20210830 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam

The following is a Śrī Kṛṣṇa Janmāṣṭami Special Class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on August 30th, 2021 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur, India.

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!

Jayapatākā Swami: Today is the appearance day of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, Janmāṣṭami. So I understand you heard how Kṛṣṇa appears. How He came in the prison house of Kaṁsa, where He first appeared with four arms. So this was to prove that He was the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Devakī prayed to see the Lord in a vātsalya form or in the form of a normal child. This way the Lord took the form of a child and ordered Vasudeva to take Him elsewhere. So like that I think you have heard all these pastimes. How by Kṛṣṇa’s mystic powers all the guards, everyone, fell asleep. How the shackles of Vasudeva open and He could take baby Kṛṣṇa to Gokula. Once in a day of Brahmā, Kṛṣṇa comes. One day is 1000 yugas, He comes in one of those yugas. And He comes to bless the whole world with pure devotion. He comes to show them the pastimes in Vṛndāvana, Mathurā and Dvāraka. But this Vṛndāvana līla is the most attractive. Actually, the Vṛndāvana that we have on this planet is non-different from the Vṛndāvana in the spiritual world. Now it is dried up a little bit but five thousand years ago it was very beautiful with greenery everywhere. Within Lord Kṛṣṇa all the Viṣṇu incarnations are present. Mahā-Viṣṇu is an expansion of Sankarsaṇa and He is an expansion of Nārāyaṇa. Nārāyaṇa is the expansion of the Catur-vyūha. Catur-vyūhas are Baladeva’s plenary expansions. Baladeva is the first expansion of Kṛṣṇa. All these expansions are in the body of Kṛṣṇa. So the Viṣṇu aspect of Kṛṣṇa  is the one who kills the demons. Since there are demons in the spiritual world, so the asuras are in the material world and the Viṣṇu avatāras are in the material world. Kṛṣṇa, He shows His pastimes. In Vṛndāvana, the friendship, parental and conjugal love is manifested. Kṛṣṇa descends to manifest these pastimes. But these pastimes should be heard from the mouths of the pure devotees. If people become even a slight bit interested in hearing about Kṛṣṇa, they become liberated. Everybody thinks they are the body and the goal of their life is to have sense gratification. Actually, these people they do not understand the glories of Lord Kṛṣṇa, the sweetness of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. That is why Lord Kṛṣṇa has come in the form of Gaurāṇga, to distribute this love of Kṛṣṇa. So we pray to Śrīla Prabhupāda that he is giving the Gaura-vāṇī. Those who are devotees of Lord Caitanya are simultaneously in the Goloka Vṛndāvana and in the Caitanya-līlā. The Goloka Vṛndāvana has four access. Vṛndāvana, Mathurā and Dvārakā and Śvetadvīpa. And Śvetadvīpa is the place of Lord Caitanya. If you want, in Kṛṣṇa-līlā, those who completely surrender to Kṛṣṇa could get His mercy. But Lord Caitanya was more merciful than Kṛṣṇa. He gave out freely, love of Kṛṣṇa. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that we are Kṛṣṇa devotees. Therefore, He is avatārī and it is obligatory that we do the full fast on the Kṛṣṇa Janmāṣṭamī and Gaura Pūrṇimā. On Janmāṣṭamī, we fast till midnight and have anukalpa. And on the Gaura Pūrṇimā, we fast till moonrise and then we take anukalpa. On other days it is optional if we do full fast or take grains.

So we take birth, we don’t have a choice. Who will be our mother, who will be our father, we cannot choose these things. Lord Kṛṣṇa sends these to us. Therefore, Śrīla Prabhupāda said that these children are Vaikuṇṭha children. But when Lord Kṛṣṇa comes, who will be His parents and where He will come are all pre-ascertained. We should understand that Kṛṣṇa’s appearance is transcendental, and His appearance, His pastimes are all transcendental. In the Bhagavad-gītā Lord Kṛṣṇa has said:

janma karma ca me divyam evam yo vetti tattvataha
tyaktva deham punar janmam naiti mam eti so arjuna

That if we understand that the Lord’s appearance, His activities, they are all transcendental, then upon leaving this material body, we will go back home back to Godhead and we will not come back to this material world again.

In the Bhagavad-gītā So the materialists think that Kṛṣṇa’s appearance is just like an ordinary thing. But we know that all the devotees they understand that Kṛṣṇa’s appearance is transcendental. He chooses who will be His mother, who will be His father. And you heard how they had done severe austerities to have Kṛṣṇa as their son. Every pastime of Kṛṣṇa, in the parts of the Bhāgavatam is transcendental. That is why we are recommending that every gṛhastha should have in their house, a set of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. If they don’t have the capability of keeping a Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam set, at least they can keep a Kṛṣṇa Book. And eventually, whole set of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Kṛṣṇa comes and He establishes that His appearance and disappearance are all divine. So His appearance, His existence and His disappearance are all transcendental. Beyond the control of the three modes of material nature. And He is showing that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is a Person. Many religions don’t know what God is, they think that God is impersonal. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He spoke on the Quran and He convinced the Paṭhānas that Allah was a Person. And I had someone study the Quran from Azerbaijan, and he found only one verse that says that Allah is like a light. But in other places it mentions that Allah is all merciful, Allah has so many other qualities, so simply a light cannot be merciful. We don’t think oh! merciful light bulb! Ha! So Kṛṣṇa, He displays His pastimes that He is a Person, He is Līlā-Puruṣottama. So this idea of impersonalism is very offensive to Lord Kṛṣṇa. The impersonalists say that Kṛṣṇa has no hands, no legs, no head. You say that to your wife, she has no face, no hands no legs, she will fight! Therefore, it is said that the Māyāvādīs are offenders at the lotus feet of Lord Kṛṣṇa. So our previous ācāryas, the śāstras tell us how Kṛṣṇa is a transcendental person. Kṛṣṇa when He lifted the Govardhana hill, not everyone can do that! He showed to Arjuna, when He spoke the 11th chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā, He showed the Viśva-rūpa. If anyone says that they are Bhagavān, ask them to show their universal form. Lord Caitanya, He took the form of Varāhadeva and He had four hoofs. But if someone claims that they are Bhagavān, ask them to show their hoofs. In Rajahmundry, there was a person, he said he was the Kalki avatāra. Though the scriptures say that Kalki would come at the end of Kali yuga. That is 432,000 years from now. Minus five. So, then they asked the gentleman, aren’t you a bit early? He said, I may not be Kalki, but I am an avatāra! So then they think that these things are so cheap. In Kṛṣṇa līlā we see that Pauṇḍraka he was trying to imitate that he was Kṛṣṇa. So like this, in Dvāpara yuga there was one imposter. And now in Kali yuga we have uncountable number of pseudo or imposter avatāras. One Vaiṣṇava was saying that Kṛṣṇa says sambhavāmi yuge yuge. He comes in every yuga. But in Kali yuga they have avatāra every century, every decade, every minute practically.

So, Kṛṣṇa He doesn’t come as the proclaimed avatāra in the Kali yuga, since there are so many imposters. But He comes as a covered avatāra. As Caitanya Mahāprabhu He came but He did not say that He was God. Although Kṛṣṇa, He did not hide that He was the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He acted like a human being. So He carried the shoes of Nanda mahārāja on His head. Mother Yaśodā served Kṛṣṇa with great affection. When Kṛṣṇa’s Dāmodara-līlā takes place, Yaśodā tries to bind Kṛṣṇa with a rope. But always there was a shortage of couple of inches. Finally, she was able to bind Kṛṣṇa, by Kṛṣṇa’s mercy. Then Kṛṣṇa took the mortar and pestle between the two Yamala Arjuna trees. And those two trees were broken and fell down. So the two sons of Kuvera, they were released. So, Nārada muni had cursed them, but the curse was a blessing in disguise. So they were blind and absorbed in sense gratification. But Nārada muni, he gave them a curse that they would be trees in Nanda mahārāja’s house. So this way, Lord Kṛṣṇa delivered them. And then they paid their obeisances to Lord Kṛṣṇa and went back to the heavenly planets.

So then, Nanda mahārāja came there and saw the fallen trees. Then he asked the other children, what happened? The children said, that Kṛṣṇa came in between the two trees and broke the trees, and two effulgent personalities emerged from there and they offered prayers to Kṛṣṇa and flew off to the heavenly planets. The children said, that Kṛṣṇa came in between the two trees and broke the trees, and two effulgent personalities emerged from there and they offered prayers to Kṛṣṇa and flew off to the heavenly planets. How these children, what imagination!! So like this Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes are very sweet! And you heard actually the followers of Kaṁsa, their children were killed by Pūtanā. And how Kṛṣṇa was so kind that He elevated the position of His mother in the spiritual world. This pastime was sung by the brother of Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura and when Lord Caitanya heard this He became completely ecstatic and fainted. So Mukunda Datta, he sang this song before Puṇḍarīka Premanidhi. And Puṇḍarīka Premanidhi became completely wild with ecstasy. When Gadādhara saw this he realized that he had made an offence. So, Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes are filled with nectar. Lord Anantadeva, He has thousands of heads, and all Their mouths are simultaneously glorifying Kṛṣṇa. But They can never find an end to Kṛṣṇa’s glories! Then what hope do we have?

So today is a very auspicious day when we remember Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes. So, like this, Kṛṣṇa, He went to Gokula, He was with Yaśodā. They had ratha yātrā in Chennai, Dīnabandhu was telling how Lord Śiva, He came to the house of Yaśodā. And our ratha yātrā started in front of a Śiva temple! And Yaśodā said, no, no! My little Lala will get frightened seeing You! But then Kṛṣṇa as a little child stopped eating. Then the other ladies they suggested that maybe there has been an offence with this sādhu, saintly person. So then she called for of Lord Śiva who was in the form of a sādhu, and she wanted to give Him some chapatis. But He said, I want to take the remnant of the water, every day you bathe the baby, give me the remnant water, I can drink that. Haribol! Today, actually I don’t know if they do now or not, they used to read the Kṛṣṇa book and try to finish reading it by midnight. Anyway, we will try to think of Kṛṣṇa today, and every day also! But today is a special day. So I will end here.