20230406 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.13.37-38

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on April 6th, 2023 in Los Angeles, USA. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 3.13.37 & 38.

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

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

dīkṣānujanmopasadaḥ śirodharaṁ
tvaṁ prāyaṇīyodayanīya-daṁṣṭraḥ
jihvā pravargyas tava śīrṣakaṁ kratoḥ
satyāvasathyaṁ citayo ’savo hi te

Translation: Moreover, O Lord, the repetition of Your appearance is the desire for all kinds of initiation. Your neck is the place for three desires, and Your tusks are the result of initiation and the end of all desires. Your tongue is the prior activities of initiation, Your head is the fire without sacrifice as well as the fire of worship, and Your living forces are the aggregate of all desires.

somas tu retaḥ savanāny avasthitiḥ
saṁsthā-vibhedās tava deva dhātavaḥ
satrāṇi sarvāṇi śarīra-sandhis
tvaṁ sarva-yajña-kratur iṣṭi-bandhanaḥ

somas tu retaḥ savanāny avasthitiḥ
saṁsthā-vibhedās tava deva dhātavaḥ
satrāṇi sarvāṇi śarīra-sandhis
tvaṁ sarva-yajña-kratur iṣṭi-bandhanaḥ

Translation: O Lord, Your semen is the sacrifice called soma-yajña. Your growth is the ritualistic performances of the morning. Your skin and touch sensations are the seven elements of the agniṣṭoma sacrifice. Your bodily joints are symbols of various other sacrifices performed in twelve days. Therefore You are the object of all sacrifices called soma and asoma, and You are bound by yajñas only.

Purport: There are seven kinds of routine yajñas performed by all followers of the Vedic rituals, and they are called agniṣṭoma, atyagniṣṭoma, uktha, ṣoḍaśī, vājapeya, atirātra and āptoryāma. Anyone performing such yajñas regularly is supposed to be situated with the Lord. But anyone who is in contact with the Supreme Lord by discharging devotional service is understood to have performed all different varieties of yajñas.

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

Jayapatākā Swami: So these are prayers offered to Varāhadeva. Lord, He appears in different forms. The Lord is described as ananta-rūpam, He has unlimited forms. None of these forms are material. So, to lift up the earth which had fallen from the orbit and was at the bottom of Garbhodaka ocean. So the Lord assumed the form of a gigantic boar and lifted up the earth with between His two tusks and put it back in orbit. So Hiraṇyākṣa was very angry with this, how can anyone save the earth against his will, Hiraṇyākṣa the great demon! Interesting because today we have many industries taking oil from the earth but that oil may be needed to keep the earth afloat, but people are worried about the ecology, we don’t know how the earth is staying afloat in orbit. So previously the demons headed by Hiraṇyākṣa, dealt so badly with the earth so badly that the earth fell out of its orbit. So Varāhadeva lifted it back up and put it back in orbit That is why when we do the ground breaking ceremonies, we do the Bhū-Varāha pūjā, bhū means earth and Varāha is Lord Varāhadeva. So Bhūmi, the earth, is considered like one of the consorts of Lord Varāhadeva. So like this, when we cut the earth to build the temple we do a Bhū-Varāha pūjā, because we are cutting the earth, we ask for forgiveness, we worship her and her husband. Śrīla Prabhupāda did this in Māyāpur, the Bhū-Varāha pūjā, and we dug this hole and he placed the Śeṣanāga at the bottom. Just as Śeṣa holds the world up we want Śeṣa to hold the temple up. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that the first Anantaśeṣa was just to hold the whole Māyāpur project up. Then he had another Anantaśeṣa installed just below the temple. But actually, when we do the Navadvīpa dhāma parikramā we go through the nine islands, Sīmantadvīpa, Godrumadvīpa, Madhyadvīpa, Koladvīpa, Ṛtudvīpa, Jahnudvīpa, Modadrumadvīpa, Rudradvīpa and Antardvīpa. Which of these dvīpas is dedicated to Varāhadeva? Koladvīpa. It says that when the earth was put back in its orbit there was a big fight in the outer space, between Hiraṇyākṣa and Varāhadeva. And Varāhadeva, when He finally did the death blow to the demon Hiraṇyākṣa, His lotus foot touched the earth, boom! Where His lotus foot touched the earth is Koladvīpa in Navadvīpa dhāma! Haribol! That place they call it Kuliyā-pāṭ aparādha-bañjana. That is the place where one can get forgiven for Vaiṣṇava-aparādha. We know that Vaiṣṇava-aparādha is the first of the ten offences, it is very, very dangerous. But that could be forgiven in Koladvīpa. So when we do the Koladvīpa parikramā, we bow down there and beg forgiveness for our offences. Anybody who offended us, then we offer our forgiveness to them.

So Abhayacaraṇa Nimāi, he likes the pastime when Lord Caitanya came back to Navadvīpa after ten years and He was in Koladvīpa that time. And at that people when people realized that Lord Gaurāṅga had come back, they dropped whatever they were doing and ran. They came to the Ganges River. There were these boats there. They went on the boats. The boatmen said, “No, no, so many people!” But no one would listen! No one! And the boat sank! Then the people, what did they do? They jumped into the river, and they swam. They were like mad to see Lord Gaurāṅga. At that time normally Ganges is like a saffron creamy color, there were so many heads, so many people, that the Ganges appeared black. And they went to the other side and Lord Caitanya was in the house of the brother of Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya. And people, there were masses, multitudes of people, they were simply chanting Gaurāṅga! Vidyā-vācaspati, the brother of Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya, he requested Lord Caitanya, if you don’t go out they are going to knock my house down. So Lord Caitanya went out and all bowed down. And He spoke to them - please chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Lord Caitanya is known as gṛhijana-śīkṣaka in Sanskrit it is pronounced as nyāsī. He is the hero of the sannyāsīs. But I think in this community gṛhijana-śīkṣaka is more applicable. But anyway, He has both names. So, He talked to the people, then went back inside the house and he just disappeared and appeared two miles down the road. So Vidyā-vācaspati, he had to tell the people, “He had gone!” But nobody would believe him. So he brought five people inside the house and they searched to see, then they confirmed, He is gone.

Also, Varāhadeva, He is a very interesting form in Lord Caitanya’s pastimes. Since I am combining these different books, because all of the authors they respect each other, they expect that everybody has read the other ten books. But actually, that is not the case. Anyway, you find in Caitanya-caritāmṛta it does not have much detail of the early life. Because he says, Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī says that this is given in the Caitanya-bhāgavata, that Vṛndāvana dāsa Ṭhākura is the Vyāsadeva of caitanya-līlā. Some pastimes which are missed by both are mentioned in the Caitanya-maṅgala. Some details are in the notebooks of Murāri Gupta and others. So I am trying to combine all those, I am in the Antya-līlā now. I read Caitanya-bhāgavata, the glories of Lord Nityānanda last night.

Anyway, Murāri Gupta, he is actually the Hanumān avatāra and they were chanting the sahasra-nāma of Viṣṇu. When he came to Varāhadeva, Lord Caitanya became ecstatic, He took the form of Varāhadeva and manifested four hooves. So Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura in his purport, mentions that if anybody claims that they are God, ask them to manifest their hooves! Not very hard right, just four hooves! But it is not possible for ordinary people. But the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Caitanya, He manifested hooves, and He ran around as Varāhadeva. Just like when He heard the name of Narasiṁhadeva, He went into the ecstasy of Lord Narasiṁhadeva and then He carried a stick in His hand and went around asking, “Where are the demons?Where are the demons?” People, when they saw Him in an angry mood with a stick, they ran away. He said, “Oh, I committed an offence, I scared the devotees.” Then Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura said, “You liberated all of them.”

So these are some interesting pastimes [audio break] avatāra someone when people claim to be God we say could you show your Viśvarūpa or something. Here he is saying you can show your hooves, very easy!

So we see how like the guru of Hiraṇyakaśipu was Śukrācārya. And we know that his two sons were to teach Prahlāda material political science. But it is interesting that in the 9th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the daughter of Śukrācārya was married to the king Yayāti. And after a long life of sense gratification, suddenly Yayāti came to his consciousness. He told a humorous story to his dear wife Devayānī, and he told her a story about a male goat and a female goat. And actually, through this humorous story he was telling her about their life. How they were always enjoying material happiness, but actually, the real purpose of human life is to have self-realization. So at a certain ripe age, he was determined to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. So he had changed his old age, with youth from his son, but then he said he wasn’t satisfied. If he is not sensually satisfied, he may come back again and take a human birth. After a long while he realized that there is no satisfaction in material sense gratification. And he wanted to become fully Kṛṣṇa conscious. So he preached to his wife, and Devayānī and Yayāti, both went back to the spiritual world. I was just thinking how Śukrācārya, his sons were very materialistic. But somehow the daughter Devayānī by following Yayāti Mahārāja, after a long life of sensual enjoyment, they finally became fully Kṛṣṇa conscious. I was wondering that why they are telling this story in the 9th canto, which is the canto of liberation, but finally they were both liberated. That was very interesting.

Anyway Lord Caitanya, He came down from the spiritual world with His associates. This verse tells us how the Lord is made out of sacrifices. Śrīla Prabhupāda said in the purport there are seven practices. Kṛṣṇa consciousness, it is considered they have already done all the other sacrifices. Of course, we know that in this Kali-yuga the recommended sacrifice is chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. I was with Śrīla Prabhupāda in 1971 in the Ardha-kumbha-melā, in Prayāga in Allahabad. Śrīla Prabhupāda was lecturing on this. How one has done all the sacrifices by practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness. One of my dear godbrothers at that time, I think it was Madhudviṣa Prabhu, raised his hand. He said Śrīla Prabhupāda, you said that if we do devotional service, we have already done all the sacrifices. I look at my life I did not do any sacrifice. I was completely lost. How is it that I got devotional service Then Śrīla Prabhupāda answered him that “I have made your good fortune for you!” Haribol! Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya!

So Lord Caitanya was telling Lord Nityānanda that We come down from the spiritual world to deliver the four kinds of people who are normally not delivered – the foolish people, the nīcas, the lowborn, the patita, the fallen, people who eat meat, do all the things that are done in America – gambling, intoxication, illicit sex, and then the distressed, the duḥkhī. Has anyone every suffered in this world? So, Lord Caitanya, Lord Nityānanda, They come to deliver all of you. And here it says that how the Lord, He reciprocates with the sacrifices, something like that. In the 11th canto there is a prediction that Kṛṣṇa will come in the Kali-yuga –

kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣākṛṣṇaṁ
sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam
yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair
yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ

This form of Lord Kṛṣṇa will not be dark in color. He will come with His associates, expansions, energies, etc. and He will establish the saṅkīrtana sacrifice. And those who are intelligent, will follow Him. There is so much bliss, so much ecstasy in the syllables Kṛṣṇa. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī was saying how sometimes he wanted to have millions of ear, millions of tongues, just to hear and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Anyway, Lord Caitanya came down to give us this saṅkīrtana-yajña. Previously, they may have had different agnihotras in Tretā-yuga. Now we only use agnihotra maybe in initiation and also in the saṁskāras. But usually that would be mainly related or associated with Kṛṣṇa. But now in Kali-yuga our sacrifices is chanting the holy name. One time there was a drought for some time in Andhra Pradesh. In Tirupati they had 108 fire sacrifices. Every kuṇḍa they had agnihotri, the brāhmaṇa who offered the sacrifice. Then they had a tester to test that they said the mantras correct. But there was such a mess, so many errors, that the whole sacrifice without producing rain, it produced smoke. And Śrīla Prabhupāda in Hyderabad, he chanted Hare Kṛṣṇa, did the nāma-saṅkīrtana sacrifice and it rained for seven days! Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jaya! He was empowered, actually I went to a program to a program with these celebrated brāhmaṇas in India and they openly declared that Śrīla Prabhupāda was a śaktyāveśa-avatāra. . Anyway Śrīla Prabhupāda was also very humble, and he did not want himself to be called Jagat-guru because bogus gurus were claiming to be jagat-guru and the meaning had no relevance. They were with a guru of their village. Śrīla Prabhupāda was the real Jagat-guru but all these people were claiming to be jagat-guru – 10,008, 10,008, 100,0008, just a bunch of number of zeros and then jagat-guru, but they did not do anything.

Śrīla Prabhupāda, he came to the West with the mercy of Nitāi-Gaura and he delivered everyone by the Harināma sacrifice. Now Harināma is very popular. In one verse it says –

kṛte yad dhyāyato viṣṇuṁ 
tretāyāṁ yajato makhaiḥ
dvāpare paricaryāyāṁ 
kalau tad dhari-kīrtanāt
(ŚB 12.3.52)

In the Satya-yuga there is meditation, in the Tretā-yuga there is fire sacrifice, Dvāpara-yuga was worshiping the Lord and Kali-yuga it is the Harināma. That is our sacrifice for this yuga and we perform that, kīrtana, japa. Actually, I saw, when I came in there were so many devotees chanting. And most of them were ladies. Śrīla Prabhupāda was saying in the 9th canto in the purport where Durvāsā was mentioning about materialistic women. If the lady becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious, then man, woman, śūdra, doesn’t make any different, they are all equal.

So, it is a very important aspect of the third canto, Lord Varāhadeva how different avatāras they have different moods. Like Narasiṁhadeva was angry because His devotee was being abused. Lord Rāma was the perfect king. Everybody has a different mood. Lord Caitanya’s mood was mercy.

Śrīla Prabhupāda was saying that there is no limit to Lord Caitanya’s mercy. But we have to be very sincere. We try to follow, and Lord Caitanya He has unlimited mercy. We shouldn’t not try. Lord Caitanya He is parama-karuṇa nitāi-gauracandra. The Lord He comes down as a devotee and He had told in Dvārakā that He would come down. Because Rukmiṇī, we are worship Rukmiṇī and Dvārakādīśa. Rukmiṇī she said Kṛṣṇa, “You know everything – You know what Lord Brahmā is doing in Satyaloka, You know what Lord Śiva is doing in Kailāsa, what is going on in all the ananta-koṭi universes. The unlimited millions of universes. But there is one thing You don’t know. You don’t know, but I know, Rādhārāṇī knows, but You don’t know. No one ever told Kṛṣṇa there was something He did not know.” “What is that,” He said? She said, “I know, Rādhārāṇī knows, You don’t know.” “You should have told Me. Tell me what it is?” “You don’t have anybody above You. You don’t know two things – how much Your devotees love You and in what way we love You. You don’t know!” So then He said, “Alright, “I WILL COME BACK IN KALI-YUGA AS MY DEVOTEE! I WAIL COME AS MY DEVOTEE! I WILL COME AS MY DEVOTEE!” So the reason that Lord Caitanya came back was this Rukmiṇī Dvārakādīśa.

Anyway, we are very, very, very unlimitedly fortunate that Śrīla Prabhupāda brought the mercy of Nitāi-Gaura to us.

Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Jaya Rukmiṇī Dvārakādīśa! Jaya Nitāi-Gaura! Jaya Jagannātha Baladeva, Subhadrā, Sudarśana cakra.