19970112 Bhagavad-gītā 8.7

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatāka Swami Mahārāja on January 12th, 1997, in Madras, India. The class begins with the reading from Bhagavad-gītā 2^nd Chapter Verse 14

tasmāt sarveṣu kāleṣu
mām anusmara yudhya ca
mayy arpita-mano-buddhir
mām evaiṣyasy asaṁśayaḥ

Translation: Therefore, Arjuna, you should always think of Me in the form of Kṛṣṇa and at the same time carry out your prescribed duty of fighting. With your activities dedicated to Me and your mind and intelligence fixed on Me, you will attain Me without doubt.

Purport: This instruction to Arjuna is very important for all men engaged in material activities. The Lord does not say that one should give up his prescribed duties or engagements. One can continue them and at the same time think of Kṛṣṇa by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.

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

This will free one from material contamination and engage the mind and intelligence in Kṛṣṇa. By chanting Kṛṣṇa’s names, one will be transferred to the supreme planet, Kṛṣṇaloka, without a doubt.

Jayapatākā Swami: Dear devotees, Śrīla Prabhupāda was a living example if his teachings. He showed in all the phases of his life how one can do one’s prescribed duties while dedicating oneself to Kṛṣṇa’s service. Śrīla Abhay Charan Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda was born in 1896 in Calcutta in an aristocratic family. And his family members were devotees of Lord Kṛṣṇa and so from his very childhood he was trained in devotion. If you like to see some of his childhood activities and some of his detailed character development every Saturday 10 AM on Doordarshan there is a serial called Abhay Charan. Please tune in and watch this half hour show from 10:00 to 10:30 on the life of this great son of soil in India.

So Prabhupāda as a child he was worshipping Kṛṣṇa in his home, he was a lifelong vegetarian. But then he went to college at that time in his college he thought I have to study, I have no time, so he put the childhood deities in a, in a box, put them to sleep and he did his college studies. Then Kṛṣṇa came to him in a dream and said why you keeping Me in the box? You are neglecting Me! Something like that. So then he woke up surprised and got his deities and threw his studies, he kept worshipping his deity in his college quarters. He was a classmate of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose college, Scottish shift his college. Netaji was one class above him but they were in the same time in the same college. That time like all the youth in the country, he had also was in the Gandhi movement wearing Khaddar. And then he met his guru but he was 22 years old. His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura who was that time spreading the message of Caitanya Mahāprabhu in Calcutta. They has a discussion and he said why is it that, how is that, first time he saw Prabhupāda, the guruji, our param guruji told him ‘you are educated young man, you should go and preach the message of sanātana-dharma to the western countries.’ At that time Prabhupāda said that we are paradhin, we are under cruel colonial rule, who listen to us? We have to be a free country then they’ll listen. But then the guru said this is all political consideration, the message is eternal and it can be told anytime. That doesn’t matter what our external situation is, you should spread this message all over the world, that is my request to you.

So after meeting his guru he became changed, very impressed. In 1933 he took dīkṣā although for that 11 years while he was, he entered in householder life he was a businessman and a manager, a chemist. He kept on doing his duty and doing his bhakti to Kṛṣṇa. He continued, had several children and at the same time he was serving his guru, he was publishing Back to Godhead magazine. Now a leading bookstores and above in India you can get this Back to Godhead magazine. Hundreds of millions of copies of Back to Godhead had been published all over the world. So he was doing all these seva of his guru as a householder while he was doing his business. When he was 56 years of age then he entered into vānaprastha and he went to Jhansi where he set up The League of Devotees and then after that he went to Vṛndāvana and he started to write, translate into english, the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. He gave the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam first canto English translation to the then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri who congratulated him for the great effort at translating this great epic of India, the Bhāgavata Purāṇa.

In 1965 after receiving many instructions, reminders of his guru’s orders take this message to the west. He took the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad Bhāgavatam and by, with the help of Moraji, Sumati Moraji from the Scindia steamship company he was given a ticket to America by Crater, not by jet. But his first voyage was by cargo ship merchant money. When he was in the ocean, you know for us people of the land to go a sea for 45 days, it’s very difficult, he is 70 years old at that time. So naturally people get seasick in that constant moving ship. So he was feeling very ill, he had a heart attack on the ship. And he prayed to Kṛṣṇa that You’ve brought me for some purpose, whatever is Your desire I’m simply depending upon You. And Kṛṣṇa came in a dream to him and showed, there was a boat and Prabhupāda was seated on the boat and Kṛṣṇa was the maji, was the captain of the ship. And He said don’t worry I will keep you across, you’re going to do My work. After that the captain of Jaladuta the ship that Prabhupāda was on, he said he never saw the Atlantic ocean so peaceful, it became like the pacific ocean. And then he reached America and after that of course you know the history.

Today our ISKCON life member and admirer of Śrīla Prabhupāda, the famous artist, performing artist Hema Malini is performing the Mira dance drama bhajan. Mīrābāi also showed how to depend on Kṛṣṇa in spite of great obstacles. She had to pay so many obstacles in her life, as you all know and she depended on Kṛṣṇa to survive. Similarly Prabhupāda he showed how to depend upon Kṛṣṇa through his student life, through his business life and through his renounced life. When he went to America he had 40 rupees which is nothing. In America 40 rupees you can not eat even one or two, one day, finished. But he had Kṛṣṇa and message of Kṛṣṇa and he had the faith, therefore he was able to touch people’s heart. When he would talk to them they asked Swamiji you’re coming from a poor country! What do you have to tell us? We’re Americans, you’re giving us a foreign culture. But Prabhupāda he said to them, don’t think you’re American! This is a illusory idea to think that I’m American, I’m Chinese, I’m Russian, I’m Indian! That is only the bodily covering! We should know from Bhagavad-gītā we are the ātmā, we are the eternal spirit soul. So this message I’m giving you is not to do with the bodily level, this is to do with the eternal nature. And so in this way he got their ear and they listen. But he has to face many obstacles.

When he went to Melbourne, Australia there also people very crowded that time. They also told him Swamiji you’re coming from a poor country, Australia! We’re rich country! What do you want to take from us? Then Prabhupāda he told them, I’m not coming here to beg from you. I’m coming here to save you from a cat and dog’s life. This is Swamiji! What do you mean? You say that our life is like a dog’s life? Cat’s life? Is it you analyze your objective people? A cat and dog what we’re doing? They are eating, but they eat off the road, you were eating in a big hotel but eating is the same. What is the dog doing? They’re sleeping, they may be sleeping under a tree in the sand, you’re sleeping in a multistoried building and a soft bed. But sleeping, once you sleep what is the difference? Dog, male and female are having their relation anywhere. You may be having in privacy or you may also have your modern ways also in public, activity is the same. Dog is defending with the chains and the, the claws, barking. You are defending with missiles, rockets, machine guns, hand granites but defence is the same. If this is all that your civilization is leading to then what is the difference between the goal of a dog and a cat and then goal of your civilization? I’ve come to teach you that there is a higher purpose to human civilization beyond these four things. That there is the higher purpose and we should know ourselves, we should know God and we should actually serve to help other. So then they published in the age news paper, the largest daily of Melbourne, Australia that Swamiji has come to save us from a cat and dog’s life, he has come to hold us, they took it inversely.

Like this Prabhupāda he was meeting heads of state Mayors, Bishops, Cardinals etc. to give this message that Indian counsellor has the solution for the world problem today. That Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s message of love which so kindly the honorable chief justice has brought to our memory. His message of love can unify the whole world in this time of disunity and hatred amongst people. United Nations we just had the second world congress for synthesis of science and religion in Calcutta with several thousand delegates from all over the world including nobel prize winners Ayatollah from Iran, the retired Assistant Secretary General of United Nations and various dignitaries more than can we mention, heads of universities all over India, all over the west, from Japan from Australia from Africa and so on. So the retired Secretary General Dr. Muller of the United Nations, he brought to live that in the world today there are 72 armed consulates or wars going on. He said that United Nations alone he can not solve these things. We need the help from the religions, we need the help from all the people, we need a new character, a new vision to be able to stop these. So Lord Caitanya, He brought that vision of Love. Mere political solution cannot solve all these problem. There are some problems that need a higher solution. So Prabhupāda, His message was in India philosophy, Indian culture, everything has a spiritual higher purpose. And that purpose is what makes human civilization special. It’s what can make our existence sustainable, it can make every aspect of life favourable. And he showed how through the dance which we’re going to see tonight, the music, through the poetry, through all the different cultural aspect of Indian culture in the path, it is been oriented to a uplifting of the consciousness, a higher awareness of our relationship with God.

In conclusion, Prabhupāda was very practical. We don’t have to think that all to get out of the māyā we had to give everything up. What’s needed is the change to consciousness. Arjuna, he wanted to give everything up! He told Kṛṣṇa I won’t fight! I will not fight! He said no, I’m not going to fight with my brothers, with my guru, my grandfather, I don’t do it, I don’t see anywhere I’ll be happy doing it. But then Kṛṣṇa taught him that you do your duty, don’t think of winning, don’t think of losing, you do it for God, you do it for Me. And this way you’ll be successful and you won’t be entangled by any karmas. So Kṛṣṇa said what is needed is the change of consciousness, not that we have to give up everything. Just like, here many beautiful trees, if you wanted to cut down a tree, I don’t think we should cut down the trees, we need them for ecology. But just as a example, if we wanted to cut down a tree we need the help of the tree. We take one of the branches of the tree and we put to it the iron head and we make a axe. And with the axe we can chop the tree down. Similarly when we, in this line the very thing which is causing us the difficulty, if we change the consciousness that same thing can give us the solution.

When Arjuna was thinking if doing his duty for himself he was getting frustration, depressed. When he thought to do his duty for Kṛṣṇa he became enlightened, he became happy and he was beneficial for everyone. On the battle Kurukshetra, there Duryodhana he was simply doing it for himself, winning or losing was his winning or his lose. But Kṛṣṇa’s friend Arjuna was doing it for Kṛṣṇa. So Arjuna was victorious, Duryodhana was a failure in that battle. In the same way electricity, by electricity we can have a air conditioner or we can have a heater. Don’t think that material world is māyā, this of it as Vishnu māyā. ‘daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī’ this divine energy Kṛṣṇa says, My energy. If you use this energy in Kṛṣṇa’s service this energy will give you liberations. If you use the energy for your own self neglecting God it will give you bondage, that is the secret.

So Mīrā showed how to use the energy in Kṛṣṇa’s service, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Prabhupāda. This is why we’re requesting all of our distinguished guests, life members. We’re all practical people active in day to day activities, we don’t want any of you to give up your duties. But we hope that every one of you and many of you already doing this, simply Kṛṣṇaise them, spiritualize them. That is what Kṛṣṇa consciousness means and with that consciousness life becomes blissful, ānandamaya. So Prabhupāda, we own you everything all over the world we have brought this message, you have the message already. Still here in India he has awaken people through their own culture, but in the western culture where we didn’t know anything. I was born in the west but by Prabhupāda’s mercy he brought me back to India in 1970. I said back to India because he told me that in previous birth I was born in India, so that’s why in back to india. And By his blessing he told me to remain in India and now I’m speaking to you not as an American or foreigner, I’m a Indian citizen, I’m speaking to as a Indian (clapping). Of course that’s a bodily designation we are, but I’m proud to have of this blessing from our country. So Prabhupāda has brought this message all over the world and people all over the world are taking him and I hope that everyone can appreciate what a great contribution he has done and the future would see how the world peace and the world prosperity will help them, how much is we’ll be enhanced by his message as people all over the world take up his message.

So I know that everyone is eager to move on with the main program. I just wanted that when you see this drama about Mira you can think of these things.

Hare Kṛṣṇa!