20201212 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.5.3

Following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā swami on December 19^th 2020 in Śrī Māyāpur Dhāma, India. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam First canto, Chapter five, verse thirteen.

Oṁ Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya
Oṁ Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya
Oṁ Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: 1.5.13

atho mahā-bhāga bhavān amogha-dṛk
śuci-śravāḥ satya-rato dhṛta-vrataḥ
urukramasyākhila-bandha-muktaye
samādhinānusmara tad-viceṣṭitam

Translation: O Vyāsadeva, your vision is completely perfect. Your good fame is spotless. You are firm in vow and situated in truthfulness. And thus, you can think of the pastimes of the Lord in trance for the liberation of the people in general from all material bondage.

Purport: People in general have a taste for literatures by instinct. They want to hear and read from the authorities something about the unknown, but their taste is exploited by unfortunate literatures which are full of subject matter for satisfaction of the material senses. Such literatures contain different kinds of mundane poems and philosophical speculations, more or less under the influence of māyā, ending in sense gratification. These literatures, although worthless in the true sense of the term, are variously decorated to attract the attention of the less intelligent men.

Thus, the attracted living entities are more and more entangled in material bondage without hope of liberation for thousands and thousands of generations. Śrī Nārada Ṛṣi, being the best amongst the Vaiṣṇavas, is compassionate toward such unfortunate victims of worthless literatures, and thus he advises Śrī Vyāsadeva to compose transcendental literature which is not only attractive but can also actually bring liberation from all kinds of bondage. Śrīla Vyāsadeva or his representatives are qualified because they are rightly trained to see things in true perspective.

Śrīla Vyāsadeva and his representatives are pure in thought due to their spiritual enlightenment, fixed in their vows due to their devotional service, and determined to deliver the fallen souls rotting in material activities. The fallen souls are very eager to receive novel information every day, and the transcendentalists like Vyāsadeva or Nārada can supply such eager people in general with unlimited news from the spiritual world. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that the material world is only a part of the whole creation and that this earth is only a fragment of the whole material world.

There are thousands and thousands of literary men all over the world, and they have created many, many thousands of literary works for the information of the people in general for thousands and thousands of years. Unfortunately, none of them have brought peace and tranquility on the earth. This is due to a spiritual vacuum in those literatures; therefore, the Vedic literatures, especially the Bhagavad-gītā and the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, are specifically recommended to suffering humanity to bring about the desired effect of liberation from the pangs of material civilization, which is eating the vital part of human energy.

The Bhagavad-gītā is the spoken message of the Lord Himself recorded by Vyāsadeva, and the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the transcendental narration of the activities of the same Lord Kṛṣṇa, which alone can satisfy the hankering desires of the living being for eternal peace and liberation from miseries. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, therefore, is meant for all the living beings all over the universe for total liberation from all kinds of material bondage. Such transcendental narrations of the pastimes of the Lord can be described only by liberated souls like Vyāsadeva and his bona fide representatives who are completely merged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. Only to such devotees do the pastimes of the Lord and their transcendental nature become automatically manifest by dint of devotional service.

No one else can either know or describe the acts of the Lord, even if they speculate on the subject for many, many years. The descriptions of the Bhāgavatam are so precise and accurate that whatever has been predicted in this great literature about five thousand years ago is now exactly happening. Therefore, the vision of the author comprehends past, present and future. Such liberated persons as Vyāsadeva are perfect not only by the power of vision and wisdom, but also in aural reception, in thinking, feeling and all other sense activities. A liberated person possesses perfect senses, and with perfect senses only can one serve the sense proprietor, Hṛṣīkeśa, Śrī Kṛṣṇa the Personality of Godhead. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, therefore, is the perfect description of the all-perfect Personality of Godhead by the all-perfect personality Śrīla Vyāsadeva, the compiler of the Vedas.

* * *

Jayapatākā Swami:

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānanda-madhavam śrī caitanyam isvaram
hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Oṁ Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya
Oṁ Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya
Oṁ Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya

This verse is very important. Especially it is very opportune that we are having in the Śrīla Prabhupāda Marathon. So here, Nārada is advising Vyasadeva to glorify the pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa. All the conditioned souls should hear the pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa. But Śrīla Prabhupāda in his purport is saying that people in general they have a habit to read something. And they want to learn about the unknown. People exploit that nature with various materialistic books. But if they read books like Bhagavad-gītā or Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that would satisfy their desires. They could understand the unknown. But all these different poetry and literatures are there but they are all meant for sense gratification.

Some people asked Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, how you are publishing a daily newspaper? He said, this material world is only a small fraction, and the spiritual world is much larger. So, we have no shortage of news! You see Śrīla Prabhupāda brought the point that although there are so many thousands and thousands of literatures, but there is no peace on earth. Because there are no spiritual subject matters there. There is a vacuum of spirituality. The human beings, spiritual energy that they have, is being eaten away. Now we are trying to distribute Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books during this December month. And if they read Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, their life will be very peaceful, and they will be happy.

Last night, I was visiting different homes via Zoom. There one lady was at home and was doing saṅkīrtana outside. House to house. And she was very happy! She told me how many books she had distributed. So, this way, our congregational members are doing such wonderful activities. These people by receiving the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Bhagavad-gītā have made their lives completely successful. In the whole universe they need to receive these transcendental literatures.

We see in the whole world, there are wars, protests going on. Russia was banned from sports for some years. Their sportsmen were administered some medicines to increase their muscle power, and those medicines were illegal. This is the news we are getting. So, people need Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to get some peace. All the hospitals in America, the ICUs are full, to capacity. People don’t know what is the purpose of life. That is why they are suffering so much, wasting their life. That is why we need devotees who will preach to these conditioned souls. In this way, peace can be given to everyone. So, we are trying to present in the TOVP also, what is the situation of the universe. So that people can understand what is the real purpose of life and what is the real situation.

In the Vedas, there were predictions that after 5000 years someone would come and spread the saṅkīrtana movement around the world. And that prophecy has come to be true. His Divine Grace Śrīla Abhaya Caraṇāravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, he came 5000 years after the beginning of Kali and performed this wonderful task. This way, human beings can become completely liberated. Śrīla Vyāsadeva, he was already liberated; he gave this spotless knowledge so that the general people can be liberated. Caitanyadeva ordered – bolo Kṛṣṇa, bhaja kṛṣṇa, kara kṛṣṇa-śīkṣa - please chant the holy names, please worship Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa and please study the science of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So that was Lord Caitanya’s instruction. So now we are trying to carry out that instruction, to help Śrīla Prabhupāda do that.

Many people asked Śrīla Prabhupāda what was his purpose? He said, he wanted to change the way people thought. We see how people they don’t think about the Supreme Personality of Godhead at all. That they waste their life. Śrīla Prabhupāda was thinking how to help these fallen souls? Caitanyadeva, He came to liberate all these conditioned souls. But Śrīla Prabhupāda brought that message around the world. In Australia, in China, in Malaysia, in Europe, North America, South America, over the whole world. In Japan, everywhere. So, now we have to finish Śrīla Prabhupāda’s work!

Actually, Tulasī devī, Vṛndā devī she came down from the spiritual world. How much mercy the Lord, His devotees to come down, just to help us to go back. But we don’t want to go back. Because many people don’t know that there is such a spiritual world. So, we are giving out the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā, to help people. How much people benefit, we cannot begin to understand. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that even if one percent of the people become Kṛṣṇa conscious, then that will cause complete change in the entire world. So, the devotees should take this up with a great missionary spirit.

There are two things - practice and preaching. So, ācāra means we have to practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness in our own lives. Preaching is to preach the science of devotional service. It is not very difficult to understand! So, that is why Śrīla Prabhupāda was saying that people that spread the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, they are doing the greatest welfare work for the society. People don’t know what real spiritual life is. Some people came to see Śrīla Prabhupāda, and they asked Śrīla Prabhupāda, can you show us some magic? Because these kind of godmen or gurus show some magic. So, Śrīla Prabhupāda said, I went with 40 rupees to the West and now I have 40 crores!! Is that not a magic?! So, they said, yes, yes! That is magic! So, Śrīla Prabhupāda, he wasn’t for showing some false thing, some superficial thing. He wanted to help people to understand the real purpose of life.

And then Lord Caitanya, He was very merciful on the fallen souls. He asked Haridāsa Ṭhākura how all these meat eaters will be liberated? How the Yavanas will be liberated? Then, Haridāsa Ṭhākura said, don’t worry and he gave some solution. That is what we want to do, to relieve Lord Caitanya’s anxiety.

People are writing their notes on the chat. Someone writing, my daughter distributed 28 Bhagavad-gītā’s to her friends and work colleagues. They told me in Chennai, they had 40 people attending their class in Tamil. When there was a lockdown, the organizers requested the participants to invite their colleagues and friends and contacts in their What’s App group to participate in the Bhagavad-gītā course. You know how many people came? From 40? 9000!! This way, we have to always make an endeavor to preach, actually there is no limit to boundary of preaching. So, like this whatever the situation, we should use it to expand the preaching. So many people are suffering, we want that they get relief from their suffering, and they remain blissful in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So, I was thinking that this way Tulasī devī has kindly come, and in every home, we offer water, circumambulate Tulasī, worship Tulasī, then our lives will become successful by this process. Anyway, it is 9 now. We will end the class. And we will give darśana to devotees in Australia and Malaysia.

Are there are any questions?

Question: It is written, the Bhagavad-gītā is Lord Kṛṣṇa ’s spoken words and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the description of pastimes and activities of Lord Kṛṣṇa. But some unscrupulous people they claim to be God and have all kinds of mental concoctions. How can these people come out of the clutches of these cheaters and how can they get the nectar of Kṛṣṇa consciousness? Please Guru Mahārāja, if you can kindly explain this. Milton Chowdhury.

Jayapatākā Swami: The people, if they study Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, they will understand who the real Personality of Godhead is, and this way they will not get cheated.

I will just visit some devotees from New Zealand, Malaysia, Australia, Singapore. 15 minutes from now there is a worldwide JSSS meeting. So those who are interested can attend that.