20080615 Bhagavad-gītā 7.26

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on June 15^th, 2008 in Towaco, New Jersey, USA. The lecture begins with the reading from Bhagavad-gītā, chapter seven, text twenty-six.

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

Bhagavad-gītā 7.26

vedāhaṁ samatītāni
vartamānāni cārjuna
bhaviṣyāṇi ca bhūtāni
māṁ tu veda na kaścana

Translation: O Arjuna, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, I know everything that has happened in the past, all that is happening in the present, and all things that are yet to come. I also know all living entities; but Me no one knows.

Purport: Here the question of personality and impersonality is clearly stated. If Kṛṣṇa, the form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, were māyā, material, as the impersonalists consider Him to be, then like the living entity He would change His body and forget everything about His past life. Anyone with a material body cannot remember his past life, nor can he foretell his future life, nor can he predict the outcome of his present life; therefore he cannot know what is happening in past, present and future. Unless one is liberated from material contamination, he cannot know past, present and future.

Unlike the ordinary human being, Lord Kṛṣṇa clearly says that He completely knows what happened in the past, what is happening in the present, and what will happen in the future. In the Fourth Chapter we have seen that Lord Kṛṣṇa remembers instructing Vivasvān, the sun-god, millions of years ago. Kṛṣṇa knows every living entity because He is situated in every living being’s heart as the Supersoul. But despite His presence in every living entity as Supersoul and His presence as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the less intelligent, even if able to realize the impersonal Brahman, cannot realize Śrī Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Person. Certainly the transcendental body of Śrī Kṛṣṇa is not perishable. He is just like the sun, and māyā is like a cloud. In the material world we can see that there is the sun and that there are clouds and different stars and planets. The clouds may cover all these in the sky temporarily, but this covering is only apparent to our limited vision. The sun, moon and stars are not actually covered. Similarly, māyā cannot cover the Supreme Lord. By His internal potency He is not manifest to the less intelligent class of men. As it is stated in the third verse of this chapter, out of millions and millions of men, some try to become perfect in this human form of life, and out of thousands and thousands of such perfected men, hardly one can understand what Lord Kṛṣṇa is. Even if one is perfected by realization of impersonal Brahman or localized Paramātmā, he cannot possibly understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, without being in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

* * *

Jayapatākā Swami: So, here Kṛṣṇa is explaining that he knows everything, past, present and future. So, in the material world there are fallible living entities who they do not know exactly what is going on in this material world. Therefore, they are under the illusion of the material world. And the Lord, sometimes He enters into this material world as an avatāra, descending from the spiritual world, or He sends His expansion or His empowered devotee or ācārya to deliver the conditioned souls.

He came down in the form of a devotee to give love of Godhead to everyone and spread the saṅkīrtana movement. What is the name of that incarnation, that avatāra,

Devotee: Caitanya!

Jayapatākā Swami: Who said ‘Caitanya’? Raise your hand. Let me see who said ‘Caitanya’? Are you sure? If you are really sure, raise both hands. You are right. Okay, give him a big hand. They were very afraid there. “Am I sure?” Why so much fear? He is the bhakta-avatāra. He is the Personality of Godhead as a devotee came to give us this mercy, which was never achieved before. It was very confidential, but He is giving it to all of us. Just as Kṛṣṇa told Arjuna, “You have the free will. If you want to fight, you can fight. If you do not want to fight, you do not have to fight. It is your choice but even if you do not fight, I am still going to see that everybody in this battlefield perishes.”

We are trying to come here. Go quickly. But we saw that the turnpike was very crowded, so went by 286. But always this GPS is no matter what you do it is recalculating. Somehow it will get you to where you have to go, right? It is kind of a perverted reflection. Kṛṣṇa, He knows all the routes, past, present and future. He will get you there. So, like this we are trying to take shelter of the Lord. But in different ages there were different processes of sacrifice,

kṛte yad dhyāyato viṣṇuṁ
tretāyāṁ yajato makhaiḥ
dvāpare paricaryāyāṁ
kalau tad hari-kīrtanāt
(ŚB 12.3.52)

In Kṛta-yuga which means Satya-yuga, the process was meditation. In the Tretā-yuga, it was homas, the fire sacrifice. Dvāpara-yuga, it was a temple worship with lots of jewels and gold. Prabhupāda told us not to use jewels and gold on our Deities because then people will be tempted to steal it. Sometimes somebody gives on some special day we put on but this is the danger. Kali-yuga, Kali-yuga the process: kalau tad hari-kīrtanāt. Kali-yuga, it is hari-kīrtana, chanting,

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

But like I want to apologize for being late. I was giving the Sunday program at Central New Jersey, and they put exactly tight, tight program every... no gap. But there is also traffic and unavoidable things. So, they said, we had be here in one hour. We left about 5:15. We still took an hour and a half. So, very tight program. Need to be a little grace between each program to make it. But anyway, really happy to be here. But I see that even though I am late, I saw a few people leaving.

Temple is packed. So, I hear we are going to have a new temple. It is our plan and then we can have. It is not that we do temple worship. We do chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa, just like we do kīrtana while doing the ārati we dance, but also you need a good hall so you can accommodate many people. In Māyāpur we are building a Temple of Vedic Planetarium, supposed to hold many more people. So, sometimes it is needed.

So Lord Kṛṣṇa, He gave us advice like that. When Lord Caitanya came, He did not come with weapons, or violence. He came with weapons of love. His personal beauty, His humility, His mṛdaṅgas, karatālas, devotees. Weapons of love to win over the conditioned souls. And so many of you have been attracted by Lord Caitanya. When He was personally present, He was attracting everyone. He predicted:

pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma
sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma
[CB Antya 4.126]

In the whole world My message will be sung in every town and village.

Just as Kṛṣṇa in the battlefield of Kurukṣetra, He had His plan. If Arjuna did not surrender, if he exercised his free will in a different way, He had some other route how He would get there. Lord Caitanya, He has His plan. And the Caitanya-maṅgala had said, He is going to send, He is going to preach all over India and spread the harināma-saṅkīrtana. But for later, He is going to send one of His senāpati-bhaktas. Senāpati literally means general, some kind of leading, commanding devotee who is going to come and spread the saṅkīrtana movement, he said, “In the Western countries, wherever I missed out.”

So Prabhupāda always said he was ordered by his guru to preach in the West. But when he saw India going to plot, going to hell, he said, we do not want to see it go to hell. People are leaving their own culture, so we want to encourage them to practice their culture. So he said, “I was ordered to preach in the West, but I had to also do something in India because nobody else is doing it. That is why he established. Now we have about 75 branches India, big temples and all of them big metros. But his main mandate was he had to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness in the West, East or West. The Caitanya-caritāmṛta says that to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness, to spread the saṅkīrtana movement:

kalikālera dharma — kṛṣṇa-nāma-saṅkīrtana
kṛṣṇa-śakti vinā nahe tāra pravartana
[Cc. Antya 7.11]

That in Kali-yuga, the harināma-saṅkīrtana is the yuga-dharma. And to spread that, it is not just easy, it is not ordinarily possible unless you are empowered by Kṛṣṇa. The fact that Prabhupāda came to the West, established 108 temples and established our Kṛṣṇa conscious movement, ISKCON movement all over the world in a short, like 10-12 years, was not an accident. He was empowered by Lord Kṛṣṇa. Not only that, as he knew how to adapt things so they would work in the West.

We heard that Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura was saying he chant 64 rounds. But later we heard that actually that was for his pūjārīs, but for the preachers, he said, “Be always engaged in Kṛṣṇa’s service and chant sixteen rounds.” So Prabhupāda, when he came here, he saw that Westerners and people living in the West live very fast life. They are not able to sit down and chant for eight hours, japa. So, he used the second option of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura: sixteen rounds and keep busy in service. Even that is difficult for many people, but at least it is possible. Yesterday was Ekādaśī. How many chanted 64 rounds? One! Got one here. What is your name? Yaśomatī. You spent the whole day in the temple?

Every day… 64. So, yes for pūjārīs, for people living in the temple it could be possible. But if you are going to the Ratha-yātrā, if you are going to do, then the other option is more possible. So, Prabhupāda gave us that as a minimum— sixteen rounds and do the service, like that. He adapted everything according to what is the best for the modern age. So, we need to really take shelter of Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Because Śrīla Prabhupāda gave us a system that if we practice, he promised us He will get us back to Godhead. And I thought when I heard this when I was a new devotee. I went to India in 1970. Then I expected to see all the sādhus in India are chanting 64 rounds. You know, we are just all sixteen rounders. Then I found they are only chanting four rounds. That ISKCON has come up a lot more than they said. Even they are having discussion. Why do not we get them up to the ISKCON standard and chant sixteen? “Oh, come on. That is too difficult now.” Things have changed now in the whole world. Probably ISKCON has one of the highest standards, if not the highest. Most people, they are not chanting sixteen rounds, and they are not staying busy in the service. So, you have a very good shelter under Prabhupāda’s feet. Do not allow yourself to get detoured from Prabhupāda’s feet. That is the safe place.

And one thing, this is the Seventh Chapter. You know, the glories of the Seventh Chapter. You want to hear? Take a few minutes longer than my time. But you see, there was a very rich man. This is told by Lord Śiva to Pārvatī. The glories of the Seventh Chapter from Padma Purāṇa. Lord Śiva, he said that there was a rich man, he was doing a business, but he was a miser. He was not buying sārīs for his wife, clothes for his children, very minimum food. He was not giving any money to the temple, no kind of spiritual. He just making money and he was burying it in the ground.

One day he was traveling and he got a heart attack and died. Nobody knew where the money was buried. So, his family was also. Although he is a multi-millionaire, nobody knows where he buried all the gold. So, they are all in poverty. When he was taken to Yamarāja, Yamarāja said, “You had so much opportunity, so much money. You did not use it for any good purpose. You did not build any temple, you did not give any feed any people, kṛṣṇa-prasāda, did not do anything spiritual, did not even take care of your family very well. You are so much attached to your money. So your next birth you can become a snake, a cobra, and live in a hole next to your money and enjoy it every day. You can touch your money, all that gold and jewels in the hole, the snake hole.” From multi-millionaire to snake, what do you think? Karma, infallible law of karma.

So like this his sons did śrāddha, did the different kinds of ceremonies. But after a year or so, or maybe a little more, he came in the dream of his four sons: “I have taken birth as a snake guarding the money. If you get me out of this hellish condition, I will give you all the money.” The four brothers got together, told they had a dream. They were surprised. Each one had the same dream. That seemed to confirm it. It must be true. Everybody is having the same dream. So older brother said, “What are we going to do?” He was kind of spaced out. Really did not know. “We have to do something, you know. Father, is it true?”

I mean, it is like the second brother was very emotional type. “Oh, my father became a snake. Oh no, a snake — that is horrible.” Then the third brother, he was a good son. He said that, “We should, whatever it is, whether our father did, we did not do. He was our father. He helped us so many ways. Let us try to save him.” The fourth brother was greedy. He thought, “I think I know where my father buried the money. I get one day I can steal all the money, and we take it for ourselves and run away, and I will have it all.” Was he a nice guy? How would you describe him? Greedy, selfish, rajasic.

So, then the fourth brother, he said, “Okay, look it, I agree with the third brother. We should help our father. This is our duty. So let us take one day break, think about what we can do for our father and meet here tomorrow.” When it is discussed right there. But he wanted to get one day at a time. Midnight that night he woke up his wife handed her a shovel. He took her digging instruments. “I think I know where the money is buried. Let us go.” They went out with a lantern. They started to dig.

The snake came. “I am going to kill you. You want to steal the money?” He was quick-thinking. “No, no, Father. I just wanted to see you. We love you, Father.”

“Why you are coming at midnight? Where are the other brothers?”

“Well, I was not sure where you were. I just want to test it first.”

“You are just like me. You are greedy, selfish like I was. I did not do anything for Kṛṣṇa. I did not do anything for anybody. You want to steal the money and take it? So, I should kill you?”

“No, no, no. I want to help you, Father. Just tell me what we have to do. We will help you.”

He said, “All right. On the next day of my death anniversary, during my śrāddha.”

“We have done so many śrāddhas, Father.”

“No. But it did not work. I was too sinful. You have to get a devotee to read the seventh chapter — Bhagavad-gītā, seventh chapter.” Bhagavad-gītā kī jaya! “You read it, chant it and offer all the results to my departed soul. The seventh chapter of Bhagavad-gītā is so powerful, it will liberate me from this curse.”

“All right. I will go and tell the other brothers.”

He went back, told the other brothers. They prepared everything. On the death anniversary day, they had a pure devotee — have any volunteers here? Pure devotees — to chant the seventh chapter. He chanted the seventh chapter and offered all the results to the departed soul of the father. Father was instantly liberated from the curse of his birth as a snake, he came back to his human form — but in a subtle, spiritual, effulgent form. He took all the gold and jewels and brought and gave to his children.

First, he said, “I want to talk to you. I wasted my life. Don’t you waste your life. When you get this money, do something good with it, build a temple, distribute kṛṣṇa-prasāda, finance the preaching of Bhagavad-gītā, do something constructive, do not just spend it all on sense gratification. Use what you need. Do something for Kṛṣṇa and read Bhagavad-gītā, especially the seventh chapter.”

Then he distributed the wealth to the children and the family members. And he was taken by Viṣṇudūtas back to Godhead. So powerful was that reading — not only liberated from the curse, it liberated him from this material world. After that, his children, they used their money wisely. They invested a part of it, they built temples, they did holy works, kṛṣṇa-sevā, and all of them also read the Bhagavad-gītā, and all of them went back to Godhead.

We need to keep a portion of whatever we earn for kṛṣṇa-sevā. That is our insurance policy — eternal insurance, spiritual insurance. We may not know what the future is, but Kṛṣṇa knows. But if we are — Kṛṣṇa says:

daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī
mama māyā duratyayā
mām eva ye prapadyante
māyām etāṁ taranti te
[Bg. 7.14]

“Getting over this material world is very difficult. Very, very difficult — duratyayā, mām eva ye prapadyante – but those who surrender to Me, māyām etāṁ taranti te, I deliver them over this māyā, take them back to Godhead.”

So how many of you decided you want to take shelter of Kṛṣṇa this lifetime? Gaurāṅga! Nityānanda! Hare Kṛṣṇa! Govinda! Gopāla! This Deity, Śrīnāthajī is actually our sampradāya’s Deity because He was discovered by our previous guru, Mādhavendra Purī. Mādhavendra Purī went down to get sandalwood to bathe Him. Went down to Jagannātha Purī. The king of Utkala gave him sandalwood. He came back. He got an order from Gopāla: “Give it to the Gopīnātha Deity at Remuṇā.”

So, he took so much trouble to travel with a huge valuable. Even now sandalwood is very valuable. Cheapest wholesale price in India — somewhere between 25,000 to 100,000 rupees a kilo, wholesale India. In the West, much more. Little bottle like this, 15 bucks diluted like anything. Because we just bathed in our Nṛsiṁhadeva. So we bought 2, 300 grams of sandalwood, about half kilo. We bought so many different essential oils. Bathed Nṛsiṁhadeva with pure essential oils — aṣṭa-gandha and puṣpa-gandha.

Aṣṭa-gandha is eight medicinals including sandalwood, aguru, musk, saffron, camphor. Those are — camphor is cheapest. But we cannot use too much. So then other — chadhamāmsi, rocanā — this aguru is something like 4 to 8 lakhs of rupees a kilo. Just put in a little bit, very expensive oils. So that we put all the eight oils to give Nṛsiṁhadeva a cooling, refreshing.

And then we have different oils from essential flowers like lotus flower oil, jasmine, mālatī, mogrā, lavender, patchouli, geranium. Different kinds of oils. Usually put rose oil. But this year I do not think we found rose, not a good quality. So like that we have another oil, we bathe Nṛsiṁhadeva — all flowers.

So later on how many of you would like some of this oil. I give you free. A little bit on your hand to put on your head. Anybody want? I cannot guarantee you will be able to take birth again after you put the oil on your head. He may just take you back, end of this life.

So then Nāthajī was being worshipped by some followers of Mādhavendra Purī. But then in a temple in Govardhana. But then some — who is the bad one? Aurangzeb, he got notice that he was attacking, been navigating to smash all the deities and temples. So, then they brought the Deity to the Rājaputa area in Rajasthan. That is why He is now Udaipura, near Udaipur.

And so they were having two branches of the Puṣṭi-mārga. We are having a court case — who should be the rightful. The judge said, “Well, if I start to decide like that, neither of you — it is the Gauḍīya-sampradāya, it is their Deity.” Then they made friends. They do not lose to us again.

Here we have expansion Śrīnāthajī lifting up Govardhana Hill — lifting left hand up — Giridhārī. Giridhārī — special smile, very beautiful Deity. There the ladies also go in the front, men in the back. And ladies have a good view here. But here you get more, you get more room. There was so crowded. We went. They said, “No cameras, nothing.” As you take your camera, it becomes — how many have been to Śrī Nāthadvāra?

There is so much crowd. They push you in and you cannot move. The crowd takes you. But one thing they have in their temple is very good. Everybody is in a service mood. We can all learn from that. Anybody come to temple, they want to do sevā. After the maṅgala-ārati was over, I came out and people came in selling flowers. Not so — people take home.

So, people buy the flower and give to temple. They had a special window — flower — so they had come in sevā. Everybody who was in a hurry, they bought the flowers. A little expensive. You stick around, later you can buy them cheaper. But it is like a market, flower market. You are bargaining. Just like India, we bargain for everything.

So, they get the flowers, donate. Then they came in with milk. People buying milk to donate for the Deity. Anyone come to the temple, they give something to the Deity. That was the mood there. Later on in the morning, whole sabjī-bazzār came — sabjīs and fruits. And people are going there, buying not to take home. There is a whole market — people buying the gift for the Deity — so much service attitude they had.

Then later I stayed. I wanted to see, what was the system here. Because I want to learn for our Deity worship also. Then one guy came with a buffalo or a cow piled up with wood. And then he just had a tie such way — pulled the rope — all the wood fell down. He cried out “sevā!” and people started running there.

And they all ran, grabbed a piece of wood on their head to do some sevā for the Deities. Took the wood on the head and ran into the kitchen, put it in the wood pile. So, I grabbed a piece of wood too and ran in. I was not of pure motive. I wanted to see what the kitchen looked like. But later they gave me a tour. But I also want to do some sevā so we can learn.

Everyone should be in sevā — service mood — to do some sevā. Whether making a garland or bringing flowers or bringing something — that specialty of this Śrīnāthajī Deity — service, bliss through serving. Mostly the material world, people think they are going to be happy when they get served.

Like George Harrison — he thought, “When I am rich and famous, then I will be happy.” When he got rich and famous, he wasn’t not happy, wasn’t not satisfied. And we realize we need something spiritual to make us happy. Serving the Lord — that is a big opportunity to be happy. See how happy He is. Anyone has smile like that. So, you serve Him, you will become happy too.

And of course, Gaura-Nitāi — the incarnation of service for the Lord — devotional service. Sītā-Rāma-Lakṣmaṇa. And see, Rāma is protecting His devotee. They say you serve Sītā-Rāma, you serve Hanumān, He protects you from so many dangers. Someone told me a whole story about Śani-vāra (Saturday).

Śani was against someone. But by worshiping Hanumān, he got protected. I do not know what śāstra that is from (laughter), but they told me that — some Purāṇa, I think. Anyway, these are — you are all very fortunate to have such nice Deities here in the forest. Then if you can build them a nice temple, that will be even better.

So you can have more devotees, bring more and more people to Kṛṣṇa. We can make many offerings. We can offer so many things. But if we offer ourselves — ātma-nivedanam — what is a better offering than that? If we cannot do the ātma-nivedanam, at least we can do our words, our bodily service, our intelligence, our wealth.

Something we can offer. But we should also — everyone — they should chant:

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

So we want you to — that you can watch the films. Why we... the film. [Aside: Why you are eating? Because it is too late. You are hungry and there is no problem.] I have two different ones. I have one which is festivals around the world. Another one which is my travel from Gaura-pūrṇimā to Gaura-pūrṇimā last year. I do not only go to festivals. I go to all kinds of things. So, you want to see the world from my point of view. I just want to see the festivals. Take election vote. Who wants festivals? Of course, there are a lot of festivals when I am traveling. Who wants to see my world travel. Next time I come, I will show the other one. Bangladesh. All the places I go to. Next year, New Jersey will be in that new annual tour.

Building a temple, I remember reading some ślokas from the Purāṇa, you build a temple, even one brick in the temple. You build a temple, you build a Viṣṇu temple, you go back to, Kṛṣṇa takes you back, delivers you from so many things. We had all those quotes. You get so much mercy. Got to go up and get my other secretary to bring the show. To build a house for Kṛṣṇa then He reciprocates,

ye yathā māṁ prapadyante
tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham
[Bg. 4.11]

He said, according to our capacity, we build Kṛṣṇa — a home. All the spiritual activities that go on there, everything — we are a shareholder. We get the blessings. It is very important.