20010730 Bhagavad-gītā 10.9

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on July 30th, 2001, in New Pāṇihāti Dhāma in Atlanta Georgia USA. The class begins with the reading from the Bhagavad-gītā 10th Chapter Verse 9.

nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine 

namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe 

namo mahā-vadānyāya kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāya te
kṛṣṇāya kṛṣṇa-caitanya- nāmne gaura-tviṣe namaḥ 

he kṛṣṇa karuṇā-sindho dīna-bandho jagat-pate
gopeśa gopikā-kānta rādhā-kānta namo ‘stu te 

tapta-kāñcana-gaurāṅgi rādhe vṛndāvaneśvari
vṛṣabhānu-sute devi praṇamāmi hari-priye 

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

Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya!
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya!
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya!

nārāyaṇaṁ namaskṛtya naraṁ caiva narottamam
devīṁ sarasvatīṁ vyāsaṁ tato jayam udīrayet 

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande paramānanda-mādhavam
śrī caitanya īśvaraṁ   

mac-cittā mad-gata-prāṇā
bodhayantaḥ parasparam
kathayantaś ca māṁ nityaṁ
tuṣyanti ca ramanti ca

Translation: The thoughts of My pure devotees’ dwell in Me, their lives are fully devoted to My service, and they derive great satisfaction and bliss from always enlightening one another and conversing about Me. (devotees repeating with Guru Mahārāja)

Purport: Pure devotees, whose characteristics are mentioned here, engage themselves fully in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. Their minds cannot be diverted from the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. Their talks are solely on the transcendental subjects. The symptoms of the pure devotees are described in this verse specifically. Devotees of the Supreme Lord are twenty-four hours daily engaged in glorifying the qualities and pastimes of the Supreme Lord. Their hearts and souls are constantly submerged in Kṛṣṇa, and they take pleasure in discussing Him with other devotees.

In the preliminary stage of devotional service, they relish the transcendental pleasure from the service itself, and in the mature stage they are actually situated in love of God. Once situated in that transcendental position, they can relish the highest perfection which is exhibited by the Lord in His abode. Lord Caitanya likens transcendental devotional service to the sowing of a seed in the heart of the living entity. There are innumerable living entities traveling throughout the different planets of the universe, and out of them there are a few who are fortunate enough to meet a pure devotee and get the chance to understand devotional service. This devotional service is just like a seed, and if it is sown in the heart of a living entity, and if he goes on hearing and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, that seed fructifies, just as the seed of a tree fructifies with regular watering. The spiritual plant of devotional service gradually grows and grows until it penetrates the covering of the material universe and enters into the brahma-jyotir effulgence in the spiritual sky. In the spiritual sky also that plant grows more and more until it reaches the highest planet, which is called Goloka Vṛndāvana, the supreme planet of Kṛṣṇa. Ultimately, the plant takes shelter under the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa and rests there. Gradually, as a plant grows fruits and flowers, that plant of devotional service also produces fruits, and the watering process in the form of chanting and hearing goes on. This plant of devotional service is fully described in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Madhya-līlā, Chapter Nineteen). It is explained there that when the complete plant takes shelter under the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord, one becomes fully absorbed in love of God; then he cannot live even for a moment without being in contact with the Supreme Lord, just as a fish cannot live without water. In such a state, the devotee actually attains the transcendental qualities in contact with the Supreme Lord.

The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is also full of such narrations about the relationship between the Supreme Lord and His devotees; therefore the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is very dear to the devotees, as stated in the Bhāgavatam itself (12.13.18). Śrīmad-bhāgavataṁ purāṇam amalaṁ yad vaiṣṇavānāṁ priyam. In this narration there is nothing about material activities, economic development, sense gratification or liberation. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the only narration in which the transcendental nature of the Supreme Lord and His devotees is fully described. Thus the realized souls in Kṛṣṇa consciousness take continual pleasure in hearing such transcendental literatures, just as a young boy and girl take pleasure in association.

Thus, end the Bhaktivedanta Translation and purport to the Bhagavad-gītā chapter 10 text 9 - On the matter of The opulence of the absolute. Hari Om Tat Sat.

Jayapatākā Swami: First I just arrived tonight from India with one day STOP in Birmingham for the Ratha-Yātrā, first Ratha-Yātrā in Birmingham England they had almost 10,000 people taking prasāda in the town center and nice stage program and the council general of India visited the mayor and the mayoress gave a inaugural speech and representatives of the interfaith community buddhist, not clear Māyāvādi and so many else were there not clear. I will stop here, this verse has got so much information. Prabhupāda has explained how a devotee are engaging themselves fully in transcendental loving service of the supreme Lord. The living entities by nature is always serving someone our nature is to be a servant just like a mother serves the children, husband serves the family even the governor serves the state, and the president serves the country even if you have no big position-leadership or responsibility yet you have to serve people dependent upon you what to speak of others, so  our nature to be serving ultimate service is only when you can serve  the supreme Lord himself, we call the supreme Lord by his spiritual name Kṛṣṇa, Krish means attractive all attractive reservoir of all transcendental happiness so we have gathered together in the temple to taste the nectar drop of this transcendental happiness, today in the temple we are celebrating birthday in the temple of Jhūlana-yātrā 5 day festival of the year starting in the eleventh day of the moon cycle going into the 15 th day of the waning moon, waxing moon,  And following is the Balarāma Pūrṇimā which is on the 3rd or 4th, 3rd, sure? 

So this verse is describing about the devotees whose life is fully devoted to Kṛṣṇa’s service, we perform this Jhūlana, the same festival this is to remind us of Kṛṣṇa when he was in his childhood a child in Vṛndāvana he was having his childhood pastimes one of which was to swing together with Rādhā in the not clear of Vraja,  so we get to participate in that aspect we associate with devotees and they facilitates us to remember Kṛṣṇa to remember his pastimes not only that but to perform a personal service the deities are a kind of incarnation of God they are called the arca-avatāra, arca-vigraha they are a manifestation of Kṛṣṇa in a visible form so that we can do just like together we  serve the Lord. Generally, the pujārīs.  Who is the pujārī here? Not clear He is the fortunate one getting all the service personally dressing the deities personally putting them to sleep, waking them up offering them food and many other types of deity service.

I was recently in the Śrī Raṅgaṁ for the temple opening I saw three openings any way not clear Abhiṣeka of the Kumbha Abhiṣeka, here is we have a many different festivals for the deities, every night a priest comes out with an instrument something like a sitar I don’t know exactly they have so many different names Sitar or  sarangi, I don’t know, I don’t think it is a sitar it looks like the same kind of they look, some other not clear,  And they play as they took the deity into the bed out of the altar, he played music like a lullaby to the deities through a bhajan. Soon in the morning i saw before mangal arati one lady who doesn’t have to be a pujārī comes and puts a little design colored (rice flour) not clear  or the rangoli in front of the altar so like this so many little different services throughout the pray area devotees perform for the deities like cooking, cleaning and of course in outreach programs bringing devotees to the temple we should really appreciate.

The idea is when we engage in Kṛṣṇa’s service, we get bliss because it is our nature to serve Kṛṣṇa, we are a part of Kṛṣṇa so it helps the hand to serve the whole body and that soul serves Kṛṣṇa because he is part of Kṛṣṇa who is the not clear whole of universal. So, we go on serving the Lord someone will think there is no end in sight just serving and serving, well there is no end since service is eternal like an eternal religion no beginning and no end so we go on serving Kṛṣṇa eternally then we feel very blissful at the same time there are changes that happen like Prabhupāda explained here in the beginning we get the bliss from the devotional service but in the end the happiness comes from the relationship with Kṛṣṇa but when one is integrated into Kṛṣṇa’s eternal pastimes in the spiritual world then they are happy in form with their relationship its like the cowherd boys being happy that he is a friend of Kṛṣṇa he is thinking about how to share his lunch with Kṛṣṇa other kind of chapati and simple kind not clear but that relationship is more naturally satisfying the devotee we can be identified we are in the material existence and other things it is almost like a dream they remember it in the back of the minds in the dream actively they are engaging in Kṛṣṇa’s service.

In a spiritual in a particular relationship, relationship is what, That is one-point Prabhupāda narrates  while we are serving chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare we are actually doing is watering our devotional creeper, people water on the spiritual creeper than it becomes green and so when we water our spiritual creeper by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa it grows and grows and grows Prabhupāda uses an analogy here that just like a creeper on a tree keeps growing it is something like a fable in America Jack and beanstalk some one plants a beanstalk the roots grows out to the outer space here the spiritual creeper keeps on growing and growing maybe a person who is watering can’t see how high it is going, where it is going but they are giving the benefit keep watering and keep growing and breakthrough all the material bondage goes to the spiritual world where there it takes shelter of the lotus feet of Guru and Kṛṣṇa. So, when the people take shelter of Rādhā Madhava in the spiritual world that time flowers and fruits come out on the creeper what are these flowers? No, Celine, Stephine, Preliminary stage of prema-bhāva…. bhāva before the prema comes bhāva, before the fruits comes the flowers, the flowers are ecstatic love of Kṛṣṇa. Once one is in the ecstatic love of Kṛṣṇa there are 8 different ecstasies that are manifested in their bodies do you remember what they are standing of hair on the body, perspiring, (a devotee is answering to Gurumaharaj) what did you say choking of the voice yes getting choked up aah ah (Guru Mahārāja is demonstrating), fear trembling in the body ya but that is not one of the eight… sometimes intimate vision sometimes many devotees only it happens in the material life what happens in ecstasy the intimate devotional and then it is super special you cannot this cannot compare that type of happiness with any kind of, other happiness is like chaos, so to get that kind of ecstasy remaining like in the beginning of the movement Prabupada sometimes will tell the young people to stay high forever they all depend on artificial things some would be on drugs, intoxication to be  high to be out graded in there consciousness where they chant the holy names of Kṛṣṇa.

 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

So we water the plant and the plant grow, flowers are coming out then comes the fruit not clear.  Kṛṣṇa-prema is truly out of this world cannot even begin to understand the depth of ecstasy feels of Kṛṣṇa-prema so that is so much about this, but there also eight levels of Kṛṣṇa-prema just like the eight levels coming upto bhāva, there is eight levels of kṛṣṇa-prema and Rādhārāṇī experiences the top most love so did Mādhavendra Puri so did Lord Caitanya also most of us wants to reach that level but it is not reachable but bhāva and prema they are fully transcendental any other level one wants to get to different level. When one is experiencing symptoms of ecstasy in bhāva the mind can’t understand what is happening it is beyond the mental platform the mind can understand when you drink something how it taste, you feel something how it feels it is aware of the physical pains and pleasure it can see the source of that for them this bhāva chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa or doing some devotional service they are  overwhelmed with ecstasy and the mind feels what is going on but since it is not coming from the sense contact it didn’t get not clear .So, the mind gets little bewildered what’s going on why is the person feeling so much ecstasy in happiness it is totally beyond, it transcends the mind, the intelligence can understand that this is ecstasy this is coming and not coming from the mental platform.

So, we have to be expert gardeners to get the seed of devotion by the mercy of Guru and Kṛṣṇa to plant the seed in our heart and begin to sing and dance and chant and to become and stronger and bigger, till the creeper grows and grows goes to reach beloved  lord  Rādhā-Mādhava sprouts the fruits flowers and we can feel transcendental ecstasy to maintain that ecstasy we have to maintain a constant activity of devotional service, not clear so somebody once he gets the taste of this love of Kṛṣṇa there is so much addicted to that, so much attached to that, they can’t live without it, just like a fish can’t live without water than it is naturally the devotee always wants to serve Kṛṣṇa first under the guidance of the bona fide spiritual master and it doesn’t means that they have to give up the normal activities but then Kṛṣṇa direct their activities just like the food they eat they offer their food to Kṛṣṇa there are so many chores in our life in our day in the week so those different chores are done, long pause pujārī is giving all mercy in the end by worshipping the deities, we can’t worship the deities in the deity room but of course we can worship from outside you can also worship by preaching like doing harināma, by distributing books, by somehow, we can get the mercy of Kṛṣṇa. (Pause) So, who wants to reach a stage that we get so much attachment to Kṛṣṇa that spontaneously one has to serve, Caitanya Mahāprabhu he was just struck with his intimate associate in the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa in a place called Gambhīra in Jagannātha Purī, how many have you visited Gambhīra? Only one nobody else … he visited being humble, Gambhīra, who has visited Gambhīra you have visited. It is a place where Lord Caitanya would sit with his associates and hear the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa it is very special place. It a very small room smaller than the of not clear just a little room Lord Caitanya would stay inside that little room and then sometimes meet disciples and his associates and he would discuss. (Long pause) So, there Lord Caitanya was personally practicing this system of talking about Kṛṣṇa and many pastimes happened like that of Gambhīra, one of his God brothers Govinda Dāsa was trying for Lord Caitanya to help sometimes Lord Caitanya he would go in so much ecstasy that in the night he decided to run out of the room and hurt himself, so like that he would sleep in front of the door sometimes Lord Caitanya he would get so much ecstasy that he would jump over and go out. One time after lunch Lord Caitanya was very tired from the morning of kīrtanas of chanting and dancing he does not clear. We should watch out for Lord Caitanya’s wellbeing so one day we should massage the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya after kīrtana so. One day Lord Caitanya was so tired he was lying down in the room he laid in such a way that the rectangular room that his body blocked the door way there people on the other side Govinda Dāsa not clear and then Govinda Dāsa not clear requested Lord Caitanya to please move over so that I could come in and massage your lotus feet and Lord Caitanya he said looked at him, (pause)  I am too tired to move if you want you can step over me so then Govinda Dāsa thought it is offensive to step over my Guru although he said to step over. So Govinda Dāsa did not know what to do he was thinking of the situation did not know what to do he crossed over and stepped over his body and then he began massaging his body too, than after sometime Lord Caitanya woke up he saw Govinda Dāsa sitting in the room and asked him "What are you doing in the room?" He replied, "I came to give you a massage." "How did you get in?" Govida Dāsa replied "Well, I stepped over you. I crossed over your body stepping over I came in." "So why didn’t you go out and have your meal?" Govinda Dāsa explained, "For serving You I stepped over You. By stepping over you and serving you if I am going to hell, I will go to hell. But if it is for my lust that I step over you, for my own sense gratification, it is not worth it. I am not going to do this offense." So many things like that happened in Gambhīra. Mainly he was talking about Kṛṣṇa. They will be crying, singing so just like we are accepting Lord Kṛṣṇa. They like to hear about Kṛṣṇa they like to hear about his pastimes which is like regular purification it is like bathing, but that happens, At neophyte stage we have something to do we just have to go not clear we have to just watering the creeper.

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare.

Any questions?

The beginning anything that is new also it is done very enthusiastically then, they are so enthusiastic they are fully facilitates that after sometime people do something in the material world than get bored from that and want to do something else so it is a stage like that in the beginning the mind will be doing not clear without giving any obstacle something new let’s try it out so after sometime the mind get restless to do something else but hopefully in this period intelligence than educated now by studying those literatures by going for classes by getting association to wait a minute this is what I wanted to do so than it is like a crisis for the mind and intelligence playing and that is a very important step in our spiritual life usually don’t know about it until the third month that may be upto the individual some people may not know what to do with it, in this way not clear Small profound subject that maybe be a partial fact that after one gets over at not clear. Then the mind is forced to surrender may not have initially the same enthusiasm since it is new some people compare it that with when you are running your first run you are running very fast you lose your breath keep running you get a second breath and goes along a period even though you are running fast so that is one factor other factor is that in the beginning one hasn’t done offenses as yet as you go on doing devotional service you start to make offenses to other devotees, to the deity. As you rack up offenses that impedes your experience of ecstasy so that’s why it is very important you don’t do offenses to the devotees I should not be here hopefully I don’t commit any offense.

Actually if we are chanting offenselessly will get Kṛṣṇa-prema, so the offenses are other things that impede our ecstasy. Other desires. We don’t get the same kind of enthusiasm but if somebody that is why one experiences some ecstasy sometimes, they don’t get the special mercy, somebody who is doing wonderful service big festival doing a paint or art total bliss & ecstasy someone says it is wonderful than they get proud that is very offense. I am in ecstasy.

Devotees: *laughing loudly. *

Guru Mahārāja : Then we start getting offensive we forget that, In material life whatever we get happiness by sense gratification by trying to enjoy something. Sometimes what happens when you start to enjoy devotional service then we approach this with tinge of sense gratification we want to enjoy the devotional service, so we got the ecstasy we wanted to please Kṛṣṇa, we are trying to please Guru and Kṛṣṇa so much then we got ecstasy than we get attached to ecstasy than we want ecstasy we are focusing on that and you don’t get it, you are in ecstasy when you are in devotional service serving Kṛṣṇa it is the reciprocation for your love for Kṛṣṇa which is expressed in your service and Kṛṣṇa reciprocates he is happy with your service and you are overwhelmed with that so you have to always have the mind power to work sometimes even people may be the devotees they get into not clear this is their attitude they lost the track and it not clear. Distraction we have been in the material world for so many millions of births it is very easy to get into any distraction that’s why we are supposed to every day read the Bhāgavatam hear the Bhāgavatam, chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, do our devotional service because it is very easy to slip. Try to do things which build up your enthusiasm someone likes to explain in the class just like in order to fly you have to get the certain speed sometimes you get if get below that speed the plane gets below the speed.

Somethings I can tell you, probably, one of my disciples was an engineer for a commercial airline he was for jumbo jets 747’s now they have new fly by air system you don’t need an engineer they used to have a pilot, co-pilot is the engineer not clear navigator not clear  so he told one time they were coming for landing at Heathrow in London all of a sudden an air pocket you always have to be at 160 miles speed minimum if you go below that then that is the aerodynamics then it falls and they got down to 159 or something the wing started to shake it’s a symptoms that there are 4 seconds before you crash and at that moment he put the throttle down at full speed somehow the pilot was facing it out like what time it spaced out the throttle at full speed miles it started stalling, so sometimes in our devotional service we get into a stalling situation just not engaging in devotional service and if you get into something not clear festival here they help in preparing or do something just having a  lot of devotional Services not clear, sometimes it is Janmāṣṭamī festival, the festivals are a good time to get a kind of boost it has the mercy lot of extra flying in, different things could be impetus for our enthusiasm in devotional service trying to reach out and get some of the mercy than once you are flying and then you try to stay up there not clear flying no problem if you crash you can speed up again its harder for taking off it requires more energy, initially so the festival sometimes it’s kind of speed up these festivals.

I had another disciple who was marketing and while he was marketing he found it very difficult to preach to executives and to the other work colleagues not clear  but he would use some of his income for Kṛṣṇa conscious purpose and use his experience in marketing for helping to market Kṛṣṇa conscious to congregational preaching program festivals at one point when he was between one point he got not clear  for one year back now,  Very good money from the company, so then he became a temple president in one place he was separated from his family not clear he could call them, the went into the Amway I think for a while like this but then he got another opportunity to manage a temple so now he delegated the temple for bhakti-vṛkṣa, a kind of spiritual delegation to various groups of people and so he was dedicated to make the temple a bhakti-vṛkṣa point temple. Then he had 2 years now,  then he has 20 groups now, 10 to 15 people per group , so then that is a he got many people who were working outside they can preach to not clear like in middle east lot of people working there and preaching to their colleagues like through their home get interested people and have a house program form small groups of interested people and so have regular discussion in the groups of spiritual life and recommendations and sometimes they do an outreach in different places with school in other groups not clear one can carry some appropriate literature with them not clear we did a brainstorming session once in Los Angeles so many places are there where we could talk about Kṛṣṇa and preach and we came up with 120 not clear  in North America championship 10 people sitting watching their laundry spin around  and watching it not clear another Devotees laughing, place like a video shop not clear  then chant Hare Kṛṣṇa,  so we are trying to empower our additional members so that they can also take a leadership role so it is possible to have other and facilitate younger not clear help them to stabilize their spiritual life how much time do we have now time for studying and understanding philosophy can be purified by chanting and preaching responsibility,  we should have to conviction to stick with the process to get the result voluntarily everybody suffers not clear voluntarily accepting not clear  for the sake of spiritual upliftment , spiritual service, but voluntary tolerating suffering for spiritual purpose, not just like when we do something for Kṛṣṇa of course we have to endure just like I mentioned just like in Bangladesh there are 20% people are basically devotees of Kṛṣṇa 80 percent are devotees of Allah so we have Muslim majority liberal and not clear and not so tolerant so its like a prosecution to be in a minority group so in India the Hindus are a majority so they take it for granted they don’t have to suffer any kind of inconvenience to be a Hindu or a devotee of Kṛṣṇa where as in Bangladesh if they convert to Muslim they get a job easier so just to tolerate or maintaining their own condition not clear  they have much more enthusiasm then their counterpart their Bengalis in the west Bengal, Muslims You just go to one place then you can see a tremendous difference of enthusiasm not clear  they are always making sacrifices not clear sometimes you stand out make a statement be on the roads and make a statement sometimes you face some kind of prosecution and discriminations you get an opportunity to distribute not clear and we have in Bangladesh we have many Muslims who come for our program and like our programs they also chant hare Kṛṣṇa not clear we have to be careful

Hare Kṛṣṇa!

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