19970608 Bhagavad-gītā 9.13-14 - Sunday Feast Lecture

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatāka Swami Mahārāja on June 08^th, 1997 in Melbourne, Australia. The class begins with the reading from Bhagavad-gītā 9^th Chapter Verse 13-14.

mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha
daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ
bhajanty ananya-manaso
jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam

satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ
yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ
namasyantaś ca māṁ bhaktyā
nitya-yuktā upāsate

TRANSLATION: O son of Pṛthā, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible.

Always chanting My glories, endeavoring with great determination, bowing down before Me, these great souls perpetually worship Me with devotion.

Purport (9.13): In this verse the description of the mahātmā is clearly given. The first sign of the mahātmā is that he is already situated in the divine nature. He is not under the control of material nature. And how is this effected? That is explained in the Seventh Chapter: one who surrenders unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, at once becomes freed from the control of material nature. That is the qualification. One can become free from the control of material nature as soon as he surrenders his soul to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is the preliminary formula. Being marginal potency, as soon as the living entity is freed from the control of material nature, he is put under the guidance of the spiritual nature. The guidance of the spiritual nature is called daivī prakṛti, divine nature. So when one is promoted in that way – by surrendering to the Supreme Personality of Godhead – one attains to the stage of great soul, mahātmā.

The mahātmā does not divert his attention to anything outside Kṛṣṇa, because he knows perfectly well that Kṛṣṇa is the original Supreme Person, the cause of all causes. There is no doubt about it. Such a mahātmā, or great soul, develops through association with other mahātmās, pure devotees. Pure devotees are not even attracted by Kṛṣṇa’s other features, such as the four-armed Mahā-viṣṇu. They are simply attracted by the two-armed form of Kṛṣṇa. They are not attracted to other features of Kṛṣṇa, nor are they concerned with any form of a demigod or of a human being. They meditate only upon Kṛṣṇa in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They are always engaged in the unswerving service of the Lord in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Purport (9.14): To achieve that success, he engages all activities – mental, bodily and vocal, everything – in the service of the Supreme Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. That is called full Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

In devotional service there are certain activities which are called determined, such as fasting on certain days, like the eleventh day of the moon, Ekādaśī, and on the appearance day of the Lord. All these rules and regulations are offered by the great ācāryas for those who are actually interested in getting admission into the association of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the transcendental world. The mahātmās, great souls, strictly observe all these rules and regulations, and therefore they are sure to achieve the desired result.

As described in the second verse of this chapter, not only is this devotional service easy, but it can be performed in a happy mood. One does not need to undergo any severe penance and austerity. He can live this life in devotional service, guided by an expert spiritual master, and in any position, either as a householder or a sannyāsī or a brahmacārī; in any position and anywhere in the world, he can perform this devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead and thus become actually mahātmā, a great soul.

Thus end the Bhaktivendanta Swami translation and purport to Bhagavad Gītā As It Is ninth chapter 13 and 14 verses in the matter of The Most Confidential Knowledge

Jayapatākā Swami: How is that possible? Because we are under the protection of the divine nature. We only see the material nature that work here. But we find from Bhagavad Gītā that there is a higher nature known as the Parā Prakṛti or the Daiva Prakṛti. We are a part of the divine nature but what’s happens is that when we come in the material world we get overwhelmed by the material nature and we lose our divine quality. Therefore we are forced to suffer even though we don’t want to suffer.

How many of you would like to be happy all the time? (laughing) How many of you would not like to suffer at all? Anyone here would not like to suffer? How many of you suffer sometimes? (laughing) In your life anybody had suffered?

So why is that nobody wants to suffer but still you’re forced to suffer. The way of life, we should understand that this proves, this should prove to us we are not God. But some people say that we’re God. If you were God then if you don’t want to suffer then why should God be forced to suffer? So Bhagavad-gītā explains to us that we are part of God, we are atomic particles of God. We are the same spiritual nature eternity, blissful, filled with knowledge and cognizance of understanding. But because we have turned ourselves away from Kṛṣṇa or God, therefore we lose our spiritual shelter, we lose our spiritual knowledge and we lose our spiritual bliss. And then in the material world is the hard struggle for existence. Sometimes we are happy, sometimes we have a good time and sometimes we have a bad time or burner and we go on like that sometimes we always, people make their plans. Okay I’m not so happy right now but in the future I’m gonna have a big party, with friends I’m gonna have a party, I’m gonna have fun, so I’m gonna be alright. Then because we’re looking forward to solve, hope and vision, expected happiness in the future, everything. How about the children then we think, okay we’re having a good child, within one minute the child falls down and starts crying (laughing), one minute they’re laughing, the next minute they’re crying.

So what we want to see, what Kṛṣṇa wants to see is that everybody can again return back to their natural situation. Our natural situation isn’t that we should always be forced to suffer, we should always be happy under the divine protection. We should have inner peace in spiritual knowledge. How that comes is very simple, when we turn our attention back to Kṛṣṇa, we turn our consciousness back to the Supreme Lord then our natural spiritual nature comes out. Actually the nature of the living entity is to be always happy, that’s why we try to be happy. So the great souls, the mahātmās they understand these things and that’s because they are engaged always in this devotional service to Lord Kṛṣṇa. So normally this devotional service was only performed by very great special souls known as mahātmās. But 500 years ago Lord Caitanya, He came to make this available to everyone.

(aside:) Here on the left altar is Lord Caitanya with His brother Nityānanda Prabhu.

Then they came and they taught that if anyone chants these names or mantras of Kṛṣṇa

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare

Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

They can also get the same benefit, He said always chanting My glories. So someone if they follow this principle that mahātmās follow they can also become mahātmā, all of you can be mahātmās. This is known as Mahāprabhu Mandir because Lord Caitanya is the great teacher, ‘mahā’ means great and ‘prabhu’ means master. So we like to see this not only as the Mahāprabhu Mandir, we would like to see it as the Mahātmā Mandir by having all of the, all of you, all be mahātmās, great souls. Mahāprabhu would be Mahātmās. And that’s all possible, it’s not very difficult by the mercy of Lord Caitanya.

dīna-hīna jata chilo, hari-nāme uddhārilo, tāra śākṣī jagāi mādhāi

By chanting the holy names of Kṛṣṇa, even the persons who are fallen into the suffering of bad karmas, they were all delivered. And the proof of that is Jagāi Mādhāi who are two very fallen souls that got delivered by chanting the holy names. So that was, that is Lord Caitanya’s special contribution that everybody could chant. He taught that it didn’t matter what caste or what religion or what age or what gender, everyone could achieve total perfection simply by chanting this mantra which is described as the mahā-mantra, great mantra for deliverance.

(aside:) How many of you don’t know what the mantra is? Anyone who doesn’t know what the mantra is? You all know what the mantra is. So very good.

So the mantra which is the transcendental vibration that liberates the consciousness is something that you can link in anywhere you are. I see here just like Vijay is having his, what is this, a mobile phone right. So with that mobile phone we can call, you call Kṛṣṇa means (laughing). This is the other mobile he has (laughing). Mobile phone only you can call those who are connected with the phone system but with the mantra you can connect with Kṛṣṇa. You simply need to know the dialing codes (laughing). So when you chant

(jaya) śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu nityānanda

śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

That means that you are already routing it to the Caitanya Mahāprabhu system and then you chant

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare

Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

And wherever you are even whether you have batteries charged or not (laughing) you will immediately be connected with Kṛṣṇa. So for the back packers wherever they are travelling they can also chant, or for those driving in the outback, or those driving in the crowded highways going and coming from work, wherever you might be you can immediately link in and chant, you don’t have to wait for anything. So this is a very meek form of meditation because usually meditation requires that we have to create a very perfect environment, quiet room or go to some Himalayan mountain or some forest to somewhere very peaceful. But this mantra chanting can be done in any kind of circumstance. Of course if you are in the middle of a rock-n-roll consort then you might find it very hard to (laughing). Here anything else so, there might be extreme limits but virtually any situation that you can hear the mantra, you can immediately become fixed. So what this means is wherever you are, if you start chanting and hearing, then your consciousness becomes purified.

I think I explained this before that, just like everyone takes a daily bath to cleanse their body. Nobody considers it unnecessary that we should take a bath. Similarly we accumulate so much dirt in our consciousness, so much contamination but what is the means to cleanse it, to wipe out that contamination? Eating about a soap or something is not going to help (laughing). Taking a bath with water can help only the body, how to keep the consciousness fresh? The way that we can know when the consciousness is getting, it’s got accumulated contamination is when it increases in it’s greed, anger, frustration. When the ignorance is overcoming we get depressed, we have so much lust, envy, hatred. Now one of the big problems we hear about in Australia is people have so much packed up passion and anger. That if you are driving down the road, and just you know if you beep horn or something, someone can just stop and what they call road rage, you beep your horn on me! And boom! Smashing windows and doing crazy things right. This is the big problem now, they just smash so law can five years imprisoned if you do it. So whether that transfers people that I guess fear is another thing that might impede them but why so much anger is built up? These are all contaminations that are there in our consciousness. And those can be cleansed away by chanting

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare

Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

You see, government should have a, provide one special channel free for the broadcasting of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra so all the drivers can be chanting and then that will reduce road rage (Haribol!). This is the real solution. So there are many problems like that in society. We have one of the most disturbing things is how many people are committing suicide. In fact I think this is an area where Kṛṣṇa consciousness will take the lead because we are experts in what birth and death is and what actually life is. So therefore we know how futile it is to take one’s own life. According to the Vedas everybody is given a certain time in their body. Say that you’re given a time 85 years you’re supposed to live in your body, but you don’t like it. At the age of 65 you figure that this body is just a pain, I’m not gonna get anymore happiness or at the age of 17 you think that my girlfriend ran off and now nothing is worth living or I flood my exam, I can't face my parents or whatever creates this frustration when someone doesn’t see any hope of being happy. I tried everything I could to be happy and I don’t see any solution. So then what they’re doing now, what people do in the west is they commit, here in Australia many people take their lives.

But according to the Vedas we never die, ātmā never die, the soul never dies! When this body dies the soul goes on to the next body. But if we kill ourselves, if we kill our body out of time then we are not allowed to take another birth until the normal time that we would be allowed to do so. That means if you are supposed to be 85 years and then die and you killed yourself at 21 then how many years you got to go? 64. 64 years you’d be roaming around as a ghost harassing people (laughing) frustrated like anything. Someone is 65 then they are allowed to live till 85, if that 20 years, or may be there’s also sometimes they get a bonus more years as a ghost for punishment. But at least up to normal time they have to stay. And then, it’s super frustrating because as a ghost you have all these desires but no body, no senses, at least you can have some old body you could chew or something (laughing). So, but there you have no senses at all, not even just smoke a cigarette or anything, no senses, you’ve just a subtle body. And that's why the subtle body sometime they try to find intoxicated people who are in the mode of, because their auras are open and they can control temporarily and through the other person’s body they can try to enjoy. That’s why some people get possessed so to speak and this transform way that ghosts try to enjoy. So taking your own life simply means, and ghosts encourage people, take your life, it’s old, it is hopeless, because they like company, join us (laughing). So you're simply being recruited to join the core of ghosts and subtle entities. And that's really really unfortunate, very hopeless.

So people should know very clearly that this is not the solution. In fact in India and when we hear in Japan that people were frustrated they committed Harry Carey. But the system was in India if you really felt frustrated then you renounce the rules (laughing). You become, you try to become a mahātmā (laughing). So that was the old tradition but now suicide is on it’s way up. The tradition sometime after the final exams we get a batch of you know, young men that failed their exam want to become devotees (laughing). That’s not a very positive way we had, but anyway at least they are headed in the right direction, they think that okay material life is frustrating, let me look in to the spiritual life. What we have really have recommending, what we are recommending is that people should, wherever they are, transform their whole decision of life, give a clear understanding, study Bhagavad-gītā, associate with the devotees, purify their consciousness so they can get freed from the frustrations of life. So this chanting will bring out the inner happiness that is part of us, by nature that happiness is already within us. But just like we know that here in this is Victoria street? And in the beginning this was a gold rush place centuries ago in Australian history. Somewhere out here  there’s some gold rush.

So nowadays in order to get the gold out from the different combinations of minerals they have a refining process in one go. Otherwise if you just, before you just get amount  now they have a quite refining process making a gold out out from a mixture of various minerals. So how to get out of this combination of existence that we’re in, to happiness is possible very naturally when our consciousness is purified. We can, we can get it out, we can naturally from within us get out this happiness, we would have to know the process. And that process is known as devotional service or bhakti-yoga. So we have here, this temple is meant to train people in the science of bhakti-yoga. Daily classes, we have programs, we go to people's homes, we explain the process of bhakti-yoga, we have literature, people can take this literature, practice in their home. And then by practicing bhakti yoga they can naturally come into a very peaceful and happy consciousness. How that was possible? This is like the special example that just like tonight we’re serving a feast. Now if you want to, someone wants to say what is the feast taste like? What can we explain! The way that you find out is by going and eating it, then you can experience. So how can one understand what is like, what is the happiness like that one gets from spiritual life. The best way of understanding that is by practicing it for a while and experiencing. Because by nature we’re spiritual when we are in a spiritual environment then naturally we feel happy.

Now how is that possible intellectually or mentally we try to, we could theoretically understand but to actually understand simply we have to do even a little bit of practice in spiritual life and we can immediately start to experience that is a change. And the more that we go into then we see the more profounded results. This is very practical it’s not that we’re saying that you do this and at end of your life when you die you go to heaven and until then you don’t know anything. We’re saying that, you do this practice of bhakti-yoga, within a matter of weeks or months you’d be able to experience a profound change in your life. You’d be able to experience a peace of mind and spiritual happiness even practicing from your own home if you follow these principles. We do have āśrama where some people who are eligible they can also practice within the ashram but the vast majority of people are taught how to practice within their homes. And many people by practicing, they have actually become, also very proficient at this science and even taken spiritual initiations and become qualified also as teachers for others. So we would like to enroll people in this training program so that everyone can also become the spiritual master, man and women are needed to be masters in the science of self-realization and to spread this to others to help everyone to also become happy.

So thank you very much!

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