20070128 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.10.43

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on January 28th, 2007 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur,India. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 2.10.43.

tataḥ kālāgni-rudrātmā yat sṛṣṭam idam ātmanaḥ
sanniyacchati tat kale ghanānīkam ivānilaḥ

Translation: Thereafter, at the end of the millennium, the Lord Himself in the form of Rudra, the destroyer, will annihilate the complete creation as the wind displaces the clouds.

Purport: This creation is very appropriately compared to clouds. Clouds are created or situated in the sky, and when they are displaced they remain in the same sky without manifestation. Similarly, the whole creation is made by the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His form of Brahmā, it is maintained by Him in the form of Viṣṇu, and it is destroyed by Him in the form of Rudra, or Śiva, all in due course. This creation, maintenance and destruction are nicely explained in the Bhagavad-gītā (8.19-20) as follows:

bhūta-grāmaḥ sa evāyaṁ bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate
rātry-āgame ‘vaśaḥ pārtha prabhavaty ahar-āgame

paras tasmāt tu bhāvo ‘nyo ‘vyakto ‘vyaktāt sanātanaḥ
yaḥ sa sarveṣu bhūteṣu naśyatsu na vinaśyati

The nature of the material world is that it is first created very nicely, then it develops very nicely and stays for a great number of years (even beyond the calculation of the greatest mathematician), but after that it is again destroyed during the night of Brahmā, without any resistance, and at the end of the night of Brahmā it is again manifested as a creation to follow the same principles of maintenance and destruction. The foolish conditioned soul who has taken this temporary world as a permanent settlement has to learn intelligently why such creation and destruction take place. The fruitive actors in the material world are very enthusiastic in the creation of big enterprises, big houses, big empires, big industries and so many big, big things out of the energy and ingredients supplied by the material agent of the Supreme Lord. With such resources, and at the cost of valuable energy, the conditioned soul creates, satisfying his whims, but he unwillingly has to depart from all his creations and enter into another phase of life to create again and again.

To give hope to such foolish conditioned souls who waste their energy in this temporary material world, the Lord gives information that there is another nature, which is eternally existent without being occasionally created or destroyed, instead of wasting his energy in matter, which is sure to be destroyed in due course by the supreme will, the conditioned soul should utilize his energy in the devotional service of the Lord so that he can be transferred to the other, eternal nature, where there is no birth, no death, no creation and no destruction, but permanent life instead, full of knowledge and unlimited bliss. The temporary creation is thus exhibited and destroyed just to give information to the conditioned soul who is attached to temporary things. It is also meant to give him a chance for self-realization, and not for sense gratification, which is the prime aim of all fruitive actors.

Thus ends the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 43rd verse. Chapter ten, Canto two in the matter of “Bhāgavatam is the Answer to All Questions”.

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Jayapatākā Swami: So there is creation, maintenance and annihilation. Whatever we do in the material world, eventually it’s annihilated. But there are messengers that come from the spiritual world to give us information about the higher reality. They come down just to deliver the conditioned souls from their ignorance.

Today is the disappearance day of Rāmānujācārya, who appeared in 938 Śakābda about 900 years ago says he is an incarnation of Anantadeva of Lakṣmaṇa, Rāmānuja also means younger brother of Rāma, that he came to preach. He came after the preaching of Śaṅkarācārya. So most people were Māyāvādīs. He had a Sanskrit teacher who was also Māyāvādī. He was studying Sanskrit under him. But then one day he was massaging his Sanskrit guru’s leg. And the guru was telling a verse from the śāstra that described the beautiful lotus face of the Lord. Can’t remember the name of the verse. It’s called kapi. The kapi means lotus, but somehow the Sanskrit teacher got some… screwed some other meaning out of it. That there is a monkey called the kapi monkey who has a red ass and said that the Lord is just like the red ass of a monkey. Something like that. When Rāmānuja heard this, he started crying. It was so offensive, it was so disgusting. And tears started falling on the leg of that Sanskrit guru. Then he said, (you know) “Why you are crying? He said, “Well, you quoted this verse in such a strange way, it gives me great pain. The description of the Lord…” “Why? What’s wrong with my Sanskrit?” Then he gave the proper translation that, “It means the Lord has a beautiful lotus face like the red lotus, His lips…” Some gave another translation which was the appropriate one, the direct meaning. Then that guru thought this guy is really dangerous. If he is allowed to live, he is going to eventually be such a great scholar he will defeat all the Māyāvādīs. So then he made a plan to have him killed off. So they sent him out into the forest with Govinda Dāsa and they wanted to have him to be killed there or be lost in the forest. So they dumped him in the forest. So that then they realized what happened. He realized that this guru wants to get rid of me. Then he escaped. Later he found Vaiṣṇava guru and got initiated. The guru gave him the mantra (oṁ namo nārāyaṇāya) said, “This is the Gāyātrī mantra. Don’t say it out loud, otherwise you will go to hell. You chant this mantra it will liberate you.” Then he went on to the tower in South India. We are going to go on a safari. We will see the tower. And he started to shout the mantra on top of his lungs. Guru said, “What you doing? I told you not to say it aloud.” You said, “If I say it out aloud, I will go to hell and it will deliver everyone. So better let everyone be delivered and I go to hell.” He said, “This is a very special disciple.” He said, “No, it won’t work so effectively if people don’t if they are not initiated properly. Even if you give it like that, they won’t have the same effect.”

But like this there are many different pastimes. He was personally under the… He was empowered by Yāmunācārya to carry on the Śrī-sampradāya. He stayed in Śrīraṅgam. Today it’s his disappearance day. They show you his samādhi. They say that one day he sat down in meditation, and he just never moved after that. The same body is still there, undecomposed, covered with sandalwood pulp and different kind of medicinal… He is just sitting there like this. It lets you see his thumb. You have seen? You have not seen his body? This amazing place is here. Lord Caitanya stayed in Śrīraṅgam for four months of the rainy season. So Rāmānuja that was his headquarters for his preaching. He had different great devotees who were assisting. He made 64 temples and put a guru in charge of these temples.

Some of the gurus were gṛhasthas and some were sannyāsīs. They are called jīyars. And so when he was in Śrīraṅgam, he would go begging for his food. So some of the again he defeated some Māyāvādīs. And the Māyāvādīs, they decided they wanted to get rid of him. So one Māyāvādī arranged for a relative that he would frequently go and get prasāda to give him some poisoned food. So his cousin gave him food with poison in it, and somehow slipped from his hand and fell on the ground. And a cat came running up and ate it immediately the cat croaked that means he died [eh] it was stiff. And then Rāmānuja lost his appetite. You might lose your appetite too if you knew someone was wanting to poison you. So he was fasting. And then he called over one śikṣā-guru of Rāmānuja to come.

So Śrī Raṅgam is an island in the middle of the river Kāverī, which is another holy river, like the Ganges. But in the dry season… in the rainy season it’s filled with water. In the dry season it’s a narrow stream with a big sand riverbed. They call it one side the Kāverī and the other side what do they call it? I forget. They give it another name. But sister Kāverī splits it too. But they call the other side another name. And when they heard the guru had come, he went to meet him in the middle of the riverbed. And when he came to see that we saw the guru. Then he paid, his obesiances. But the river sand in the hot summer of the dry season, it’s very hot, so it burns. You pay this obeisance without any shirt or anything. So he was burning in the hot sand. One by one, the disciples got up. They couldn’t take it. It was burning so much. Then they saw that Rāmānuja was still paying his obesiences. And one disciple lay down next to him and took him and put him on his chest so that he wouldn’t burn in the sand. Then the Rāmānuja śikṣā-guru or guru he said, “Okay, he can be your cook because it was more intolerable for him the pain of the guru than his own pain. So he will never do anything to harm you.” So he became the cook of the guru. “Let me start eating again.” There are many different things that happen.

There was a king who was a Śaivite and he had a plan that he wanted to get Rāmānuja to admit that Śiva was a supreme, not Viṣṇu. So he came to take Rāmānuja. His gṛhastha disciple Kūreśa put on Rāmānuja’s sannyāsī dress and gave his gṛhastha dress to Rāmānuja. And Rāmānuja escaped him to the forest and went to the neighboring kingdom where there was a Jain King. And Rāmānuja converted the Jain King into Vaiṣṇavism and made that headquarters of his philosophy. It’s about an hour and a half drive from Bangalore. What is the name of that place? I forget Melkoṭṭai. The Melkote has pastime. There’s a Yoga-Narasiṁha there. That when Prahlāda was trying to meditate as he was in a Satya-yuga. So meditation was the yuga-dharma. But he was just a small boy, so he wasn’t so expert. So his Deity of Narasiṁhadeva showed him how to meditate in the yoga position. And he is still there as Yoga-Narsiṁha. And there is a special kuṇḍa there, where Prahlāda and Narasiṁha bathed. There is a special Nārāyaṇa Deity there. They say that place is not different from Vaikuṇṭha. It’s one of the four holiest places like Mathurā, Tirupati for the Śrī Vaiṣṇavas and this was Melkote one more place.

Meanwhile, Kūreśa was tortured, and he was made to say that. He was told he had to say that Viṣṇu was subordinate to Śiva. But he wouldn’t say that. So they say, “You are blind to the truth, therefore I will blind you.” And he gouged out the highest of the secretary. . And he tortured that śikṣā-guru of the Rāmānuja and he died couldn’t take all the torture. Later that king, he died. And the subsequent his next king became was not so heavy. He became more favorable. So Rāmānuja could come back. Since Kūreśa was blind, he couldn’t do the secretary service for his guru. So he went to the Varadarāja temple in Kāñcīpuram. That’s another place we’re going to go. Very powerful Deity of Lord Varadarāja. So there he was chanting songs for the Lord’s pleasure. The Lord spoke to him and said “What blessing do you want? I’ll give you anything you want.” He said, “Please forgive the people who tortured me. I don’t want anyone to suffer because of me.” Then he was singing badge again. “The Lord asked him, “Do want something?” Then he prayed again for other people. Then he went over to see Rāmānuja, Rāmānujācārya said, “I heard the Lord ask you for to give you a blessing. I want you to tell the Lord if He asks you again that your guru has some property which is defective, and he needs it to be repaired.” So then he went back to the Lord again asked him, he wants some blessing. He said and “My guru has some property he wants it to be repaired.” Well, the property was his disciple and it’s broken because it’s blind. So then Varadarāja blessed Kūreśa and he got his eyes replaced and he went and he was serving Rāmānujācārya.

I don’t know if this was before or after. Probably before, when Kūreśa could see. What happened was Kūreśa was actually very strong physically. He was a professional wrestler for the King, a royal wrestler. So he was very strong and handsome and everything good looking. One day there was a big festival, a cart festival and the Lord was going Śrīraṅgam But Rāmānuja noticed that from the ratha there was this guy who was carrying an umbrella for a beautiful lady and he looked was just looking at the face of the lady… didn’t even see the festival thousands of people, big cart festival Ratha-yātrā didn’t take a peek at Lord Raṅganātha, utsava-mūrti going on procession. Later after the festival they were going home to their āśrama again he saw this guy walking backwards with the umbrella said what is this guy doing? What’s his trip? So then he sent a secretary over to talk to him. “Why are you walking backwards looking at this woman’s face, carrying an umbrella over.” But first asked him to come over and then said, “This Rāmānujācārya here the great ācārya…” “Oh I didn’t see him” all you see… anyways he called, “What you are doing?” He said, “This lady has the most beautiful eyes, lotus eyes. So I can’t take my eyes off them. So I am just looking at them enamored how beautiful her eyes are.” He said, “What if I can show you someone who has more beautiful eyes than her?” He said, “Well I don’t believe it.” ‘Give me a try. Come today at 6 O’clock such and such a place and I will show you someone who has more beautiful eyes.” So then he met at this place. They blindfolded him. They took him inside the temple of Lord Raṅganātha and there they untied his eyes and they put the camphor lamp by Lord Raṅganātha’s eyes. When he saw those eyes then he realized that they are the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen. So he got. He became a disciple of Rāmānuja. Later, Rāmānuja told him to marry that lady and they were both initiated. So he was caring for Rāmānuja, helping him go down to bathe, watching his things, do all personal service. So some of the Swamis they complaint. He is a gṛhastha his personal service should be done by a sannyāsī. Then Rāmānuja decided, “Okay, we are going to have a test.” So he sent two disciples, “You go and you steal the jewelry from Kūreśa’s wife.” So they went and they took the tiles off the roof of the house. And they crawled into the house, coming down by a rope. And the wife, she saw that, “Oh, my gurus, my godbrothers are coming. Maybe they need something. I’ll just lie here.” And they came and they took off her bangles and her gold earrings. She thought, “Maybe the guru needs some gold, but they can’t reach, I’m lying on my arm.” So then she turned all rolled over so that they could steal the other jewelry. And they got frightened when she rolled over. Maybe she is waking up. They ran out of the house. Then the husband came, Kūreśa, and he saw she is got only ornaments one side of her body, one earring, one bangle, “What is this looks very funny.” And she told him what happened, and the husband chastised her. “You see, you thought that this we have anything, everything we have is the gurus. You thought that something was yours to give to the guru. That is why you couldn’t give it all, could only give half.” And the two disciples who were stealing, they heard all this. They realized how really detached they are. So they came back and gave the gold to the Rāmānuja and explained what happened. Then he, Rāmānuja told to go and steal the kaupīnas from the sannyāsīs. “Take that brāhmaṇa underwear and hide it here, there, put it around, watch what happens.” “Areh! Who took my underwear! What is going on?” And they were shouting, there was a big fight. They all, “You took my underwear. What do you think this is? Why do you touch my brāhmaṇa underwear?” They missed the whole morning program. [laughter] Rāmānuja had the two devotees, who did this to gave their report, said he is losing gold and he was upset that he couldn’t take it all. And you people are missing your underwear and you were so much upset. So who is more detached? So all the sannyāsīs after that, they didn’t complain about Kūreśa. So like that. There is a lot of interesting pastimes with Rāmānujācārya. He lived a long time and still, as they said, his samādhi, he just sat down in meditation and he is just there. So it’s something very special places. This Tamil Nadu is filled with, they call divya-deśas. They have 108 divya-deśas or holy places, which like Dvārakā, Vṛndāvana, Ṛṣikeśa I mean, Haridwar. Not Haridwar, but Badrinātha. They are all part of it, but most of them are in South India. We go to some places. Where? Like Śrīraṅgam, Rāmeśvaram. There’s 26 in one place. Five, six in other… I don’t know how many we are going to see, but we will see a number of them this trip. So today is the day, he went into his meditation. Last time we went there was maybe six years ago. We took a collection and gave all this herbs that they put on his body, camphor and sandalwood. So it’s very interesting.

So Rudra is doing an important service. He annihilates everything. It all starts over again. Sometimes your house gets disorganized. It’s just easy to take everything out and put it back in. So when everything gets destroyed, then it’s easier to restart off over fresh. This Brahmā service every day of his life he creates the universe and at the end of the day, Śiva destroys it. And in between, Viṣṇu is maintaining it. Prabhupāda liked to quote this verse:

bhūta-grāmaḥ sa evāyaṁ bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate
rātry-āgame ‘vaśaḥ pārtha prabhavaty ahar-āgame

Any questions?

Devotee: Yes Mahārāja! Three. Should I ask one by one…

Jayapatākā Swami: It’s related to the verse?

Devotee: Yes!

Question: Where is the question of annihilation? If the wind is displacing the cloud? We talked about an annihilation, the wind is displacing the cloud, which is the energy here. Where is the question of annihilation?

Jayapatākā Swami: Well, clouds are a temporary manifestation. And when they get blown by the wind, that particular form of the cloud dissipates. So like that, this material energy is eternal, but it’s destroyed, means its forms, its shapes. Its destroyed and it becomes unmanifested. And again, Brahmā takes the unmanifested pradhāna the energy and he gives it form, makes planets, makes living bodies. So that form of the material world is annihilated, the energy remains. In that sense there is no destruction. But that raw energy doesn’t have any form. So he gives it the form. The beautiful trees, plants, fish, insects, those wonderful mosquitoes. Prabhupāda said that even the scientists, they cannot create even a mosquito, is that they created a mosquito. So Brahmā, we have to give them credit. It’s creating something, creating all of our bodies, deva bodies. The second question.

Question: That relates to, we were talking about Māyāvādi. So when Kṛṣṇa himself says:

kleśo ‘dhika-taras teṣām avyaktāsakta-cetasām
avyaktā hi gatir duḥkhaṁ dehavadbhir avāpyate

So Māyāvādīs are also part of Kṛṣṇa.

Jayapataka Swami: We never said they are not part of Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: So why do we have so much off? You know we are obliged to say Māyāvādī preachings are there might as well be preaching, but at the end of the day, they might as well come to Kṛsṇa conciousness.

Jayapatākā Swami: Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante [Bg. 7.19], yes after many births, they can come last. Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti they come to Kṛṣṇa. But the path detours people. We want them to come directly and directly engage in devotional service where the Māyāvādīs are detouring from directly approaching Kṛṣṇa. So it’s a very long route. And it’s interesting, this shows the defect of sectarian religion. People get addicted to a particular attached to a particular path, not because of understanding, but because of a sectarian view. So they were willing even to try to kill Rāmānujācārya like that. We have this problem of sectarianism. But if we understand the world today, but if we understand the philosophy, we can see that Vaiṣṇavism is a complete understanding. But Māyāvādīsim is only a partial understanding.

Question: And then when we call, vaiṣṇavānām yathā śaṁbhuḥ - so he is the greatest of the Vaiṣṇavas, why should we have such a line drawn between Vaiṣṇavites and Śaivites?

Jayapatākā Swami: No, the Śaivites are people that say that Śiva is God. They think that he is supreme. We respect and worship Śiva. But we see him as a devotee, as an incarnation. Partial incarnation of Viṣṇu. And the verse that says here the Lord Himself is annihilating in His form as Rudra. So Rudra is also the guṇāvatāra of Kṛṣṇa. So we also respect Śiva. But we don’t consider him to be independent of Viṣṇu. We don’t consider him to be a God, independent from the Supreme Godhead. He is a form of God. But he is not… we have to see him as a devotee of Viṣṇu. Not as someone who the Śavites only see Śiva and they don’t see Viṣṇu and others they think Śiva is supreme. That is the main problem. So they are committing offense to Viṣṇu. Or Śiva himself, he worships Viṣṇu. He said (ārādhanānāṁ sarveṣāṁ viṣṇor ārādhanaṁ param) He said the highest worship is worship of Viṣṇu and worship of Viṣṇu’s devotees. But the Śavites, they consider that Śiva worship is highest. That is the problem.

Hare Kṛṣṇa! Thank you all very much. One more question from Murāri Gupta.

Question: In the day of Brahmā, the annihilation takes place, that is partial annihilation up to the heavenly planets… So again annihilation and again creation, again annihilation and again creation. So by whom, and how it is created?

Jayapatākā Swami: Brahmā. It says that Nārada Muni, because he is a liberated soul he didn’t die at the time of the annihilation. He was in the body of Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. So all the living entities in the universe except for Brahmaloka, Satyaloka they get annihilated. Their bodies get annihilated. It said that Nārada was in the body of Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. Then he came out again. After the… when he came out, he came out as mānasa-putra of Lord Brahmā. So that’s why he is also known as a disciple and a son of Brahmā. But he is actually liberated Hare Kṛṣṇa.