20210220 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.6.37

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on February 20th, 2021 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur, India. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 1.6.37.

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

Jayapatākā Swami: This is a very interesting verse. How Nārada Muni after instructing Vyāsadeva, he flew off. Śrīla Prabhupāda was speaking about freedom in the purporṭ. Wherever he wanted he could freely move. So this freedom to move in the planet has been promoted by the airplane companies. And they advertise going from and to different countries for vacation. Shows how people want to have the freedom to move. Because of this pandemic travel by airplane is very much restricted. We find now in the Vedas there is life in every planet although the type of ecology on every planet is different. America has sent a robot to Mars planet. They all cheering, they were very happy that the robot reached! They said it was a great victory for science! This shows how people want freedom But now they are in terms of their science, they are trying to discover if there is life on Mars or not. Even though there was life previously. But there could be life on other planets completely different from what we think. Like in the Vedas they say that there is life on the sun, but there the people have bodies of fire. So, the material scientists they don’t have the idea how the variety of life can be. The type of life we have on our planet they like to categorize that way. But like in svarga, people have subtle bodies. And their one day is our one year. So when look down they see that we live around three months’ of their time. We are like insects in their perspective. One little insect, Indragopa may live only up to 3 months. This way, they think that humans are nothing. But being a human, following bhakti-yoga, devotional service, one can go back to Godhead, to the Lord.

When Śukadeva Gosvāmī gave Bhāgavatam class to Parīkṣit Mahārāja, Sūta Gosvāmī gave the Bhāgavatam class, to hear Śukadeva Gosvāmī, many sages and devotees gathered from all over the universe. They came even from other planets, to hear, how one can perfect their life. How we can read the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. We can achieve this transcendental position. But we don’t dedicate our time in reading the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Śrīla Prabhupāda took great hardship, waking up every night to translate this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And that was translated to Bengali by His Holiness Bhakti Cāru Swami. And many devotees have translated to various languages. Like, Gaura Govinda Swami translated into Oriya. And like that, different devotees translated into different languages. This was Śrīla Prabhupāda’s desire that his writings be available in every language. So that his devotees will read his books. How Parīkṣit Mahārāja, he dedicated his life for hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. How sages came from all over the universe to hear. So, we have the great opportunity to read these books. Again and again and again. Every time we read, we get some new realization.

Here in Māyāpur, we are very fortunate, we have the Māyāpur Institute. Everyone can read the books and get the degree. Bhakti-śāstri, Bhakti-vaibhava, Bhaktivedanta, etc. But all of us we do not take this opportunity. The more we understand these books, naturally our consciousness will be purified. In this purport, Śrīla Prabhupāda says that even if one endeavors for association of devotees for thousands of years he may not get it. We are so fortunate to get the association of Śrīla Prabhupāda and his followers.

brahmāṇḍe bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva
guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja
(Cc Madhya 19.151)

While traversing throughout the universe, by the mercy of the spiritual master and Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, one may get the seed of devotion in his heart, if he is fortunate.

Today is Bhīṣmāṣṭami. Today is the day Bhīṣmadeva left. So he had the freedom, he could leave whenever he wanted. We don’t have that freedom. We don’t know when we will leave. Parīkṣit Mahārāja got seven days’ notice. While we don’t have such notice! How many days we have to live? We don’t know! Our dear disciple, Śyāmasundara Jagannātha dāsa, he gave the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam class, and after that he passed away! We don’t know how long we will live. Bhīṣmadeva waited till Kṛṣṇa was there, he instructed Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja and then he left. So like that we remember such great devotees.

And how Nārada Muni, he was already a liberated soul. And apparently Rāvaṇa, he threatened him. He said, “If you don’t do what I say, I will kill you. ” Nārada Muni said, “I am already dead! I am liberated!” So then Rāvaṇa apparently tried to cut him with his sword. It entered into Nārada Muni, but nothing happened. Nārada Muni was already liberated, he was free to move anywhere. But he was always thinking to help the conditioned souls. How they can also be liberated in devotional service. We are conditioned souls, and we don’t have any special attraction to serve, do devotional service to the Lord. So like that we waste our valuable human life. In the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa said He created the varṇāśrama to help the conditioned souls. But He also said that people born in lower castes they can achieve the Supreme destination if they surrender to Kṛṣṇa. People from all over the universe pray that they get birth on earth, to get the mercy of Lord Caitanya. Haribol! So how fortunate devotees are to get this mercy of Lord Caitanya!

So some of the NASA scientists they were rejoicing that they spent billions of dollars to send a robot to Mars! Their purpose was to know if there was life on Mars or not. But they could have achieved the same thing by buying one Bhāgavatam set! And from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is possible to know that there is not a single place in the entire universe where life is not present. So they are spending billions of dollars to send a robot to Mars! Whether there was life in Mars or not.

So, we want all the devotees to read Śrīla Prabhupāda books. And they should also practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In this way we can achieve complete perfection what Nārada Muni and Bhīṣmadeva had.