20080509 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.3.28

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on May 9, 2008 in Balarāmadeśa. The lecture begins with the reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam canto one, chapter three, text twenty-eight.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram
hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.3.28.

ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ
kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam
indrāri-vyākulaṁ lokaṁ
mṛḍayanti yuge yuge

Translation: All of the above-mentioned incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the original Personality of Godhead. All of them appear on planets whenever there is a disturbance created by the atheists. The Lord incarnates to protect the theists.

Purport: In this particular stanza Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead, is distinguished from other incarnations. He is counted amongst the avatāras (incarnations) because out of His causeless mercy the Lord descends from His transcendental abode. Avatāra means “one who descends.” All the incarnations of the Lord, including the Lord Himself, descend to the different planets of the material world as also in different species of life to fulfill particular missions. Sometimes He comes Himself, and sometimes His different plenary portions or parts of the plenary portions, or His differentiated portions directly or indirectly empowered by Him, descend to this material world to execute certain specific functions. Originally the Lord is full of all opulences, all prowess, all fame, all beauty, all knowledge and all renunciation. When they are partly manifested through the plenary portions or parts of the plenary portions, it should be noted that certain manifestations of His different powers are required for those particular functions. When in the room small electric bulbs are displayed, it does not mean that the electric powerhouse is limited by the small bulbs. The same powerhouse can supply power to operate large-scale industrial dynamos with greater volts. Similarly, the incarnations of the Lord display limited powers because so much power is needed at that particular time.

For example, Lord Paraśurāma and Lord Nṛsiṁha displayed unusual opulence by killing the disobedient kṣatriyas twenty-one times and killing the greatly powerful atheist Hiraṇyakaśipu. Hiraṇyakaśipu was so powerful that even the demigods in other planets would tremble simply by the unfavorable raising of his eyebrow. The demigods in the higher level of material existence many, many times excel the most well-to-do human beings in duration of life, beauty, wealth, paraphernalia and all other respects. Still they were afraid of Hiraṇyakaśipu. Thus we can simply imagine how powerful Hiraṇyakaśipu was in this material world. But even Hiraṇyakaśipu was cut into small pieces by the nails of Lord Nṛsiṁha. This means that anyone materially powerful cannot stand the strength of the Lord’s nails. Similarly, Jāmadagnya displayed the Lord’s power to kill all the disobedient kings powerfully situated in their respective states. The Lord’s empowered incarnation Nārada and plenary incarnation Varāha, as well as indirectly empowered Lord Buddha, created faith in the mass of people. The incarnations of Rāma and Dhanvantari displayed His fame, and Balarāma, Mohinī and Vāmana exhibited His beauty. Dattātreya, Matsya, Kumāra and Kapila exhibited His transcendental knowledge. Nara and Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣis exhibited His renunciation. So all the different indirectly or directly empowered incarnations of the Lord manifested different features, but Lord Kṛṣṇa, the primeval Lord, exhibited the complete features of Godhead, and thus it is confirmed that He is the source of all other incarnations. And the most extraordinary feature exhibited by Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa was His internal energetic manifestation of His pastimes with the cowherd girls. His pastimes with the gopīs are all displays of transcendental existence, bliss and knowledge, although these are manifested apparently as sex love. The specific attraction of His pastimes with the gopīs should never be misunderstood. The Bhāgavatam relates these transcendental pastimes in the Tenth Canto. And in order to reach the position to understand the transcendental nature of Lord Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes with the gopīs, the Bhāgavatam promotes the student gradually in nine other cantos.

According to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī’s statement, in accordance with authoritative sources, Lord Kṛṣṇa is the source of all other incarnations. It is not that Lord Kṛṣṇa has any source of incarnation. All the symptoms of the Supreme Truth in full are present in the person of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and in the Bhagavad-gītā the Lord emphatically declares that there is no truth greater than or equal to Himself. In this stanza the word svayam is particularly mentioned to confirm that Lord Kṛṣṇa has no other source than Himself. Although in other places the incarnations are described as bhagavān because of their specific functions, nowhere are they declared to be the Supreme Personality. In this stanza the word svayam signifies the supremacy as the summum bonum.

The summum bonum Kṛṣṇa is one without a second. He Himself has expanded Himself in various parts, portions and particles as svayaṁ-rūpa, svayam-prakāśa, tad-ekātmā, prābhava, vaibhava, vilāsa, avatāra, āveśa, and jīvas, all provided with innumerable energies just suitable to the respective persons and personalities. Learned scholars in transcendental subjects have carefully analyzed the summum bonum Kṛṣṇa to have sixty-four principal attributes. All the expansions or categories of the Lord possess only some percentages of these attributes. But Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the possessor of the attributes cent percent. And His personal expansions such as svayam-prakāśa and tad-ekātmā, up to the categories of the avatāras who are all viṣṇu-tattva, possess up to ninety-three percent of these transcendental attributes. Lord Śiva, who is neither avatāra nor āveśa nor in between them, possesses almost eighty-four percent of the attributes. But the jīvas, or the individual living beings in different statuses of life, possess up to the limit of seventy-eight percent of the attributes. In the conditioned state of material existence, the living being possesses these attributes in very minute quantity, varying in terms of the pious life of the living being. The most perfect of living beings is Brahmā, the supreme administrator of one universe. He possesses seventy-eight percent of the attributes in full. All other demigods have the same attributes in less quantity, whereas human beings possess the attributes in very minute quantity. The standard of perfection for a human being is to develop the attributes up to seventy-eight percent in full. The living being can never possess attributes like Śiva, Viṣṇu or Lord Kṛṣṇa. A living being can become godly by developing the seventy-eight-percent transcendental attributes in fullness, but he can never become a God like Śiva, Viṣṇu or Kṛṣṇa. He can become a Brahmā in due course. The godly living beings who are all residents of the planets in the spiritual sky are eternal associates of God in different spiritual planets called Hari-dhāma and Maheśa-dhāma. The abode of Lord Kṛṣṇa above all spiritual planets is called Kṛṣṇaloka or Goloka Vṛndāvana, and the perfected living being, by developing seventy-eight percent of the above attributes in fullness, can enter the planet of Kṛṣṇaloka after leaving the present material body.

* * *

Jayapatākā Swami: [Aside: We have the... where is the Bengali translation taking place? Those who want the Bengali translation go to the back. Where is the Hindi translation happening? Malayam? He says all Malayalis understand English. Those Malayalis who do not understand English, raise your hand. (laughter) See, nobody raised their hand. Tamil Translation? Okay]. Theists mean devotees. [Aside: Who is a devotee here? Who is trying to be a devotee?] (laughter) Well, we won’t be able to read all the purport, too long.

What does avatāra mean? From where? From the Viṣṇuloka, from the spiritual world. When in the room small electric bulbs are displayed, it does not mean that the electric powerhouse is limited by the small bulbs. Here we may have small bulbs, or we may have this—some lighting up in the ceiling, is that the maximum capacity of the powerhouse? I drove by the Bahrain stadium. They have a big light. They could light up the whole stadium, field, whatever. I do not know what sport they were playing. In India, in a cricket match, one of the stadiums, the lights failed. That is another topic. The powerhouse can light up the whole city. So like that, Kṛṣṇa has unlimited power. But He manifests an incarnation, plenary or part of a plenary portion, with just enough power that they need. But Kṛṣṇa has got unlimited power. The same powerhouse can supply power to operate large-scale industry dynamos with greater volts. Similarly, incarnations of the Lord display limited powers because so much power is needed at that particular time. So like this, very long three–four page purport. So you get the idea. There are many different incarnations. They come yuge yuge (every yuga). A plenary portion means some avatāra that has almost similar power like Kṛṣṇa. And a part of a plenary portion is a part of that – very powerful. A differentiated avatāra means an individual soul who is empowered by Kṛṣṇa to do something. He is called an empowered incarnation or śaktyāveśa-avatāra.

There are all different kinds of avatāras with different levels of power and different purposes. The Deity is considered an arcā-avatāra—an empowered Deity form, worshipable form of the Lord. Some of the Deities are more powerful than others. Like in Tiruvananthapuram you have Ananta Padmanābhadeva. He is always lying and resting. And He has the Brahmā coming out from His navel. It is said there the Lord is always resting.

Different avatāras are doing different līlās. Ananta Padmanābhadeva is resting. In Jagannātha Purī, He is always eating cappanna-bhoga. In Vṛndāvana, He is always in a childhood pastime. In Dvārakā He is in a kingly pastime. In Badarinātha He is meditating. In Māyāpura, He is in the devotee pastime. So, like that, in different forms He is doing different līlās. The original Personality of Godhead, the original form, is Kṛṣṇa. Very important. Many people get confused—who is the original form. But here it says very carefully, very clearly: kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (ŚB 1.3.28).

All the other avatāras are parts of Kṛṣṇa. The avatāras are coming from that spiritual world. In this material world there are different devas and devīs who are—I remember hearing in the class this afternoon—they are very faithful servitors and devotees of the Lord, of Lord Kṛṣṇa. So they manage the universe. In other religions, they call them as angels. We call them as devas or in English, demigods. The devas, they are responsible for each universe. In each universe there is one Brahmā for each universe. Therefore, universe is called a brahmāṇḍa. The different forms of Pārvatī, the energy of the material nature—Durgā, she is for the whole material energy. She is very powerful.

daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī
mama māyā duratyayā
māmeva ye prapadyante
māyām etāṁ taranti te
(Bg. 7.14)

She is like the prison house keeper. If you want to have nice facilities in this prison house, then by worshipping Durgā, she can give you a better facility. Just like if you are in the prison, if you know the jailkeeper, he can maybe give you a little better bed or let you have a mobile phone. But you are still in the prison. Jailkeeper cannot relieve you or let you go until you get a release from the court or a pardon from the governor or something. Very hard to get out of this material world.

daivī hi eṣā guṇa-mayī
mama māyā duratyayā
mām eva ye prapadyante
māyām etām taranti te
(Bg. 7.14).

daivī hi eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā, mām eva ye prapadyante, but Kṛṣṇa said, “But those who surrender to Me, māyām etām taranti te, I deliver them from this material world of birth and death. That is why we are recommending that we should surrender to Kṛṣṇa because Kṛṣṇa is recommending in Bhagavad-gītā: māmeva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te, I deliver them out from the material world.

Even the devas, they can go out when Brahmā’s life is over. Some can go to Brahmaloka and go back to Godhead with Lord Brahmā. But the devotees of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, devotees of Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, they can get back to Godhead even in this lifetime. When you are going back, the devas offer their praṇāma congratulations. You go beyond where they can go. That is why many devotees of Lord Caitanya commented that this Kali-yuga, some people call it to be a very unhappy, very difficult, irreligious, lousy yuga. But if you want to get back to Godhead, this yuga is very good. It is in this short life—how many years we live, 50, 60, 70, 100 years—if we are Kṛṣṇa conscious, we can get back. In other yugas, it takes thousands of years.

In the Bhāgavatam, Śukadeva Gosvāmī says:

kaler doṣa-nidhe rājan
asti hy eko mahān guṇaḥ
kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya
mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet
(ŚB 12.3.51)

Kaler doṣa-nidhe rājan, that this Age of Kali is an ocean of defects. Asti hy eko mahān guṇaḥ—but it has one good quality. But that one good quality is so good that if you have the paṭala, the scale, you put the good quality one side, all the rotten qualities on the other, still the good quality is more heavy. What is that one good quality? Kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya, chanting kṛṣṇa-kīrtana,

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

So like this, we are chanting here. All the youths, and some of the older than youths or the older youths, they are chanting and dancing, feeling spiritual bliss. You too? So in this way, mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet—we get liberated from that conditioning of the material world. And we can be delivered to the spiritual abode.

Even Lord Caitanya, there was Śivānanda Sena, he was taking the devotees from Bengal down to Jagannātha Purī every year, taking care of them, getting them over the rivers by hiring the ferries, arranging food for them, arranging where they could stay. One year it said there was a dog that came along with a party of devotees. Since the dog joined the party, he took the dog as one of my wards. I had to take care. So he asked the boatman, could he take the dog across. He said, “You have to pay. Dog is half price.” “Okay”, he paid even for the dog. Sometimes the dog would get lost. He had to send out a group of devotees to find the dog, bring him back. So Śivānanda Sena was taking care of all the party members, even the dog. When they got close to Jagannātha Purī, the dog disappeared. When they arrived in the presence of Lord Caitanya, they saw there the dog was sitting. Lord Caitanya was eating some coconut (nārikela), take a bite and throw it to the dog. He was getting Lord Caitanya’s mahā-prasāda. How many of you would like to get prasāda? Practice. So then that dog, because of getting the prasāda from Lord Caitanya, went back to Godhead. So like the Lord Caitanya, because Śivānanda Sena, he was a devotee, he gave some mercy even to a dog. Therefore, He also gave mercy to the dog. That is why we want to get mercy from Śrīla Prabhupāda. Śrīla Prabhupāda has this merciful glance on us. Then we can know that also Lord Caitanya, He will also bless us. He sings that song Ohe Vaiṣṇava Ṭhākura: “ohe! vaiṣṇava ṭhākura, dayāra sāgara, e dāse karuṇā kara”, “You can give Kṛṣṇa. Give us your Kṛṣṇa. Give us your blessing.” So side by side, while we are doing our duties—some are students, their duty is to study. Some are here as gṛhasthas, their duty is take care of their family, do their gṛhastha duties. According to their particular role. Some are men, some are women. Some are what they call bachelors, temporarily maybe separated from their family.

So gṛhe thāko, vane thāko, sadā ‘hari’ bole’ ḍāko—whether we are in a household life or whether we are in a student life, we should all chant.

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

So, gṛhasthas have—Prabhupāda called it—a license. They can have children and they can bring up the children to be devotees. How many of the children here want to be devotees? The youths – see, they are brought up very well by their parents. Seems, they want to be devotees. This is a service only the gṛhasthas can do, sannyāsīs and brahmacārīs, we cannot do this service. Glory is to the gṛhasthas. They are holding the future for the future generation. So we learned that Kṛṣṇa is the original Personality of Godhead. We hear about Him, to hear about His pastimes, His glories. This purifies us. This is one way of associating with the Lord.

How many of you been to the Navadvīpa parikramā? Very few. From Dāmodara-deśa they plan ahead to go to the Navadvīpa parikramā. It is one week. So Gulf Air also flies Bahrain to Calcutta. So that I do not know how many days a week. But sometime they fly. And Emirates flies also every day. So, one can get a flight and go straight to Calcutta and go out for one week on the Navadvīpa parikramā. There are how many islands? Nine. You know them by heart? “Sīmantadvīpa, Godrumadvīpa, Madhyadvīpa, Koladvīpa, Ṛtudvīpa, Jahnudvīpa, Rudradvīpa, Modadrumadvīpa, Antardvīpa” – Navadvīpa dhāma.

So each of these islands are connected to nine practices of devotional service. In the Sīmantadvīpa it says that there Pārvatī came and worshiped Lord Caitanya. She was in Kailāsa with Lord Śiva and Lord Śiva was chanting, “Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga!” and Pārvatī, she wanted to know what is it that her husband was chanting. And he explained—“In Kali-yuga, Lord Kṛṣṇa descends as His own devotee, and He gives out the mercy of love of Kṛṣṇa freely to those who are qualified and to those who are not qualified. He does not discriminate: you should get, you should not get. He gives everyone the mercy without prejudice.”

Who wants to get the mercy of Lord Caitanya? Did not hear a loud “Gaurāṅga”? That was more convincing. And Pārvatī, she wanted to get also the mercy. “How can I get the mercy of love for Godhead?” “You go to Navadvīpa and there you chant Gaurāṅga’s name. He can give you the mercy also.” So, she came down to Navadvīpa-dhāma and it happened that the area she was in is part of the first island. And she began to chant, “Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga!”

Gaurāṅga appeared to Pārvatī. He said, “What is it you want?” See, if you somehow invoke the Lord to come, then He asks you for blessings, to give you a blessing. What blessing you want? The Lord is known as Varadā or Varadarāja—one who gives out blessings. Normally for us, we do not have to worry too much because very rare He appears. But if someone, such a great devotee like Pārvatī, then He appeared very quickly and asked what blessing did she want.

Why was she praying for Him? So then she said, “I heard about Your glories from my husband Lord Śiva, that You are the most merciful of all the avatāras. That You are giving freely love for Godhead. I am Your devotee. I am viṣṇu-śakti. I am Your energy. I am Nārāyaṇī, Vaiṣṇavī. Will I be the only one not to get Your mercy? Everyone gets Your mercy of kṛṣṇa-prema, but me—the devotees, they do not want to associate. They call me the witch Māyā. ‘Stay away from Māyā.’ Have you ever heard that? So I do not get association from the devotees. So how will I get this mercy from You? Please give me the mercy of kṛṣṇa-prema.”

So, then Lord Kṛṣṇa Caitanya said, “Tathāstu, so be it. I grant you.” Then He explained that you are not different from Rādhārāṇī. Rādhārāṇī is ādi-śakti. She is the original energy. You are her expansion. So, she is full of kṛṣṇa-prema. And Lord Caitanya gave Pārvatī the blessing that she could understand kṛṣṇa-prema. She realized herself as a part of Rādhārāṇī. She became overwhelmed with kṛṣṇa-prema in Navadvīpa dhāma. And she took some dust from the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya and put it in her hair, where the ladies wear the sindūra. That place is called sīmanta—the place of residence of Lakṣmī. Because Pārvatī put the dust of Lord Caitanya’s feet in her hair in her sīmanta, the island became known as Sīmantadvīpa. Like that, each of the nine islands has got many different pastimes and different glories and significances to them. So, if you join the Navadvīpa parikramā, then you can also experience many of the unlimited glories of the Navadvīpa dhāma.

Because Dāmodara deśa, many devotees are coming. So just at some time, if you plan it, you could also come. They go for the one week and they come back. In fact, even they sponsor one day prasāda. They sponsor the tender coconuts—in Bengali they call ḍāb—for the devotees. So like this, if you are interested, you can think about it sometime. I also have a slideshow of taking devotees around the nine islands. If you want to go on a virtual parikramā, but it takes a couple days, I might have to spend here more time. You might not like that. You like it?

So sometimes people question why, there are four Vaiṣṇava sampradāyas Rudra-sampradāya, Lakṣmī-sampradāya, Brahmā-sampradāya, the four Kumāras-sampradāya. The Lakṣmī, Śrī-sampradāya, worship Nārāyaṇa as Supreme. All the other sampradāyas, accept Kṛṣṇa as Supreme. Śrī-sampradāya thinks that Kṛṣṇa is one of the forms of Nārāyaṇa, but we consider Nārāyaṇa as one of the plenary portions of Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise, we have similar understanding, slight differences. So, we hope all the devotees, they take the shelter of Kṛṣṇa, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, worship Kṛṣṇa. Lord Caitanya said, “bala kṛṣṇa, bhaja-kṛṣṇa, kara-kṛṣṇa-śikṣā,” chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, read the teachings of Kṛṣṇa, and worship Kṛṣṇa. How many are worshipping Kṛṣṇa in their homes? Very nice, thank you, dhanyavād. So, we have many Kṛṣṇa worshippers here.

So, it is important to read also, because we get a good foundation. People ask you, “Why you worship Kṛṣṇa?” You say,

ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ
kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam
indrāri-vyākulaṁ lokaṁ
mṛḍayanti yuge yuge
[ŚB 1.3.28]

This is Kṛṣṇa, He is bhagavān svayam, others are portions of Krsna. Paraśara Muni did a study of all the different avatāras, all different devas, so he found that, the 64 qualities could be categorised. Of course, unlimited but you could categorise them in 64. So, Lord Brahmā had 50, Śiva had 55, Viṣṇu had 60 but only Kṛṣṇa had 64, therefore, his conclusion was Kṛṣṇa is pūrṇa bhagavān, svayam bhagavān. Just as, Vyāsadeva has mentioned here.

I thank you all for your chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. Very happy to be here again. Many people ask me, when I will come again? I am not sure but I am to come here few times a year, few means usually three. Minimum. How many times you want me to come here every year? The whole year. Some are saying the whole year. You don’t want to give any mercy to anyone else? You are very greedy. (laughter) I have to share the mercy with others also. So, we will try to come here as often as possible. So, thank you all very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Today, we had a ceremony of initiation, we had... who took initiation today? Raise your hand. Who took shelter, guru-āśraya? Who took aspirant? So many out here. Let’s give everyone that took today one of these levels here. Who took second initiation? So, let’s give them all a blessing by saying, ‘Haribol’ three times. ‘Haribol! Haribol! Haribol!’ What about the devotees who took aspiring previously? Who is already aspiring from before? Let’s give them a blessing. ‘Haribol! Haribol! Haribol!’ I hope everyone keeps moving up, taking shelter of guru and Kṛṣṇa and thus they can get the mercy of Lord Caitanya in this short lifetime. Hare Kṛṣṇa.