1997 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.31.14

The following is a morning class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami in 1997, at the Sumerevo festival, in Moscow, Russia. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, fourth canto, 31^st chapter, 14^th verse.

yathā taror mūla-niṣecanena
tṛpyanti tat-skandha-bhujopaśākhāḥ
prāṇopahārāc ca yathendriyāṇāṁ
tathaiva sarvārhaṇam acyutejyā

Translation: As pouring water on the root of a tree energizes the trunk, branches, twigs and everything else, and as supplying food to the stomach enlivens the senses and limbs of the body, simply worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead through devotional service automatically satisfies the demigods, who are parts of that Supreme Personality.

Purport: Sometimes people ask why this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement simply advocates worship of Kṛṣṇa to the exclusion of the demigods. The answer is given in this verse. The example of pouring water on the root of a tree is very appropriate. In Bhagavad-gītā (15.1) it is said, ūrdhva-mūlam adhaḥ-śākham: this cosmic manifestation has expanded downward, and the root is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As the Lord confirms in Bhagavad-gītā (10.8), ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ: “I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds.” Kṛṣṇa is the root of everything; therefore, rendering service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa (kṛṣṇa-sevā), means automatically serving all the demigods. Sometimes it is argued that karma and jñāna require a mixture of bhakti in order to be successfully executed, and sometimes it is argued that bhakti also requires karma and jñāna for its successful termination. The fact is, however, that although karma and jñāna cannot be successful without bhakti, bhakti does not require the help of karma and jñāna. Actually, as described by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam: pure devotional service should not be contaminated by the touch of karma and jñāna. Modern society is involved in various types of philanthropic works, humanitarian works and so on, but people do not know that these activities will never be successful unless Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is brought into the center. One may ask what harm there is in worshiping Kṛṣṇa and the different parts of His body, the demigods, and the answer is also given in this verse. The point is that by supplying food to the stomach, the indriyas, the senses, are automatically satisfied. If one tries to feed his eyes or ears independently, the result is only havoc. Simply by supplying food to the stomach, we satisfy all of the senses. It is neither necessary nor feasible to render separate service to the individual senses. The conclusion is that by serving Kṛṣṇa (kṛṣṇa-sevā), everything is complete. As confirmed in Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Madhya 22.62), kṛṣṇe bhakti kaile sarva-karma kṛta haya: if one is engaged in the devotional service of the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, everything is automatically accomplished.

Jayapatākā Swami: Hari Oṁ Tat sat. Thus ended the Bhaktivedānta Swami translation and purport of the fourth canto, 31 chapter, 14th verse.

So this is one of the most important verses from the Bhāgavatam for everybody in the world. How we have to water the root. If we understand this verse... if the world leaders understood this verse the whole world would be at peace, no more wars, there would be no more divisions among mankind, there would be peace and prosperity for all. Why isn’t it happening? Why are there wars? Why are there all this difficulties? Because people haven’t understood this verse. This one verse is the key to world peace. Key to personal perfection, otherwise the other verses are also similarly potent, but this is certainly one of them, and it is the root of everything. If we understand that this example is there of the tree, there is so many trees here, we are in the forest, so we have plenty of trees to show. If you water in the root of the tree, the tree gets the nourishment. Give water to all the trees but nothing went to the root, the tree will dry up. It is absolutely essential that... that everything goes, that water goes to the root. What example given is the devas are actually the leaves and branches of the tree, and that by putting water in the root the leaves and branches get the nourishment, but... so there is no need of independently worshipping the demigods. They might... they might go quite happy when they will be, when Kṛṣṇa is worshipped. They get the benefit automatically and that was explained a few days ago by the previous Bhāgavatam speaker how when you do the worship of the devas, you have to have the Śrīpāda or the yajñapati, who is Viṣṇu. In Bengal for instance, the worshipper of the demigoddess of Durgā or Kālī is very popular. You might be sur... I mean I went to see what is going on because that is my area and in the two most famous temples there is Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa Deities with the... next to the Kālī Deities, and they offer the bhoga to Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa and they offer the prasādam to Kālī. Every day they take Rādhā Kṛṣṇa prasāda and offer to Kālī. Actually, Rādhā and kṛṣṇa-prasāda Kālī eats, and other things she doesn’t eat. And that... the devotees are offering so many things to her, even meat, but she doesn’t accept it. She accepts the Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa prasādam. It’s interesting. Even the original people who made this temple, they knew that they had to worship Kṛṣṇa in the primary position, but the ordinary people they do not understand that, and they think there are many gods, and that’s why people get the wrong idea about what’s the Vedic religion is, but in the Vedas it is clearly said that there is one absolute truth. The absolute truth is Kṛṣṇa, known as Kṛṣṇa, he is the root of everything. This verse explains it. Says all the countries in the world knew that God is the proprietor of everything, doesn’t belong to their country. Nobody has the right to destroy the ecology, to destroy the world saying that it is their property. Everything is the property of Kṛṣṇa. So in that way people has the vision that we can simply work for the common interest.

bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ
sarva-loka-maheśvaram
suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati
(Bg 5.29)

Prabhupāda called this is the peace formula verse. So that also embodies a similar point that everyone understands that Kṛṣṇa is the proprietor and He is the well-wisher, friend, then you can have peace. All the fighting is because some people think this is mine, not yours, mine. No it’s mine... no mine.... I will kill you... ch...ch... What they are fighting for? It is out of ignorance, it’s neither of theirs’, it is Kṛṣṇa’s. And if everybody understood that it is God’s, there will be no more fighting, how we can serve Gods property, use Gods property properly. So in India this is a very big thing, I don’t know if it is here in Russia, this worship of different God’s. If you also Russian you also 12.14 There is a interesting story about one… of course hear people that they worship Lenon and Stalin and many other minor Gods. According to Bhagavad-Gītā, says that if you worship the demigods actually they are in the mode of goodness. Those who worship some famous or powerful man they are in the mode of passion. Those who worship the ghosts and the spirits. I heard that there is a lot of ghost worship also going on here in ...CIS, so all this worship or other things... other than Kṛṣṇa is all putting water in the leaves and branches. Now what this all means is that we have a lot of preaching to do. To establish this consciousness in the mind of people that they have to do everything as a offering to please Kṛṣṇa, maybe very.... for devotee of Kṛṣṇa to understand, it is very difficult for someone in total ignorance to understand, see... and even the modern religions, they somehow, every religion is thinking that their like this... different Gods, like the God worship by the Catholics, different from the God worship by the orthodox, different from the God worship of the muslim or something. According to Bhagavad-Gītā there is only one God, so there may be so many different ways of worshipping God. Some may be proper way, some may be partially proper, but there is only one God- one supreme Lord and He is known by many names. Some just call Him the Lord, God... or some maybe have so many other names. In the Vedas we have unlimited names for God, of which Kṛṣṇa is ah... prominent. We use Kṛṣṇa most frequently to refer to the same Lord, ah...and yesterday Kṛṣṇa-loka radio somebody phoned up and asked about this point. So actually, you see you just call... just like you can call Mr. Yelson as Mr. Yelson or he has a personal first name. Someone can just say, his Excellency, the President. So if say someone the President the President, they may know who you are talking about. But it is more personal if you know their name, and some names may be more really personal, really confidential name, just like there may be an old friend of his from school days. You know his nickname means you know some little nickname, and he calls out that nickname to him. Immediately he stops. Only my close friend know me by that name. Oh, my friend, Kṛṣṇa is such a name, only the devotees call by this name Kṛṣṇa. Many are saying God, you know it is like the title, like you put infront of the office, Director, Manager, Executive. God means controller. So when you say God, many people might think I am also God. You say supreme God, alright then Viṣṇu knows it’s for me. So the personal name of the Lord is most important. It brings directly in touch, the hotline to Kṛṣṇa, cuts through all the other layers. It’s just like we are concerned about this new law here in Russia, you could have a special number to call directly to the President, right, he will be very happy to get back to you. We do have a direct number for Lord Kṛṣṇa and Caitanya. jaya śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda,

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

And you don’t actually need a cellular phone when you are playing this. You can chant directly and directly be linked up, and we are reading here today in a verse how by chanting the holy name of Kṛṣṇa, it is the personified nectar of Kṛṣṇa, and Rupa Goswami explains in his six verse of the Kṛṣṇa nāmāṣṭakaṁ, that the Lord appears in two forms, he appears in his visible form as the supreme personality of Godhead where he is performing so many pastimes, and He appears as the Lord in sound, as different descriptions of the Lord’s pastime, as the holy name. Both of these forms are non-different, both transcendental forms of the Lord, one is the visible moving form of the Supreme Personlity of Godhead, and one is the form in sound just carrying that... that nectar of the form. So Rupa Gosvami says, I consider of the two forms, one the more merciful that the other, you know which one that is? Harinam, because in the śāstras it is said that if you commit an offense while worshipping the deity form, how do you get forgiven? You chant the holy name of the Lord, Govinda! Hari! Kṛṣṇa! By chanting the name of the Lord you get forgiven for your offense. So therefore I consider that the holy name is more merciful that the deity, otherwise why would the śāstras say like that. So we should take the shelter of the holy name. You are given the holy name by the mercy of Guru and Gaurāṇga. It is a priceless jewel. It is a priceless jewel and you should guard it very carefully. Never allow it to be taken away from you. Actually nobody can steal the Harināma from us, although people can trick you to stop chanting, Māyā can bewilder you not to chant, in other words you can somehow stop chanting and you would make Kali very happy. Those of you want to make Kali happy, then don’t chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. You will make Kali so happy, He will give you all kinds of rewards, extended periods of time in the material, all kinds of tāmasika things to do, he will make one of his agents if he want to be, all you have to do is don’t chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. So how many of you would like to help Kali, but Prabhupāda said that on the other hand if you chant the holy, we pick this mood of devotional service, pure devotion for Kṛṣṇa in our heart, you will make Kali sick, He will become just like ah.. uh...just nauseous, sick and disgusted with you. He will consider you a useless and worthless thing, and he will run away from you dah... spitting, horrible, horrible, and even if the whole world is filled with such people who are devotees of Kṛṣṇa, Kali will become very deathly sick and just run away in disgust, “ah... this is a useless world, I will come back later.” So generally we want everyone to be happy, right?, but there is one person the devotees are happy to see sad, that is the personality of Kali. Prabhupāda in his Vaiśiṣṭyāṣṭakam... it is very tough to pronounce... he gave this beautiful verse and he said that if we get pure bhakti in everyone’s heart Kali would just run away. When Prabhupāda was watching the Age of Kali play and he saw Kali sick hearing the holy name, Prabhupāda became very happy like a child, he was slapping his leg, you know, “louder, more, more.” Because this one Kali is causing so much suffering to everyone, say it’s like when you see him unhappy it’s like, “Oh! This is very good, now everyone will be Kṛṣṇa conscious.” So how many would like to see Kali driven away. Gaurāṇga! Gaurāṇga! Gaurāṇga! So we should understand how dear Prabhupāda is to Lord Gaurāṇga, and how Kali considers Prabhupāda as his number one enemy. Kali would try do anything to get people to leave Prabhupāda's lotus feet. He will put lesser gurus in the market, say, “I am the real follower of Prabhupāda, don’t follow Prabhupāda’s disciples.” They will say how much they love Prabhupāda, but Prabhupāda said those who love me will be staying in my ISKCON society and working, they are the ones who love me, most of all. And then Kali would give so many things, just to lead people away from Prabhupāda. We should... they may be many wonderful people in the world, but we should know that Kṛṣṇa has given a special position to Śrīla Prabhupāda, because Prabhupāda has brought this Kṛṣṇa consciousness to the whole world. He has embodied the teachings of the six gosvāmīs and the six ācāryas and the Kṛṣṇa conscious principles. So just in this 28.20 of the verse today we should water the root. So we know that here Prabhupāda is so dear to Kṛṣṇa, if we are taking his shelter we are pleasing Kṛṣṇa. So we should take the shelter of Prabhupāda, we should serve Prabhupāda, never leave his shelter. And we know that Śrīla Prabhupāda is very pleased when ah... his ah... representatives are being assisted. Where we can take shelter of Śrīla Prabhupāda is by reading his books and following his teachings and assisting and serving his representatives. So stay fixed up in the lotus feet of Prabhuapada, this way you will definitely make Kali unhappy, which brings to us the point of how dear Kṛṣṇa is rather to Prabhupāda and how dear Prabhupāda is to Kṛṣṇa, and then Prabhupāda used to tell this to his disciples that all of his disciples were his guru. “My guru ordered me to spread the Kṛṣṇa conscious movement all over the world, however I am crippled and I cannot do it by myself, so he has sent all of you to help me. You are the representatives of my guru" and therefore like a... Prabhupāda was... we are sitting there, what is Prabhupāda talking about, this is like so...so completely inconceivable, Prabhupāda is saying. So how many of you want to have Śrīla Prabhupāda give Kṛṣṇa prema, love of Kṛṣṇa Śrīla Prabhupāda ki, Śrīla Prabhupāda ki, Śrīla Prabhupāda ki So I was getting realizations this year, I think after Gaura Pūrṇimā, thinking about all how Prabhupāda saw all the devotees, such a transcendental way, and I was feeling that maybe sometimes we take the devotees for granted. We don’t consider how dear they are to Prabhupāda and Kṛṣṇa. Prabhupāda used to tell me that the grandfather of guru is more merciful to his grandchildren. Say that the guru is a spiritual father and father always chastises the children, but the grandfather gives cookies, candies and very nice. So actually we should pray as disciple I could pray to Bhaktisiddhānta Saraswatī Ṭhākur to bless Śrīla Prabhupāda, and how the granddisciples they can pray to Prabhuapada, blessing to serve their gurus, Prabhupāda’s children. That how the grandchildren of Śrīla Prabhupāda, they are so dear to Śrīla Prabhupāda, and how Prabhupāda wanted to spread this Kṛṣṇa conscious movement to every town and village of the rest of the world that he didn’t get complete. And he sent us all this devotees to do this, but somehow we had to really appreciate that how important all the devotees are, and I was feeling like that how Kṛṣṇa is sending his devotees and all the leaders to understand what a big responsibility it is. Just as Prabhupāda was so concerned about all of his disciples. All the devotees in the Kṛṣṇa conscious movement, that as whoever the leaders are in this movement, they had to see, not only own disciples but to see all the devotees as so important to Śrīla Prabhupāda. Then there is also a collective responsibility we all have. Just as Prabhupāda he felt for all the devotees, initiated, unitiated whoever they might be. So part of this is... we want to see everyone find the proper guru representing Prabhupāda, you see, that’s why people come up and say, “I don’t know whether to take this guru or that guru, can you give me some advice, I am very happy to try, they are both very wonderful ah... Vaiṣṇavas, meditating this way and pray to Kṛṣṇa and try to decide. In this way we see that we have a family of Kṛṣṇa conscious family ah... ah... here in this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, and there are so many uncles and there is a spiritual father, and there is a grandfather, and there is a whole big family. And if we treat each other as his family, if we treat each other in a spiritual family, in a loving way and trying to help everyone, then the whole mood becomes very nectarian. That was the mood which we see in Caitanya-Caritāmṛta at the time of Lord Caitanya. So we are discussing in conclusion, we were discussing here in the beginning of the class about different strategies for preaching. In the history of Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura there is a interesting example. See, Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura was initiated by Lokanātha Dāsa Gosvāmī, and his śikṣā-guru was Jīva Gosvāmī. Śrīnivāsa Ācārya was initiated by Gopāla Dāsa Gosvāmī. His śikṣā-guru was also Jīva Gosvāmī and Śrīnivāsa Ācārya’s disciple was Rāmacandra Kavirāja. So although, and Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura, he respected Śrīnivāsa Ācārya also, like a śikṣā-guru, and he was a constant associate with Rāmacandra Kavirāja. So here this two Vaiṣṇavas had different gurus, all one family at the time of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, nobody thought, “You have a different guru than I do, you are not my godbrother.” They were so close, they were natural family. So the two of them will go everyday to the Padma river when they are staying in their āśrama in Kheturi gram, in Bengal, Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura and Rāmachandra Kavirāja, and as they were walking one day they saw two nice brahmin boys with many servants taking many buffoloes and goats, to...obviously it was near Kālī Puja, they are going to offer them to the goddess. What a...two nice... there is...this will be very nice Kṛṣṇa bhaktas, why they are wasting their lives doing this demigod worship? Let’s go preach to them. They won’t listen to us, look at them, they are obviously worshippers of ah... demigods, they are not going to listen to us if we just go and preach to them, they are Vaiṣṇavas. So they made a plan, and one started to talk to the other, taking the role of a demigod worshipper and the other was taking a Vaiṣṇava role. Why don’t you worship Kṛṣṇa instead of worshipping Kālī? No the scriptures say it is all one, what is the problem? No the scriptures say that Kṛṣṇa is the supreme powerful and Kālī is His energy. Well, we know that we can offer this goats and buffaloes to Kālī and eat the prasāda and we don’t get any karma, we like meat, so why not offer you know, and we can eat it. No that is the pravṛtti-mārga, that is a lower path, that’s not prasāda as such. Because Kali doesn’t eat that food. She eats only what her husband eats and her husband eats Kṛṣṇa prasāda. She loves vegetarian. Then who eats that meat that we are offering to Kali? Oh! She gives it to the ghosts and other half-goblins and things that are around her. Oh... You mean I am eating ghost remnants? Well, you said it. So like this they are walking four, five meters behind the two boys having a huge debate, one taking their point of view and the other taking the Vaiṣṇava point of view. That boys are getting...they cant avoid listening to...but they are hearing the whole thing. They got convinced. This is ridiculous what we are doing, we should be worshipping Kṛṣṇa. They came back and offered their obeisances and there was introduction, “this is who are you and so on.” So they...they decided to join the āśrama and become a bhakta program of... they gave... they set free all the goats and buffaloes. Bhakta program, Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura and Rāmacandra Kavirāja, you see, this is a real guru, right under the guru, you see, you don’t have so much... such bhakta program with directly the guru teaching so much. So this two, they for six months or years, they were in the bhakta program, they got really fixed up, they were completely convinced, and then they decided you know, finally they took initiation, they decided we want to take initiation, we want to follow this the whole life, and then they didn’t know who to take from, because both the gurus were wonderful, both were giving them instruction, it was why this one over that one? Ah... any of the grand disciples or new devotees here ever had this problem trying to decide who should be their guru? Anyone had ever had that problem or having it. Many people come to me. So this is not something new, this was also there 500 years there, but these two brothers they made an interesting plan. One brother took from Narottama and the other brother took from Rāmacandra Kavirāja with idea that whoever took dīkṣā from one would accept the other one as the śikṣā-guru. And so they served their dīkṣā and śikṣā-guru so perfectly, that nobody could tell who was initiated by who and who was śikṣā-guru of who, disciple of who. So reading this histories of our sampradāya, I also realised that within ISKCON there is an important role of a śikṣā-guru, that in the time of Lord Caitanya, Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja, he said that he had one dīkṣā-guru and six śikṣā-gurus...six....Kṛṣṇa das Kaviraj. You know who his six siksha gurus were? vande rūpa-sanātanau raghu-yugau śrī-jīva-gopālakau, the six gosvāmīs. So like that we see that in ISKCON under maybe so many dīkṣā-gurus, that people... there are many śikṣā-gurus also. Just like Baidyanath, he is acting like my śikṣā-guru now. (Applause) He wants to tell me about something but I can speak for another three minutes. (laughter) That... this is something I feel is very very important, and I would like to request all organizers in the future years that it is totally ridiculous to have 45 minutes for class, specially because it is translated. How many devotees here want longer class time? Revolution. One hour has to be given (laughter) you see. So I think because specially like in a country like...like our countries like the CIA, where the people are spread out, they don’t see their gurus so frequently, I know there are people want to take, some people want to take me as a initiating guru, but I will be very much dependent on people like Niranjana Mahārāja and Prabha Viṣṇu Mahārāja and Gopāla Kṛṣṇa Maharaj and many others to give these devotees the śikṣā. And similarly there may be devotees, that for one reason or the other have faith in another guru then their... then their diksha guru, then they may also want to accept that person as dīkṣā guru, and this is kind of a way to make our family more integrated. So I don’t have time to... permitted to speak on all this topics, then I will be very happy when I give a seminar this 12’ O’ clock today, but it is something that I feel is more important and I talked with various gurus and they also entered the GBC, and they also see it as something very important for ISKCON that we haven’t fully utilized it yet. So I thought just to share a few of this things with you and ah... with this words I will conclude, Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotees: Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja kī jaya.