20030606 Ratha-yātrā and Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 1.1.15

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja in ISKCON Bergamo, Villaggio Hare Kṛṣṇa Temple, Italy. The lecture begins with a reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.1.15.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.1.15

yat-pāda-saṁśrayāḥ sūta
munayaḥ praśamāyanāḥ
sadyaḥ punanty upaspṛṣṭāḥ
svardhuny-āpo 'nusevayā

Translation: O Sūta, those great sages who have completely taken shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord can at once sanctify those who come in touch with them, whereas the waters of the Ganges can sanctify only after prolonged use.

Purport by Śrīla Prabhupāda: Pure devotees of the Lord are more powerful than the waters of the sacred river Ganges. One can derive spiritual benefit out of prolonged use of the Ganges waters. But one can be sanctified at once by the mercy of a pure devotee of the Lord. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that any person, regardless of birth as śūdra, woman, or merchant, can take shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord and by so doing can return to Godhead. To take shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord means to take shelter of the pure devotees. The pure devotees, whose only business is serving the Lord, are honored by the names Prabhupāda and Viṣṇupāda, which indicate such devotees to be representatives of the lotus feet of the Lord. Anyone, therefore, who takes shelter of the lotus feet of a pure devotee by accepting the pure devotee as his spiritual master can be at once purified. Such devotees of the Lord are honored equally with the Lord because they are engaged in the most confidential service of the Lord, for they deliver out of the material world the fallen souls, whom the Lord wants to return home, back to Godhead. Such pure devotees are better known as vice-lords, according to revealed scriptures. The sincere disciples of a pure devotee consider him equal with the Lord, but the pure devotee always considers himself to be a humble servant of the servant of the Lord [Cc. Madhya 13.80]. This is the pure devotional path.

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Jayapatākā Swami: They want to sit for a sacrifice and hear the glories of Kṛṣṇa for a thousand years. To hear the glories of Kṛṣṇa from pure devotee is the most auspicious. So it’s more purifying, even than bathing in the Ganges. Ganges is coming from the lotus feet of the Lord and the Bhagavad-gītā is coming from His lotus mouth. So one can either bath in the Ganges water or you can bath in the vibration of Bhagavad-gītā – both are purifying. But the association of the pure devotee is considered to be more potent. This is the devotee, who is taking complete shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord.

Prabhupāda stresses here, how the pure devotee is acting as a representative of the lotus feet of the Lord. Someone is a representative so long as they are serving the Lord. When they are fully serving the Lord and someone serves them and they get benefit of serving Kṛṣṇa, and plus bonus . . . [when pure devotee is serving the lotus feet of the Lord, by serving him you get the blessing of the Lord.]

We are here in a war in the material world with the Māyā. Māyā is trying to make us to forget Kṛṣṇa, to make us identify that we are the body and we are the mind. So many times, we hear people say, “I want to be true to myself!” “To do what I really feel like doing.” But sometimes, most cases that, what they are saying is, “I want to be true to my mind and my senses.” Because according to their conditioning, they have got a particular taste, inclination, for sense gratification, but it’s not their eternal self. So in Kṛṣṇa conscious we want to elevate people also to perceive their actual real self-interest, the interest of eternal spirit self. Sometimes devotees are doing devotional service on the platform of the mental platform. Then when the mind starts a fixed position so far. Sometimes they . . . right . . . when the mind changes, then they get off the devotional service. So we want to bring people above the mental platform to actual realization. So that they can experience the nectar of Kṛṣṇa consciousness at every step.

In Caitanya-caritāmṛta and Bhagavad-gītā and all the scriptures that describes the qualifications of such a person, that they are equals under different circumstances. When, I gain something or when I lose something, when they are praised, they are criticized. In 12^th chapter, Bhagavad-gītā, last six verses, they say so many qualifications as someone who is dear to Kṛṣṇa. In the 20^th verse: someone who kept Kṛṣṇa as the ultimate goal and completely fixed in Kṛṣṇa. So we want everyone to reach the stage where they actually realize, the transcendental bliss. They realize the exchange between Kṛṣṇa and the devotee. So we need to be serving Kṛṣṇa in order to do that. Without trying to surrender the Kṛṣṇa, without going to realize, what this spiritual ecstasy is. If you want to test whether an experiment works in the laboratory, you have to do it. Then if it works, then you know, you realize, it worked. In our science laboratory, they gave us some hydrogen, and we would light that with a match, and after it would be like “puff” a little explosion and then you would find water on the side of the glass. And the teacher would say, “Hydrogen and oxygen produce H₂O, which is water.” Aha! Now I realize, water-tattva! Aqua-tattva! (laughter) So now we want to be realized in ātma-tattva. We are every day realizing aqua-tattva and pizza-tattva (laughter) and so many truths that we realize, now we want to realize ātma-tattva and the bhāgavata-tattva.

So how we can realize that Kṛṣṇa is giving us His mercy? As we are surrendering to Kṛṣṇa through His bona fide representative that Kṛṣṇa reciprocates with our surrender. And we can realize through this practical experiment of devotional service, how it’s working? Just like by chanting ‘Hare Kṛṣṇa’ one is gradually able to control the mind. But this is also a science, if we commit offenses against the holy name of Vaiṣṇava, then we lose the protection. So you have to be very careful not to commit any offenses. Offenses are . . . to the Vaiṣṇavas are described as a mātāl-hāti or mad elephant offense, [mātāl-hāti]. Mātāl means mad, intoxicated, crazy. So mātāl-hāti means elephant. So when a mad elephant comes into the garden, just ripping out everything, pulls out the trees, right from the root. When that happens, the leaves don’t dry up immediately, right? Takes a few days for them to dry out, maybe a week, 10 days. But gradually because the root is pulled out from the ground, they start to turn brown, and they dry. When we commit offense to the Vaiṣṇavas then this is what happens – our spiritual creeper gets uprooted, gradually we lose a taste for our devotional service. Then material life starts to appear very attractive, because we want to be happy. So if we are not giving spiritual happiness, then we go into material happiness. And this way we can go from being in devotional service to being back into Māyā, by offenses. So we need to be very, very careful about these offenses. And if we pray to whoever we may have offended, we can get forgiven.

One day, Lord Caitanya was giving all His associates blessings. And some devotee said, “Please give Mother Śacī, a blessing of love for Kṛṣṇa!”

He said, “No, I cannot.”

“What do you mean? Why you cannot give her? She is such a great devotee.”

“Because she is committed vaiṣṇava-aparādha. She cannot get love for Kṛṣṇa.”

The devotees were, “How Mother Śacī, she cannot get love of Godhead and it’s like inconceivable. She is such a great devotee. She is serving all the time. The Mother of the Lord. What offence that she committed?”

Lord Caitanya revealed that when He used to go, when He was a young, He go to get His brother from the class, Bhāgavatam class of Advaita Ācārya. And then He would end up sitting and listening to the class also. But then Mother Śacī, when it became delayed, (he would start to . . .) she would start to criticize the Advaita Ācārya. Just keeping her son so late and she was feeling frightened that maybe they will become sannyāsīs. Which actually happened like that. She was criticizing, complaining about Advaita Ācārya’s classes. So because of this, she could not get love for Godhead. Of course, she was always engaged in the Lord’s service, so she was . . . She got everything else. But she didn’t get love for Godhead. So one day they told Mother Śacī, “You gotta go and get forgiveness from Advaita Ācārya.” So Lord Caitanya, He agreed also to go along. So all the devotees, they were there, they came to see Advaita Ācārya. Advaita Ācārya saw mother Śacī, Lord Caitanya and all devotees come to his house, “Wow! What’s happening? Why am I so fortunate, every body is here today?”

“You see, Mother Śacī, she is committed some offense to You. And You have to forgive her. Otherwise, she can’t get love for Godhead.”

And Advaita said, “Offend Me! I am lower than a stool! Nobody can offend Me, because I am too low to be offended. You can only offend a Vaiṣṇava. I am not a Vaiṣṇava. I am the lowest. Mother Śacī is so great. She is always serving the Lord. She is always caring for Him. She is Kṛṣṇa conscious all of the time.”

Actually, then He started to getting remembering all the wonderful pastimes of Mother Śacī and Lord Caitanya and He started to glorifying Mother Śacī more and more and He is getting more and more ecstatic. Finally, He got so ecstatic, He fainted in ecstasy. So it was hopeless. He is never going to forgive Mother Śacī, because He is not accepting any offense. He thinks, Mother Śacī is much greater than him, so how she can offend Him?

So while He is unconscious, Lord Caitanya told her, “Quick, now is your chance. Touch His lotus feet, by touching His lotus feet, you will get forgiven for the offense.” So she touched the lotus feet of Advaita Ācārya and she got love of Kṛṣṇa. Haribol! She got forgiven for her offense.

So previous ācāryas say that, even uttama-adhikārī in the Nectar of Devotion, it is mentioned, even uttama- adhikārī can fall-down from his position, if he offends even a kaniṣṭha-adhikārī. That means an advanced devotee can fall down even if they offend a neophyte. So advanced devotees, they should know better than to offend anyone. So they were modeling very carefully. But then what to speak of then it can happen to an advanced devotee, then what to speak of a neophyte devotee, if they offend an advanced devotee? So that is why we have to be very careful to avoid these offenses.

The father of Sūta Gosvāmī, Romaharṣaṇa, he was abruptly removed because offensive mentality. And he didn’t stand up to receive Baladeva. He thought he was a guru. He doesn’t have to stand up for anyone. But guru is only a representative of Lord, if Lord Himself comes, then you have to stand up. You are an ambassador, you may be the big person in the embassy, but if the president of the country comes, then you become like their servant. So this way, Romaharṣaṇa, he didn’t give respect and he was removed. And Sūta Gosvāmī was put in his place. So now everyone is appreciating Sūta Gosvāmī as a devotee.

So all these . . . Gaṅgā was also mentioned. We bath in the Ganges many times and gradually it changes our mentality. We get purified from sins very easy in the Ganges, right? But mentality to again commit more sins doesn’t change so fast. Gradually by bathing in the Ganges, we become more and more attracted to Kṛṣṇa and we become less attached to material life. But it may take a considerable time to fully have that effect. But if one has an association of a pure devotee, that change may happen even immediately. There are some devotees who met Śrīla Prabhupāda, and they had an immediate change of their ideas.

So like Nārada Muni, he changed the mentality of Mṛgāri, the hunter in one darśana. Sometimes the spiritual master has to accept respect from the disciples because of . . . that is part of his responsibility. He has to think that it’s actually, all meant for Kṛṣṇa and previous ācāryas. So in this way, the pure devotee always protects himself from this danger of contamination. If one isn’t careful even after a pure devotee, then this is like a science, it will have its effect.

There was a lady in the airport, She was praying to the . . . she was . . . the doctors told her that she was going blind. She went to the Nṛsiṁhadeva Deities just to say, “This may be the last darśana I have of You.” Then that night Nṛsiṁhadeva came in a dream and told her that, “Before they had red eyes. And you took My red eyes . . . were taken and green eyes and put in the place. If the red eyes are put back, you can have back your eyesight.” [A-side: Yellow? It was yellow? Red! First red, after green.] So then . . . He wanted His red eyes back. That’s His angry mood, He is looking for Hiraṇyakaśipu. So they put back the red eyes, now the lady can see! She didn’t lose her eyesight. In a practical, everyone could realize, the mercy of Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva.

In Māyāpur, we have Jagannātha Deities and so many pastimes happen with these Deities. Everyone realizes that They are very powerful Deities. Many miracles happened. Sometimes three students came, but there was . . . at that time no electricity and the ghee lamp had burnt out just when they came, so the temple was dark. They got there, they couldn’t see anything, it was all dark. They started criticizing. There is no Jagannātha here, we walked here for nothing. This is just a fluff. You see, then all of a sudden “pufff!” big flame, like a gas flame shoot out from the ghee-wick, from the lamp. They they see Jagannātha Baladeva and Subhadrā. The pūjārī was sitting there, “You boys just criticized the Lord. Look at He is doing a miracle just to give you His darśana. There is no more ghee, there is no more wick, it’s just coming out the lamp the light by the Lord’s mercy.” So they started paying their obeisances again and again and circumambulate the Deity and, “Please forgive me!” So sometime the Lord gives some special mercy just to instill faith in the devotees and to give them some special benediction. Like that there is hours and hours of pastimes that happen with these Deities.

Somehow another by practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we need to realize, this science. Kṛṣṇa protects, the devotees. And we need to stay always under that protection of Kṛṣṇa. We have seen so many different things happen and Kṛṣṇa conscious movement being attacked by different kinds of Māyās. But somehow Kṛṣṇa is always protecting us and things are again increasing. We have to learn from whatever mistakes others do and whatever mistakes we do, not to make the same mistakes. To be very careful and very respectful to all the devotees.