddenly call out, you know, HARIBOL! And people would be like, “What is going on?” and Lord Nityānanda Prabhu, He was like avadhūta. He did not control his ecstasy so much. Well, Lord Caitanya would try to control it, but sometimes He could not and He would get revealed but He generally tried to be composed, especially when non-devotees were present.

Not that we are saying every time we yell out Gaurāṅga, that means that we are on some elevated path. Sometimes you are just calling out of desperation. We need the association of the Lord. So, someone may call out for love or someone may call out because of separation or someone may call out just out of excitement or someone may call out just because they need the Lord’s help. Could be any reason but the point is that through vibration we are able to associate with the Lord. That is… I mean, it is such an important thing to understand, such an important truth. It is like.

We know that. We have seen that picture in the Bhagavad-gītā. Like you are falling in the ocean and people are just like, is this. Just imagine if some airplane crashes in the ocean and they give you. They say, “Okay, under your seat, you put on this life vest, and they show you can blow it up. In case it runs out of air. You have a little. You can blow it and then there is a little light that comes, that touches the water and a little whistle you can blow.” You can imagine there is some helicopter flying two miles away. Beep, beep. What they are going to hear. You know. I never figured how it worked. (laughter) In the night, you know, beep.

You had have to be so close to someone to make any difference. Anyway, it is better than nothing. Just for the doubt of something better than nothing.

But you imagine and then. It crashes. But somehow you get out and you are there floating in the ocean, but everybody else sunk. And you are just there in the middle of the ocean, you know, beep. (laughter) You know, thousands of kilometers of water. How to get uplifted? And you are just waiting, you know, “Will somebody find me?” And they are looking for this little speck so much. “And will they find me before the sharks do?” (laughter) And the whales or whatever, the sharks and the… So, if they gave you a little radio transmitter, then you had a chance. I mean, that was something that would be, you know, some of the, you know, what is this little light synergy? A little radio transmitter. Okay. You know, probably out of their budget, but. So, you want that. Say that, you know, you see all these...

They come down with a helicopter or something and they throw you a rope and you can hold the rope and they pull you up. Or that rope, that life rope is what you need. You see how Viṣṇu comes down on Garuḍa and He picks up the fallen soul from the ocean but here we are, we are all like floating in this ocean of birth and death. And this association with the Lord is actually the ropes being handed down from the spiritual world to pull us out of the ocean. We just hold on to the ropes, we get pulled over to the shore. We get pulled back to the spiritual world and they are the only connection that we have with the spiritual world is the chanting, hearing, remembering, this serving, the devotional service and hearing, that is the intense connection, of course, the whole day. So, once you get connected, you do not want to let go, right? It is not like you just want to stay for class and then let go once you are there. You want to keep the connection. That is why the devotees are constantly kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ. We are always chanting, we are hearing, we are serving, we are preaching, we are taking prasāda all the time, we want to remain in connection.

As soon as somebody who is connected, you know, when they are connected because as soon as somebody comes up and wants to start talking prajalpa, the devotees go Like, “Argh! I do not want to let go Kṛṣṇa.” Like they kind of run off somewhere else. You see, in Māyāpur we have Jananivāsa Prabhu. They are always like so busy in their devotional service. Śrīla Prabhupāda has praised them as being such wonderful devotees and pūjārīs. Sometimes even for one devotee, what might be connected, like maybe for a GBC or for a leader. Sometimes we had to talk about crises in ISKCON world and how to deal with it but it is not something that directly other devotees need to deal with. It is our devotional service, but it is not. Sometimes you just see some devotee talking, “Well, did you hear about this devotee having this problem or this thing?” And maybe for most devotees it is also just rumors or prajalpa and for some devotees, it might actually be a service to hear and to figure out what to do, how to help those people, do something practical.

But you see, like Jananivāsa used to be talking about the Deities. All of a sudden someone changes the subject to something that is not connected with his service. Next thing you look around, “Where is Jananivāsa?” He is just not there. He kind of disappears. And then he is there on the altar, and he is doing things, and some people are like that. They are focused on book distribution. Someone is focused on whatever different service. Staying connected with Kṛṣṇa is the real point. It could be any service. Some services are more intense than some are but the point is we have to stay connected. So, one point is that the service is a good connection, but you need to hear also about Kṛṣṇa. Because sometimes our mind is so contaminated we forget who we are connected to. Sometimes as an integration of the service, we forget Kṛṣṇa. Even though we are connected, we forget what is Kṛṣṇa like? And we forget so many things.

So, for the mind, intelligence and for our own spiritual well-being, we need to always be connected with the Lord and that is what we can understand that anyone who hears this narration with devotional faith certainly gains the devotional service of the Lord. Because this narration that we heard told about how the Pāṇḍavas, they were the rulers of the world, they had so much, they were so much in love with Kṛṣṇa. When Kṛṣṇa left the world, they very quickly handed over the kingdom to Parīkṣit Mahārāja. Vidura was Yamarāja. He had taken birth as a śūdra. If he had left maybe some other thought, he would have entangled some other karmas. But because he was thinking of Kṛṣṇa. Normally you think of Kṛṣṇa when you leave your body, go back to Kṛṣṇa but because his was like a temporary interruption of his service, it was not like he died. It was like he kind of left that body in... I do not know how it works.

You know the technicalities of it. How when you are alive and then you have to leave this birth, take another birth, because this birth is a much longer birth and you temporarily have to take birth and then you come back again. It is a quite interesting situation. How? Because they are in a much higher dimension. So, they have not the same kind of bodies we have. There is no use to speculate. Some things are just beyond our ability to understand how these things work. How Brahmā can come down as Haridāsa Ṭhākura and then go back and be Brahmā again but they can do that because we are just... human beings, are really insignificant, very insignificantly powerful. We are playing around with matter on a very gross level. And when you are in a higher dimension, like Brahmā or Yamarāja. Then it is a totally other dimension.

But even Yamarāja, he is judging everybody for what their karmas are, but he is responsible. He gets cursed by a brāhmaṇa: “You made a wrong judgment. You had to become a son of a śūdra.” He accepts. Sometimes devotees say, “Well, I am a devotee, so I am not responsible.” We are responsible for everything we do. We cannot lie. We cannot cheat. We cannot do things that Kṛṣṇa has not authorized us to do and not be responsible. We cannot. Certainly. Of course, we cannot break any principles and expect that we are not responsible but everything we do is.. If we carry out strictly the orders, then we are protected. If we do not, we are responsible. Lord Nityānanda explained that if someone is not carrying out the orders of their guru, they are responsible for what they do. They have to take the karma. For any sin that they do. They are responsible for it.

So even Yamarāja is in such a great position. He makes a bad judgment. He is responsible. Not only is he responsible for what he does, but he is responsible for what his servants do. That is really complicated. You have got so many assistants, and if they make a mistake, you are also responsible. Like the guru, he accepts disciples. And if his disciples commit sinful activities after initiation, the guru is responsible. He may suffer. Sometimes gurus have chronic illness, and doctors can never find out what is wrong and this and that. It may well be... so much karma is coming from so many disciples that are not following. Of course, disciples, if they follow carefully, that can also help.

So, responsibility. This is a basic aspect of spiritual life, but the first responsibility comes for what? What is our first responsibility? Anybody knows? What do we have to be responsible for first? Anyone knows? Well, we have to be responsible for our own spiritual life. Which includes remembering Kṛṣṇa, serving Kṛṣṇa. Prabhupāda, in the previous verse, he says a wonderful purport: “When flying an airplane, one cannot take care of other planes. Everyone has to take care of his own plane. And if there is any danger, no other plane can help another in that condition. Similarly, at the end of life, when one has to go back home, back to Godhead, everyone has to take care of himself without help rendered by another. The help, however, is offered on the ground before flying in space. Similarly, as for the airplane, similarly, the spiritual master, the father, the mother, the relatives, the husband and others, godbrothers, godsisters, whoever it might be, can all render help during one’s lifetime but while crossing the sea, one has to take care of himself and utilize the instructions formerly received.”

So, sometimes people are allergic nowadays in the Western world to organized religion because Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not that kind of an organized religion. It is not that we have a priest that does everything and we just kind of sit back and let him do. The priest is doing his service, and we are also seeing the Deities. It is up to us in the kīrtana, whether we chant in the kīrtana, whether we pray to the Deity, whether we bow down to the Deity. What we do. Priest is doing his pūjā, he is getting his credit for that. And by watching that, we are getting some benefit but how much we do, that is up to us. So, we get trained in devotional service, how to chant, how to hear, how to do devotional service, how to remember Kṛṣṇa through all these means.

So, we are simply organized to train people how to practice on their own and sometimes devotees living in the temple, they do not realize how much support they are getting from other Vaiṣṇavas. When you see devotees, sometimes it is like when devotees get married and they live outside the temple. They go through rocky times, rough times, because they did not realize how much support they were getting from being in the temple. People who have come up from the congregation never had that kind of support so much. They learn to practice with less support in many ways. Sometimes they are very strong in that situation, but we need to provide a support network for everyone. That is why I was introducing the subject of the small groups because that gives a little association, some support we need. Otherwise, all alone is too much sometimes.

So, people who can live in a temple, they get so much support from, you know. If you oversleep, someone waking you up or whatever, there is always some kind of support helping one to get on the track. And when we are in the... Someone is in the congregation, they are pretty much on their own, but they can get a little support. They can get by some regular meetings and discussion, and get some motivation. That is not organized. That is not like an organized religion in that sense that everything is controlled because everyone has to fly their own flight. We are training people, backing people up, giving networking, so that people can get the association they need, the support they need so they can practice on their own. Everyone is practicing on their own.

But just if you try to do it completely alone, without the support of this organized programs, it would be much more difficult, practically impossible. It is like a hallucination. If we think we can do it all on our own. It is very rare that someone can succeed because there is so much distraction on us. Everyone will be pulling us away. So, we need Kṛṣṇa conscious association, Kṛṣṇa conscious backup. Kṛṣṇa conscious connection is very important. The Kṛṣṇa connection, we can maintain that connection. We have to maintain it ourselves in our daily work. When we are going to work. We can ride on the bus or we walk or however we can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. We take our prasāda, everybody is eating lunch break, we take kṛṣṇa-prasāda in lunch like that. Everyone is doing their activities, but the devotee is just keeping things connected to Kṛṣṇa.

Everybody has a picture of some loved one on the desk. So, you may have your picture of some loved ones and also a little picture of Kṛṣṇa maybe there or guru or something like that. We are always keeping connection, but the point is that we can get all the support. Why we need to train everyone up to be individually strong is because when we die, there is nobody else. When we leave this body, we are going to have to. At that point, whether we remember Kṛṣṇa, whether we can focus on Kṛṣṇa or not, it is going to be up to us. It is up to our consciousness where we focus it, up to our intelligence and our the self. That is why we need to be trained, to practice individually and everyone going out on the street, you are living your life. You have to be able to deal with material life from a spiritual point of view.

To be twice born means to realize, “I am a spirit soul, I am eternal, part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. And I have this body which I have to control and utilize, take care of it, but not be controlled by it, not become totally under it’s control.” Same thing. So, anyway. But to use the body, so to do that one requires a lot of spiritual strength, spiritual perspective. And that is what we need to train everyone up because our whole process is of one everybody has to become... When the Pāṇḍavas left, they went up one by one all along the five brothers, the Draupadī, the wife Subhadrā, another wife. They were all together helping each other, working together but when that final moment came and it was time to go back to Kṛṣṇa, everyone was on their own.

So, all this association, all this practice, it is a preparation for us but in the end we are also, it is us and Kṛṣṇa. We can focus our mind on Kṛṣṇa at that moment we go back to Kṛṣṇa. I mean the Pāṇḍavas were so focused they went back as it is, they did not even have to leave their body. Their bodies just became spiritualized. They are already spiritualized. This devotional service is so sublime. I mean somebody, that is why if you just hear this pastime, it is so sublime, this devotional service is just so great, so wonderful that somebody actually attentively, faithfully hears these pastimes. This is the way to live with this type of spiritual orientation. So naturally they take up devotional service and also achieve perfection in life.

Not to just die like some animal being slaughtered, ignorant of what is happening, but to be fully conscious, to be fully aware of reality, to be in a position while you are alive, to help others, to be able to survive all kinds of obstacles that come up and then finally to be equipped to actually leave the whole material world and go back to Kṛṣṇa and not have to be sucked again in the vacuum in this whirlpool of birth and death and birth and death and just poof! Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam grantha-rāja kī jaya! Śrī Śrī Gaura-Nitāi kī jaya! Jagannātha Baladeva Subhadrā kī jaya! Devotional service kī jaya! Okay. Any question? Yes…

Question: (inaudible)

Jayapatākā Swami: It is out of respect; we should respect the previous speakers. Let us see. Out of respect, we should respect the previous speakers. So, try to tie together these two examples. Prabhupāda said here, before we fly in space, before we cross the ocean. So, the big journey, the big flight is we are crossing the ocean of birth and death. So, even when you are initiated, you are also getting your wings. It is not like you take your first flight across the ocean. Your first, hopefully you have taken a few flights before then training flights. Every day when we go out, every day when we go out into the world and do our daily activities, we are taking little flights. These are little practice flights before you get a license to fly solo. You had to take so many hours of flying under guidance, and then you are allowed to fly without it.

Even before somebody, like before they are certified to be, say, initiated, then they had have to take so many flights ahead and ensure that they are able to keep flying even while they are going out. If somebody was always in the temple the first time they went out, immediately you had a cup of coffee or other. I will not even mention worse things to say something immediately went out and had a cigarette or something. “Well, this person is not mature enough.” You had this... We do not keep people. You come here in the middle of the day, there is only a few devotees. Everybody is going out. It is not like this is like some kind of clustered monastery or something. Everybody is out in the street – meeting people, talking all the time. Temptations are there to do anything you want. So, how does a person control themselves with all so many temptations.

There is unmentionable kinds of restaurants with the hanging nooses and things, and there is all kinds of… you can do anything you want. So, people are already learning how to deal with material life, how to, how to remain in a spiritual platform, how to talk with people and relate with people on a more personal level without coming into a total mundane consciousness. So, these are like going out on the little. You know, before someone go around the world on a ship, they are going to first go around the river, around the lake, around, go out for few miles and come back and get pretty expert. So, like that this is the point is that we do get our wings, we get the aircraft, but you can say maybe in this example, the ship. At the time of the initiation... Actually, we got the ship at the time of human birth according to Bhāgavatam, in one verse. “Murāri... How does it start?

samāśritā ye pada‑pallava‑plavaṁ
mahat‑padaṁ puṇya‑yaśo murāreḥ
bhavāmbudhir vatsa‑padaṁ paraṁ padam
padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ na teṣām
[SB 10.14.58]

In this verse it says that we get the boat to cross over birth and death. As a part of the human birth. Actually, even though everybody has the boat, it is like the boat is kind of. Nobody knows how to use it. So, you really get the ability to use the boat, usually when you take shelter of the guru. Usually, guru is like the captain of the ship. He is the one that is actually telling us how to take the boat across and we had to learn under his guidance how to take the boat across. So, even though the guru is not personally present, he is there in terms of his instructions. We remember the instructions. And by his guidance, we sailed the boat across.

So, all these daily journeys, that is not a big deal, right? But the real big journey, the one that crossed the ocean, that is where it is really tough. So, the big journey is the journey at the end of this life. It is said where you go when you leave this body, how your consciousness sometimes even. Mahābhārata tells you, like how many tests Yudhiṣṭhira went through. Sometimes the devas may take, “Hey, look at this. We got heavenly planets here. Look at the great time. Look at, we got parties going all the time. And look at the apsarās and the handsome young devas and everybody and we can, you know, gardens and, Why do not you stay here?” You know, for the devotees, “I wonder where is Kṛṣṇa? I do not see Kṛṣṇa here. I want to be where Kṛṣṇa is.”

You may go through so many. Some devotees go right up to Kṛṣṇa and some devotees, if they get a tour of the universe and they say, “Wow, this is a pretty far-out place. I always like, I like nature and beauty.” So, “Okay, how far did you get? Maharloka? Or maybe you got up to Janaloka or Tapaloka or Satyaloka. Maybe you just got up to Svargaloka.” Śrīla Prabhupāda said a lot of his followers would only get up to the heavenly planets. The allurement people really want – comfort and peaceful, nice beauty, natural scenery, mode of goodness.

You do not look further; you will get it in the heavenly planet but if you really want Kṛṣṇa. Then you have to go on. Leave behind the beautiful scenery and go on until you get to Kṛṣṇa. And so that is in this lifetime. We really had to get so attached to Kṛṣṇa that no matter where we are taken, “I want Kṛṣṇa!”, but most people, they are not so focused. Kṛṣṇa connection is giving them peace of mind and relief and they like that. They like Kṛṣṇa, but sometimes they can get the other things of life are also sharing a lot of attraction to them. So, we need to get more purified. Now, the Pāṇḍavas are so focused; there was no doubt about their priority. All the opulence, the kingdom, they are beautiful, everything but when Kṛṣṇa was not there, it did not have any value to them. Once they knew they are not going to see Kṛṣṇa anymore, this world became a desert. The desert became valueless to them, became unbearable. They simply wanted to be with Kṛṣṇa. If we have so much devotion developed in this life, that is the jet fuel that is going to take us across the space to take us to Kṛṣṇaloka. How much desire have you developed to serve Kṛṣṇa? And if your desire is more for the comforts and the beauty and this and that. You go, you are going to get towards Kṛṣṇa but you may get only part way and from there you will have to continue your journey later.

So, once you… so we are trying to do is like you got to have enough fuel, you know, you do not want to like take off in your rocket ship and get halfway in outer space and find your fuel is gone, right? You want to have enough fuel to get you all the way there. Of course, that is not a good example because you think I was stuck in outer space. You are actually going for pretty nice places. It is not like you just get, I mean you are better off than you are here. From that point of view at least people are better off than being in this place. They are not the loser by any means, but we are trying to give people enough fuel to get all the way back to Kṛṣṇa but when you make the journey, you are going to be on your own. How much focus you are on Kṛṣṇa. That is your flight, but you do get a lot of practice flights every day. We are practicing every day, every moment. And a few times we might even crash our plane, and we had to repair it again and then to take off.

So, you might get a ship, might get stuck up in the sand somewhere. Because we can use this analogy. Analogies always have limitations. I mean, if you try to tear apart everyone’s analogy, probably can only use it to a certain extent. We can… The pitfalls are the māyās that take us, and the fuel is the attraction we have for Kṛṣṇa. And the little flights we take every day and the big flight. That is how I think we tie together those other two examples. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jaya! Okay, last question.

Question: (inaudible)

Jayapatākā Swami: Where did you hear that? Bona-fide. We gave that example, but it was given not exactly from Prabhupāda but some other senior Vaiṣṇava. The point is really how can you tell? How can a beginning devotee really tell whether a spiritual master’s head in the spiritual sky or one foot or two feet? Because some neophyte devotees got feet, head, everything in the material world. So, in one sense, that is more like an academic. That is good for gurus to stay humble or something that can have some applications but for that application, it is difficult for... because sometimes people get cheated like that. They are always the bogus ones. Say, ‘I got my feet and my head in the spiritual world, and everybody else has only got their feet in the material world and head there,’ or something. And sometimes the bogus gurus come around and from other disciplic successions or other apa-sampradāyas, and they try to cheat in this way, saying all these other people. So, it can be misused. That is what I am afraid about. Or someone will come and say, “Well, my guru, his head and feet are in the spiritual world. But this other one…”

It becomes like a kind of offensive type of thing. Or it could be even like a kind of spiritual politics or something. Because it is really something that is beyond. The ability for a person in the beginning stages to recognize. So, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, Śrīla Prabhupāda. What you had to see is you can see the external thing. Just like some guru is coming and crying in ecstasy all the time. But then they are smoking or they are breaking principles, or they are doing things which are not devotional. So, it could be wrong. So, you had to. The thing to watch out for is what rather than the bhāvas or so ecstasy. Is to see the anubhāvas; anubhāvas are symptoms that a person always engages in Kṛṣṇa’s service. They are not doing anything that is not connected to Kṛṣṇa. And even if you ask, “Why are you doing this?” they will give you a Kṛṣṇa conscious reason. Everything is connected with Kṛṣṇa. They have a…

These are the symptoms that are mentioned in Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Eleven different symptoms, Like they cannot stop serving Kṛṣṇa. They are totally addicted to serving Kṛṣṇa. They cannot talk about other things other than Kṛṣṇa for very long. It is like they just no taste in other topics. They are always enthusiastic in serving Kṛṣṇa. They are remaining unbroken in their devotional service. So, there is this type of symptoms which you can actually see.

Like in India there was one person giving a big lecture in the temple. Everyone do. And then a devotee went into his room to speak to him while we were preaching and visiting one temple. He just wanted a glass of water, opened the fridge to get some. And he saw in there was alcohol and beer and meat and all kinds of. And he was like, “Wow, what is this?” you know? And then that person, that so-called preacher, came and closed the fridge. “What are you doing? This is my private life.” “I just wanted some water.” “But I said you have meat in there.” “Listen, do not get involved in my private life.” “No, but you are speaking in the temple we should be vegetarian, we should follow all these things but here I am seeing all these sinful things.” “I mean, look at what I speak in the temple. I am representing, you see, the Lord. Then I have to speak what says in the scripture but here what I do is my private life.”

So, this is bogus. What is it? Devotee means that a real devotee does not have any difference from private and public life. He is an open book. I mean an advanced devotee, I would not say a really advanced spiritual master means that there is no secrets. In that sense, everything is Kṛṣṇa conscious. So, we can see that. What is the private life, public life? It is all Kṛṣṇa conscious-oriented that you can see. That is the things to look for. Whether someone is coming in the paramparā, whether they are following the instructions of their guru, dedicated to following them, these type of things. You can see external. And then you can also say, well, if you hear the class. If you are…

Like we are bhakti-vedānta, one side there is vedānta, the knowledge, and whether our minds get satisfied by the answers to the questions and things like that. Whether we are getting some knowledge from that, whether we have seen, “Okay, according to our intelligence, we can see this. This person is a devotee coming properly authorized by guru, sādhu, śāstra and everything.

And then there is also the bhakti side is that we get some inspiration when we hear the guru. We feel something is there, something that inspires us to want to serve Kṛṣṇa more, we are feeling some desire to serve. There should be at least sparks of attraction to really want to serve. Some bhakti-śakti can also be there. So, these are the kind of things a person can see. On their own. And this other aspect is an example for some philosophical point, but it is very difficult to. For someone in the beginning stage. To some, a very advanced devotee can maybe tell when you are flying in the sky, you can see who is in the clouds and who is out of it. But when you are underground, you do not know what plane is above because it is all out of your vision. So, that example is not so useful and it can mislead people.

Because then everyone will say, someone will come and say, “You should take from my guru because his head is out of the clouds,” or something. Everyone will think their gurus are in the highest level. But some are just more discreet and do not say so. Because what you have to see on these basic things that Caitanya-caritāmṛta tells us to look for and to tell if I could understand your question and that is what new devotees, when they are trying to choose a guru or something, they need to see from these more practical aspects that they can see their own consciousness and they can hear from authorities how someone is always dedicated and things like that. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

So, time for service-period. I will be here till for another, till about ten-thirty. And I will be coming back again sometime. I do not know when, but in the next two weeks or so I will be coming through. Since other devotees have asked me to come. So, this time I got a Swiss Air ticket. So, I had be coming off and on. I do not know. We would not figure out yet when but sometime for a few hours or sometime for another night. But I plan to come for another day sometime. We had to work out; it depends whether I get a visa for Moscow to go to give the seminar on congregational preaching. If I do not or something else happens, we will see. But right now, I have an hour. If somebody else has any question they can ask, they can see the Prabhu here. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Thank you.