19970607 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 9.18.51

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on June 7th 1997 in Adelaide, Australia. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 9th Canto, Chapter 18, Verse 51.

 

Jayapatākā Swami: 

 

(Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 9.18.51)  

 

Translation

 

Although King Yayāti was the king of the entire world and he engaged his mind and five senses in enjoying material possessions for one thousand years, he was unable to be satisfied.

 

Although Mahārāja Yayāti was the king of the entire world (translation with repetition),

And he engaged his mind and five senses (translation repetition),

In enjoying (translation repetition),

Material possessions (translation repetition),

For one thousand years (translation repetition),

He was unable to be satisfied. (translation repetition)

 

Purport by Śrīla Prabhupāda:

 

The kad-indriya, or unpurified senses, can be purified if one engages the senses and the mind in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam. One must be freed from all designations. When one identifies himself with the material world, his senses are impure. When he achieves spiritual realization and identifies himself as a servant of the Lord, his senses are purified immediately. Engagement of the purified senses in the service of the Lord is called bhakti. Hṛṣīkeṇa Hṛṣīkeṇa, Hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate. One may enjoy the senses for many thousands of years, but unless one purifies the senses, one cannot be happy.

 

Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purports of Ninth Canto, Eighteenth Chapter, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, entitled “King Yayāti Regains His Youth.”

 

Hari oṁ tat sat

 

Spoken this day, the 7th of June 1997, 511th year of our Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, in ISKCON Adelaide, Rādhā Śyāmasundara mandir. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Second half of the life of Lord Brahmā.

 

So King Yayāti is a very important figure, he's mentioned in more than, in Padma Purāṇa also, I don't know other Purāṇas, maybe also be mentioned, that although Yayāti, he was very special because although for 1000 years he's been, he enjoyed sense gratification. Once he gets spiritual vision, once he realized the futility of it, that there was no satisfaction and he wanted to achieve the real spiritual purpose, in one second he just gave it all up. In the Padma Purāṇa there is some other details. 

 

They say, one-point Yayāti Mahārāja had a very influenced by a Vaiṣṇava, guru. He decided to promote Kṛṣṇa worship in his kingdom, in his and the whole world, and he established that everybody had to worship Kṛṣṇa as a regular program. And all the temples of the world, all the, all the other kind of temples, everything was stopped. In a Vaiṣṇava way Kṛṣṇa had been given the prominent worship, you know, where everyone else was worshipped, all devas were worshipped as devotees. So, there was only Kṛṣṇa worship and because of his establishing, everybody was chanting, he didn't do it just like by some kind of edict, it didn't work. He did it by having brāhmaṇas who all preach and propagate Him, do it organically, do it naturally. But he was successful in establishing Kṛṣṇa consciousness over the entire world, according to the Padma Purāṇa. As a result, because everybody was so pure, chanting the holy names, worshipping Kṛṣṇa that nobody grew old. They didn't grow old and nobody died and there was this, the previous yuga, it was so pious situation, nobody got sick. So, for three generations there was no death on the planet and the grandfather looked young just like (bells tinkling), nobody got old. 

 

Jaya Rādhe Śyāma

 

So you have a grandfather, mother, grandson, gran.. and the great gran.. you know, the father, father and the son and daughter and the grand, and they're all looking. Nobody looked to get old. They all were, you know, you know, they just all looked together. And that was possible because he got everybody so Kṛṣṇa conscious and this is why people want a solution for peace in the world and all these things. Here is the solution. He did it. Now when he did that, it was Kali-yuga.. It was not Kali-yuga, it was a, so he had a much, he had a very good environment to work with. So when he did that, there was like dissatisfaction in the upper echelons of the Universe because nobody was dying, then when nobody was going to heaven, nobody was going to hell, there was like, there was like a total block up, the kind of the, the normal rotation wasn't happening, it was... 

 

So then somehow for some reason, I don't know exactly clear why because it was such an auspicious thing. You would think that everybody would be happy but Indra wasn't happy. He thought that this is like somehow too good to be true. It wasn’t to go back to Godhead, like short changing him some ..i don’t . Somehow, he got upset. Thought it was kind of overstepping Yayāti‘s position to just liberate everybody like that. Not happy going to hell and heaven, you know this instinct. Maybe something to that effect, I'm not fully sure that I understand Indra’s exact motives but it didn't seem very Kṛṣṇa conscious when I read it. 

 

Anyway, Indra was still off with his whole dissatisfaction. He went down to check out what was happening in Yamaloka and there all the Yamadūtas were like I'm the king, you know, just like, you know just like you . (Laughter). You go into the fire, you know, the fire station when there is no fire, you know, like (I said), you know like passing the time, playing, whatever they play, you know, stupid games, cards, I think. So you have the Yamadūtas, they're like, you know.. (yawning sound). What's happening here? What's happening? Nothing is happening my all work stops, it is idle, you know, nobody is dying, nobody is coming to hell anymore. It's like the whole place is a complete ghost, you know, I was going to say ghost town but.. (Laughter), because (they're) always…. there wasn't a ghost town (that time), it was a, nothing, no customers. See, (I even), Yamarāja, so well, there's nothing happening here, you know, Yayāti’s stopped everybody from going there, coming to here, also. 

 

So then Indra and his, whatever in his mood of wanting to control things or whatever, restored the what he considered the order of the Universe. He decided that he had to take some action against Yayāti. So he called his, he called, "Did you have to?". He had to do something about Yayāti, it's too much here. 3 generations – nobody’s died. Everybody is, in this way the whole world is going to, is becoming Vaikuṇṭha there, you know, it's not proper in the material world that we already have Vaikuṇṭha, …. not too much religion. 

 

So when Cupid, he tried to just directly to agitate the King but the King was already so blissful from chanting and he has married also, so he had his wife and he were therefore performing, he didn't really, it wasn't like you go to some yogī and kind of catch him off guard, you know all alone, you know, send an Apsarā, something. He was already with a, his beautiful wife and he had all the arrangements, so there was like, and plus he was come from Kṛṣṇa conscious. So, it was like, he was very protected. So Cupid, he couldn't, couldn't really get in very easy. So, then he had to really come up with a creative plan, how to pollute the mind of this king. How to get him to think sinful thoughts? And it wasn't easy, they really had to, they, so they had a really brainstorming session, you know, they had to kind of really work it out a plan. They came out with a, with a, with a diabolical plot. 

 

They made a Kṛṣṇa drama troop and the whole troop was Cupid and his crew and Apsarās. But for a long time in the kingdom they just performed kṛṣṇa-līlā without any, you know, just kṛṣṇa-līlā, pure and simple. So, the word got to the King that there is a kṛṣṇa-bhakti drama troop. [11:06 unclear] you know, it's a complete Trojan horse, they are just waiting for the chance to get into the King's palace. So, they only know that only way they can do, he's so Kṛṣṇa conscious. He would never see anything else. It was any other drama troop; he would never see it. 

 

So, they came and disguised as a kṛṣṇa-līlā drama troop, and then they performed kṛṣṇa-līlā for the King and there was a very good kṛṣṇa-līlā. Was seemed very nice and, of course, So somehow the king, you know, was like, generally investigate their credentials, whether they were pure devotees or this and that….. Anyway, it was super, he was a little bit doing things on the external platform, even then it was working very well. So after they performed a number of kṛṣṇa-līlās and then the King, you know, first you know, like checking it out, this is so, if anything had been wrong he would have really, you know, taken action but so they, they showed a number of kṛṣṇa-līlā, pas.. dramas, they were all perfectly all right, everything was all right. 

 

So then the King's guard kind of got down, "Okay, this is bonafide group, it's all right". So then Cupid arranged that in the drama, when they saw like that they got the confidence of the King that they would actually distort a pastime and make it look incorrect so it would be like offensive to implicate the King in a Kṛṣṇa aparādha, get his protection of Kṛṣṇa taken away from him. And then one of the Apsarās would slip and expose part of her body right on the stage when the King is there on the first row.  (Wait), look at how, I mean this, you know, they really wen.. this is in the Padma Purāṇa, that they went to this extent, you know, we only got the whole devas, you know, planning against you, implicating you in an involuntary Kṛṣṇa aparādha and then as soon …., when they did that, and, and it worked. And Apsarā like, you know, some..  whatever she did something and her clothes went off her upper body, whatever, something. For a second the King just had a, just a thought. So, just a, just a little lusty thought came in his mind and immediately he aged. It's just like, shhhhhhh, you know like, some kind of, you know, aging potion, it's just like whatever his age should have been, whatever his physical position should have been, it's like Boom he aged, because of one lusty thought. He was very demoralised with that. (Devotees Laughing). 

 

He realized he'd been changed but still that of course he kept up with his Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, it wasn't, not like he fell down or anything. It just had the special benediction; nobody was aging as nobody was lusty. Nobody was having material, they were all following perfectly their religious, nobody was having any thoughts of anybody else other than their husband or wife and everyone was, you know, (all) they were householders but, and they were having children. But it was all Kṛṣṇa conscious, you know, proper religious way and so nobody was getting old, they were all chanting and worshipping Kṛṣṇa. So then Cupid had to go through really …you know, really, they really, did this whole diabolical plot and I mean, when I read that I got like seeking so many lessons. One is how you have to be very careful, like professional groups or things like that, (you know what I mean). You would be very careful not to get implicated in offences and how polluting the whole, you know, in Kali-yuga we are exposed to so many material, lusty kind of thoughts, you know that are kind of promoted (angle) through the advertising media and everything. It's like the, the,that's the, you know, what to speak of, I mean, that's their whole angle for getting people to buy their product or you sell a tape recorder and they will have a half-naked, you know, women standing there, you know.. What is it to do with the tape recorder? (Laughter). Things like that. 

 

So, I mean it's, you know, so that we, degraded time and how, how polluting it is. At the same time the most important thing is how purifying the holy name is and how by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, everybody became not only spiritually satisfied but they also became completely materially protected from the influences of time. Which shows that if we get the whole world to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, you'll get so many benefits in the world, and you will see actually the environment, you know, what to speak of ecology? 

 

Even the ageing process of people will reduce and people become very well preserved and healthy, naturally by chanting the holy names of Kṛṣṇa. There can be so much peace in the world, (right). Every day in the headlines you read, you know, the Kuhu and Sierra Leone and Kuhu and, what's the other place there? The Zululand, no no, the one in Zaire and the Tutsi and killing the Hutus and, vice versa and, somewhere in the world, in spite of like the United Nations, it's been around for how many years now, over 50 years, I think they have the 50-anniversary last year. There has never been a moment where there has not been an armed struggle going on somewhere in the world, affected something like over 40, going on right now in the world. 

 

So simply by political programs, diplomacy and all those kinds of things, it doesn't end war. It doesn't end the armed struggles. In the Vedas, is you need a combination? You need a strong Kṛṣṇa conscious government and you need a Kṛṣṇa conscious gover... You need a Kṛṣṇa conscious world and because then people become satisfied and they become ….then there is not this struggle. 

 

So Yayāti, he was this, the greatest personality in, then he went out there... Because once he got Yayāti like that and Cupid then he did another, he got him implicated into this material relationships and he fell into sense gratification for a while and then afterwards, he came out of it and deliberated. So, there was this, that there was a whole plan against him too, just to get him to stop everybody from chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. That's the other thing is that in the Kṛṣṇa conscious movement, it says that there are lot of enemies. Some may be, inspired even by these demons in the Universe that they don't want to see the whole world chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, so they try to influence in various ways of..  People to not chant and they, and they especially will focus on leading devotees because obviously they're the, they're most... If they remain Kṛṣṇa conscious, it has to a bigger effect, therefore it's so important that we have to chant and follow very strictly. One has to, can never take it like, "Well, I'm a senior devotee so it doesn't matter if I don't follow", Because it is a whole crew there, waiting, you know, to get you, perpetually. What to speak of ordinary devotees? I mean, just a kind of younger devotees. So what's the solution, is if you want to get so many people out together so, what's the, what's the hope for us? The only hope is that Kṛṣṇa says:

 

mām eva ye prapadyante 

māyām etāṁ taranti te

 

"If you remain surrendered unto me, I will cross you over this dangerous material energy. I will bring you back to me."

One has to always take shelter of Guru and Gaurāṅga, and then one can be protected from the different onslaughts of maya whether, whoever the agents may be, they are trying to bring them maya. So, everybody asks, "So what to do? How to be Kṛṣṇa conscious?" Many times we hear these questions and the point is that the whole process is to develop in us a taste, to develop in us an attachment for Kṛṣṇa and to develop in us ecstatic love for Kṛṣṇa. That's what the process is for, (that is), systematically we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, we build up our spiritual knowledge, we associate properly with the devotees and we practice the devotional principles, we gradually get rid of all our bad habits and get rid of our subtle contaminations. Just like in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, gives the story of the guṇḍicā-mārjana . You know that story of guṇḍicā-mārjana ? You know?

 

From audience: (no)

 

Jayapatākā Swami: (None). All the devotees know. You know that? How the Lord Caitanya, He was preparing this guṇḍicā temple. In guṇḍicā temple, it's the temple where Lord Jagannātha goes for Ratha-yātrā, for nine days He stays there. So for the whole year it's kind of a neglected a little bit. Not so.. because no use, it's just like a vacation home for the Lord. So just before he goes then they do a maha clean up. House cleaning and Lord Caitanya, went personally went and organized the cleaning and then He did his special clean up where first they, He took his own cloth. See sannyasis have this, this cloth. This is called the uttariya. So, little like a bib, right. (Devotees Laughing). What this is for? It's because a sannyasi is known as a bhikṣu or a beggar, they are not supposed to work, they are only supposed to beg, live off of Kṛṣṇa or teach from a temple, so.. So, what if they have to beg, then this is, you know, you already got your, you got your carry-on bag, right. Okay. When they give some, you know, someone wanted to do give me one time a whole 5 kilos of apples. I don't have any bag or anything for me to….put in here. You know, just hold it like this….

 

So Lord Caitanya, He used his cloth to put in the leaves and stones and whatever the, little twigs and things that had fallen there in the temple, brought it outside and had a whole competition who can take the most. Who can make the biggest pile. They took a broom and He swept the whole temple. After sweeping then He, to make a long story short, since half the devotees know. Then He took water and washed the whole temple and the devotees are going from this temple of Indradyumna Mahārāja, having a kind of a bucket brigade, bringing big clay pots, … of buckets it was big clay pots and bringing the water and then throwing it on the roof and then walls of the temple, washing the whole temple, of course everything is stone.

 

After that then Lord Caitanya took a twig or something or something and went in between the cracks of the stone and took out all the dirt that was even in the cracks. So the temple became spotlessly clean. So it was clean as Lord Caitanya's mind. And Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura is quoted by Prabhupāda in the purport where he said "This is how we have to clean our heart. Initially there's the attachment for breaking the principles and for the grosser, kind of material attachments. So by chanting, we get…, we develop a higher taste, we actually get spiritually satisfied. We can give those things up.”

 

But then there's like another layer of attachment everywhere. Attached to, many more, little more subtle things may be we  like to. I knew a devotee, I know a devotee who is very attached to billiards. (Devotees Laughing). Sometimes he just sneaks off and plays a game. (Devotees Laughing). He is not breaking any regulative principles as such but it's like just, it's a kind of a frivolous sport or gambling like a prajalpa, you know. There may be some subtle kind of material attachments so maybe someone is attached to material concepts, country, family, different external upādhis. So they clean those things up. That's like, then you have the different, another final layer. I said, somebody is attached to fame, adoration, distinction, having material followers. Material followers, I mean Kṛṣṇa conscious followers are, they are to help in serving Kṛṣṇa and they only will help to serve Kṛṣṇa. So, like, and so, they're actually, everybody is working for the same purpose. Material followers have their own separate demands, they're not like surrendered, in a (sense they...). In order to keep the adoration of your material followers, you have to give them (bishouyas). We discussed last night. We have to somehow gratify them. I remember there was a, this.. I heard that George Harrison one time, he tried to play some music which was very classical and then the fans started, you know, throwing shoes or something so we want, you know, we want to rock and roll. (Devotees Laughing)

 

I was firstly at a program in South Indian. We had the, the temple, decided to have a bhajan, offering for Kṛṣṇa Janmāṣṭamī, a few days before Janmāṣṭamī. For two days, and they had feast day for very famous bhajan singers of South India. One Balasubramaniam, who is a famous cinema artist, cinema playback singer and one other was Jesudas, Jesus dasa, Jesudas.  Jesudas is born a Christian but he, he sings in movies, the playback, the movie songs but he is also quite an accomplished vaisnava singer of Karnataka music, Purandara and such a great Madhva artists, Madhva saints, he could sing their songs. So, he decided it was a Janmāṣṭamī program, (we're going to) sing classical Carnatic music and he was just singing, you know, the Kṛṣṇa bhajans but some of the temple had charged people tickets. First they gave all the life members donations but then to fill up the back of the , they gave 25 rupee tickets for they had just had like street people, no, regular people of the street coming. Those people were rowdy and they were starting up, "Shhhh We want, you know, singers, you know." Whatever? Some stupid song from some movie, "We want this movie song, then". And Jesudas, he's like really heavy. He just stops looking "This is Kṛṣṇa Janmāṣṭamī program. I'm singing bhajans. I'm not singing cinema songs here. If you don't like it, get lost". This is, just, okay, you know go, go. (Guru Maharaj Laughing). And the people were disturbed, they created a disturbance.

 

The next one who came on, the Balasubramaniam, who was not so devotional as the Jesudas. He was going to sing Kṛṣṇa songs but then the people say, "We want this song, we...". So he just surrendered to his fans and just sang cinema songs. That was (our), it was like a disaster, you know it's like... (like i) really see that how, you know, his fans, it's like a whole, you know, it's not like bhakti or something. You gratify their senses (and) the, and the, and the, this artists gratify their senses and then they will clap and appreciate, on the different….. If you do something, it's not like selfless devotion or love or anything, its... They do something not on the script, too much off the script doesn't (that) people don't feel gratified in their senses and forget that person. So what is the use of this type of material followers and things like that. Actually, it's quite dangerous to be a, many movie stars have been manhandled by their fans. Not movie, you know, the rock and roll are molested or injured; they get wild. One case they went I mean,anyways what's the use in going into all that. But, so anyway that's another subtle, a  more subtle kind of thing you have to clean from the heart. Then there is very subtle things of just seeing Kṛṣṇa, it's considered really serving Kṛṣṇa in a, in a serving mood under the guru, there may be others like defects for one, approaches Kṛṣṇa in more of an enjoying mood. So, we have a lifetime of purification ahead of us but what's at the end of the story is that as we are cleansing, we get more and more spiritual happiness. We get closer and closer to Kṛṣṇa. In the end our heart becomes completely pure where Kṛṣṇa can reside there eternally.

 

So, it's a very wonderful opportunity that Śrīla Prabhupāda has given us to purify ourselves. Now just as Yayāti Mahārāja, he was taken away, by hook or by crook, you know, universal, this was like a top level conspiracy to somehow get him to stop doing devotional service so, you know. Maya, you know, maybe you don't have to have the whole, you know, heavenly kingdom against you but maya has got, you know enough agents out there to make, is somebody is really going ahead in devotional service? There can, there can be people that try to deviate. Any devotee.

 

So, we have to be very careful. Śrīnivāsa Ācārya said we have to very careful about maya's tricks. Usually what maya does is somehow another make us feel that these devotees, they are not so pure. They have so many, we find faults and we start finding fault and then when we find fault then we can psychologically kind of convince ourself that well they are, since they are not correctly situated, I don't have to follow them.  I don't, I don't have to be with them. And when we are not with the tight association of devotees and we, we are alone then we are more susceptible to being attacked by maya and we get more weakened. So, this is a very predictable, this is, this is very well documented.

 

This is the way maya works is through fault finding, to get you to pick out little defects, to get everybody has defau.. has faults. So even you look at the moon you can say "Look at the moon's got pimples. All those black marks''. But the moon is giving so much light and in the, in the night. If it's a full moon night, it's like you can see very well, you, it's not clouds, it's quite bright enough. Not daylight but it's significantly bright. So even though it may have a few craters on it, doesn't really make it, doesn't affect the illuminating form, ability of the moon. So, like that even though someone may have personality quirks or there may be some problems, minor problems they have but if somebody is very much absorbed in devotional service and preaching then (it's a), we should overlook the kind of minor superficial quirks that might be there and that and try to rather see the, the good qualities in others.

 

And for neophyte devotees who may have so many devo.. defects but what is the use of focusing on those? If he's trying to be Kṛṣṇa conscious, we should appreciate him, try to encourage everyone. But the mind is they are trying to give us a reason, you know, once we understood intellectually that this is actually what we should do, that we are the spirit soul, we are part of God, Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, I should be serving him. We come to a basic understanding, this is really obvious, this is what I am supposed to be doing. But we are afraid. If I do this somehow I am going to miss out on sense gratification and I am attached to sense gratification so I am not going to be happy. How could I be happy without smoking? I could never survive without smoking. Then, if I am a Hare Kṛṣṇa, they go too much into it, they are going to tell me to stop smoking and I am never going to be happy without smoking. So I better not chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Like this kind of way that mind works on us. We don't think that if I chant Hare Kṛṣṇa I am so happy that I forget about smoking. I am not going to worry about it. The mind doesn't work like that. It works from a very distorted crippled way and cheats us, doesn't have the objective vision, understand that I feel happy and I stop because I don't need it any more then. You are happy, what's the problem. But doesn’t it can't think even if, if things from, you know, it's not that angle. I can never, from where our consciousness is now.

 

So Rūpa Gosvāmī said there's no, we don't try to, it's not like we have to force people to give up all kinds of things initially. In fact, we shouldn't. We should rather just get them to purify them consciousness, develop a higher taste and according to how they are advancing and getting detached, then you get them to give up things as they are more attached to Kṛṣṇa, and then that's a very solid situation.

 

So even I can South India is very interesting, I didn't know this. You go in people's homes they have Kṛṣṇa, they don't put a flute on Kṛṣṇa. I said why, you know, why is that they don't put a flute? And there is a rumour that went around that some point in time that, if you put the flute in Kṛṣṇa’s hand then just like Kṛṣṇa blows the flute and attracts the mind and the gopīs, He will play His flute in your house. The Kṛṣṇa deity, He will attract your mind to Him and you will become detached from material sense gratification, and you will lose your taste for material happiness. (Guru Maharaj s Laughing). So, don't put the flute, then you will be all right. You can have Kṛṣṇa and you can still enjoy you. Like this all kind of crazy things, you know, in, in India, you would be surprised. How many crazy things are going around. You know, they won't put the flute in because they are afraid of...

 

We have the flute. (Laughter). And we want, we want Kṛṣṇa attract our mind and because they don't think that "Well, if you get attracted to Kṛṣṇa and you get the higher taste then what is the problem?" Lord Caitanya, as we read last night, He doesn't want people to give up their family if they, you know, family is situated. So you stay in family but simply add Kṛṣṇa. Someone's not married and they want to serve Kṛṣṇa. That's also all right. We have a facility for those, for single people, we have facility for married people, facility for people who practice in their homes and come and serve in a temple or be part of a Nāma-haṭṭa group. The whole point here is mentioned in this verse : 

 

Hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ

 

We should engage our senses in the service of the master of the senses. When we do that and we become purified, then we do develop the higher taste, so then we become detached from material sense gratification naturally. It's not like an artificial imposition which one can easily fall down from. Some it develops very naturally and if we remain carefully in that consciousness so we protect it. Let's see here, we are a little late. So, so what is bhakti? Anyone remember? What did the verse say bhakti was?

 

Devotee: Love and devotion

 

Jayapatākā Swami: Engagement of the purified senses in the service of the lord is called bhakti. Love of Godhead is the goal. When we get love of Godhead that's the top level of bhakti. Then everything is naturally... If you love Kṛṣṇa then you don't, you know, initially you do bhakti, it may not be out of love, it may be because you realize this is what I should do. I like to do it. So, we do bhakti. We offer our senses, activities to Kṛṣṇa, maybe clean the temple, we make garlands or we help them to go and pick-up fruit from the market or we do the gardening outside or we take some books and give it to people. Whatever we do, we use our senses in Kṛṣṇa’s service and then as we, that's, and we are trying to follow, increase our purity, avoid different sinful activities, then that becomes bhakti. As you do bhakti-yoga long enough, then you gradually build up until you achieve kṛṣṇa-prema and you achieve rather bhāva, first ecstatic love for Godhead, then krsna-prema. So bhakti is a process and prema is the goal but bhakti, prema is also the perfection of bhakti so the bhakti is also the process and bhakti is also the goal. We start with out the basic bhakti and we end up with purest bhakti. You have a question? You, you, anyone - have a question? Question?

 

Devotee:  So, in India, sometimes, The Kṛṣṇa will have a flute?

 

Jayapatākā Swami: Yeah, in South Indian that's a ..

 

Devotee: It's called, they have Kṛṣṇa with a flute but they have Rādhārāṇī, isn't it? We are supposed to,

 

Jayapatākā Swami: Well, that's more like due to the formal... Not every, they worshipping Kṛṣṇa as Viṣṇu and they don't, sometime they don't put Rādhārāṇī. They don't understand that. They know that Kṛṣṇa is God but they don't know the exact intricacies of that worship. Lord Caitanya introduced Rādhārāṇī so some old deities were, they were without Rādhārāṇī. In some places the other person who introduced Rādhārāṇī was Nimbārka Gosvāmī, the four Kumāras sign. But their disciplic successions are not so visible. Rudra-sampradāya, they do puṣṭi-mārga, they just do vātsalya-rasa, so they don't have Rādhārāṇī. Śrī-sampradāya worships Nārāyaṇa so they have Lakṣmī, they don't have Rādhārāṇī and Lord Caitanya and, He has Rādhārāṇī. Four Kumāras who instructed Nimbārka Gosvāmī, they revealed about Rādhārāṇī. So Śrī, Rudra, Brahma, Kumāra. So Brahma and Kumāra have but Rudra and Śrī don't. Then, they may, normally they don’t. Usually that's why in South India you will see Rukmiṇī and Satyabhāmā and Kṛṣṇa very often. Dwārakā mood then Vṛndāvana’s is bit hard for them to understand. Any other question?

 

Devotee: Mahārāja, we have been discussing the pastimes of king Yayāti and previously he allows them, his sons to smoke his old age for their youth and his previous elder sons refused that plea and then his younger son considered him for the exchange. I was wondering why. Because he wanted to, to, to make the exchange so   that he could continue to enjoy his material senses for a longer period and in the discussion [ 40:49 - 41:04 unclear] he wasn't very Kṛṣṇa conscious [41:07 unclear].

 

Jayapatākā Swami: You see, that sons, they were just sons of Yayāti. So sons are obligation to the father. Now if you're saying that someone's for instance a devotee, surrendered to Kṛṣṇa, that sense we have no more obligation to the forefathers, to the devas, to the human society, the paṇḍits. That time our duty is to Kṛṣṇa. So then if somebody says you are indebted to me, you do this material thing. You can, we don't have a debt because our debt gets paid by worshipping Kṛṣṇa. So Pūru wasn't directly worshipping Kṛṣṇa. He was taking, he was acting as a son, material son.

 

Devotee: Was that the time when he lost his youth?

Jayapatākā Swami: A little difference in the style between Padma Purāṇa. There's another, this little, another chapter, another some. Maybe there's different Yayātis in different yugas or something. He's a regular figure, That's the name they used to describe that type of person, I don't know because one story there is another, there is another, Cupid's daughter gets in the act too for sitting in a big lotus, that's another story. Cupid( I don’t know)really, they dedicated life into, you know, to get Yayāti, like. But here in the Bhāgavatam it's said that in order to marry the daughter of Śukrācārya, he traded the youth. In Padma Purāṇa it says to marry the daughter of Cupid. That looks like difference there. But in both it tells that he traded his old ages for further youth. He gave, he was very powerful. You see, in those days these Kings were not ordinary. They could, they actually, they did like we do in deity installation. They do installation of the King and brāhmaṇas should do a yajña for many days and they would get mystic powers. They would get superhuman powers and things like that, there was like.  So he could actually, he gave some blessings to his son and later on when he became Kṛṣṇa conscious, he got, he even gave back whatever was left of his youth to his son. I mean, I tell you, if parents could do that, they would be, you know. If they could drain off the youth of their children and probably there would be a lot of parents doing it, right?

 

Devotee: [43:47 unclear]not all parents would be the parents. 

Jayapatākā Swami: (Laughter). There would be all this [ not audible 43:51]

Devotee: [ 43:54 not audible]

Jayapatākā Swami: Even to do something like that is pretty, to be able to do a trade like that you have to have some, you have to really know something special. It's not an easy thing to do. So Yayāti was, it was a, you, you, it was a special period in the history of this world where people were much more psychically developed and powerful. They had certain mystic abilities that we don't have so easily now.

 

So he blessed, this example that Prabhupāda gives here in this particular verse where it says, just couple before here. It says that a good son, a son who acts by anticipating what his father wants him to do is first class. One who acts upon receiving his father”s orders is second class and one who executes his father’s order irreverently is third class. But a son who refuses his father's orders like his father's stool. Pūru says that actually "I am not a good son because..". He didn't want, you know, it's like, when he knew his father wanted his youth but he didn't offer it voluntarily. He waited till his father ask him. So then he will actually, "I am not, I am not..". When he was asked and he said "Okay, I will give it". Unhesitantly he gave it but then he also apologized that "If I was really a first-class son I would have given, I would have offered it. When I saw you wanted, I would have offered without you asking. I wouldn't have made you come and beg me for - but I was attached".

 

So Prabhupāda in Vṛndāvana he told us in the sense of a spiritual son or daughter that a disciple who can understand what the guru wants and carry out the guru's order without even being asked is first class. But if the guru says, you know, "Do this", and the disciple does it then that's second class. And if the guru says do it and the disciple does it but irreverently, just like, let me just like, like, "All right, I will do it, you know, but I don't want to do it. I don't believe in it", or some people, "I will do it anyway". Ask. Some, you know, some halfhearted way of doing it. So they are okay, they are considered third class. So but, then Prabhupāda didn't give such a heavy word. He said that if they didn't do, they are considered adhama, fallen. So, this also.. I heard, I mean, many times I have heard that, I forgot that this verse was here in the Bhāgavatam. So here is actually a Bhāgavatam verse in relation to the father and the son and that's also, this is also used in relation to disciple, so we should try to be so intuitive that what Kṛṣṇa, what our guru wants that we actually do it naturally without being asked. At least we should do as if we are told to do something by our spiritual master, we should do it. sometimes we have to understand like, not everything that the guru says is an order.

 

Sometimes we ask for a question he gives us  advice. It's not like he's ordering, "You have to do this". This thing happened when somebody asked me a question. Say a disciple asked me a question and then I would give a….. are they having difficulty, Once example some disciple asked me, a śikṣā disciple that, that (they're) having difficulty concentrating on the japa so then I said, "Well, one thing that worked for me is if you chant before the Pañca-tattva and you chant one round meditating on Lord Caitanya and start with lotus feet going up and then come down again lotus feet praying the prayer to that, (say) Lord Caitanya, Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura and these are all the Nityānanda another round and, Advaita, Gadādhara, Śrīvāsa and then the guru, Prabhupāda and the guru. Now we cover six, seven rounds and you are, praying to each of the deities so it, it help you. Then I got a letter back that, "I wasn't feeling so surrendered and I, I didn't, I was feeling very bad, I didn't follow your instructions. I didn't chant like that". So that wasn't an instruction that you had to do that. You just asked an, an advice and I said, "This is something you could do". You know, there is a difference between advice and an order like, "You shou.. must chant 16 rounds every day". That's like your, a vow we take. It is a, you asked a guru a question, he gives an answer. It doesn't necessarily mean it's an order. Orders are specific like, orders, this is like a command, you know, I should do this.

 

So, someone might not follow something, an advice but it's not the same, there's different levels of, in other words, instruction and advice and, it's not all the same. Prabhupāda would ask, answer so many questions but it was very rare that he would give a instruction. For me, I get so many instructions from Śrīla Prabhupāda. See, now I am in a, I am really in a fixed, Prabhupāda gave me an order. He told me, "Expand the Kṛṣṇa Conscious propaganda unlimitedly". Now, I can't do that myself. You see, that's why I am going all over the world, begging from my spiritual nephews and nieces and my children and any devotee Godbrothers to help me to fulfill this that we can expand unlimitedly all over the world Kṛṣṇa Consciousness then I will fulfill Prabhupāda’s order to me. (Laughter). I, I can't do it on my own, you know. What an order, you know, it's just like.. (laughter), but I can see that through congregational preaching we can do it and there's a discussion where Bhakti Svarūpa Dāmodara, myself and Śrīla Prabhupāda on a morning walk in Bhubaneshwar, I think, it was, I think it was in Bhubaneswar, Gaura-govinda Mahārāja was there also. I don't know few of us were on a walk but we, obviously it was in Bhubaneshwar and then, I think it was in Bhubaneshwar, some reason I know. We all went there and somehow went on a walk and Svarūpa Dāmodara Mahārāja, he was saying how we have to preach to the class, to the really high scientists and then Prabhupāda was encouraging, "Yes, that's very good". But then I said, "But, if we can preach to the mass, like if the whole mass of people, they become Kṛṣṇa conscious and then they won't accept, they, they won't be, they won't follow the scientists anymore and he wanted that. "So that's, that's very good. This will be our success when the common man will come to the scientist, "I don't believe your speculations anymore"(Laughing). So, he would play, he would say so both, you know, I was in the mass, you know, preaching, he was in a, of course I appreciate preaching to scientists. That has a big influence on the, we were just like, at that particular time, we were just taking a different angle. So Prabhupāda was encouraging both of us. So, to spread this Kṛṣṇa conscious movement requires that all classes of devotees need to cooperate together.

 

Hare Kṛṣṇa . Thank you very much

 

Transcribed by Aarthi Sekar.
On: 28-11-2020

Proof Read by Bindu Madhavi DD

On 27/12/2020