20210828 Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 1.10.33-35

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on August 28th, 2021 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur, India. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 1.10.33-35.

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

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya!
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya!
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya!

Translation: O Śaunaka, the Lord then proceeded towards Kurujāṅgala, Pāñcālā, Śūrasenā, the land on the bank of the river Yamunā, Brahmāvarta, Kurukṣetra, Matsya, Sārasvata, the province of the desert and the land of scanty water. After crossing these provinces He gradually reached the Sauvīra and Ābhīra provinces, then, west of these, reached Dvārakā at last.

Jayapatākā Swami: We see that the Pāṇḍavas, were part of the Kuru dynasty. They accompanied the Lord for some distance out of affection. Then He requested them to go back. So how He traversed to Dvārakā is mentioned here. These are all parts of India, they may have a different name now but they are parts of India. Lord Sri Kṛṣṇa placed His lotus feet on this land of Bhārata Bhūmi. The Pāṇḍavas were always thinking about the Lord. And because of their dedication, they were allowed to participate in the pastimes of the Lord. So we should also participate in the Lord’s bhakti-yoga. The process of bhakti-yoga is that one thinks of the Lord 24 hours a day, all the time. And by the process of bhakti-yoga we always remain active in devotional service. There are nine different processes of devotional service and one should engage in one or the other processes of devotional service. Now I am singing kīrtana. Kīrtana is of different types, now I am glorifying the Lord which is another type of kīrtana. And you are all hearing and this is also one of the processes of devotional service. If you remember the Lord during the day, that is smaraṇam. And then if you offer prayer to the Lord, pay obeisances, that is vandanam. And pāda-sevanam is offering some service to the Lord. Maybe cooking for the Lord, or maybe distributing books. You are doing some practical service. Maybe you are cleaning the temple. You maybe cleaning your house, but because you have a temple in your house, so therefore this is a place of the Lord. The brahmacārīs they maybe cleaning the temple or doing some spiritual activities. Those who are gṛhasthas they should do all their activities thinking of Kṛṣṇa. Either taking care of the child or performing any other activity, thinking that I am performing this for Kṛṣṇa. So in this way, you do deity worship that is arcanam. You think yourself as a servant of Kṛṣṇa, that is dāsyam. And if I think that the Lord is my close friend, then that is sakhyam, friendship. And in this way, we offer everything at the lotus feet of the Lord, that is ātma-nivedanam, offering one’s self at the lotus feet of the Lord. You see, the Pāṇḍavas they had a special position, they were already part of the pastimes of the Lord and were very much attached to Kṛṣṇa. So when we start of with devotional service, we follow the vidhi-mārga. We may not have the natural affection for the Lord, but we do the practices. And performing continuous devotional service for the Lord, will increases our attachment for the Lord. In the Nectar of Devotion, Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, it is mentioned that within the process of vaidhi-bhakti, there is a stage called rāgānuga-bhakti. When you think how to improve your service. That I will perform my devotional service in such a way that I would like to bring it to the higher level. All the other yogas, they are not all the time completely fixed. But by doing devotional service you are always fixed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

So, we know that being a brahmacārī is very nice. But everyone is not the same. And someone may prefer to live with a family and be a gṛhastha. And there are two types of married people – the gṛhamedhīs and gṛhasthas. One day I was walking with Śrīla Prabhupāda in Māyāpur. And there were some bullocks going round and round a stick and with their feet they were husking the mung separated from the plant. So Śrīla Prabhupāda said, what is this stick called? This is called the mei-daṇḍa, woman’s stick! Gṛhamedhī is going round and round but his focus is only sense gratification. But gṛhastha is a spiritual focus. They may have a license for some sense gratification but they do that in a Kṛṣṇa conscious way. So we want our married people to be gṛhasthas. The śāstra says that for a man, woman is a gateway to hell. And for a woman, man is a gateway to hell. If they are simply seeing that the man or the woman is for sense gratification. Because the man, he is attached to his wife and then he takes his next birth as a woman. And because the woman, she is attached to her husband and then she takes her next birth as a man. But if both of them are Kṛṣṇa conscious then this danger is not there. Because, they will have more attachment for Lord Kṛṣṇa. We were reading in the Bhāgavatam, how Devahūti, she went back to Godhead. She served her husband and in this way she had ten children. But she went back to Godhead. Dhruva maharaja’s mother, Sunīti, she also went back to Godhead. Like this we want all our men and all our women to be expert bhakti-yogīs. We want them all to go back to Godhead. I told Śrīla Prabhupāda I want to serve you, life after life. He said, why do you want to make me come back? I thought did I say something wrong? Did I not say the right thing? Then I said, I want to serve you even life after life. Then Śrīla Prabhupāda smiled. So we want our disciples to be very active in devotional service.

Every avatāra, each of the incarnations of the Lord has a particular mood. Like Lord Narasiṁhadeva has an angry mood, Lord Varāhadeva lifted the earthly planet mother Bhūmi from the depth of the Garbhodaka ocean. Lord Rāmacandra was the ideal king. Lord Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And Lord Caitanya and the Pañca-tattva came down to deliver everyone, as They are patīta-pāvana, to deliver all the fallen. So more that the Kṛṣṇa consciousness expanded, the more the love of Kṛṣṇa flooded the world. So in that way, we can help, we can serve the Lord by spreading this Harināma saṅkīrtana. Some are distributing books. Some are preaching Nāmahaṭṭa. Some are participating in the Bhakti-vṛkṣa program. There are so many mātājīs and prabhūs who are conducting the Bhakti-vṛkṣa programs. So like that by thinking how we can help others to be Kṛṣṇa conscious. So in that way we are helping Lord Caitanya and the Pañca-tattva. They want to see the holy name spread to every town and village of the world. Śrīla Prabhupāda was spreading the Gaura-vāṇī. So like that, we can help to spread the message of Lord Caitanya. So, like that I am very grateful for all the brahmacārīs and gṛhasthas, who are thinking how to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness. When I say brahmacārīs, that includes vānaprasthas and sannyāsīs.

So Lord Caitanya’s mood was how to give out the mercy. He told Haridāsa Ṭhākura how all the yavanas can become liberated. And Haridāsa Ṭhākura said, please don’t worry, they will also be liberated. You see that is the mood of a devotee, they want to satisfy the Lord’s desire. Just like when Kṛṣṇa went from Hastināpura to Dvārakā, Yudhiṣṭhira sent four akṣauhiṇīs or four parties of soldiers to protect the Lord. Now from one angle, this may not have been necessary. But he did this out of affection for the Lord. So this way, Lord Caitanya wants that everyone gets deliverance. If all the devotees think how we can attract all the people towards bhakti-yoga, devotional service. So like Śrīla Prabhupāda said to make one devotee, it takes buckets of blood. It is not easy for someone to become a devotee. The Bhagavad-gītā says, that we are not this body we are the spirit soul. But the people in general think they are the body. And they do everything in order to satisfy this body. But they don’t know that by being body conscious, they are actually caused to suffer. Because the senses are not only the source of pleasure, but they are also the source of distress. Just like, a fan is nice in the hot weather, but in the cold weather would not be nice. Like that the senses give pleasure, they also give pain.

So we want people to develop a higher taste. We are part of Kṛṣṇa. If we please Kṛṣṇa, we also become pleased. If Kṛṣṇa is a little pleased, then we become happy and pleased like a tsunami.

When they were describing Caitanya Mahāprabhu to the Hussain Shah, they were saying how tears were coming from His eyes like Ganges water. And He would laugh for six hours! Who can laugh for six hours?! Who can perform like this? He would do this being completely ecstatic, being completely happy and blissful. In some public parks in India they have this laughing club. Ha ha ha ha! they laugh for ten minutes daily. But six hours? Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! When the Hussain Shah heard this, his eyes bulged out! He said that this Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He must be non-different from Khudah. So he said no one should disturb Lord Caitanya. So we are very fortunate to be in Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s pastimes. In the Caitanya-bhāgavata there is a śloka: adyāpi o' nitya-līlā kare gaura-rāya, kona kona bhāgyavan dekhi bāre pāya. In a few days, we are observing the appearance day, the Vyāsa-pūjā of Śrīla Prabhupāda. And it was predicted by Lord Caitanya that He would send His senāpati-bhakta after five hundred years. And he would bring the message around the world. So somehow, we can help Lord Caitanya, whether it is Khasadeśa, or those who live in Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Bangladesh. So we should see that everyone chants the holy name. In one lecture in Māyāpur, Śrīla Prabhupāda said that at the turn of the century in 1900 there was a serious plague in Calcutta. And that some bābājī spread the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa. Not only the Hindus, the Muslims, Christians and Jews were also chanting. In this way, they all got saved from this plague. But Śrīla Prabhupāda explained that chanting the Harināma for some material benefit is offensive. But devotees should always say, if the Lord pleases, first. But even if others chant offensively, to some degree they will benefit. If one chants with offenses in the future, he will be able to chant the pure names.

Now this COVID-19 pandemic is increasing, new variants. So we should get the whole world to chant the holy names. If they don’t want to chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra then they can chant other names of God.

Anyway, we see how the Pāṇḍavas were always Kṛṣṇa conscious, we hope that all of you will become always Kṛṣṇa conscious.