20210424 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.29.17

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on April 24th, 2021 in Sri Dhama Mayapur, India.

The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.29.17

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: These are very nice instructions for all of us. Who should we keep friends with what should we do? We give mercy, compassion to the poor. Those who are impoverished materially does not mean that. Those who lack Kṛṣṇa consciousness they are considered poor. Some may be rich materially, but they are bankrupt spiritually. One girl from Kolkata on the Vyāsa-pūjā she was saying that she thought of committing suicide that day. Her sister was a devotee, and she was not a devotee. Her sister was telling, let us go, Guru Mahārāja is coming to the airport. She said ok, I will go to the airport and thereafter will commit suicide. Then apparently, she said that at the airport, I blessed her. After she received blessings, her life changed. Then she did not commit suicide anymore. She is now initiated and engaged in devotional service. We should be giving mercy to the poor. Poor means, those who lack Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If we need to make friendship with somebody, Śrīla Prabhupāda said, that we don’t need to make friendship with general people. Like, we should act like a gentleman with them. But friendship means to discuss, friendly talks, like cricket, or this or that news. News of the cinema. Oh, there is a beautiful girl working in the office and they will talk about this kind of gossip. So we want to discuss with someone about Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Lord Caitanya did this pastime, Lord Kṛṣṇa did this pastime. Talking about Gurudeva or talking about Śrīla Prabhupāda. So that is the svajātī, similar interest. So, we want to discuss about something Kṛṣṇa conscious. We don’t want to do any gossip. Some minimum friendly talk we do. Oh, nice weather today! But we don’t want to get into all these detailed prajalpa. So whatever you do, be guided by sādhu, śāstra, guru. So, people, just like I am seeing our Jananivāsa Prabhu, if you are talking about Kṛṣṇa consciousness he is always there. As soon as you discuss something that does not relate with Him, you look - and he is not there anymore! This way, we will discuss about Kṛṣṇa and we don’t need to discuss any other subject. If we are in management then we may have to discuss, but those who are not in management is not interested.

We saw Lord Caitanya, He went to Gāya. He had gone to offer piṇḍa or oblations for his father. There He saw the disciple of Mādhavendra Purī, Īśvara Purī Mahārāja. And then He asked him for initiation. But Īśvara Purī said, “You are very educated, You are a big paṇḍita, how will I initiate You?” But Lord Caitanya said that, “If you don’t give me initiation, I will commit suicide.” So Īśvara Purī Mahārāja got afraid and then he gave Him initiation. After that Lord Caitanya He manifested love for Godhead. His first love for Kṛṣṇa manifested in Bihar. When He came back to Navadvīpa He saw Kṛṣṇa in Jharikanda, Kānāi-nāṭaśālā. When He came back to Navadvīpa He was a changed person.

So, He called the devotees and told them that He had achieved Kṛṣṇa, and He lost Him! You don’t know, what it is to have Kṛṣṇa and then to lose Him. So in the house of Śuklāmbara Brahmacārī, Lord Caitanya was chanting and crying. In the courtyard of Śuklāmbara Brahmacārī. Gadādhara Prabhu was hiding in the house. Lord Caitanya called Him out. He said, “Gadādhara, You are fortunate, You are a devotee from birth. My time has been wasted, I was a scholar, I was debating and wasting My time.” Then He was chanting, dancing and embracing devotees. Having Kṛṣṇa and losing Him, you don’t know what that is like! Like that, so much tears that it seemed like the flooding of the Ganges. And then some of those people approached mother Śacī and said, “Your Son is sick. He seems to have some vāyuroha.”

One suggested, “Give Him dāb, that will cool His brain down.”

Another said, “No, no, this won’t do, you have to apply daśamūla oil on His head.”

Third one said, “No, no, that won’t do, you have to tie Him up with a rope!”

Mother Śacī said, “No, no, nothing is wrong with my Son.”

Then Lord Caitanya, Lord Gaurāṅga, He went to the house of Śrīvāsa. And He said, “Can I ask you a question?”

He said, “Why not?”

“People say I am sick. Am I really sick?”

“What are Your symptoms!” Śrīvāsa asked.

He said, “Whenever I chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, tears come to My eyes, My hairs stand on end! My voice gets choked up. I start to perspire sometimes, I uncontrollably laugh. So all this is happening to me. That is why I would like to know am I sick?”

Śrīvāsa said, “Yes, You are sick! And I also want this sickness! Haribol! This is the sickness of love for Godhead.”

Śrīvāsa said that, “The general people will not understand. You come to my house and I will just invite devotees who can understand these symptoms. That is how the nocturnal kīrtanas in the house of Śrīvāsa started.

So devotees will understand these things. But the devotees can understand if someone has real emotions are not. We had gone in Kolkata to a house for a program. And the donor in the middle of our program, he started to imitate as if he was seeing Kṛṣṇa – “Oh Kṛṣṇa! Oh Kṛṣṇa!” All the devotees sensed that he is just faking it. But he wanted to be appreciated. Similarly, one thing happened with Haridāsa Ṭhākura. A snake charmer he was chanting the līlā of Kṛṣṇa and Kāliya. In Māyāpur, there was a Muslim gentleman who could draw the poison by mantras. So he could cure a person from snake bite, by chanting mantras. I asked him, “What kind of mantras do you chant?”

He said, “I will let you know but please do not disclose this to my Muslim brothers. I chant the mantras of Kāliya Kṛṣṇa.” So we know that somehow this līlā, these Kāliya-damana mantras can keep away snakes. Anyway, this snake charmer was singing the Kāliya Kṛṣṇa mantras. When Haridāsa Ṭhākura heard that, he became ecstatic and fainted. All the village people they bowed down to Haridāsa Ṭhākura. There was a brāhmaṇa astrologer who used to do astrology with a bird and cards. He was envious that Haridāsa Ṭhākura was getting respect, I am a brāhmaṇa why should I not be respected this way? So he stood up and imitated Haridāsa Ṭhākura. Then he fainted. So that people may offer him obeisances and respect. But the snake charmer could tell that he was faking it. So he said, this man is trying to cheat all of you, he is doing a great offence to Haridāsa Ṭhākura. If he is feeling ecstasy even if I kick him, he will not react. If I kick him and if he is hurt that means he is of deceitful mentality. Then the snake charmer stood up and gave him a kick in the butt! Awww! The brāhmaṇa said, “You kicked me!” Then he was exposed! He was cheating all the people! So all the village people they were chasing him and wanted to beat him. So, a real devotee knows if someone is faking or not.

So one Digvijaya, he went to the court of the Muslim Nawab. I will defeat any of your paṇḍitas! The Nawab sent a message to Kṛṣṇacandra the king, you are the king of Navadvīpa, “Please send a paṇḍita!” But no one wanted to go from Navadvīpa. Gopāla Bhārṅ, he said I will go. He shaved his head and wore brāhmaṇa attire, harināma cādara, nice Vaiṣṇava tilaka, and he took a broken leg of a wooden cot and wrapped in a cloth and started his journey. He walked from Malda, Rāmakelī to the Nawab’s capital. When he arrived he said I am tired and hungry. So they gave him good prasāda. Then he rested, and he ate sumptuously. The Nawab was anxious when he was going to come and meet this paṇḍita. I am still little tired, I will come in a day or two. So he rested, ate very nicely. When he came out, he had his broken bed leg wrapped in a cloth. That paṇḍita, that Digvijaya asked, “What is that?”

He said, “This is my Khaṭvāṅga-purāṇa! Khaṭvāṅga Purāṇa knows everything.”

He said, “Oh it is speaking, I am getting a message! The Khaṭvāṅga Purāṇa says that anyone who gets a hair from this Digvijaya paṇḍita’s hair within the next 15 minutes, will get all good fortune!” So in the Nawab’s court many ministers and courtiers went to take one hair from the head of the paṇḍita. The Digvijaya, he ran away, “Oh, no! Help!” So in that way, Gopāla Bhārṅ was victorious. Then he got a prize from the government. He went back to Kṛṣṇanagar. And then Rājā Kṛṣṇacandra asked him, “What is the Khaṭvāṅga Purāṇa? Purāṇa means old. And Khaṭvāṅga means broken part of a bed. Then he unwrapped his khaṭvāṅga and showed the broken leg of a cot.

The king said, “Gopāla, how did you do this?”

Any paṇḍita goes to a Muslim ruler, a Nawab, to discuss about the Vedas, what does the Nawab know about Vedas? So, I knew that if he is going to the Nawab then he is a fool! So that is why I took my Khaṭvāṅga Purāṇa.”

“Gopāla, you are amazing!”

So, that is why we need to have svajātīs as our friends.

Anyway, now it is after 9 am. So we should take shelter of guru, we should have friends as devotees. And we should have compassion for the people who are not Kṛṣṇa conscious. We should always be under the shelter of Kṛṣṇa and His representatives.