20211017 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.12.2

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on October 17th, 2021 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur, India. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 1.12.2.

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: How was the great emperor Parīkṣit, who was a highly intelligent and great devotee, born in that womb? How did his death take place, and what did he achieve after his death?

Purport by Śrīla Prabhupāda: The king of Hastināpura (now Delhi) used to be the emperor of the world, at least till the time of the son of Emperor Parīkṣit. Mahārāja Parīkṣit was saved by the Lord in the womb of his mother, so he could certainly be saved from an untimely death due to the ill will of the son of a brāhmaṇa. Because the Age of Kali began to act just after the assumption of power by Mahārāja Parīkṣit, the first sign of misgivings was exhibited in the cuṛṣing of such a greatly intelligent and devoted king as Mahārāja Parīkṣit. The king is the protector of the helpless citizens, and their welfare, peace and prosperity depend on him. Unfortunately, by the instigation of the fallen Age of Kali, an unfortunate brāhmaṇa’s son was employed to condemn the innocent Mahārāja Parīkṣit, and so the King had to prepare himself for death within seven days. Mahārāja Parīkṣit is especially famous as one who is protected by Viṣṇu, and when he was unduly cursed by a brāhmaṇa’s son, he could have invoked the mercy of the Lord to save him, but he did not want to because he was a pure devotee. A pure devotee never asks the Lord for any undue favor. Mahārāja Parīkṣit knew that the curse of the brāhmaṇa’s son upon him was unjustified, as everyone else knew, but he did not want to counteract it because he knew also that the Age of Kali had begun and that the first symptom of the age, namely degradation of the highly talented brāhmaṇa community, had also begun. He did not want to interfere with the current of the time, but he prepared himself to meet death very cheerfully and very properly. Being fortunate, he got at least seven days to prepare himself to meet death, and so he properly utilized the time in the association of Śukadeva Gosvāmī, the great saint and devotee of the Lord.

Jayapatākā Swami: So the great emperor Parīkṣit, the sages of Naimiṣāraṇya wanted to hear more about hiṃ. And they had heard different pastimes of Kṛṣṇa and the Pāṇḍavas. How Kṛṣṇa entered Dvārakā city, they had heard all of these stories. But now they are coming to the original question about Mahāraja Parīkṣit. So, Parīkṣit Mahāraja got cursed by a brāhmaṇa boy. That was not actually appropriate. Parīkṣit mahāraja, if he had desired, he could have asked Kṛṣṇa to save him. But, he was a pure devotee, that is why he did not ask Kṛṣṇa for any material benefits. So, also this brāhmaṇa boy who acted inappropriately showed that the Age of Kali had come. Now this age of Kali creates quarrels and problems. Like in Bangladesh, the Hindus and Muslims live peacefully and amicably amongst themselves. But then suddenly some little thing comes in the social media and the Age of Kali takes over. And they say love God, instead they hate different faiths. So, all the religious people, they should stand against this misbehavior. The faith hate actually kills. In Bangladesh maybe the Hindus are persecuted. In New Zealand some Muslims were killed in a mosque. Ireland, the Protestants were fighting the Catholics. So recently in Afghanistan, the Sunnis are in majority and some of them, somehow got the Shia mosques got bombed. Like that, all over the world there is faith hate. And that kills innocent people. So, our request is that all the people who are really religious, they should protest this kind of faith hate.

So, this was the situation which Parīkṣit Mahāraja he saw, that the Age of Kali had already started. He was to die in seven days so he prepared to die after seven days. He was peaceful and he was happy and had the very good association of Śukadeva Gosvāmī. He could hear the pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa and His different avatāras. We don’t know, we all have to die, we have to leave this body, we don’t know when. The Bhagavad-gītā informs us that we are eternal. We are eternal, inexhaustible souls. And all the bodies that we receive in this world, they all have a limit. So Brahmadeva, his life is very long compared to our lives. And, one day we were walking on the roof here in Māyāpur. We were with Śrīla Prabhupāda, and we were watching some ants going from one side to the other. Śrīla Prabhupāda said, just like we look at these ants and think they don’t live for so long. This way, the demigods from the heavenly planets they look at us and we are like little ants to them and they think these people will not live long, because our one year is their one day. So like that, we may live a hundred years or ninety years. That is their hundred days. Like three months. Or maybe what lives three months, a rat or mouse? It is all relative. But everybody in this material world has birth and death. According to their calculations, everybody lives for a hundred years. And Brahma deva he lives for a hundred years. But his one day is a thousand yugas. And each catur-yuga is 432,0000 years. So for us that is a very long time. A thousand of those catur-yugas is Brahmā’s one day. One thousand. So we can achieve eternal life by practicing seriously Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But Kali does not know what is the result of engaging in Kṛṣṇa’s service in this way. That is why Bhagavad-gītā says that people who are less intelligent, they go for the material benefits. This material world whatever happiness and facilities there maybe these are all very temporary. So ordinarily, generally, people those who have faith in God they usually ask the Lord for some flickering material facilities. They don’t serve the Lord without fruitive desire or mental speculation. Therefore, Kṛṣṇa says the pure devotee is very, very rare. But if one serves Kṛṣṇa in this way, in a pure state if one engages in devotional service, then he gets transcendental spiritual bliss. Then he has what one says, Paramānanda. So we want our devotees to understand the real benefit of life that Lord Caitanya gives us. Some people may be vairāgīs and some people may be gṛhasthas. But they should not think that there is a permanent solution in the material world. Śrīla Prabhupāda once said that this material world is not a befitting place for gentlemen and gentle ladies. Here there are multifarious problems especially in this Age of Kali. But this material world, Kṛṣṇa says, is a place of rebirth. Bhagavad-gītā 8.15:

mām upetya punar janma
duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam
nāpnuvanti mahātmānaḥ
saṁsiddhiṁ paramāṁ gatāḥ

So after attaining Me the great souls or yogīs in devotion never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries. Because, they have achieved the highest perfection in the spiritual world. I was listening to one Christian preacher. He told the people to pray to God to get a better salary. All the people, they go to the Supreme Lord with their shopping list. He is so happy when we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa or when we say please Kṛṣṇa, please Rādhā, please engage me in Your service! So that is the real purpose of life, to serve Rādhā and Mādhava. So that is what Parīkṣit Mahāraja did when he knew that he had seven days to live. We don’t know if we have seven days, seven years or seven seconds. But we are sure that we have to leave the body. Hundred per cent sure! It is not gambling! When we will leave, that is not sure. But that we have to leave, that is for sure.

In Caitanya-caritāmṛta Madhya-līlā 19.149 it says:

kṛṣṇa-bhakta—niṣkāma, ataeva ‘śānta’
bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kāmī—sakali ‘aśānta’

Because a pure devotee simply wants to serve Kṛṣṇa, he is peaceful. Those who desire material enjoyment, who want liberation or mystic powers, they are not peaceful. Those who are desirous of mystic power they are also not peaceful. So if we want real peace in life, we should chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. We should be pure devotees. I am very happy to see the devotees in Australia, Malaysia, Bangladesh. We should understand that this world is not a place we want to stay, we want to stay with Kṛṣṇa. If we think that the material opulence is very, very nice, then we should be thinking that if this material world is so opulent, then how nice will the creator of this world be. Because of our bad karma our sinful activities there are pandemics, cyclones, and earthquakes and so many other problems. We are trying to make the world – like Śrīla Prabhupāda was saying that crossing the Atlantic Ocean we fall and if we pray to Kṛṣṇa make the ocean peaceful, that is not the solution. The real solution is that we should leave the ocean and come out to the dry land. We should leave the material world and live with the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His eternal abode. So the sages in Naimiṣāraṇya, they wanted to hear about Parīkṣit and Lord Kṛṣṇa, so they were very glorious. Every day, we should spend some time hearing or reading about Kṛṣṇa.

So, yesterday we had the Ekādaśī. And now many are observing the Kārtika month. And some people wait till the full moon. So this way, this month of Dāmodara is very, very famous for offering lamps to the Lord. Anyway, now the class time is over. I will answer a few questions and then will go visit the temples. Then I will see people in their homes. 

Bhakti Vijaya Bhāgavata Swami: Very nice class. I have a query. Although you mentioned about Kārtika-vratā how to observe Kārtika-vratā nicely and offer lamps? Somebody said offer lamp with tulasī stick some say not to offer. Some devotees follow very strictly the vows. Śrīla Prabhupāda said in the four months only four things you should avoid. Many people observe very strictly, not taking beans, poṭol, carrots. How to observe Kārtika-vratā, and very nicely and please Lord Dāmodara and get your bhakti. 

Jayapatākā Swami: You see, that the minimum we should is not eat urad-dal. We could do more, we could eat haviṣyanna or restrict our diet in various ways. Now Śrīla Prabhupāda would complain that if someone is not following any particular vow, simply growing beard and hair will not give any benefit. One year we were taking the khicuḍi off the floor without using our hands, like cows, at that time we kept our beard. So what one wants to do, that is optional. And someone is doing more, they should not be proud or criticize others who are not doing more. We can do more, to be detached, but we should not do less service. As far as offering tulasī twig in the Dāmodara-pūjā, in the Padma Purāṇa it says if we offer the lamp with tulasī to Lord Kṛṣṇa, then we get the result of one hundred fire sacrifices. And giving one hundred cows in charity. Also, in the same Purāṇa it mentions that if we offer lamp to Kṛṣṇa on tulasī, then it is equal to one crore or ten million lamps. I hope that answers your question Mahāraja? 

Bhakti Vijaya Bhāgavata Swami: Yes Guru Mahārāja, you have explained very nicely and I will share whatever you have said with the others. Hare Kṛṣṇa! 

Jayapatākā Swami: Of course, they can still distribute books! 

Harihara Kṛṣṇa Caitanya dasa: If because of previous saṁskāras, one is attached to festivals like Durgā-pūjā, does it hamper their Kṛṣṇa consciousness? Please enlighten dear Guru Mahārāja. 

Jayapatākā Swami: You see, we talked to some of the ancient Durgā pandal organizers and they said that they have the śālagrāma-śilā, and they offer the pūjā first to the śilā and the prasāda to Durgā devī. So that kind of pūjā is authorized. If you want to worship the devī or some devas to get some material benefits, then that can hamper our devotional service. Last question. 

Sujitendriya dāsa: If in the Durgā-pūjā paṇḍālas some devotees go to Durgā and they consider Durgā is Kṛṣṇa’s sister, so that way Durgā is our pisi-mā, because she is Śrī Padmanābha sahodarim, with that mentality, if devotees go and pay respects to her is that authorized? 

Jayapatākā Swami: We see Durgā devī as the energy of Kṛṣṇa. And like that we offer our respects from the right side. We understand that Śiva is the protector of the holy dhāma and that His energy, śakti, Durgā devī, she is the protectress. 

Bengali: Those people who do not want to or not interested to serve Kṛṣṇa or do not want to engage in devotional service, can we offer lamps in their name or for their benefit, and by doing so, will they gradually get a desire to perform devotional service? 

Jayapatākā Swami: We can offer the results to anyone. Whether they accept Kṛṣṇa or not, that is up to their free will. So it cannot hurt, but there is no guarantee that they will accept. 

So now I will see some temples.