19970212 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.22.34

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on February 12th, 1997 at New Talavan farm in Carrier, Missipi. The class begins from a reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, 3rd Canto, Chapter 22nd, Verse 34.

His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami: (leads chanting of the verse) (devotees repeat)

SB 3.22.34

niṣṇātaṁ yoga-māyāsu

 muniṁ svāyambhuvaṁ manum

yad ābhraṁśayituṁ bhogā

 na śekur bhagavat-param

Translation:

Thus, Svāyambhuva Manu was a saintly king. Although absorbed in material happiness, he was not dragged to the lowest grade of life, for he always enjoyed his material happiness in a Kṛṣṇa conscious atmosphere.

Translation with repetition:

His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami: (leads) (devotees repeat)

[break]

Purport by Śrīla Prabhupāda:

The kingly happiness of material enjoyment generally drags one to the lowest grade of life, namely degradation to animal life, because of unrestricted sense enjoyment. But Svāyambhuva Manu was considered as good as a saintly sage because the atmosphere created in his kingdom and home was completely Kṛṣṇa conscious. The case is similar with the conditioned souls in general; they have come into this material life for sense gratification, but if they are able to create a Kṛṣṇa conscious atmosphere, as depicted here or as prescribed in revealed scriptures, by temple worship and household Deity worship, then in spite of their material enjoyment they can make advancement in pure Kṛṣṇa consciousness without a doubt. At the present moment, modern civilization is too much attached to the material way of life, or sense gratification. Therefore, the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement can give the people in general the best opportunity to utilize their human life in the midst of material enjoyment. Kṛṣṇa consciousness does not stop them in their propensity for material enjoyment, but simply regulates their habits in the life of sense enjoyment. In spite of their enjoying the material advantages, they can be liberated in this very life by practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness by the simple method of chanting the holy names of the Lord —

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare

Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.

His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami: Hari Oṁ Tat sat.

Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta Swami Translation and Purport of the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, 3rd anto, 22nd chapter, 34th verse, in the matter of the marriage of Kardamba Muni and Devahūti.

Anybody remembers how long a Manu is?

Answer: one-fourteenth of the day of Brahmā. (laughter)

Gurumaharaj: So how many four yuga cycles is that?

Answer: 14th of the thousand cycles.

It will be ten cycles if you divide by ten, divided by 14, maybe seven, eight cycles.

Guru maharaj: 71 cycles. 7.1 becomes 10. So... each cycle is 4,320,000 years.

So, it’s quite a long lifespan that Manu has and ah... he was able to maintain his Krsna consciousness in spite of a very opulent, material situation as it... as a King over a vast area of the universe. He was an emperor not only of one planet but of many planets. So, facility for enjoying was there and being a King actually you have to go through the... you have to accept so many material enjoyments but he never lost his sight of his Krsna consciousness because he kept a Krsna conscious environment.

Remember what was some of the things he did to keep himself Kṛṣṇa conscious? Answer: From the early in the morning, he would have some kīrtanīyas to chant the glories of Kṛṣṇa, waking up...7.05

Guru maharaj: Yes. He would wake up in the morning and he would have singers... they sing the pastimes of the Lord. So, his whole ah... life was oriented at pleasing the Lord, remembering the Lord. Srivatam sva kathā Kṛṣṇa... he was following the Bhagavat principles of hearing and remembering and speaking about the glories of the Lord. This is very important verse actually, the purport, very important for our congregational preaching and Kṛṣṇa conscious preaching.

Today in the modern-day world, although in India there are still some appreciation of renunciation and... later on here, and generally sanyasis and sādhu’s are given some respect for their austerities. In the rest of the world there is not much appreciation for these things, I think. People can’t understand why anybody would deprive himself from anything.

So therefore, it’s very difficult even to practice the renounced order or renounced orders, ...8:30... orders of life in the Western world because the atmosphere is such that everyone is basically, in a... attached to sense gratification. There is not another option that’s really considered. That’s the nature of the other continents.

Prabhupāda said that India is especially a puṇya desh and to make progress there, religion, dharma, austerities, this has to be practiced but in the rest of the world the circumstances are of bhoga or sense gratification and how can people become Kṛṣṇa conscious in a sense gratification environment?

This is a big question, a big problem that is answered by this particular purport by the life of ah... Swambvuva manu, that he was able to be Kṛṣṇa conscious in spite of having an opulent or a very comfortable material situation simply by creating a Krsna conscious environment.

So, therefore he didn’t lose sight of what was the purpose of life. For him there was some material comforts and enjoyments but it wasn’t that he was mad after those things so that he became degraded by them because everything was kept in perspective by the constant chanting of

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare

Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare.

By hearing the pastimes of the Lord and by different types of deity worship and devotional service. So, from this we can say, “Well if this works for a King who’s standard of sense gratification is much higher than the normal individual, even in Kali yuga maybe some sense gratifications are... very few people can match up with this Vedic Kings.

Of course, the problem is that people instead of creating environment like satwik, comfort and enjoyment, they create an environment of tamasic and rajasik enjoyment which is degrading. So, the point is to keep it rajasik and satvic and śuddha satwik with Kṛṣṇa conscious rather than rajasik and tamasik, the kings we know about in the modern, you know...not modern but say medieval europe... things like that.

I don’t know so much medieval but say that recent few hundred years, it seems to be very much mode of passion with ignorance- drinking of alcohol, meat eating, things like that, maybe in the medieval there was crusades, there was some religious ah... purpose... I don’t know much about that... that’s all. what history we get, we don’t know how accurate it is anyway, they change it from time to time depending on politics but ah... maybe there is some religious ah... bent to it but ah... nothing... it is very much mixed up.

But here we can see that Swambhuva Manu, he kept his atmosphere very much ah... Kṛṣṇa conscious and therefore even though he had a lot of material opulence he was able to be Kṛṣṇa conscious and he was able to achieve a perfection in his life.

Prabhupāda in some of his purports, in the letters he does advice the Kṛṣṇa conscious preachers, even those who are brahmacharis or poor or... brahamanas who have taken...voluntarily taken austerities to remain in the simple way of life, this is watched out when they go to preach to the rich people that they don’t get attracted by the opulent lifestyle and think, “wow this person is happy, so this... this... I can be happy with this opulence.”

Sometimes it does happen, you know, people do get affected.

In India our life members are the cream of the population, they are the richest people in the society and Hare Kṛṣṇa devotees are able to... life member, patron member preachers are able to practically penetrate the homes and the offices of the... the most aristocratic people of India, by the blessing of Śrīla Prabhupāda.

So, the danger is that sometimes people without such opulent background they might get affected seeing all the opulence’s. So, one has to keep everything always in perspective.

Recently we had the second world congress for the synthesis of science and religion in Calcutta, and in that ah... congress, Nobel prize laureate in Physics, Dr. Tom who discovered the laser, I think you have... have you heard of lasers? In a few other pretty key land-markings of discoveries, he was speaking and there were 30 different delegates, all top university professors and heads from different parts of world, maybe from America, from New York, and ...14.25...and from Washington and California...14.30, different places, Berkley. Aiatola was there from Iran, Imaṁ, Dawood or something I forget, he was ah... he started lying to be the President of Ivan....quite a distinguished personality, from that culture, Islamic priest he became Cardinal, and many other very-very distinguished people were there.

Now after a long day they have from nine in the morning till six at night, with a two-hour break in the middle for lunch they take through deliberation and synthesis of science and religion, they worked them out, everyone was speaking and listening, so quite ah... strenuous and then in the evening at around 7:30 there was a reception at different aristocratic Indian homes, top industrialists and businessman in the city who were life members they would organize a special reception.

I missed the first one, I was a bit tired myself, I just flown in from somewhere and ah... but the second one I thought well I should just stop in and also socialize with the guests who had come all over the world, an invitation of the Bhaktivedanta Institute and they were also in our area and they were going to go to Māyāpur, and so I thought that I should leave them, ...16.00... intimately.

So, I got nowhere... to this.... using my top five families of Calcutta, wealthy families, very big mansions with a very big yard, lawn and everything and garden to go through you know front gate guards and big turnaround, place the cars coming, drop off the people go out... outside with the loudspeaker they call the car back, you know sound like pretty developed situation there, and ah...they organized a very opulent ah... buffet out in the lawn with a big flames and also very big silver vessels, quite a rajasik opulent ah... presentation but all pure vegetarian... they were vegetarians and didn’t mind even if offering to Kṛṣṇa.

I didn’t... I came late, so I didn’t see all those details but ah...then there was a... so like that everyone was talking to each other, everyone having a very good time in discussing. Little groups all around the garden... chairs and long chairs, standing, having ah... soft drinks, there was no alcohol and there was no non-vegetarian food, everything was very satwik in that regard....and so to make a long story short after talking to many different professors and people like...

One professor was talking with me and he was saying that, “I am going to tell you that I am converted to some extent. Then having come here, if somebody would have told me before you could have fun, you could have a nice social event without alcohol and without meat, I would have said they were lying, you know it’s like a bluff, but seeing here.... everybody here is happy...everybody is happy, they are all talking, joyfully they are smiling, everybody is in a good mood and food is great and everything is great, and I haven’t missed anything. “ I am going to go back and tell all my fellow professors and heads of other universities in America that we don’t need it, we don’t need alcohol and non-veg food to have a good time”.

That was his level of realization at this point but ah... I ...18.34... it’s a major hurdle for people to understand.

But Prabhupāda takes it one step further, that alone is like a major ah... step to appreciate that there is different types of... there is different platforms of material enjoyment, then if you go the next step and add Kṛṣṇa to that, of course Kṛṣṇa was there in the center there were devotees around talking to people and they...people did ask questions... ah... but it was not ah...very kind of different type of preaching, it wasn’t like a just preaching on a Sunday feast or something.

It was very low...very indirect but someone was asking that they got a calendar which had a picture of a Hanumān, and you are trying to explain to a Christian theologian who Hanumān is.(laughter), who doesn’t know anything about you know... it’s really complicated. (laughter) Why are you worshipping a monkey?

Why you are respecting him, I mean, if you are trying to go into the details then it’s really complicated. (laughter).

So you just say he is great devotee, he is a monkey, he is like... keep it real simple, otherwise if you started to say you know, he is born by Śiva but he is carried by vāyu, and so he is the son of the...you know you can get into a very big trouble if you try to explain too much but it was a...it was like that, different people were talking... but ecology and other types of very satwik concerns were probably on the top of people’s minds, but that way people who were gradually opening up and seeing that also Kṛṣṇa... they... Kṛṣṇa conscious was not in the forefront but it was there in the background and that when they came to Māyāpur of course suddenly they saw the environment that was totally Kṛṣṇa conscious ah... in the forefront, you see.

So, it looks like a good, you know... from the West to that environment in Calcutta and then to Māyāpur it was a necessary transition.

Prabhupāda appreciated that and most people...and I am not going to want to give up these comforts or they want to live with their families in life and ah...having ah... this type of ah... less regimented lifestyle and so Prabhupāda gave many verses of instructions and people by reading the Bhagavat Gītā and Śrīmad Bhāgavatam on a daily basis, by occasionally inviting devotees to their home an having kīrtan... Hari Bol, that they would become Krisha conscious and could get ah... purified and told that this was how Advaita Goswami had adviced and how Lord Caitanya advised it should be done and this is basically house programs and Namhatta, facilitating people from all different walks of life and to be able to be Kṛṣṇa conscious.

Whether one is a King or a commoner, whether one is a manager or a worker, whichever aspect of life was in, they can come together and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

So, some...one of the member...it is interesting that Prabhupāda one time he was ah... preaching to another very, of course life member who was ah... dear to Prabhupāda and dear to the movement to some extent, he had helped in somethings. One Mr. Bajoria...22.18 mahaprasad.... what was the full name, RP or something but anyway one Mr. Bajoria, he had a very nice little temple behind his house, thanks for ...22.30-22.32...

And so Prabhupāda went to his house on one occasion and saw...but all the pūjā was being done by a higher priest, but Prabhupāda said, “You should do the pūjā, you should do the worship, you should worship the deities and in this way you are purified.

I thought that it was quite interesting that how Prabhupāda had explained, encouraged this rich industrialist to do the deity worship himself rather than just having a Brahman coming and standing in front of the deities for a few minutes and go out.

Obviously if you do the deity worship yourself you are going to be much more absorbed, much more involved, so the idea is to get some immersion into Kṛṣṇa consciousness for some time. That should be very much a part of life, inseparable part of the life even for this wealthy and distinguished people and that’s an aspect that I don’t think Kṛṣṇa consciousness in the world today has really communicated to people.

We started off with our temples in the cities which were more like 23.50-23.53 into the west .... which Prabhupāda had... had made in this kind of invasion of the culture of the east into the West but you know beach heads are just first putting the foot down but afterwards to actually... like when the allies took the France from the 3rd right... right...24.12-16... than you know you had to push back, and you know you have to re-establish the local rule and that was like a whole different cycle, whole different thing happens. One thing is the defeat and the other thing is to maintain the possessions.

Similarly, when Germany came over France, they had so much op... you know, they also had to maintain the control they had over the opposition from underground allied rails and so on.

So, one thing is just to... we got the temple, ok that was just the first step.

Then Prabhupāda said that now we have establish varṇāśrama in society and we have establish to Kṛṣṇa consciousness in the 24.56 of the society. And that means that some people are going to be living like 25.01 and some people are going to be businessman, some people are going to be workers and... but everybody should be Kṛṣṇa conscious, some of the intellectuals.

People can be Kṛṣṇa conscious on their own self-situation because Deiva Varṇāśrama means that everyone is Kṛṣṇa conscious or has a very strong Kṛṣṇa conscious influence on their life, in a very positive and constructive way, may not be cent-percent or hundred percent Kṛṣṇa conscious, but they are Kṛṣṇa conscious enough that it immunizes them and counteracts any detrimental effect that the sense gratification is doing.

It is just like that our bodies are filled with disease all the time, but it’s antibodies and the resistance that we have that keeps it down. When we get weakened and the percentage of disease is more and our resistance is reduced then the disease starts to take over.

So, in the Western world these diseases are totally taken over, and basically what has to be done is people’s resistance to māyā has to increase so that they can bring it into a healthy balance, and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa regularly, by even listening to tapes, I mean some businessman are always take the Hare Kṛṣṇa tapes, different bhajan tapes and playing in their cars driving to work.

Some people tell me that for two hours they are stuck in traffic jams hearing the bhajans or some people chant while they are driving, when they are stuck in traffic jams, and one maybe yesterday told me that sometimes in traffic jams and try to chant as many rounds.

So how people can make their homes and their lives Kṛṣṇa conscious, this is the unique contribution of Vedic culture, because in the West the religion and everything else is very much kind of separated but within Vedic culture it’s inseparable, just intertwined. You can’t...I was one day in a special function with the King of Nepal, in a city called Beuganj in the Nepal-India border and it was some... I forget some big function and somehow, I was there in the dias with the ah...King and Queen, King Birendra... and in his short speech he said that we are the only Hindu kingdom in the world today and the great and wonderful thing about the culture is that you cannot separate a religion from the other things of life, it’s all intertwined.

Just like we receive people by taking our guest to where you... every day you do a worship in your home. Every day you do different spiritual activities, religious activities just like culturally it is so integrated, and what we can see here from the life of Swambhuva Manu, is what that does is it keeps us in touch with God, with Kṛṣṇa all the time. And if it’s properly done it will keep us enough in touch so that we can remain Kṛṣṇa conscious enough so that we will be able to get back to Kṛṣṇa at the end of the life.

Now when the balance gets tilted towards sense gratification it’s then dangerous. Then we can become animals in our next... in our future births, because what keeps us as human beings or what causes us to go back to Kṛṣṇa is depended on our desire, how much desire do we have to serve Kṛṣṇa.

If our overriding desire is to serve and please then we will go back to Kṛṣṇa. If the overriding desire is to have material sense gratification but in a somewhat pious and God- conscious environment, let us...you have not really developed attachment to Kṛṣṇa so much, then we can go to the heavenly planets. If our overriding desire is simply to have sense gratification and there is no real concern about spiritual development, then why be human being?

Because human being is meant for spiritual development and if you want to just have sense gratification, ignorance is bliss, in animal life you can have sense gratification and don’t have to worry about it because there is no karmas or anything.

Human birth is a facility to go back to Kṛṣṇa, so someone doesn’t have really any desire to go back to Kṛṣṇa, make relation towards that, then why be human being? ...29.53 practical, and get the birth that you most appropriate ah..., than you can satisfy your desires is a better way. So that’s why, human birth is meant to cultivate our spiritual desires along with whatever material things have to go on.

So, by the end of life if we have a very strong desire to be serving Kṛṣṇa, to be with Kṛṣṇa, then we can go to Kṛṣṇa, doesn’t have to be 100%, then you can go, 90, 80 or 70, or whatever or maybe lesser percent by Kṛṣṇa’s mercy you can go back to Him.

We are coming close on the month of Mādhava, known as the magh month and this month is ah... very sacred month in which if one does different types of spiritual activities one can end up pious activities, one gets multiple benefits.

Specially if you we try to offer flowers to the deities, to chant before the deities and serve the deities, and to take early morning bath. This is when they have the kumbha mela... kumbha mela in Allahabad.

So, I think I told the story about the tyrannical King that accidentally offered the flower that delivered, so that happened in this month.

Another of the glory is of this month was, a King Dilīpa who was mentioned in the Bhāgavatam, he is a very powerful King and he had gone into the forest with his ah... other moguls for hunting, and they were all dressed in.... very blue turban with a feather in it, everyone was dressed...in this sense you could say dressed to kill, it’s going on in the hunt. And this was allowed for the King’s to go hunting so that they could sharpen their arrows and ah... their martial arts in a practical, unrehearsed in Mayami, you can say that ecologically we are reducing the number states...32.37-30. 40....so they going and riding into the forest and... “get him, get him... you know, chasing the stags, then after having a shot at couple...

I don’t know how many stags were shot but there was a big sound in the forest and a gigantic ah... stag came out and you could see really big and strong and he looked and saw this hunter and took off big loud noise in the forest and the King said, “Get him!” and they were all chasing him.

This is very big stag, he can run very fast, very far and the King went ahead of others and got separated from everybody. Well, plenty of mistakes... but they came across very beautiful lake with swans and lotuses, even the crocodiles in the lake were making interesting movements with their tails, and creating ripples........very beautiful environment.

When the King was very thirsty, he was really thirsty because he had been chasing and chasing and chasing and then he took some water and rest.... and that night it was too ...... they were too deep in the forest to get back back....

so, they all layed by the side of this lake and ah... there they were in the middle of the forest and so they were, laying with their bows on their chest, with a finger on the trigger and the posture which was like sleeping with the gun, just in case that anything happened... the night will be immediately ready to defend themselves. Bows and arrows right on the... right in the middle of the night it was like a big stampede of wild boars, coming through the 34.49...big tuskers you know,  freaked out and jumped out, started killing boars and defending themselves and ah... stay back.

So early in the morning they started heading back, and they were about as they were departing, they met this one rishi and he is very senior old rishi, very senior guy, he is very wise and they offered their respects and they were going “where you are going?”

I am going back home. So, no but you haven’t taken your morning bath in the month of magh, you have to take bath in the magh month, this is very auspicious and then he said, “well, why is it auspicious?

What is the benefit of taking a bath in this cold month, take us... we will get back home?

I have no time to tell you right now, because the time for taking bath is very fast going to be over. You just come and take a bath with me later, you talk with guru-Vasista Rishi, Vaśiṣṭā Muni, he would tell you everything, so brought them back and took everyone back.

Remembering how Prabhupāda would, we were all in Kumbha mela there and it was really cold, living in tents, and .... Sādhus are sitting all night, you know... with little fires there, around the fire some of the yogis they were meditating, naked but bodies covered with ashes. That’s how they were meditating...it’s a amazing place.

So then Prabhupāda said that we have come here to get association. I think he was knowing that we were going to give association, he was being very humble. You to a gift for me? Wow, thank you, jay Jagannath Swami ki?

We have a ...36.50...to the Triveṇī, four in the morning...... And ah...water was exceedingly, I won’t say fresh... quite cold and taking a dip early in the morning, of course when you come out then you feel warm.

Somehow some phenomenon. And these yogis, they take a dip and take ashes... when their bodies are still wet, they rub it all over the body and the ashes stick, and the ashes form a little coating, that was the insulation, I never tried it though (laughter). Seems to work for them, it was a very pious, very auspicious.

In the padma purāṇa it’s mentioned that when you do the bathing you should be chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa, and if you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, before, during and after your bath, with different names Achutya, Govinda, Mādhava, Hari, then you get Kṛṣṇa conscious result, and that helps you in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

But if you just take a bath in the month of mag then you get different degrees of benefit of pious activities. If you take warm bath you get six times, if you take cold bath you get12, if you take a bath in a 38.13 or a river, a natural stream you get a hundred times, if you in a confluence of a...24 times, if it’s a big river than it is a hundred times, and if it’s a confluence of two big rivers it’s 400 times, and if it’s the Ganges it’s a 1000, and if it’s the Ganges when it’s in Triveṇī or some holy place than it’s 100,000.

So... But if you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, then there is unlimited spiritual benefit, if you are trying to chant the holy names.

Until you take a bath in the morning you don’t think of chanting, and so many histories, and there is a history after history about different things that people have achieved by just taking bath in the month of mag, of course here it’s a quiet, bit, I don’t know if it’s any colder here than atleast in all of ...39.04... It’s gets under 1-degree centigrade, like ...34-36... sometimes, may be in the averages around six, which is 6 to 10 which is ah...39.18..., below ....39.20... maybe max. people living, of course in the day time it of course warm’s up to unders 60’s it goes down.

So, people are there, millions of people...it’s not even a few people, so what was kind of interesting...39.43-39.46.... is that one lady was there who was ah... she was in the court of the King of Kaliṅga. Kaliṅga is another name for Orissa.

So, the ancient name of Jagannath, and she was a revising beauty and all the nobles of this ah... kingdom were after her hand and favor and glance and ah... she spent her whole youth in amorous activities, ....40.30-40.36... and she gets tons of gifts of gold and jewels and there was enough to... she saved that and she lived with that ah... income into her old age.

When she was old then she was looking back in her life and she had realized that she had just had sense gratification, with no Kṛṣṇa consciousness, nothing at all, no religious activities, and all the bad karmas were weighing on her very heavily that I have just done very selfish, just enjoyed sense gratification.

When I die, I am going to really get some horrible destination. So, I better do something, so she went to some brāhmaṇa, requested them what can I do to get rid of all these karmas, how can become freed from this burden, I am really...didn’t act very responsibly but...swept away by the environment I was in.

So, she was advised that she should bathe in the saṅgaṁ of the three rivers in the month of maga... after three days that she can be purified from all of her bad karmas. Not only did she bathe for three days, she did it for 24 days, or additional 21 days, earned her in her next life... but she never... the brāhmaṇa never told her to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa or any name of Viṣṇu or anything.

So, all she got those pious result. And it is interesting how almost a similar activity, just add Kṛṣṇa and it is completely different. If one Swambhuva Manu, did... didn’t have Kṛṣṇa then it was about Śiva, it was about... different religious activity without the supreme personality of Godhead personally being the focus....he would have a totally different result and he would have become a brahmā, or he would have become a Indra or something but he wouldn’t have maintained, he wouldn’t have gone back to Godhead, like he did.

It’s a very significant, if you notice a little difference to what happens to people.

So, this ah... lady, she took her next birth as an apsarā, known as kamala mangani, and she is still there I think, she is very renouned apsarā and she is very highly placed, ah... she is a little friend of Pārvatī, one of the maid servants of pārvatī, so she is sometimes in Indra loka, sometimes she is in Kailash.

So, every year she would come back in the month of mag to take a bath in the Gaṅgā remembering... remembering how... that’s how she got what she is, the high position in the universe, and one year when she came back, she was swimming out of the water.

Of course now she is an extra-terrestrial, ravishing beauty, so now she is very pious, very religious, and she came out of the water flying, her clothes were wet, and when...there was a...it just happened that not too far from the river there was a rakshasha, maneating demon, and some of the water from her wet cloth fell on the hand of the man-eating demon and the man eating demon seeing this lady flying in the sky and when the water touched his head he suddenly said that, “in my whole life I am always angry, violent, passionate and so the first time I feel peaceful when the water touched me, what is this water and who are you then?

The lady was flying in the sky, so she came down and talked to him, she gave her history how she became what she is and who she is and how she is going back to the higher planets......she just came to take a bath and she asked him, “how did you get to where you are?

Like how did you become a raksasha, what are you doing here?”

He said, “my lady, please have your mercy on me, I am very unfortunate person. I was born in a family of devotees and I was born in a sacred place called Kāśī, that’s in Banaras basically, but I didn’t take seriously what my parents were doing, and although officially I became a brāhmaṇa I didn’t do any pūjās, just I cheated people and took them around, took their money and I spend all money in sense gratification and I was very sinful. I just wanted to enjoy my senses and I didn’t take advantage of being in a holy place or having devotee friends.

So, because I was committing sin in a holy place, whatever good activities done is a holy place is multiplied by a thousand of times and similarly whatever sinful activities you do in the holy place it gets multiplied thousands of times.

So, I was doing a mountain of sin in a holy place which means that was a... I had so much bad karma. You can’t imagine... I just... I have like even a little bit of bad karma you do in a holy place it’s just like a big bunch bad karma and I was... so much bad karma, I don’t know when I am going to be freed from this bad karma. Because I died in Kashi, anyone who dies in the holy just can’t go to hell.

So, I didn’t go to hell but I took birth three times as vulture, as a pig, as a lion, as a tiger, as a dog, as a... I forget... for sure three times vulture, three times tiger, one was a pig, two others...I don’t remember whether I was a dog... there was two animal births and he said this is my tenth birth.

And I have already been a raksasa for thousands of years. I don’t know how the raksas live a long time and this is a lousy life- ambushing people and eating them, this is really horrible and even after this is over I don’t know how many such births I have to take in the future for all my bad karma.

So, I just plead on you...you seem to know how to get rid of karmas and all that. If you can kindly bless me and somehow, I can get out this. I will be very grateful.

So, Kamala Mangali was very inclined to help this person. So, she said her clothes were all wet from bathing in the Ganges, took her... she went over and taking her sari out on his head, so that he got bathed by the Ganges from the Triveni and when he got bathed by the Ganges on the month of mag his body transformed, then he became from a raksasha he became a deva, he could also go up to the higher planets, but then he asked... he said that look, I didn’t want to end up... I do it before I like to have some advice from you so that I can maintain whatever circumstances I am in. Now by your blessings when she gave him some moral instructions of how to properly behave.

So, it’s interesting how...here was one brahmana son and one kṣatriya  lady, imagine she was a kṣatriya  something like that, both were kind of suffering a lot of bad karma because of not being Krsna conscious, by a little religious activity they got some good karmas, but they didn’t have Krsna consciousness and therefore they didn’t have to continue on the cycle of birth and death but even it was at least... they got a better opportunity.

So, devotees, they do devotional service but they don’t really fully develop this art to be Krsna conscious or make it a very prominent desire in Krsna’s service where they can get a birth like this in the heavenly planet, good birth in this material world like a son of a King, or a brahmana or a rich vaiśya.

The real point is of course that swamvuva manu, just had little effort, little bit to be Krsna conscious then you can go back to godhead, you can be fully Krsna conscious in... in... after this lifetime and what their percentage is... you know that’s...that’s an interesting point.

Transcribed by: Sadananda Krsnaprem Das

Date: 23.01.2016