Bhakti Saṅgaṁ Festival – Ukraine

01/SEP/2016 Śrīmad Bhāgavatam.1.8.27

namo 'kiñcana-vittāya

nivṛtta-guṇa-vṛttaye

ātmārāmāya śāntāya

kaivalya-pataye namaḥ

My obeisances are unto You, who are the property of the materially impoverished. You have nothing to do with the actions and reactions of the material modes of nature. You are self-satisfied, and therefore You are the most gentle and are master of the monists.

PURPORT: A living being is finished as soon as there is nothing to possess. Therefore a living being cannot be, in the real sense of the term, a renouncer. A living being renounces something for gaining something more valuable. A student sacrifices his childish proclivities to gain better education. A servant gives up his job for a better job. Similarly, a devotee renounces the material world not for nothing but for something tangible in spiritual value. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, Sanātana Gosvāmī and Śrīla Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī and others gave up their worldly pomp and prosperity for the sake of the service of the Lord. They were big men in the worldly sense. The Gosvāmīs were ministers in the government service of Bengal, and Śrīla Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī was the son of a big zamindar of his time. But they left everything to gain something superior to what they previously possessed. The devotees are generally without material prosperity, but they have a very secret treasure-house in the lotus feet of the Lord. There is a nice story about Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī. He had a touchstone with him, and this stone was left in a pile of refuse. A needy man took it, but later on wondered why the valuable stone was kept in such a neglected place. He therefore asked him for the most valuable thing, and then he was given the holy name of the Lord. Akiñcana means one who has nothing to give materially. A factual devotee, or mahātmā, does not give anything material to anyone because he has already left all material assets. He can, however, deliver the supreme asset, namely the Personality of Godhead, because He is the only property of a factual devotee. The touchstone of Sanātana Gosvāmī, which was thrown in the rubbish, was not the property of the Gosvāmī, otherwise it would not have been kept in such a place. This specific example is given for the neophyte devotees just to convince them that material hankerings and spiritual advancement go ill together. Unless one is able to see everything as spiritual in relation with the Supreme Lord, one must always distinguish between spirit and matter. A spiritual master like Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī, although personally able to see everything as spiritual, set this example for us only because we have no such spiritual vision.

Advancement of material vision or material civilization is a great stumbling block for spiritual advancement. Such material advancement entangles the living being in the bondage of a material body followed by all sorts of material miseries. Such material advancement is called anartha, or things not wanted. Actually this is so. In the present context of material advancement one uses lipstick at a cost of fifty cents, and there are so many unwanted things which are all products of the material conception of life. By diverting attention to so many unwanted things, human energy is spoiled without achievement of spiritual realization, the prime necessity of human life. The attempt to reach the moon is another example of spoiling energy because even if the moon is reached, the problems of life will not be solved. The devotees of the Lord are called akiñcanas because they have practically no material assets. Such material assets are all products of the three modes of material nature. They foil spiritual energy, and thus the less we possess such products of material nature, the more we have a good chance for spiritual progress.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead has no direct connection with material activities. All His acts and deeds, which are exhibited even in this material world, are spiritual and unaffected by the modes of material nature. In the Bhagavad-gītā the Lord says that all His acts, even His appearance and disappearance in and out of the material world, are transcendental, and one who knows this perfectly shall not take his birth again in this material world, but will go back to Godhead.

The material disease is due to hankering after and lording it over material nature. This hankering is due to an interaction of the three modes of nature, and neither the Lord nor the devotees have attachment for such false enjoyment. Therefore, the Lord and the devotees are called nivṛtta-guṇa-vṛtti. The perfect nivṛtta-guṇa-vṛtti is the Supreme Lord because He never becomes attracted by the modes of material nature, whereas the living beings have such a tendency. Some of them are entrapped by the illusory attraction of material nature.

Because the Lord is the property of the devotees, and the devotees are the property of the Lord reciprocally, the devotees are certainly transcendental to the modes of material nature. That is a natural conclusion. Such unalloyed devotees are distinct from the mixed devotees who approach the Lord for mitigation of miseries and poverty or because of inquisitiveness and speculation. The unalloyed devotees and the Lord are transcendentally attached to one another. For others, the Lord has nothing to reciprocate, and therefore He is called ātmārāma, self-satisfied. Self-satisfied as He is, He is the master of all monists who seek to merge into the existence of the Lord. Such monists merge within the personal effulgence of the Lord called the brahma-jyoti, but the devotees enter into the transcendental pastimes of the Lord, which are never to be misunderstood as material.

* * *

First I like to offer my respect to my beloved god-brothers, to the sannyāsīs and GBC’s who are present, to all the devotees and of course to our Founder-ācārya Śrīla Prabhupāda. 

I was with Śrīla Prabhupāda while we were coming from Kumbha-melā by train, or maybe we were going. We were sitting in the train and some poor people came, they had half burnt firewood wrapped up on their head. In those days they used coal to run steam locomotives and they would use wood to start the coal. So these people had 60cm or meter wood piled up on their head. Śrīla Prabhupāda was non-stop training us so he said these people are very poor, the wood has no commercial value. No one is going to buy half burnt wood but if you try to take the wood from them, they would fight. They have something they are not akiñcanā, they have kiñcit, something, even if it is practically valueless, and to them it has value. But a pure devotee is akiñcanā, he doesn’t claim proprietary over anything in the material world and Śrīla Prabhupāda leaned back and said “Ah! How wonderful, to have nothing!” Think about it, have nothing material but have the Supreme Lord as our property. Kṛṣṇa reciprocates with his devotees, if you surrender to Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa also gives himself to you, what are we worth but Lord Kṛṣṇa gives himself to reciprocate with us and He is worth everything. In the Bṛhad Bhāgavtāmṛta it tells about Pāṇḍavas, where Nārada Muni is going all over the universe to find out the greatest devotee. So in his travels he ended up in the Pāṇḍavas court, they had a secret room for discussing war strategy the most important subject. So Nārada Muni came to witness what they were discussing, they were discussing how we can get Kṛṣṇa to come back, Kṛṣṇa left us He went to Dvārakā, how can we get Him back? So then one said we could say that we are being attacked by some enemy. No! That won’t work! He already killed all the enemies. Like that different people were giving different ideas. Then Nārada Muni said, “You are the greatest devotee” when he spoke Arjuna stood up, Yes we are devotees but we are not the greatest. Look at the vṛṣṇis, Kṛṣṇa is always spending time with them, they are the greatest, and so Nārada went to Dvārakā. The Pāṇḍavas had the kingdom of the entire world but all they wanted was how to get Kṛṣṇa to be with them. Lord Caitanya, He was acting in disguise before He got initiation, He didn’t show much of His devotional side, He was an arrogant scholar, He would defeat all others. 

When He was small child, He would buy the vegetables and banana products from Kolaveca Śrīdhara. When he was Nimāi Paṇḍita he would sometime visit Śrīdhara and Śrīdhara had a policy, although he was poor he would spend 50% of his income on the worship of Ganges so then Lord Nimāi Paṇḍita was testing him, He said, “You have holes in your dhotī!” “Oh! That lets the air in” “You have hole in your roof” “That lets the light in” “What about the rain?” “What did you do with all your money?” “No I spend 50% on the Ganges worship” “Ganges, I am the source of Ganges”, “Vishnu! Vishnu! Usually young boys are mischievous but when they grow they become more serious but I see that you are worse, how can you say such thing” “You will know everything later, I know you have a big treasure, you are keeping it secret from us, you have a biggggggg treasure, anyway I will deal with that later, if you want to get rid of me now supply me with some nice vegetables and  banana products and I want good quality” So Kolaveca gave some nice vegetables and banana products. So Nimāi paṇḍita would come of and on to see Kolaveca Śrīdhara. After He came back from Gāya He was initiated by Īśvara Purī, he became active as a devotee.  So to prove to Advaita Gosāi that he was the incarnation the avatāra, he revealed himself and Advaita Gosāi started to offer him a 21 hour ārati so he said to devotees, bring Kolaveca Śrīdhara so they went to the house of Kolaveca Śrīdhara and told him that Nimāi Paṇḍita, Gaura-sundara wants to see him. Then Kolaveca Śrīdhara fainted so they picked them up and they picked him up and carried them and they laid him down in front of Lord Caitanya, he looked up and he saw Lord Caitanya emitting brahama-jyoti, the whole world became invisible and all he could see was Lord Caitanya and his devotees. 

Lord Caitanya said, “I want to give you a boon, what do you want?” 

But Śrīdhara said “I don’t want anything, I am happy”, 

“I will give you a Kingship, you can be the king of your kingdom and have so many objects of control and enjoy”. 

“No, No I don’t want” said Śrīdhara. 

“No, but you have to take some boon”. 

“So I will offer you mystic powers, aṇimā, prāpti, mahimā you can have anything you want go anywhere you want, take the aṣṭa-siddhi”. 

“No, No I don’t want that”. 

“Well you can get the gift of monist, merge in my jyoti” 

“No, No! Niyat! (in Russian language “No”), I don’t want this, if I have to ask something then I want to see that smiling face of that brahamin boy and supply His vegetable needs and banana in His various avatāra, but if I am not qualified for that please let me be born in the family of devotees.” 

Then Lord Caitanya said “I will give that which even Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva hanker for! I am going to give you pure Kṛṣṇa prema.” 

The devotees felt how this hawker who is selling bananas in the market got Kṛṣṇa prema from Lord Caitanya. Imagine someone selling banana! Banana! He got pure love of Kṛṣṇa, the devotees were pulling out their hair and rolling on the ground, what mercy they have never seen so Queen Kuntī was saying that you are ‘akiñcanā gocara’, you are known by those who have nothing, it doesn’t mean that you have to renounce everything. The māyāvādī preachers say that “I won’t touch the money, they had their secretaries take the check and then they sign the check. 

Śrīla Prabhupāda said “I can take with two hands, but I will use it for Lord Kṛṣṇa, so the real ‘akiñcanā gocara’ means that you use everything in such a way that Lord Kṛṣṇa is served. We don’t think that anything is our property, it’s all Kṛṣṇa’s and we want to us everything in Lord Kṛṣṇa service. For the gṛhasthas they have their children, they love their children, Śrīla Prabhupāda said that “because you love your child, you want to give your child the best, therefore you train your child to be Kṛṣṇa conscious and in this way everything is dovetailed in the service of Lord Kṛṣṇa. 

Bhakti Vinoda Ṭhākura was a gṛhastha but he used everything in the service of Lord Kṛṣṇa, therefore when he wanted to take sannyāsa, that Jagannātha dāsa bābājī said that “you are already more than a sannyāsī, there is no need for you to take sannyāsa”. 

So whether one is a gṛhastha or sannyāsī. “gṛhe thāko, vane thāko, sadā 'hari' bole' ḍāko”, whether you are a gṛhastha or vānaprastha, sannyāsī everyone should chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and engage in the service of Lord Kṛṣṇa. There are different steps in bhakti beginning from śravaṇaṁ or hearing which begins with little faith so one may be 99% māyā one or two percent Kṛṣṇa conscious but after a while one wants to associate with devotees so then say one may be 6 %  Kṛṣṇa conscious and rest māyā and then when he come to associate with devotees and start to practice devotional service, worshipping deities, chanting and dancing so then it’s called bhajana kriyā you are 25% Kṛṣṇa conscious then you want to get rid of all bad habits which is called anartha nivritti 36% Kṛṣṇa conscious and 64% māyā somewhere between bhajana kriyā and anartha nivritti you take initiation, under guidance of Guru you get rid of further anarthas then you become fixed, niṣṭhā – 50% and then you start getting a constant taste for chanting and devotional service sometimes before you get glimpses of  taste but at the stage of ruci you get constant taste, who wants this level then the higher taste you get attached that’s called āsakti and then that is 75% Kṛṣṇa conscious and then one gets bhava ecstatic love of Kṛṣṇa, 99% Kṛṣṇa conscious and one percent māyā, one can go up these stages by sādhana bhakti but for the next stage you need special mercy, of course all these stages are actually mercy but this last stage is pure mercy, that’s prema, pure love, 100% Kṛṣṇa conscious, who would like that stage so that Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda are giving out freely. So be part of the saṅkīrtana movement of Lord Caitanya, follow His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda and you can advance in your Kṛṣṇa consciousness and eventually you can get pure Kṛṣṇa prema.

Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Question: In your class the other day you mentioned that Śrīla Prabhupāda said that if we want to come back to Kṛṣṇa we are supposed to develop 100% Kṛṣṇa consciousness but then he decreased, decreased upto 70%, so did he mean that we are supposed to get ruci to go back to Kṛṣṇa?

Answer: In that particular lecture at the question and answer session Śrīla Prabhupāda said how one should be 100% Kṛṣṇa Conscious, that time he was not drawing the comparison of the different stages of devotional service but that comparison was made by Bhakti Vinoda Ṭhākura so he did come down 90, 80, 70% that if you were 70% Kṛṣṇa conscious you can still get back to godhead. Of course that was a guarantee but we know that some people become blessed just by the intervention of devotees. Even though they may not be so Kṛṣṇa conscious, the devotees by their mercy may give special mercy to someone. I remember at the ardha-kumbha-mela in 1971 in Prayāga in India, one devotee asked Śrīla Prabhupāda that you said that by us doing devotional service we have already done so many pious activities but in my life I don’t see any pious activities, I simply did materialistic activities so how I am getting Kṛṣṇa consciousness, Śrīla Prabhupāda said “I have made your good fortune for you”

Thank you very much! Pesibo!!!