19960820 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.6.45

 The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on August 20^th ,1996 in Taiping, Malaysia. The class begins with a reading from the Śrimad Bhāgavatam, 4^th Canto, Chapter 6, Verse 45.

Śrimad Bhāgavatam 4.6.45

tvaṁ karmaṇāṁ maṅgala maṅgalānāṁ  
kartuḥ sva-lokaṁ tanuṣe svaḥ paraṁ vā
amaṅgalānāṁ ca tamisram ulbaṇaṁ
viparyayaḥ kena tad eva kasyacit

Translation (by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda): O most auspicious lord, you have ordained the heavenly planets, the spiritual Vaikuṇṭha planets and the impersonal Brahmān sphere as the respective destinations of the performers of auspicious activities. Similarly, for others, who are miscreants, you have destined different kinds of hells which are horrible and ghastly. Yet sometimes it is found that their destinations are just the opposite. It is very difficult to ascertain the cause of this.

Purport (by Śrīla Prabhupāda): The Supreme Personality of Godhead is called the supreme will. It is by the supreme will that everything is happening. It is said, therefore, that not a blade of grass moves without the supreme will. Generally it is prescribed that performers of pious activities are promoted to the higher planetary systems, devotees are promoted to the Vaikuṇṭhas, or spiritual worlds, and impersonal speculators are promoted to the impersonal Brahmān effulgence; but it sometimes so happens that a miscreant like Ajāmila is immediately promoted to the Vaikuṇṭhaloka simply by chanting the name of Nārāyaṇa. Although when Ajāmila uttered this vibration, he intended to call his son Nārāyaṇa, Lord Nārāyaṇa took it seriously and immediately gave him promotion to Vaikuṇṭhaloka, despite his background, which was full of sinful activities. Similarly King Dakṣa was always engaged in the pious activities of performing sacrifices, yet simply because of creating a little misunderstanding with Lord Śiva, he was severely taken to task. The conclusion is, therefore, that the supreme will is the ultimate judgment; no one can argue against this. A pure devotee therefore submits in all circumstances to the supreme will of the Lord, accepting it as all-auspicious.

tat te 'nukampāṁ susamīkṣamāṇo
bhuñjāna evātma-kṛtaṁ vipākam
hṛd-vāg-vapurbhir vidadhan namas te
jīveta yo mukti-pade sa dāya-bhāk

(ŚB. 10.14.8)

The purport of this verse is that when a devotee is in a calamitous condition he takes it as a benediction of the Supreme Lord and takes responsibility himself for his past misdeeds. In such a condition, he offers still more devotional service and is not disturbed. One who lives in such a disposition of mind, engaged in devotional service, is the most eligible candidate for promotion to the spiritual world. In other words, such a devotee's claim for promotion to the spiritual world is assured in all circumstances.

Jayapātāka Swami: Here Lord Brāhmā is offering prayers to Lord Śiva, although Lord Śiva offered Lord Brahmā respect, as a son offers a father, when Lord Brahmā came. Lord Brāhmā knew that Śiva was more exalted than he was, and therefore he started to offer prayers to Lord Śiva. In the original position, before Śiva enters into the material world, he is on a similar platform as Lord Viṣṇu. They are not different. He is known as Sadāśiva. When he comes into the material world, it is like milk transformed into yogurt. Some slight transformation is there, but still he is much higher than any other living entity including Lord Brahmā. And he is also an incarnation of the Supreme Lord Viṣṇu. He is not different than Viṣṇu. So in that sense, Lord Brahmā is offering him prayers, because Lord Śiva, within the universe he is the most powerful, therefore he is known as Mahādeva. So he is explaining, “You’ve given this process of sacrifice and these brāhmaṇas are performing the sacrifices.” Prayed to Lord Śiva, “You are controller of the entire material manifestation. The combination of the father and mother of the cosmic manifestation and the supreme Brahman, I know you in that way. You create, maintain and annihilate the material world by your personality.” Lord Śiva has just destroyed the sacrifice of Dakṣa, so he said that, “You are actually transcendental to all of these things, and you have given sacrifice to people to perform in order to get upliftment. Those who are in the transcendental position, they don’t envy anyone. Neither do they get envious about someone in māyā. So Dakṣa was in māyā, he was envying you, therefore he is already finished by his own karmas. Actually doesn’t need even to be killed because he is so foolish to envy someone like you. You are actually the giver of the fruit of the sacrifice, the share of the sacrifice is due to you, but he didn’t give it to you.” So he is praying that, “You please have the mercy on these people, take the share of the sacrifice, return the life to Dakṣa, return the teeth to Pūṣā, return the moustache to Bhṛgu, like that. Now Brahmā knew that Śiva, if he wants, he has the power to give back the life also to Dakṣa. It is very hard if somebody is killed, to give back his life. But for Lord Śiva this is possible. So in this particular verse he is explaining how the destination to the auspicious places is given to different kinds of personalities. So we have the heavenly planets, there is the caudda-bhuvana. Within the caudda-bhuvana, you have the seven upper planets and the seven lower. The seven upper, which is the Bhūr, Bhuvar, Svar. And then you have the Maharloka, Janoloka, Tapoloka, Satyaloka. This are the seven upper planetary systems, known generally as the heavenly planets or Svaḥ. And beyond, higher heavens for pious personalities: Mahar, Jana, Tapa and finally Satyaloka. People who take birth there are very, very special living entities. Generally people are rotating within Bhūr, Bhuvar and Svar. This Mahar, Jana, Tapa and Satyaloka are not visible to our material, gross eyes. Although Bhūr, Bhuvar and Svar, we can see some aspects of these different planets in the material sky. The visible outer space. Just like Sūryaloka is also considered part of svarga, it’s a heavenly planet. But we can see it. Of course what we see is an external part of it. When we say that there is a sūrya-devatā, there is Vivasvān, and he lives there. Now the scientists, they are discussing recently that they are finding some microorganisms in Mars, and they take it that proves it that there might be some kind of primitive life in the Mars.

Generally modern scientists, their concept at the present is unidimensional. They just consider one dimension. The idea that there are many dimensions and there are higher type of existence or different kinds of life forms that are not based on the same way that our life forms are based. They are looking for carbon life. Life based on the same kind of ecological situation that we need. We breathe oxygen, we breathe out carbon-di-oxide. The plants breathe in carbon-di-oxide, breathe out oxygen. The whole ecology is created in such a way that there is a balance. If we take all the plants out of the world we will die. That’s why people appreciate, at least Malaysia is like one of the lungs of the world. Because you have enough of these estates and plantations, so that’s creating some oxygen. Brazil and Amazon is one of the other places. There are a few places like that in the world where there is a lot of green. So here you get more air, fresh air than other places. Like in Europe they have already cut down the trees. Now they are passing laws to keep the trees. So Kṛṣṇa has created a balance on this planet for the life that lives on this planet. But in other planets there can be other arrangement, not exactly the same. And in the heavenly planets, their life span is going for millions of years, or tens and thousands and millions of years. Their one day is six of our months, their one night is six of our months. Their day and night is our one year. So you can imagine how long they are living, by our calculations. So our bodies cannot be made to live so long. They have another kind of body. Their body is on a higher level, therefore they can live a long time. Dakṣa also was a prajāpatī and his body is not a ordinary body. It’s a higher-level type of body. Otherwise, his daughter could not marry Lord Śiva. Of course his daughter is also an incarnation of material energy. It is actually Durgā. His daughter is Satī. But even those devas, with those higher kinds of bodies, they could be killed also. Just like Dakṣa was killed. Their bodies are also temporary, their bodies are also subject to various kinds of problems, even though they are not to the level that our bodies are. So if we can understand, atleast in principle, that there are higher kinds of planets with higher types of existences, on another plane, that we do not have much experience about today. That’s a whole other topic that how this is possible. Sadāpūta Prabhu, in our Vedic planetarium in Māyāpur, one of his presentations, after showing how the observable universe is in good astronomy with the Bhāgavatam and other Vedic astronomical literatures, then he wants to also show also the principle of higher dimension. That there can be higher dimension and therefore there can be existences different than what we know of today. From a scientific point of view. I am not going to the scientific point of view, because it is very complicated to prove that. It’s a very pioneer effort to prove this to the scientists but this is one of the objectives.

But let’s take it that as devout Hindus or devout followers of the Vedas, we can accept that this is a higher dimension. There is higher plane of existence and their existence cannot be exactly equated to ours, although they are similarities- they are born, they die, they have old age, they have death, they have sometimes some disease. But the disease and old age is very much reduced, while in this plane we have more disease and more old age problems. That’s why the devas, they are respected by the human beings because they can live for a long time. The ordinary devas, they are born and they die, but Lord Śiva, he doesn’t die. He is directly an incarnation of Lord Viṣṇu, for a particular purpose. So even Brahmā dies but Śiva doesn’t die. This is the difference. You see Brahmā is born, and he lives a long time, and he dies. So what to speak of other devas? You see Lord Indra, he would die in the end of every day of Brahmā. Manu, there is about 14 Manus in one day of Brahmā. So 14 Manus are born, and die, in just one of the days of Brahmā. So there are so much difference in the life span in different planets. So some people, they want to do good or puṇya-karma, good works, sacrifices, so that they can go to Svarga. But even in Svarga there is problems.

When Lord Caitanya was in the womb of His mother, there was some devas who came from Svarga and they were praying to Lord Caitanya that, “Lord Caitanya! You are Viṣṇu, You are the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa, You have come in to the universe. So many times before You have come. In every incarnation You are coming as Varāha, Matsya, Kūrma, Nṛsingha and Rāma… and so many different incarnations, Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma. But in those incarnations, most of the incarnations, You are only giving mukti. Only giving freedom from birth, death, old age and disease. But You are not giving Your devotion. In the incarnation of Kṛṣṇa You gave devotion, but it was rare. Hard to get. But we understand that in this incarnation as Gaurāṅga, You are giving out freely pure devotion. So we are devas. We are coming from heavenly planets and we are praying to You for Your blessings. You are going to be giving out freely love for Kṛṣṇa. We want this blessing of love for Kṛṣṇa. We don’t want material blessings. We already have enough material things, too much. In fact we don’t have problems in the heavenly planets like here. We only have two problems. One problem is sometimes the asuras attack us. Sometimes we are attacked and we get killed or destroyed by these attackers.” You see? This attack by the followers of Lord Śiva was not same thing. They normally don’t attack anybody, but they attacked because they were protecting Satī and when Satī left her body because of offences by Dakṣa, they became very angry and they took their anger out these prajāpatīs and devas and ṛṣis for their offences. And Śiva also gave them some punishment. 

So now Lord Brahmā is requesting Lord Śiva that, “You are beyond all these things and if you want you can also return the life to these people. This is the unusual thing that, you generally give the result like this to different people. People do good karmas, they get heaven. People who do mental speculation and jñāna-yoga, they get the nirākāra-brahman and Your bhaktas, they get Vaikuṇṭha. Here Dakṣa was doing sacrifice but because of some mistake, he also gets the bad result. And someone like Ajāmila, he does bad things, but he does a little bit of good and he got delivered. So this is all like very mysterious dealings by Your Lordship. But whatever You decide is ultimately the supreme.” So because Brahmā is offering this very appropriate prayers, explaining about the supreme will of the Lord. You cannot argue with the will of the Lord. Whatever He decides is all good.

I told a story a few times, somebody might have heard it. There was a King. He was a very sinful, he was not a good king, he was not a kṣatriya in the real sense. Like in the Kali-yuga, in Bhāgavatam it explains how in the future after Parīkṣit Maharājā, the kings fall from the position of kṣatriyas and become like śūdras or lower than śūdras, like mlecchas. But originally, the kṣatriyas, their code was to protect the citizens. It was their dharma. They were very pious people, they were like rājarṣis, and they actually were concerned about the upliftment of the whole society. They would engage brāhmaṇas in uplifting society, they would engage the citizens in sacrifice. They would also see that there were no miscreants in society. People lived in a very peaceful way on this planet. But they were very powerful people with very high principles. But then in the Bhāgavatam history it says that about thousand years after Lord Kṛṣṇa left, into the Kali-yuga, then there was a murder of one the kings by minister and he put his son in charge. And things started to degrade from there on. And then after about 2000 years, one king had a son in a sūdra, and that son became very powerful and he killed the king. The son himself took to power. His name was Nanda Maharājā. Nandarāja or whatever. And from that point on, the whole concept of kṣatriya was lost because the king became like the enjoyer. Actually the kings can enjoy the world, but they also have to protect the world, just like a tradeoff. So the kṣatriya principle was based on this. Śūdra principle is enjoying. “I am the body, I should enjoy. I am the King, everybody has to serve me.” The people don’t feel protected anymore, because the king is actually exploiting to some extent. So that’s why recently now, lot of times, the monarchy has been reduced to less of a function, because the monarchy wasn’t functioning the way it was supposed to. It was not protecting the citizens. So the whole Vedic culture is meant for systematically uplifting the society. Brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas, śūdras, everyone is supposed to serve. In fact, even the king used to be known as nara-deva. The brāhmaṇas were also respective as dvija, as a kind of deva. The wives of the twice born, women in general, we called them devī, because they were embodying these higher principles, mercy and religiosity. So the whole principle of society was upliftment and this was created by the Supreme Lord. Lord Brahmā is explaining that how You created this whole system but sometimes by Your supreme will someone gets this other benediction.

Now in the heavenly planets, as I was explaining, the devas were praying to Lord Caitanya. “One we are suffering because we get attacked by the demons sometimes, this is our main problem. The other problem which is more serious is we have so much sense gratification. We are always enjoying the senses. So much of facility is there for nice happy situations. Gardens (kānanas), apsarās and so many things are going on. We have nice facility for enjoying. So as a result, we forget about spiritual life.” Too much sense gratification also is not good because then we just think that this is very nice, no problem. And he says that, “The problem is we forget to serve You. We forget to engage ourselves in Your devotional service, and we just become pre-occupied in sense gratification. And this is the greatest suffering. We are given this temporary happiness which is not the real thing. Which is a kind of illusion created by the material nature. And we are being deprived from the real, eternal happiness of love for You. So therefore, we are actually the most fallen, most unfortunate in the universe because we are being deprived. Human beings are getting this mercy more easily. Because they are suffering more, they are detached from material life and they can easily take shelter of You. Whereas we officially worship You as devas but we are more attached. Therefore, we are more unfortunate. You have come to deliver the most unfortunate, so You please have Your mercy upon us. In this incarnation don’t deprive us from getting Your mercy, we also want love for Kṛṣṇa.” So even the devas are actually crying to join the saṅkīrtana movement of Caitanya Mahāprabhu!

But Dakṣa was performing sacrifices in the heavenly planets. His sacrifice was basically karma-kāṇḍa. All sacrifices are meant for the pleasure of Viṣṇu but some of them have some immediate material result that they are aimed at. Some have higher results. So, in Dakṣa, it is for the prosperity of the world. For some material thing, generally speaking. Although some have different motivation. But his motivation was to please the Lord and get prosperity. Like some people pray to God, “O God In heaven! Hallowed be thy name. Give us this day our daily bread.” “Jagat śānti”, like that. “Let the world be peaceful.” So that is one of the prayers. It’s a good prayer for the world peace, for the world prosperity. But the higher prayers are actually to please the Lord, and such devotees have no condition. They depend on the Lord’s mercy. So they are qualified to go back to the spiritual world. That’s what the devas wanted. They wanted to get this devotion for the Lord. So Lord Caitanya has come down to give this higher principle. This higher principle is very esoteric. Even great ṛṣis like Dakṣa, they are not so aware about this higher principle of serving Viṣṇu. Their point of view is very much rooted in materialistic life. Very pious life, very sāttvika kind of existence. But because of the very nature of the material life, whenever we are fixed in material life, the tendency is to become envious about others. This is explained here in one of the future verses. Lord Brahmā explains to Śiva that there are two attitudes, “My dear Lord, devotees who have fully dedicated their lives unto your lotus feet certainly observe your presence as Paramātmā in each and every being, and as such they do not differentiate between one living being and another. Such persons treat all living entities equally. They never become overwhelmed by anger like animals, who can see nothing without differentiation. Persons who observe everything with differentiation, who are simply attached to fruitive activities, who are mean minded, who are always pained to see the flourishing condition of others and who thus give distress to them by uttering harsh and piercing words have already been killed by providence. Thus there is no need for them to be killed again by an exalted personality like you. (Translation of verses 46 and 47)” So Brahmā presents the situation here that, even though the devotees are alive, because their vision is transcendental, while living in this world they are actually liberated. This is also there many verses which confirms this.

īhā yasya harer dāsye
karmaṇā manasā girā
nikhilāsv apy avasthāsu
 jīvan-muktaḥ sa ucyate

Even while living in the material world, the devotees who are engaging their mind, their body and their senses in Kṛṣṇa’s service, they are already considered liberated. They don’t see anyone as their friend or an enemy. They only well wish for everyone. They take pain and difficulties in the material world as a blessing from the Lord, to become more detached from material life and to serve the Lord more. They take any happiness that comes, they take it also equally. The Lord is giving them some facility with which they can serve the Lord. Everything is in relation to the Lord. Therefore, they are already transcendental to material life. They are already eligible to go back to the spiritual world even while living. For them everything is equal.

I am sure all of you at some time in your life, you can see here of course the hoardings (laughter). When you win, then you feel very good, you know. You try hard, you win, you feel good. And when you lose in material life, you feel bad. “I lost.” So winning and losing, this is all part of material... so the devotees they do it just like a game. Normally you play sport. You win, you lose, you don’t take it seriously. But then there is some of these people they call in Europe, football hooligans. If their team lose they just start killing people. If they win, they also beat people. They are equal to everything (laughter). If they rejoice, they beat the other and if they lose, they beat the other. (laughter) They are always tāmasika. So they are outlawed actually from many games. They are very tough to control. But generally, they kill more or beat more when they lose. When they win they are a little light. But this winning and losing… just like in the paper in India, they are a big country but they don’t get so much... actually they don’t realize how much stress is given to sports in some of these other countries. Like in Romania and Russia and all these places, they teach little girls how to do gymnastics from five years of age. There are really big grants. But India doesn’t put that much into it. So they’re saying “Arey baba! Not even one medal!” (laughter) That is the headline you know. (laughter) Not one! Then finally the one guy got the medal, “Wow, we got one finally. We got a medal!” (laughter) But some of these countries, they really... in America it’s a big business. If you win certain sports, you get millions and millions of dollars from these sports companies, this shoes, rackets, all this different kinds of companies. So this is a big business and they put a lot of technology into it, and effort. And maybe different countries have different kinds of bodily traits. People are good for different sports. Just like in Malaysia, they are always really good in badminton. But maybe they don’t win the heavy weight boxing. You know it is different kinds of sports, different bodies are there.

But people think that if I win, they become very happy, but if I lose I am lost you know. That is material life, winning and losing. You feel happiness and you suffer. But for the devotees, of course we don’t play frivolous sport. Why should we play?  I mean sometimes we go swimming. Sometimes we may play some water sport or something. But that’s not really to win or lose but just have some exercise or to just play around. Not in a serious sense. But in the material world people take it very serious. Even a frivolous sport, they take it very serious and it becomes a big issue. So what happens is that when they lose, then it becomes very frustrated. I mean in Bangladesh there was one lady. When she saw that Argentinean football team lost the world cup of soccer a few years ago, she felt so bad that she committed suicide. Now why in Bangladesh? Because she was attached to Maradona (laughter) When they lost, she felt so bad that she just… So much the people get into it that… She is in Bangladesh, what she has to do with Argentina? That doesn’t make any sense, right? But that’s how much people get involved sentimentally. What to speak of their own national team or something. They get upset sometimes.

So material life, Lord Brahmā is expressing, actually those who are transcendental, they take everything equally. And those who are in the material life, for them winning and losing is a big thing. Winning, they get really elated. And when they lose, they get really down. So someone who is already in the winning and losing propensity, they are already finished. Someone else wins they think, “I am going to bring that person down. Why should that person should have more than me?” So, in that mentality they are already in a hellish mentality. They are already suffering so much. You see, most of the people in the world are in that mentality already. So Brahmā is describing that, that mentality is very despicable, very hellish. Those people are forced to… even while living they are as good as dead. In one situation, while living you are as good as liberated. In other one, while living you are as good as dead. These are very strong statements from Lord Brahmā. Even though we see a world here, everyone is alive, but because they are in this material frame of consciousness… even Dakṣa who is so elevated, he also was feeling envious about his son-in-law because he was in the material consciousness. He didn’t see his son-in-law as Lord Śiva, as beyond all these things. He was seeing in a very superficial, offensive manner. But Brahmā had the true vision. He knew who Lord Śiva was, he was very respectful to him. He was seeing him as non-different from Viṣṇu, and he was worshipping him as supreme in that way. So as the supreme authority in this universe, he was addressing on his higher vision, that actually what Dakṣa did was foolish but it’s in character. It’s part of nature because he was in māyā, he was in that consciousness. He was already even though living, he was already finished. “Doesn’t need to be finished by You because his very karmas are going to finish him. He is already in a hellish mentality. So You please have Your mercy on these people. You are the only one who can have mercy, sometimes You give Your mercy even the opposite way.” Indirectly he is also saying that, “If You want You can also bless Dakṣa, just like You blessed Ajāmila. So Dakṣa was trying to do his sacrifice, but he made a little mistake, so he got a big punishment. Also because he was serving You in one way or another, even materially, if You want, You can also give him a blessing.”

So somehow Brahmā, he was so expert at offering these prayers, that Śiva became pleased. And then he decided that, “Alright.” And he reversed to some extent the things that had happened. Of course, Dakṣa’s head was already burnt. If Śiva had wanted, he could have recreated it. But he didn’t take it to that extent. Instead, since his head was burnt, he took the head of a goat and put it on Dakṣa’s body to remind him a little bit. What a reminder! You wake up every and look in the mirror (laughter) with a goat’s head (laughter). But better a goat’s head with a human brain, human consciousness, than be intelligent and not to be alive right?  That would be some other hellish existence. So he had the intelligence of Dakṣa but now he has a head of a goat. So this way now Dakṣa doesn’t look the way everybody else does. But he is still there, like these other people they got some way that they can... like Pūṣā lost his teeth. Pūṣā, one of the sons of Aditi, one of the devas. Because he, when they were criticizing Śiva, he smiled. And then (the teeth) smashed. And Bhṛgu also didn’t oppose, so somehow, he got his moustache chopped. Different things happened. So anyway all these things will be corrected by Lord Śiva one way or another.

So we can say that even in the highest positions of this universe, some problems are there. If you are in the material consciousness, even you are a deva, you tend to get envious, you tend to get falsely proud. You get into these things. The modes of the nature are working even on the higher level. Doesn’t mean that we should disrespect the devas. But we should understand that they are also under the influence of the material world. Śiva, Brahmā and Viṣṇu, these are the three that are running the modes of nature. With Viṣṇu and Śiva are actually beyond the modes of nature, and Brahmā is almost beyond. Not fully. But more than all the others in the universe. So Brahmā is respected as the grandfather of everybody. But even sometimes, just like now, Brahmā doesn’t have the solution. He requests Śiva, “You please solve it.” And sometimes Brahmā and Śiva go to Viṣṇu, who doesn’t even live in the universe. He lives in his own spiritual planet which is beyond the material universe, but it’s accessible from this universe. So Viṣṇu keeps totally aloof from the material world. When He comes into the material world and interacts with it, that’s Śiva. And then the living entity who is empowered to create the universe is Brahmā. So these three are there. And Viṣṇu is expansion originally from Kṛṣṇa, who lives in Goloka Vṛndāvana, far in the spiritual world. Once in a day of Brahmā, He comes here in the material world.

So we want to find out about the spiritual world, one of the greatest authority we have in Vedas is Lord Śiva.  Because Lord Śiva’s planet is just on the border of the spiritual world and the material world. Lord Śiva is very merciful. He comes to the material world just to uplift people. Most people don’t pray to him for upliftment. They just pray for some temporary material thing. But actually the greatest thing to get from Lord Śiva is to get spiritual enlightenment, to get devotion to Kṛṣṇa. So he has a dual function. In one aspect he is a spiritual master who is delivering people from the material world. And another aspect he is also the Mahādeva, he is the supreme of the devas, and he also is responsible for the material world. And he is giving material benedictions as well. So most people in the material world, they don’t think of him as guru. They think of him only to get material benedictions. But the devotees, they respect him more as a guru. As the supreme authority who can give us spiritual mercy. Respect him as the greatest of devotees, an incarnation of the Lord. So most people don’t have the picture. If we look at the cover of the first canto of Bhāgavatam, theres a very nice picture that shows what is the material universe. Then there is Śiva’s place and then there is the spiritual sky. Around it is the brahmajyoti. And within the spiritual sky there is Goloka Vrndavana. Actually between Vaikuntha and Goloka Vrndavana, there is Ayodhya as well. Actually there are lot of little details in different places. The Brahma-saṁhitā explains the Devī-dhāma, Maheśa-dhāma, Hari-dhāma and Goloka-dhāma. These four principal existences are there.

Devī-dhāma, what Durgā is responsible for, is the whole material world, the caudda-bhuvana and so on. Beyond that is Maheśa-dhāma. Lord Śiva is beyond the material world but he is like in the border. So he has the vision. He is telling us. And Brahmā is telling us. “There is Vaikuṇṭhaloka. There is a spiritual world where the devotees go to and that is the supreme destination. And in the material world, people are staying for their karmas.” So originally we all belong in the spiritual world and the Krsna conscious movement is meant to take people back home, back to Godheaḍ To give them this pure devotion. So this movement is very dear to Lord Śiva, very dear to Lord Kṛṣṇa. It is started by Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself, who came as Lord Caitanya. And Advaita Ācārya is simultaneously Mahā-Viṣṇu, and before Śiva comes into the material world, He is known as Sadāśiva. He also comes and combines within. From Mahā-Viṣṇu comes Sadāśiva and from Sadāśiva the different Rudras and different Maheśas in all the universes, they come. So the original form of Śiva is also there coming and participating in the pastimes. So this movement is very dear to everyone. It is very dear to all the great personalities in existence. But we have a lot to do to complete the work.

So many people are in the same attitude like Dakṣa. The winning and losing attitude. And they are suffering in material life. And how to bring people into a higher consciousness, where they actually are serving the Lord, seeing their own spiritual existence and enganing themselves in selfless service. It’s a transcendental platform which people can achieve if they chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Now when we’re in material life, actually we’re going to have to play as if we are… especially the householders, they have to play the winning and losing game. Like if you’re in business, you want to win. You see, although they play the game, they keep their consciousness in a higher level. And sometimes, one gets absorbed however. Like Dhruva Mahārāja, when he was a king, he got also into this winning and losing. Brahmā had to come down and say, “You’re going too far!” That’s why everyone needs a spiritual master. As we are living in the material world, sometimes we might lose our perspective and we need the help form spiritual master, from the sannyāsīs, from the detached devotees who keep us in perspective. Because sometimes we get bewildered, and we lose the track of exactly what we are supposed to be thinking about, because the material nature is very entangling. But if we are careful, we can maintain with a little bit of help and guidance. So that’s why the system is there that everyone, they require to serve Kṛṣṇa. Even in varṇāśrama, we have to serve under the guidance of a spiritual master, so that we always have the proper vision. We don’t gain anything by being envious of others. That’s the material. But we gain by trying to serve Kṛṣṇa in the spiritual. So I will end the class here. It’s overgone.

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

Any questions?

Question: Kṛṣṇa comes once in a day of Brahmā. How about Lord Caitanya? Does He come every time Kṛṣṇa comes?

Jayapatākā Swami: Doesn’t come each time that Kṛṣṇa comes, but when He comes, He only comes after Kṛṣṇa. Lord Caitanya is more rare than Kṛṣṇa. He often comes after Kṛṣṇa comes. Not every time. Imagine being in the universe sometime when Kṛṣṇa came, afterward Lord Caitanya didn’t come! (laugher) How fortunate we are to be here! Just after Lord Caitanya came, and we are in contact with the saṅkīrtana movement. So we should take advantage of Lord Caitanya’s mercy. This is very rare. Maybe some of you have come from the Devaloka, taken birth here as humans just to take advantage of the saṅkīrtana movement. (laughter) Prabhupāda said even some ṛṣis have come down from the Satyaloka just to participate in the saṅkīrtana movement. So if you find anyone amongst you who has got very good qualities, you can suspect what planet they came from. (laughter) Whatever planets we were in before, the point is now to take advantage from Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s mercy. Even Bṛhaspati came down. To teach Lord Caitanya he came down. He became Sarvavauma Bhaṭṭācārya. But when he took birth in Navadvīpa, there are so many Māyāvādīs that he became a Māyāvādī. He became confused by the Māyāvādīs and then Lord Caitanya came and delivered him in Jagannātha Purī. So once you are born in a particular plane, it’s like a risk. So devas take human birth in order to join the saṅkīrtana movement. Once they are in the human society, they are given bodies. They are subject to the same rules that all of us subject to, until they are freed from this body. Then they get back to their original position. So while we are here, we have to take advantage. Whatever we were before, whether we were human, whether we were animal, whether we were devas, while we are here, this is an opportunity for us. If we can get Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we can get the eternal benefit and if we fail to get Kṛṣṇa consciousness in Lord Caitanya’s movement, then it’s a big loss.

It’s not that the soul was eternal. Eternal means always was, will. Eternal means no beginning, no end. It’s not that it was eternal, and now we are in the material world and now the soul is not eternal. Soul is still eternal. Ātmā is always eternal. The body is not eternal. You are not the body.