20070830 Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 3.5.8

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on August 30^th, 2007 in Adelaide, Australia. The lecture beings with a reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam canto 3, chapter 5, text 8.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.5.8

yais tattva-bhedair adhiloka-nātho
lokān alokān saha lokapālān
acīkḷpad yatra hi sarva-sattva-
nikāya-bhedo ’dhikṛtaḥ pratītaḥ

(One man, one woman)

Translation by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda: The Supreme King of all kings has created different planets and places of habitation where living entities are situated in terms of the modes of nature and work, and He has created their different kings and rulers.

(Translation with repetition Translation)

Purport by Śrīla Prabhupāda: Lord Kṛṣṇa is the chief King of all kings, and He has created different planets for all kinds of living entities. Even on this planet there are different places for inhabitation by different types of men. There are places like deserts, ice lands, and valleys in mountainous countries, and in each of them there are different kinds of men born of different modes of nature according to their past deeds. There are people in the Arabian deserts and in the valleys of the Himalayan Mountains, and the inhabitants of these two places differ from one another, just as the inhabitants of the ice lands also differ from them. Similarly, there are also different planets. The planets below the earth down to the Pātāla planet are full of various kinds of living beings; no planet is vacant, as wrongly imagined by the modern so-called scientist. In Bhagavad-gītā we find it said by the Lord that the living entities are sarva-gata, or present in every sphere of life. So there is no doubt that on other planets there are also inhabitants like us, sometimes with greater intelligence and greater opulence. The living conditions for those of greater intelligence are more luxurious than on this earth. There are also planets where no sunlight reaches, and there are living entities who must live there due to their past deeds. All such plans for living conditions are made by the Supreme Lord, and Vidura requested Maitreya to describe this for the sake of further enlightenment.

hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Thus ends the A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda translation, purport of the third canto, fifth chapter, eighth verse, in the matter of, “Vidura’s talks with Maitreya” spoken here at the Adelaide, Australia, Rādhā Śyāmasundara Mandir on this 30^th of August 2007, Chirstābda and 521^st year of our beloved Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

hariḥ oṁ tat sat

* * *

Jayapatākā Swami: So, in this universe there are so many different places, different planets, different stars, different solar systems. They have all their different kinds of situations for living.

Now the modern science is sending people to the Mars planet to see whether there’s any facility for sustaining life as we know it on this planet over there. But actually, we have a carbon-based life here, carbon, oxygen, carbon dioxide. So, our ecological needs are different here, for this planet, everything is organized in a particular way. We breathe oxygen, the plants eat and we breathe out carbon dioxide. The plants breathe carbon dioxide and their byproduct is they breathe out oxygen. So, we cut down all the planets and all the plants in the planet, we won’t be able to breathe. Pretty soon we will use up all the oxygen. That’s why it’s important that we have green areas in the world.

But millions, I don’t know, millions or hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest land in the Amazons and different places around the world which are considered the lungs for the Earth, those are being cut down just because the people want to make paper and print different kinds of books or whatever. Then when they get on their case, they say, well, look, you’re already rich countries, we’re a poor country, so we want to get rich. Then once you’re rich, we will think about it. But meanwhile, the whole Earth planet is going down the drain. Kṛṣṇa made a perfect balance, in this planet we have this kind of ecosystem.

I remember one-time Śrīdhara Mahārāja showed me one article that he had discovered that in the middle of the ocean somewhere there was a volcanic fissure, I don’t know how to pronounce fissure, that out from that was coming ammonia gas. And in that ammonia gas there were living entities that were living and breathing the ammonia gas. And they were sustaining. They were unique kind of creatures. If they swam out from the ammonia gas area into the normal ocean, they die. And if a normal fish swims into that, they die. They had their own little micro ecosystem based on ammonia gas breathing. So, he was using that to show that, just like for us, ammonia gas is highly poisonous. Sometimes there was some ammonia gas freighter and the train that tipped over somewhere and so many people died.

But there are certain animals that they had the ecosystem that they could breathe ammonia gas. They didn’t have the same ecosystem that we have, they had some other system. So, he wanted to show me that this proves that we can have, we’re just looking at where is there water, where is there, like our kind of ecological system, but there can be so many other kinds that we have no idea about. If we go there, it will be hostile to us, we will die. But the other living entities, they may be breathing in ammonia gas and breathing out something else which will create some kind of harmony and plants, there will be totally different harmonious combination. Also, the idea that we will be on another dimension, we are just on a particular gross dimension. But there are also planets where people live on a subtle dimension, or just like the Vedas say that the sun planet is a heavenly planet. And there that people live in, have fiery bodies and live in there they have really opulent situation. The kṣatriyas who die in the battlefield, they can go to Suryaloka. So it’s considered to be a heavenly planet. But from our ecological viewpoint, if we see environmentally, that’s like who can survive. But if you have a body made out of fire, or if the body is at a higher, subtle level, then how we are living here has no relevance at all. Just like the moon planet is also considered to be some kind of heavenly planet.

And one day, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura was taking a walk and he looked up and he was looking at the moon and looking, and all the disciples were with him on the walk or looking at him and looking at the moon, wondering what’s he doing, what’s he thinking about. When he was saying, “You know, in the moon planet, they’re becoming gradually some materialistic. They’re turning their face away from Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It’s supposed to be heavenly planet, it’s supposed to be more Kṛṣṇa consciousness, but they’re becoming more materialistic. So, it’s important, we have to go there and preach to them, get them to maintain their Kṛṣṇa consciousness.” You know, this was maybe 1800, 1905 or something, you know, he’s telling his disciples how we have to go to the moon. Now this in the newspaper, they say we’re going to go to the moon. and by 2020, this idea, they have moon bases and as a kind of a race who’s going to go there and claim the moon as their own colony. Because the moon has a lot of frozen helium. And if they can bring down frozen helium, even a small quantity of frozen helium by fusion, now we’re using fission, I got it right. Nuclear reactions using fission. But there’s another type of reaction called fusion. And that means liquid or needs, what do you call it, helium. So, they’re saying they can power a whole city the size of New York for one year with a little bit of helium. So it doesn’t produce any radioactivity by product. It’s very clean.

So like this they are, last night I was on the news when were flying here to Adelaide from Sydney about how there’s a big race who’s going to get to the moon first. They always thought they already got to the moon now. But again it’s taking them so many years to get there again. But Prabhupāda doubted whether they really got there. So now if it’s so, you see, they got there so many years before. Now their technology is so much further advanced, why it’s taking them so much longer to get there the second time. Very interesting, but so lot of attention on the moon though because of this liquid helium before they say now it makes economic sense because the price of petroleum product is so high and we’re running out. Maybe in the future now we can use the helium from the moon.

The people on the moon planet, they’re not living on the same dimension as we know life can’t be sustained on the moon. They got astronauts now practicing in the ocean underwater, what it would be like to live in a moon station for six months. So they’re having to live so many meters under the sea in a relatively less wakeful condition. And just to see how they can adapt to living for six months like that in a little place they said they go. You know, they have psychological problems being cooped up for so long. They really seem to be quite serious because there’s money in it, right, to go to the moon and exploit their resources there. So you’re going to see Russia going to go there and put up their Russian flag or America who’s going to claim the moon, You know, why didn’t they do that before when they say went there? Where’s the plague anyway?

The point is that their preconceived condition, that this is what it requires for life, is not really a relevant analysis. There’s so many other kinds of even in the gross level ecosystems. And then on a subtle level that’s totally out of the place, out of the radar for them. Obviously if people heavenly planets can live for hundreds of thousands or millions of years. They don’t have the kind of bodies that we have. They have a much different, more subtle body which lasts a long time. So Prabhupāda is saying here the planets below the earth down to the Pātala planet are full of various kinds of living entities. No planet is vacant as wrongly imagined by the modern so called scientists.

In Bhagavad-gītā we find it said by the Lord that the living entities of sarvagatāḥ are present in every sphere of life. So, there’s no doubt that on other planets are also inhabitants like us, sometimes with greater intelligence and greater opulence according to the Vedas, there’s a caudda-bhuvana. There’s 14 levels of planetary system and we are on the seventh level. So there are six above us and seven below. There are millions and unlimited trillions of different kinds of planets. So, they all fit within the 14 greats. I used to have memorized the lower planets. Now I am not so sure anymore. There’s a Atala, Sutala, Talātala, Mahātala, Rasātala, Vitala and Pātāla also. How many is that? Not necessarily in the exact order. Then about your bhu bhuva svaḥ. We’re in the bhur-loka. Then there’s a bhuva. Then there’s the svarga that is the three Mundos. (15:30) What’s visible universe are in these three levels. But beyond that there’s higher planets which are not visible to us. They’re on a higher subtle plane. And then you have this. You have what? Māharloka, Janaloka, Tapaloka and Satyaloka.

No, the Pitṛloka is that. That’s somehow connected to hell. It’s in the lowest seven. It’s in the lowest seven with the subterranean. They have Yamaloka, in Yamaloka which is like a special place. So that half of it is for those who getting punished and the other half is Pitṛloka. So, he changes his form. It says when he goes into the hellish area, then he has horns coming out of his head and he rings any bells and he’s. He’s giving the judgment to the people. And when he goes into the Pitṛloka side, then he looks like human being. He’s a really beautiful person. So, you have the two sides of Yamarāja.

So, this is Vidura is incarnation of Yamarāja. Yamarāja was cursed. Who was it? Maṇḍūka Ṛṣi! Maṇḍūka Ṛṣi. Because Maṇḍūka Ṛṣi was arrested. Some thief took shelter in his āśrama. He didn’t even know about it. And then the police came.

King’s police came and found that this guy took shelter his āśrama and arrested Maṇḍūka Muni and said that you are harboring a criminal, so you’re going to be punished by death. He said, I didn’t know anything about it. He just came and hid my āśrama. I wasn’t harboring him. Well, we found him. You’re guilty. So then he was tied to the post. And then all the soldiers were holding their lances, their spears. They were going to throw the spears at him. And this way he was going to be impaired and killed by spearing at the stake. Gets set, ready to throw. You can imagine the kind of tension he’s under. Then the messenger came from the king that spare him. You don’t want his ṛṣi to be killed and he’s pardoned. Whatever.

So then Maṇḍūka, he was so powerful that he went to Yamarāja and asked him, “Why did I have to suffer this kind of karma? Why I was put under extreme stress, you know, being tied up on the post. And then like the firing squad, just ready to be shot.” And he said, “When you were three years old, you took a straw and you were poking an insect, was feeling extreme fear at this sharp straw coming down on it. So because of that you had to suffer this karma.” “I was three years old. What did I know? One or two or three? I didn’t know anything. How can a little child be held this far?” “Well, that’s the laws of karma. You cause suffering to another living entity. You have to suffer.” So then this Ṛṣi made a curse. “I don’t accept your decision. This is not reasonable. So I curse you to become a śūdra, to be born on the earth as a śūdra.” And then second thing he said, “I cursed like all the parents that they had to take the karma for their children up till five years old. Whatever they do, it’s their responsibility. The kids shouldn’t be held responsible.” So don’t let your kids poke insects or tear apart frogs or do any weird things because you will be responsible. Don’t have them eat the non veg food, meat, fish, eggs. He will be responsible. So like that… So Yamarāja decided he will come down to the planet when Kṛṣṇa is on the planet. So he took this birth as Vidura, who was Pāṇḍu, who was the previous king. And Pāṇḍu, Dhṛtarāṣṭra and Vidura. Somehow, they’re all related. Somehow that previous father wasn’t able to conceive.

So in previous yugas the brother could also conceive in his brother’s wife was allowed. In Kali-yuga, that’s forbidden because people are too lusty. Then there are going to be definitely some emotional problems. But apparently people were so self-controlled at that time that the brother could do that without getting attached. So somehow, they related like a brother with Vyāsadeva. So he did it. But then the first queen that came, she was freaked out because Vyāsadeva is like an old sage and big beard and everything. And so she closed her eyes during their relations. So Dhṛtarāṣṭra was born blind. Then the second one, the wife, the queen was too freaked out to have a relation with the Vyāsadeva to send her maidservant instead. So Vidura became the son of the maidservant. She was the śūdra. So that’s why he’s considered also like a śūdra. But he was born in the royal family but from the maidservant. So it’s like then the third one, the third attempt, she kept her eyes open but she was freaked out so she became very pale. So her son Pāṇḍu was said was very light colored. She was also very pale colored. So then because Dhṛtarāṣṭra was blind so he couldn’t take the throne. Vidura was in kṣatriya so he couldn’t take. So Pāṇḍu became the legitimate king. That’s why the Pāṇḍavas were the next in line to be the kings. But Dhṛtarāṣṭra, he wanted his sons to be the kings. And that’s the whole intrigue. They’re all coming from the common parenthood. So like that, so Vidura is actually Yamarāja.

He’s coming and getting some association with Kṛṣṇa now he’s coming and he’s approaching Maitreya to get some of spiritual instruction. So in caitanya-līlā it mentions that when Jagāi and Mādhāi in the Caitanya-bhāgavata this is the pastime that says when Jagāi and Mādhāi were delivered at that time in Yamaloka the accountants, who are keeping track of everybody’s karma they went to Yamarāja. They were like really big commotion. That how Jagāi and Mādhāi who were really special top criminals in the universe, they were born brāhmaṇas in a brāhmaṇīcal family and they knew that scripture so they would personally research the scriptures what are all the worst sins you can do? And then they would specifically consciously do those sins.

If it says that to beat up a helpless person is more sinful then they go find a helpless person, beat them up. If having sex with guru’s wife or the brāhmaṇa’s wife and then go rape some brāhmaṇist wife. They did this specifically like a checklist. What are the worst things we can do? They try to do all of them like this, ridiculing the whole Yamarāja and whole lot of karma. So, in Yamaloka because they were being so belligerent, the normal 26 hellish planets that they have rehabilitation programs they didn’t think were quite suitable for this group, this two. So apparently, they had like special architects in the heavenly planet or hellish planets who are making custom made hell for them where they’re going to really get some super punishment because they are doing so many super sinful activities. So that’s another job in the universe for some architects, designing hells.

So many different occupational programs. Anyway, then all of a sudden Jagāi and Mādhāi were delivered by Lord Nityānanda and Lord Caitanya and all their sins were forgiven. So everybody was amazed. And then so they went to see Yamarāja and told him what happened. Yamarāja said, how many karmas did they have? Said if we put down all the bad karmas and in writing in warehouses, it would take like 27 or something. So many different warehouses piled up with all the karmas they did. They’re just like unbelievable what they were doing. So then Yamarāja fainted. So they were reviving him and trying to revive him when all but he wasn’t reviving them.

Lord Śiva happened to come along and they told Śiva what happened to Yamarāja and they told that Jagāi and Mādhāi were delivered. And then we told Yamarāja and he fainted. He’s in shock. And Lord Śiva said, he’s not in shock, he’s in ecstasy. He’s so overwhelmed with the love of Kṛṣṇa that how Lord Caitanya is so merciful that these sinful people started to chant the holy names and became devotees and got freed from all their sins, that he became ecstatic. He’s entranced. That’s why your efforts to revive him aren’t working. You want to revive him, chant ‘Hare Kṛṣṇa’ in his ear. So they were starting chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa swam Yamaloka, All these employees, you can imagine Yamadutas and accountants and everyone having a big kīrtana the revive Yamarāja. And then he came back to consciousness.

So then, you know, he looked around, everybody’s chanting and they all got up and they just had a huge kīrtana celebrating how Lord Caitanya is delivering. So by Lord Caitanya’s mercy, the work is less for the Yamadūtas and they in Yamaloka, of course there’s a number of people who are really meticulously avoiding Lord Caitanya’s mercy. So I am sure they’re not completely free from business right now. But we’d like to see that in the future. Of course, give them a little bit of a break for a while. In the Padma Purāṇa it says that Yati Mahārāja, he establishes he was the emperor of the world, and he got Kṛṣṇa consciousness established around the world by sponsoring brāhmaṇas who went and preached Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And they got everybody to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and Satyaloka and Satya-yuga.

So because chanting is so powerful that in Satya-yuga, if you’re chanting, it is unbelievably powerful that people became so pious, so spiritualized. But nobody was dying. People were just. They weren’t even growing old. They were remaining youthful. So, there was three generations of people. And they used to live a hundred thousand years. So in Satya-yuga.... So parents, children and grandchildren all were living together. And you couldn’t tell the difference. They all looked young. Nobody was getting old. Nobody was dying. So that time it says that Indra was touring the universe and he went to Yamaloka. And the Yamadūtas are all sitting there like firemen, when there’s no fire, they’re sitting there passing time. And they more or less really gave some chastisement to Indra. What kind of a universe are you running here? Nobody’s dying. This Yayāti Mahārāja ridiculing you and your authority.

What are we doing here? Why give us a job to punish sinful people? Nobody does any sin. And we’re just sitting here, you know, twiddling our thumbs with nothing to do. We don’t get bored. Put us somewhere else like this. They were criticizing Indra. So the Indra made a point of it, okay, we got to get people back into sinful life. This is a really weird. You know, somehow manages sometimes the ego thing there. He wanted to get things back to normal.

So, it’s possible, like Prabhupāda said, if the planet becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious, Yamaloka will have a vacation. But at this point in time, we still have a little work ahead of us. I think they’re not suffering from an extreme shortage of work load yet.

But sometimes when you think how easy it is to get purified by a little bit of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

svalpam apy asya dharmasy
trāyate mahato bhayāt.

So then a little bit of Kṛṣṇa consciousness can save us from the greatest dangers. So we do Ratha-yātrā festival and busy times. And I remember one lady, she came in Toronto, and she told me she’s just like a normal Canadian lady. And then she mentioned to me that people putting on this festival, it’s so beautiful. It’s so wonderful to see how these chariots and everything is so beautiful. I like it so much. I was just thinking that just by appreciating Kṛṣṇa, you get so many spiritual blessings such that if you just appreciate the Ratha-yātrā, if you walk with Jagannātha or pull the rope, then you get liberated and you go back to Kṛṣṇa.

So she was highly appreciating, and she didn’t know anything about it, but she just was appreciating it. It was very beautiful. The singing, the dancing, the whole colorful decorations. So, I thought this lady, you know, like Yamaloka, they got to do a lot of put a lot of white out just because she’s seeing the Ratha-yātrā, she’s hearing the chanting. So I suggested to her, “Why don’t you go and pull the chariot? You can just pull that rope.” And then she said, “You see, I just came from the grocery and I know you people are very pure. And see, I have my shopping bag here, I have some meat. I am not a vegetarian yet. And probably if I won’t go and touch the rope, carrying this meat, maybe it’s a sin or something.” But somehow, she’s a little bit sensitive. “Will you put your bag there? Just go touch and come back.” She put her bag there. I will just stand here. I am not going touch it. She ran over and pulled it off and came back and took her bags. Prabhupāda said that we are, you know, the police. That’s Yamaloka and the Yamadūta, they’re the police force. They pick up people and take them there for their rehabilitation program. When they have too many sins to be born. It’s just like better to clear off some of the negative account, and they can take birth in a little bit better position, just have a little bit, maybe take a lousy birth on earth. So that’s what if it’s got up to lots of impious activities, lots of sinful activities and better to go burn it off intensively and then start off with a little bit better situation.

So, but the devotees, so they are making like you perceive Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it says, a revolution in the sinful lives of the people. Just hearing about Kṛṣṇa, just chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, taking some prasāda, making so much good fortune for people like the book distributor is when they give somebody a book and they just hold the book. Just by holding the Bhagavad-gītā, holding the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, they get so many blessings. Here you have your dinner club, they come and take prasāda. They may not know that for them it’s just a good vegetarian meal. But it actually had so much spiritual blessings in it for them. I remember once I was talking to some lady who was now chanting and practicing Kṛṣṇa Kana. She was a young lady, maybe in her early 20s.

And then I asked her, “When’s the first time you heard about Kṛṣṇa?” “Well, when I was 14 years old, I saw a Harināma party on the street. I saw the devotees chanting. Immediately I was attracted. I wanted to go there and look at them and ask them what they’re doing. But I was with my parents and they grabbed me. No, no, don’t go there. Those are not good people or something.” But she remembered that her whole life seeing the devotees and Harināma. So how just the Harināma had made this lasting impression. Somewhere in Europe or something. Maybe it was Ireland. So, like this, there’s so many different planets and according to our desires and our karmas we can go to different planets. But if we want to serve Kṛṣṇa then we go to Kṛṣṇaloka out of this material world.

Or maybe sometimes we go to where Kṛṣṇa is having His līlā, somewhere in the material universes. Some liberated souls, they come down like in caitanya-līlā, even from heavenly planets or from the spiritual world to help Caitanya Mahāprabhu to spread the saṅkīrtana movement. This is sometimes we’re wondering where Prabhupāda is now. Is he back in Kṛṣṇaloka? Is he taking up some of the projects that Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura talked about preaching in the Moon or some other place? Some devotees actually stay in the material world. They have an ecstatic love of Kṛṣṇa. They just help to spread the Kṛṣṇa conscious movement. This is different than the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. So someone may have bhāva-bhakti for a thousand births before they get kṛṣṇa prema. So kṛṣṇa-prema is something very rare, very great. And Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu was giving it very freely. That’s why it’s an inconceivable mercy to have kṛṣṇa-prema.

So we’re serving Kṛṣṇa and praying that by serving Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, saṅkīrtana movement, by His mercy we can also get this rare gift, super extremely rare gift of kṛṣṇa-prema

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

Any question or comment? Yes.

Question: With Pitṛloka being in its location in not such a good case and in their 14 planetary systems, is it important to stress in our preaching rather than just to continue to give worship of the forefathers in the general fashion to actually move towards getting them out of that loka and back into a realm where they can take up Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Jayapatākā Swami: Pitṛloka is considered also like a kind of heavenly situation, there’s some subterranean heavens, different kinds of situations. It’s strange, but obviously we want to get people out of this material world. And it’s not that every parent is in Pitṛloka. I mean, there’s a lot worse destinations. They may be also in somebody hellish condition. Someone may be very sick in the next life because the descendants are performing a śrāddha and doing the and sending kṛṣṇa-prasāda package to them. Suddenly they get healthy, they recover, have a better material position, meet devotees. So, it says anyway that the pair, the son or daughter who delivered their forefathers from a hellish condition son is called a putra and the daughter is called the putrī. Pu means hell and tra means to deliver, like man means mind and tra means to deliver, mantra, putra.

So if the descendants deliver their parents or forefathers from hell, then they are considered very good descendants. So that’s one of the ceremonies we do is we offer śrāddha ceremony on the death anniversary of a forefather. We do worship to Viṣṇu, offer bhoga to Viṣṇu. And then the prasāda from that offering was offered to the forefathers. So this can save them from hellish conditions. And once in a life, usually India, people go to some holy place like Gayā, which is especially dedicated for this kind of pūjā for the forefathers. So there they have a lotus footprint of Viṣṇu where Viṣṇu came from the spiritual planet. And he put his foot there and made an impression. So, the actual footprint of Viṣṇu is on the stone.

So you can do the worship to that footprint and then offer Lord Caitanya went and did for his father. That’s when he got initiated. When he was initiated and he developed, he manifested his love of Godhead. Before then he was a devotional brāhmaṇa. But he was not manifesting love of Kṛṣṇa. That came after his initiation. He was initiated in Gayā, in the āśrama of Īśvara Purī Mahārāja called Jangambāḍi. I almost got that āśrama 20 years ago, but Śaṅkarācārya blocked it. So. Or if you can get back to Kṛṣṇa, then 14 generations will also be delivered. You’re going to get back to Kṛṣṇa, deliver your forefathers of descendants.

One householder came and said, please initiate my son. If he can get back to Kṛṣṇa, then I get a free ticket. So I don’t think I will make it. I am too attached. But there’s hope for him.

Interesting. Vanita, what question?  anyone else?

Question: When someone die in home have to follow how many days to not enter the temple. From these wooden narrow times to follow for devotees. Someone died in home, like passed away, mother passed away, father passed away. It had to be how many days have to follow that.

Jayapatākā Swami: Interesting, I was told, like for instance, they have in Guruvāyūr temple in South India, they have a group of brāhmaṇas who want to do the service. So, there’s more people who want to do the service than there are slots. So, they have some ceremony where an elephant lifts out someone’s name from a basket and that person is going to be the head priest for six months. Then he makes up his own team. And then for six months he’s the head priest of the temple.

Then again after six months there will be a new check. So, one of my disciples, uncle was like that, chosen many times by the devī to be the priest. So, they had the system that for that six months he won’t have contact with his family. He will be totally into the temple worship. So, he may offer himself every other six months. So, six months of his family, six months and he’s good luck he gets to be the head priest. So they told me that in that case, when he’s the head priest and if there’s a death in his family, they don’t inform them whether they had priests. So then if he doesn’t know, we don’t know don’t hurt you, then he’s not. The idea is that someone may be very affected. My father died, my mother left.

And then if they’re like emotional like that and they go before the deities, it’s not so good to go with some very much materially attached. But if you don’t know, then that’s one thing that these people that are serving, they don’t have to tell them if they’re doing some crucial deity worship. Otherwise, this is more of a Vedic tradition. I did research to see that. I know that sannyāsīs don’t have to follow that because they’re considered to be civilly dead. To what degree? The devotees have to follow Śrīla Prabhupāda had to research in the folio to see what Prabhupāda said on this issue. I know he said like for brāhmaṇas, I think it’s 11 days and then for kṣatriya this was 11, 15, 21 and 30.

Someone says śūdra in 30 days aśauca, because maybe they consider that brāhmaṇa is supposed to be more spiritually conscious, so they should recover quicker from that sadness of losing a relative. They do the ceremonies. Someone’s second initiated brāhmaṇa, to consider from that point of view, it would be 11 days. Somebody’s very detached, whether we can be accepted. I don’t know how much Prabhupāda actually enforced this. Within ISKCON for the devotees living in the temple communities.

There’s a Nepali aspire, sheltered disciple whose grandfather passed away. So then officially they consider that a mourning period. So for one year he can’t get married.

Devotee: One year has to… No, any. Not going to any temple, not visiting the for a year. One year not putting any mark on the lotus tree.

Jayapatākā Swami: Going to the temple would be somewhere between 11 to 30 days.

But they said just getting married is like no happy not to go to temple for one year. Too much. You have to eat. You have to eat prasāda. You have to eat prasāda. We don’t follow that for sure because we have to eat prasāda.

Question: Guru Mahārāja second question is when the like a monthly problem, you have a question in the class, or this is just general iṣṭagoṣṭhī.

No, no. I am just asking this question because sometimes happen when they have monthly problem in the woman, they have to be not going to ask or something.

Yeah, it’s kind, off the altar. She’s off the altar. Generally, they’re not supposed to do the Deity worship at that time. But then somebody asks what to do in the emergency. Like say there’s nobody else, you have to house Deities and the husband is away.

Jayapatākā Swami: So then Prabhupāda said, like, well, in emergency there’s no rules that you have to do. Just like the mother may be having that her monthly, but she has to still feed the babies, has to feed the kids, has to do if you’re in a big joint family, then they can cover it around and give her a vacation for three, four days. But if you’re a nuclear family where there’s just the wife and the husband and what can you do? So sometimes the husband maybe helps, but if that’s not possible, then she has to do like that. If you’re in a very small temple and there’s no other brāhmaṇa or pūjārī, then sometimes even though she’s supposed to be off the altar, if there’s an emergency, then Kṛṣṇa has to be served as exception.

Acyutānanda, last question. When is the Deities open? Okay.

Question: Forefathers go to Pitṛloka. How long do they spend there?

Jayapatākā Swami: Well, as soon as you go back to Godhead, then all they get. They can go back to Godhead too. I think they get to stay there. As long as their descendants are pretty pious. They’re there because it says that. I remember once I heard this, I didn’t. Somebody told me because, you know, I used to have a real long sneak aggression. My hair is falling off, but it’s going to look shorter. It’s only this long. This could be like very long. Maybe one day Simon will have a long śikhās. In South India they have the brāhmaṇas just shaved like one inch. And the rest of her head is considered śikhā, although the normal is just the back of the head.

This part here, I have seen a lot of people with śikhās recently in the airports. I mean, they’re not devotees. It just seems to be a fast like South Indian plant.

So, they said that when you take a bath, the water that falls off your śikhā makes rain fall in the Pitṛloka. So that’s auspicious people, because people, it means that your descendants are devotees. They have śikhās. That’s good for your forefathers. There’s all kinds of things which may give sense certain benefit to the forefathers, but exactly how you move from one planet to the earth. Eventually they had to come back here on earth again. But if the descendants go back to Godhead, they can go back. Also didn’t research so much about Pitṛloka kind of shooting a little bit higher than that.

But it’s probably one of the Purāṇas that says more about Pitṛloka. Bhāgavata Purāṇa is 18,000 verses. What Skanda Purāṇa has 200,000 or something or some very big knowledge. It’s just much bigger, different purāṇas. That’s why if someone, some paṇḍitas and they want to bluff you, then they say. Where does it say that? It says in the Skanda Purāṇas because it’s so big. Who’s going to research and find out, you know. But the Six-Gosvāmīs, they researched all the Purāṇas. They took out many bhakti quotes and put them in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa and then the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, different quotations from the different Purāṇas. Also, Prabhupāda quotes the different ṭīkās, the different commentaries by the different Gosvāmī. They also mention quotations from different Purāṇas and Vedas, Saṁhitās.

So one time I was preaching in Sri Lanka and there all the Hindus are Tamils, more or less. I mean maybe 99%. And most of them are like Murugan and Ganeśa and Śiva and Durgā devotees. There’s some Kṛṣṇa temples, but mostly it’s the śiva-parivāra. So I will be quoting from the Bhāgavata Purāṇa. So, one time in the question-and-answer person. So why are you always speaking from the Bhāgavata Purāṇa? Why not the Śiva Purāṇa or Skanda Purāṇa? So then I did a search on folio, and I found there was like over 150 or something with a huge number of quotes from Śiva Purāṇa and Skanda Purāṇa. So I start using those quotes. One quote was so heavy I could never use it. But many were nice. Very nice. Like in the Skanda Purāṇa, it’s one quote. It says you say the two syllables ha and ri. Don’t get everyone to chant Hari. And so Viṣṇu will steal away from you.

He'll steal away all your suffering, your misfortune, your material contamination. Steal away all the garbage from your life. The first I tell you, steal from me, I will get worried. There’s a nice interesting quote. The main ones I think we have Basami access to. But there’s a lot more that would be researched. So like that. Pitṛloka is more of like karma kind of place. Yes.

Nash, can I just ask one more question?

You’re the boss here.

Question: Śrīla Prabhupāda had mentions in one recording with canto. Interesting. It’s in a section near where they’re talking about Pitṛloka (inaudible) and 12 planetary systems. Śrīla Prabhupāda mentions that even if we give up all other types of ritualistic processes, we should never give up devotional service. That’s the one thing that should never be given up. It should be the last one nature opportunity that we have in our life that we never push aside. Is this also in accordance with some of the thoughts that we have just been discussing about the different things that we go through in life and some of the processes of the Vedas subscribe and then got the (inaudible) parents pass away when family members leave their body. Should any of this come into reality in terms of devotional service?

Jayapatākā Swami: We shouldn’t give up our devotional service. That’s why how much these things relate to the devotees is questionable. We have our devotional service that takes the priority over these other considerations. These things are more for people that are not Kṛṣṇa conscious because they will be very much attached. They will be very much affected when these things happen. So that they don’t come in the temple and cry for some material thing or be emotionally affected. Just give them a little vacation. Okay? Take it easy. Recover that’s just sort of the normal. But if somebody’s already transcendentally situated, understand that my parents haven’t died, they’re still living, they’re very spiritually conscious, then it may not relate so much with them. But in any case, even for devotees, we have to chant 16 rounds every day as far as possible, eat prasāda, and go on with our devotional service.

So that has to continue. Sometimes I arrive someplace and there’s an initiation, and then somebody’s waiting for two years to get initiated or something, and then just at that time, she goes off the altar. So then in India, they will just say, wait till the next time. But sometimes I made some alternative arrangements, like they take their grains and put in a little bowl, and your husband can put them in the… Or some friend can put them in the fire. She’s not doing a direct āhuti, but indirectly she’s doing. So somehow, we make some adjustment, figure out a way to let things go on. So, for us, our priority is the devotional service more than this external. But if you’re living in Nepal, if you live in. If you don’t follow that, then people think you’re as smart as some different environments. Thank you very much.