20211030 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.12.18

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on October 30th, 2021 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur, India. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 1.12.18.

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 

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.12.18

śrī-rājovāca
apy eṣa vaṁśyān rājarṣīn
puṇya-ślokān mahātmanaḥ
anuvartitā svid yaśasā
sādhu-vādena sattamāḥ 

Translation: The good King [Yudhiṣṭhira] inquired: O great souls, will he become as saintly a king, as pious in his very name and as famous and glorified in his achievements, as others who appeared in this great royal family? 

Purport by Śrīla Prabhupāda: The forefathers of King Yudhiṣṭhira were all great saintly kings, pious and glorified by their great achievements. They were all saints on the royal throne. And therefore all the members of the state were happy, pious, well-behaved, prosperous and spiritually enlightened. Under strict guidance of the great souls and spiritual injunctions, such great saintly kings were trained up, and as a result the kingdom was full of saintly persons and was a happy land of spiritual life. Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira was himself a replica of his ancestors, and he desired that the next king after him become exactly like his great forefathers. He was happy to learn from the learned brāhmaṇas that by astrological calculations the child would be born a first-grade devotee of the Lord, and more confidentially he wanted to know whether the child was going to follow in the footsteps of his great forefathers. That is the way of the monarchical state. The reigning king should be a pious, chivalrous devotee of the Lord and fear personified for the upstarts. He must also leave an heir apparent equally qualified to rule over the innocent citizens. In the modern setup of the democratic states, the people themselves are fallen to the qualities of the śūdras or less, and the government is run by their representative, who is ignorant of the scriptural mode of administrative education. Thus the whole atmosphere is surcharged with śūdra qualities, manifested by lust and avarice. Such administrators quarrel every day among themselves. The cabinet of ministers changes often due to party and group selfishness. Everyone wants to exploit the state resources till he dies. No one retires from political life unless forced to do so. How can such low-grade men do good to the people? The result is corruption, intrigue and hypocrisy. They should learn from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam how ideal the administrators must be before they can be given charge of different posts. 

I remember in the Ratha-yātrā in Bengaluru, the president of the temple said that the great king Pratāparudra, he used to sweep in front of the ratha of Lord Jagannātha and he invited the vice-president of India to sweep the floor. But the vice-president said that we are now in democracy, we don’t follow any king. I refuse to sweep in front of Lord Jagannātha and follow the king. So then I took the mike and said that now we are a democracy and the people are the kings. And their heads become the representatives. I request all the people to sweep the road for Lord Jagannātha. Since the vice-president is the leader of the people, he can go first. So he took the broom and swept the road like for a micro-second. So our present leaders, they don’t have any training to be devotees of the Lord. Nowadays our gṛhastha devotees, if they perform garbhādhāna-saṁskāra, and they have devotees of the Lord as their children. Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja, he was the monarch and wanted to know the next king, what qualities he would be decorated with. Now the gṛhastha devotees, they should be interested in having devotee children. Just like Yudhiṣṭhira, he was asking the astrologers what is the future of the child.

When Lord Caitanya was born, the father asked the grandfather Nīlāmbara Cakravartī, and Nīlāmabara Cakravartī was a great astrologer. So he calculated and said, your son will take the burden of the whole universe. That is why His name should be Viśvambhara. All the ladies, since He was born under a neem tree, they wanted to call Him Nimāi. So then Nīlāmbara Cakravartī, he made a settlement. And he said his nickname will be Nimāi and his real name will be Viśvambhara. So He would be known as Nimāi Paṇḍita. But when He was married and other official things, they used the name Viśvambhara. But this culture to see whether the children, what would their quality be, was seen even at the time of Lord Caitanya.

We want the parents, they should try their level best so that they have Kṛṣṇa conscious children. They should pray to the deities that they should have a Kṛṣṇa conscious, healthy long lived suputra. There is a history in the Padma Purāṇa that there was a brāhmaṇa who did not have any children and he was very, very poor. He wanted to go to faraway land for a job or to earn some money and approached his wife. The wife said that at least I have a husband, I will not have a husband if you go to a distant place. So she said you should not be so disturbed for not having a child. There are five types of children. One child is due to bad karma, you get a bad child. If you are indebted to somebody in your past life that person will come to you as your son and he will always be wanting more and more. Also, another type of child is your enemy. He will take birth just to cause you trouble, and then there is a good son. Who does your śrāddha when you die and does all the good things. He is known as suputra. Then the other fifth kind is udāsīna. He does not do any good or bad work, he is always indifferent and does nothing for the family. So out of all these five types of children, only one is good. So, no reason to be sad. But that husband did not listen to this. Then his wife said there is a ṛṣi in a nearby village, you can go and suggested he ask him why you don’t have any children, why you are so poor. He went to the next village and Vasiṣṭha Muni was there and he asked him why I am so poor and why I don’t have any children. Then Vasiṣṭha Muni, who is a powerful yogī who can understand the past present and future, trikālajña. So then he said, that in your past life you were a rich śūdra. But you were a miser, And you did not give your wife or children any money. And then you died untimely, and all your money was buried under a secret place. Then your wife and children, they had to survive in very great poverty. Therefore, you don’t have any children and money in this life. He said, “Okay, why did was I born in a brāhmaṇa family and have a good wife?”

Vasiṣṭha Muni said that, “You had a Vaiṣṇava guest in the month of Vaiśākha.”

In the year Vaiśākha, Māgha and Kārtika are holy months. Now is the Kārtika month. By offering lamps and doing these Dāmodara outreach programs we get all the results.

So Vasiṣṭha Muni told him that, “In the month of Vaiśākha you did some good pious activities for three or four days and therefore you achieved birth in a brāhmaṇa family and have a nice chaste wife.”

Then the brāhmaṇa said, “What can I do to reverse this bad karma?” Vasiṣṭha Muni told him that now that there are seven or eight days left in the sacred month, so you can do some devotional service. So he did that and then he got children, money, everything. He also became Kṛṣṇa conscious.

Anyway, now is the sacred month of Kārtika, Dāmodara, and eleven twelve days are over. Every day, we offer lamp to the Lord, and if you can get other people to do, that is very nice. So, I was reading Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and I read how a king, parent, a guru, have to see that their subjects, children and disciples follow. So I was thinking that as a guru I am responsible to see that my disciples follow. I got a report that one of my disciples is not chanting for the past three years and is not following the regulative principles. This way, I don’t know how many disciples are there, and that is why I have to suffer. So we have Jayapatākā Swami Śiṣya Care office. But I heard that we are able to contact about 20% because most of the emails, phone numbers are not valid now. We have the JSSS programs where we want disciples to help others to practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This way everyone must follow Kṛṣṇa consciousness rules.

Anyway, we see how Yudhiṣṭhira he was a king and he was very anxious that the next king would be proper. I don’t think I have any kings as disciples. Maybe one African king. Anyway, I have many gṛhastha disciples then they should be careful that their children are nice devotees. Even if they are not my disciples, all the parents should see that their children are devotees. And whoever their guru is, if they don’t follow then they put their guru in difficulties. In the same way that Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja wanted to know how Parīkṣit Mahārāja would be like, similarly the Kṛṣṇa conscious gṛhasthas should try to have their children as Kṛṣṇa conscious devotees.

Uttarā was a pure devotee. She went to Kṛṣṇa and she had association with Kṛṣṇa. And her husband was the son of Arjuna and Subhadrā devī. And so, as a son, he had all the good qualities of Subhadrā and Arjuna. So, like that, Śrīla Prabhupāda said that, in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement the third generation should be devotees. Even if their parents, grandparents are not fully qualified. But in the case of Parīkṣit Mahārāja, his parents, grandparents, everybody was pure. Abhimanyu, Uttarā they were all great devotees. And they were fortunate souls and they had good family and very good kṣatriyas. So there should not be a question. But Śrīla Prabhupāda said that in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, even the parents may not have all these natural brahminical qualities. But if they continue practicing then after three generations, they will have good brahminical qualities naturally from birth. Anyway, these are very good instructions, we see how Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja he is very interested in seeing how the dynasty would go. So Śrīla Prabhupāda said that children who come in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, they are Vaikuṇṭha kids, they are sent by Kṛṣṇa and we should take very good care of them.

Kṛṣṇa has sent them. So we have to be very careful. Now we see that many children, they are thinking how to help spread the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

Just a few days ago was the disappearance of Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura. One of our children in Māyāpur said to the father, can I see the samādhi place of Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura? The father said, “Okay, let us go. It is two-or-three hours’ drive from Māyāpur.” And it is in Gambhila, Gia-ganj, Murshidabad.

Today is the appearance of Vīrabhadra Prabhu. He is the son of Nityānanda Prabhu. He is the avatāra of Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. He was a great preacher. Actually, the Ekacakra is named after him, Vīracandrapur. So, we have great heritage of preachers in our sampradāya. Just as Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja wanted to know if Parīkṣit Mahārāja would be a good king, we should be anxious to know that will our child be a good preacher.