20071007 Bhagavad-gītā 15.19

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on October 7th, 2007, Johanesburg,South Africa. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavat Gita 15.19.

yo mām evam asammūḍho
jānāti puruṣottamam
sa sarva-vid bhajati māṁ
sarva-bhāvena bhārata

Translation : Whoever knows Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, without doubting, is the knower of everything. He therefore engages himself in full devotional service to Me, O son of Bharata.

Purport: There are many philosophical speculations about the constitutional position of the living entities and the Supreme Absolute Truth. Now in this verse the Supreme Personality of Godhead clearly explains that anyone who knows Lord Kṛṣṇa to be the Supreme Person is actually the knower of everything. The imperfect knower goes on simply speculating about the Absolute Truth, but the perfect knower, without wasting his valuable time, engages directly in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the devotional service of the Supreme Lord. Throughout the whole of Bhagavad-gītā, this fact is being stressed at every step. And still there are so many stubborn commentators on Bhagavad-gītā who consider the Supreme Absolute Truth and the living entities to be one and the same.

Vedic knowledge is called śruti, learning by aural reception. One should actually receive the Vedic message from authorities like Kṛṣṇa and His representatives. Here Kṛṣṇa distinguishes everything very nicely, and one should hear from this source. Simply to hear like the hogs is not sufficient; one must be able to understand from the authorities. It is not that one should simply speculate academically. One should submissively hear from Bhagavad-gītā that these living entities are always subordinate to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Anyone who is able to understand this, according to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, knows the purpose of the Vedas; no one else knows the purpose of the Vedas.

The word bhajati is very significant. In many places the word bhajati is expressed in relationship with the service of the Supreme Lord. If a person is engaged in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness, in the devotional service of the Lord, it is to be understood that he has understood all the Vedic knowledge. In the Vaiṣṇava paramparā it is said that if one is engaged in the devotional service of Kṛṣṇa, then there is no need for any other spiritual process for understanding the Supreme Absolute Truth. He has already come to the point, because he is engaged in the devotional service of the Lord. He has ended all preliminary processes of understanding. But if anyone, after speculating for hundreds of thousands of lives, does not come to the point that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and that one has to surrender there, all his speculation for so many years and lives is a useless waste of time.

Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta Swami Translation and Purport, Chapter 15 Text 19 – the Yoga of the Supreme Person, Puruṣottama-yoga.

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Jayapatākā Swami: So this verse Kṛṣṇa is clarifying everything how he should be understood as the Supreme Personality of Godhead without doubting. In this way, such a person is the knower of everything. So Prabhupāda, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, he stressed that we should also simply try to learn, know Kṛṣṇa, serve Kṛṣṇa, so that we can in this way, know everything. Many people are trying to understand the Absolute Truth, trying to understand God. But very few people actually know, what is the position of the Absolute Truth? Because only the devotees can understand. Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti (Bg 18.55) only devotees know Kṛṣṇa and truth. So somebody who is a devotee may know about Kṛṣṇa. They need to inform the other people. It’s very difficult to understand who Kṛṣṇa is unless you hear from a devotee. So Lord Caitanya wanted His devotees to disseminate the knowledge of Kṛṣṇa. He sent His followers out door-to-door to preach.

Caitanya-bhāgavata, it mentions this verse:

śuna śuna nityānanda, śuna haridāsa
sarvatra āmāra ājñā karaha prakāśa
prati ghare ghare giyā kara ei bhikṣā
‘bala kṛṣṇa, bhaja kṛṣṇa, kara kṛṣṇa-sikṣā’

Understand? Śuna śuna nityānanda, śuna haridāsa – Listen to Me, Haridāsa, Nityānanda. Prati ghare ghare giyā – go to every house and make this prayer, literally beg the people. What to beg them? His order. He had an order. What was His order? Bala-kṛṣṇa, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

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

Bala kṛṣṇa, bhaja kṛṣṇa – to perform devotional service to Kṛṣṇa. Kara kṛṣṇa-sikṣā – śikṣā is a Bengali for śikṣā. Do that... Study the teachings of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Prabhupāda said, there is two kinds of teachings: one is Bhagavad-gītā, which Kṛṣṇa personally spoke; so that is a teaching of Kṛṣṇa and He spoke it. Another one is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which was spoken about Kṛṣṇa. So these are the two main teachings of Kṛṣṇa that we are propagating. So people chant, perform devotional service to Kṛṣṇa and study the teachings of Kṛṣṇa. Then they get a very clear idea about who Kṛṣṇa is and what their relationship is with Kṛṣṇa. So this way, the followers of Lord Caitanya were going out door-to-door and making this prayer to everyone.

Even Lord Nityānanda made this prayer to Jagāi, Mādāi – who are not the normal, peaceful, religious householders that you are asking to lead a holy life and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. They are guṇḍas, riffians, but they were also delivered by Nityānanda and by Gaurāṅga. So Lord Caitanya expected His devotees to spread this message. I am sure all of you are helping. How many were helping in the preaching? Must be more than that. How many help with cooking the Sunday feast? How many help with the Ratha-yātrā? How many help with youth programs, Nāmahaṭṭa programs, Bhakti-vṛkṣa programs? That is less. And everyone should try to help, you can help in so many little ways and big ways. I had a… in the west devotee was a Sanātana… He was here from Canada. He was working here.

Devotees: Sanātana Sevā…

Jayapatākā Swami: Sanātana Sevā, yeah. He came here. He also had some group. Although he had this full work. He moved to [inaudible], although he had a nice place by the airport. He is going to be where the preaching was, so like that. They inspired people, they want to help with the preaching. When his wife was sent to kids to school and she didn’t have anything to do except her housework, she finished that up quickly and then she went out in Middle East and she looked on the condominiums for Indian names. In the Middle East you don’t want to paste to some Mohammed Hussein or something, again... Here we could, but I mean, there you can’t. So then she found an Indian name, knocked on the door and the lady of the house might have been there and arranged a house program.

And later on, with some devotees and her husband, they organized, they came and did a house program and that invited all the other people from the condominium like this. That house program actually, became either Nāmahaṭṭa or Bhakti-vṛkṣa. Before she left the Middle East, she had made 25 groups, alone, single handed. Now she is in Toronto. I heard she made about eight or ten groups there already. She is on the temple board, I heard. So like this somehow, how to find that sometime that we can give the message. It’s… I think the sannyāsīs are going to give the message, or just like Gopāla Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja… does he come here at all in South Africa? He’s told me that last year they distributed over 200,000 Bhagavad-gītā and more than 50% was distributed by the congregation. People working, raising their families from their home. And in Surat, Gujarat, 30,000 Bhagavad-gītās were distributed mainly by the congregation, by home based members of our community.

Actually, in the Ministry we are having a discussion now. Right now, we are called the Ministry of Congregational Development and some are proposing, we should say the Ministry of Community Development, saying that we are trying to build communities of devotees, integrating the devotees who practice from their homes and their support to the temples. So what do you think is better? Community development or congregational development? How many thinks, ‘Congregational’? How many thinks, ‘Community’? I will tell them.

So like that in caitanya-līlā is still going on.

adyāpiha līlā kare gaura-rāya
kona kona bhagyavān dekhibāre pāya

(Caitanya-bhāgavata, Madhya 23.513)

So we can help Lord Caitanya by spreading the message to others. Lord Caitanya was traveling in South India and He stayed in the Kūrmadeśa. Have you been to Kūrmadeśā? Near Visakhapatnam, Two-hour drive from Visakhapatnam. It’s a temple of Kūrmadeva. Who is Kūrma? But what is He look like? What is His form? He is a frog, monkey?

Devotees: Tortoise.

Jayapatākā Swami: Just checking. They say, He is tortoise incarnation, especially removes previous janma-karmas. Once some has some hereditary or previous birth bad karma, then He removes. This is His specialty. They sell little Kūrma amulets, like Narasiṁha amulets. But these are Kūrmas wear on your neck.

Lord Caitanya was there and this Deity everyone originally thought He was a Śiva-liṅga and He was being worshipped by Śiva devotees, but then Rāmānujācārya was allegedly thrown there by Jagannātha. Some say he was thrown to Māyāpur, met Lord Caitanya, and then He got transferred over to Kūrmadeśa. And he said, it is not a Śiva-liṅga because He got a head and four legs. Śiva-liṅgas don’t have heads and legs, it is a Kūrma, Viṣṇu form. So then his followers are still doing there pūjā.

So Lord Caitanya 500 years ago went to that place and He was staying in the house of a brāhmaṇa. Every day He would go and spend somewhere, stay with the brāhmaṇa, take prasāda; and then sometimes He would take prasāda with some other devotee Vaiṣṇava. Then in the early morning, around 7’O clock, He would go, after His morning duties and go on to the prayers and everything, go to the next place. So just before He left, this brāhmaṇa said, “You see, I got a house, I got car, I got money, I have everything, I have a wife, I have cows. So I have a society or position in society. And I am still not happy. So what I want is let me… I just want to give up all this and go walking with you like a sannyāsī.” “You are volunteering or what?” Well, if you would have, Lord Caitanya told this brāhmaṇa that I never want to hear such words from you again. It is not proper for gṛhasthas to just leave their responsibilities, leave their family. This is a kind of monkey renunciation. Monkeys look very renounced, but they are not renounced, they are bhogīs, they are enjoyers.