20080808 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 9.4.65

Following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Maharāja on August 8^th, 2008 in Altai, Siberia. The class begins with a reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Canto Nine, Chapter Four, Text Sixty-five.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 9.4.65

ye dārāgāra-putrāpta-
prāṇān vittam imaṁ param
hitvā māṁ śaraṇaṁ yātāḥ
kathaṁ tāṁs tyaktum utsahe

Translation: Since pure devotees give up their homes, wives, children, relatives, riches and even their lives simply to serve Me, without any desire for material improvement in this life or in the next, how can I give up such devotees at any time?

Purport: The Supreme Personality of Godhead is worshiped by the words brahmaṇya-devāya go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca. Thus He is the well-wisher of the brāhmaṇas. Durvāsā Muni was certainly a very great brāhmaṇa, but because he was a nondevotee, he could not sacrifice everything in devotional service. Great mystic yogīs are actually self-interested. The proof is that when Durvāsā Muni created a demon to kill Mahārāja Ambarīṣa, the King stayed fixed in his place, praying to the Supreme Personality of Godhead and depending solely and wholly on Him, whereas when Durvāsā Muni was chased by the Sudarśana cakra by the supreme will of the Lord, he was so perturbed that he fled all over the world and tried to take shelter in every nook and corner of the universe. At last, in fear of his life, he approached Lord Brahmā, Lord Śiva and ultimately the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He was so interested in his own body that he wanted to kill the body of a Vaiṣṇava. Therefore, he did not have very good intelligence, and how can an unintelligent person be delivered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead? The Lord certainly tries to give all protection to His devotees who have given up everything for the sake of serving Him.

Another point in this verse is that attachment to dārāgāra-putrāpta — home, wife, children, friendship, society and love — is not the way to achieve the favor of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One who is attached to hearth and home for material pleasure cannot become a pure devotee. Sometimes a pure devotee may have a habit or attraction for wife, children and home but at the same time want to serve the Supreme Lord to the best of his ability. For such a devotee, the Lord makes a special arrangement to take away the objects of his false attachment and thus free him from attachment to wife, home, children, friends and so on. This is special mercy bestowed upon the devotee to bring him back home, back to Godhead.

* * *

Jayapatākā Swami: So, this is Lord Viṣṇu, He is glorifying His devotees and why He protects His devotees because His devotees are so much dedicated to Him, they serve Him under so many different circumstances. So how can He ever leave His devotee? Forget His devotee? Durvāsā Muni is a mānasaputra of Brahmā, Durvāsā Muni is a great brāhmaṇa. He is like a great ṛṣi. He has so many powers. But he has not developed his devotion to the Supreme Lord as a devotee. So, because he got so angry at Ambarīṣa and Sudarśana cakra was chasing him, he wanted protection from Lord Viṣṇu as a soul who was suffering the pangs of being chased by Sudarśana cakra. But the Lord, He said, “What can I do? It is that I do not belong to Myself. I have given Myself to My devotees.” And then He is glorifying His devotees. How the devotees sacrifice so much for Him. How can He forget them? So, this verse shows how sometimes devotees sacrifice so many material attachments in order to serve Him. Very interesting because here it is discussing about devotees who may even give up everything, renounce everything in order to serve the Lord.

At the same time, Lord Caitanya, He did not encourage people to give up their families. Because in Kali-yuga, taking sannyāsa is not recommended. Even in ISKCON we face people abruptly taking sannyāsa without preparing themselves, there is often some problems. So, now this whole procedure to take sannyāsa, may be more difficult to be a sannyāsī than anything else in ISKCON, there is a waiting period depending on your age. There is also the wife has to — if there is a wife, then she has to give written permission. And there are some tests you have to take, some like Bhakti-śāstrī, and there is a review committee. I think Bhakti Caitanya Mahārāja is a member of that committee. (laughter) Tough. (laughter) But even then, still sometimes some problem happens. It is very difficult, sannyāsa in Kali-yuga. Definitely it is much less problem now than there was before but here it is mentioned that sometimes devotees give up so many things in order to serve the Lord.

Sometimes in ISKCON it is the other way, like maintaining your family vows. It is also when we take gṛhasthas, especially when there is the fire sacrifice, we take vows that we will live together for our whole life. So, renouncing your husband or renouncing your wife in order to go with somebody else, that is not austerity, that is actually breaking the principle. So even Śrīla Prabhupāda in the West sometimes he was so frustrated, he was saying, “Why cannot our householder couples stay together? Even other religions are staying together. Why sometimes ours are not?” And he also said, “Let them get married legally first, especially in the West. Let them live together for a year or so – as married, but legally married, civilly married. And be sure that when they take their marriage vows before the fire, they are not going to break them. They will stay together.” In fact, Kṛṣṇa, He will be very pleased if you follow your vows for Him. Some are not able to follow still. So, it is sad (thing). I hope the people should take it very seriously when they make these marriage vows, that, “This is what I am doing for Kṛṣṇa.” There is a pastime in the Padma Purāṇa, where someone was following their marriage vows. And Kṛṣṇa came and took them all back to Godhead because they followed for Kṛṣṇa.

So, when Lord Caitanya was traveling in South India, He went to Kūrma-deśa. Top of Form

Bottom of Form

Have you been to Kūrma-deśa? How many were at Kūrma-deśa? It is about two hours’ drive from Visakhapatnam and before thousands of years ago, they were worshipping Kūrma-deva as a śiva-liṅga because they saw the round. Kūrma means a tortoise. So, tortoises have a round back, so they thought it is a śiva-liṅga but then Rāmānujācārya, he had gone to Jagannātha Purī, and he wanted to change the worship style because it was not following Pāñcarātra. It was there, but Lord Jagannātha said, “I have My own system – jagannātha-tantra”, (laughter) and, “So, I do not want to be changed.” Then he was, some say, thrown to Kūrma-deśa. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura said he was thrown first or transferred over to Māyāpur. And there he met Lord Caitanya. And Lord Caitanya blessed him, then transferred him to Kūrma-deśa.

In Kurma-deśa, he [Rāmānujācārya] revealed that this is not a śiva-liṅga. This is Viṣṇu. This is Kūrma. He has got four legs and a head, śiva-liṅgas do not have legs and heads. This is a tortoise, tortoise avatāra, kūrma-avatāra. So, then the śaivites left and the Vaiṣṇavas took over the worship. So, we went there on a Safari, and this Deity has got two garuḍa-stambhas because somehow Kūrma is facing to the west. But they had to put one to the east. So they have two, one on east and one on west. And they say that this Deity especially removes obstacles from previous births. So, then all the devotees bought a little kavaca of Kūrma. When they heard that, they said, “Okay, let us get the mercy, six rupees.” Cheap. (laughter) So that is like what, four rubbles. Then there are the footprints of Lord Caitanya there, established by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura. It was not well kept, so we gave them some money to fix it up and clean it up.

This was an important place for us because it is mentioned in Caitanya-caritāmṛta. You get special mercy there. In different ways there was going on a nāma-yajña to chant one billion names of Kṛṣṇa. By the local priests and brāhmaṇas, they were doing one billion names of Viṣṇu and a Kṛṣṇa yajña sacrifice. They chanted so many sahasranāmas of Viṣṇu every day. And they were going to chant that for one year. It was going to add up to one billion. So, we came and chanted Hare Kṛṣṇa, and they were very happy. So that.

So, Lord Caitanya, when He was staying there, had darśana of the Deity. Then He stayed at a brāhmaṇa’s house. Every morning Lord Caitanya would leave about seven o’clock after performing His morning meditation and His gāyatrī mantra and everything. Then He would leave. But before He left this Kūrma-deśa brāhmaṇa requested Him, “I have got a big house. I have got wife, kids, money, social status, land, cows. I have got so many things, but I am not feeling happy. So, I am going to leave all this and join You and just walk with You like a sannyāsī.” And Lord Caitanya said, “I never want to hear these words from you again. Do not be a monkey vairāgī.” What do you call “mārkaṭa-vairāgī,” monkey renunciant. They look very renounced, the monkeys – no clothes, sitting there naked. But some of them have thirty wives, and not many. They eat so many things. So, not good to look like you are renounced, but inside you are actually having some attachment.

So, he said, “I am not happy in my household life.” So, what is the point of renouncing something you are not happy with? That is not renunciation. Renunciation means you have something you like and you give it up. So, He was saying that, “I want you to follow this instruction —

yāre dekha tāre kaha kṛṣṇa-upadeśa
āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra ei deśa
[Cc. Madhya 7.128]

“Whoever you meet, tell them the glories of Kṛṣṇa and preach to your people. Be a spiritual master. Deliver your land.”

Like this, Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja said Lord Caitanya told that to so many people. That is Lord Caitanya’s important order — to be a guru, to preach, to tell people the glories of Kṛṣṇa. He had all this facility; use that for spreading the message of Kṛṣṇa.

Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī was in a family of multi-millionaires. They were making eight hundred thousand gold coins profit every year. Eight hundred thousand gold coins — at that time a gold coin used to be called a tolā and was about eleven ounces, sorry, eleven grams. So, that would be eight million eight hundred thousand grams of gold. It is a lot of money. And Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī was the heir of all this money. He was the heir apparently and had a beautiful wife and everything, but he wanted to give it up to join Lord Caitanya, but Lord Caitanya instructed him, “You should keep your heart on Kṛṣṇa.” (audio abruptly ends)