20231118 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.1.16

The following is a morning class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on November 18th, 2023 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur, India.

The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 3.1.16.

nārāyaṇaṁ namaskṛtya naraṁ caiva narottamam
devīṁ sarasvatīṁ vyāsaṁ tato jayam udīrayet

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.1.16

svayaṁ dhanur dvāri nidhāya māyāṁ
bhrātuḥ puro marmasu tāḍito ’pi
sa ittham atyulbaṇa-karṇa-bāṇair
gata-vyatho ’yād uru mānayānaḥ

Translation: Thus being pierced by arrows through his ears and afflicted to the core of his heart, Vidura placed his bow on the door and quit his brother’s palace. He was not sorry, for he considered the acts of the external energy to be supreme.

Purport: A pure devotee of the Lord is never perturbed by an awkward position created by the external energy of the Lord. In Bhagavad-gītā (3.27) it is stated:

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ
ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate

A conditioned soul is absorbed in material existence under the influence of different modes of external energy. Absorbed in the false ego, he thinks that he is doing everything by himself. The external energy of the Lord, the material nature, is fully under the control of the Supreme Lord, and the conditioned soul is fully under the grip of the external energy. Therefore, the conditioned soul is fully under the control of the law of the Lord. But, due to illusion only, he thinks himself independent in his activities. Duryodhana was acting under such influence of the external nature, by which he would be vanquished at the ultimate end. He could not accept the sound advice of Vidura, but on the contrary he insulted that great soul, who was the well-wisher of his whole family. Vidura could understand this because he was a pure devotee of the Lord. In spite of being very strongly insulted by Duryodhana’s words, Vidura could see that Duryodhana, under the influence of māyā, the external energy, was making progress on the path toward his own ruination. He therefore considered the acts of the external energy to be supreme, yet he also saw how the internal energy of the Lord helped him in that particular situation. A devotee is always in a renounced temperament because the worldly attractions can never satisfy him. Vidura was never attracted by the royal palace of his brother. He was always ready to leave the place and devote himself completely to the transcendental loving service of the Lord. Now he got the opportunity by the grace of Duryodhana, and instead of being sorry at the strong words of insult, he thanked him from within because it gave him the chance to live alone in a holy place and fully engage in the devotional service of the Lord. The word gata-vyathaḥ (without being sorry) is significant here because Vidura was relieved from the tribulations which trouble every man entangled in material activities. He therefore thought that there was no need to defend his brother with his bow because his brother was meant for ruination. Thus he left the palace before Duryodhana could act. Māyā, the supreme energy of the Lord, acted here both internally and externally.

Jayapatākā Swami: So here we see how Vidura, who was a great devotee, he was insulted. But he did not get upset. I think all the devotees present here, each and everyone of them, have to hear something unpleasant at some time. So how many people have heard someone criticize? Raise your hand. So, here we see that Vidura, he only told the truth. But for that Duryodhana threatened him that he should be thrown out, beaten. But he left on his own accord. He did not feel sorry. He could understand that the material energy was working. Duryodhana could not grasp this matter and therefore by the influence of the mode of ignorance he was speaking all these words. So this is a very practical example. Every devotee, almost everyone raised their hand that they had to hear some kind of insulting thing. It is not you. Even Vidura, he had to hear. But he was not sorry. He took it as the arrangement of the material energy. So he decided to take this opportunity to completely surrender to Kṛṣṇa.

Generally, when devotees come into a situation like this they usually become disturbed. But Vidura, he did not become upset. We have to have that kind of transcendental vision. In English they say, sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me. But actually, this verse says that they said such things to Vidura which was like putting arrows in his ears. So, actually a stranger says something it doesn’t bother us, but if someone is close then it affects us…

When I first came to India, there was a seminar. At that time, I remember, across the river some kids said, “dum maro dum!” They had some movie which had people taking gañjā and things and they were saying, “Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Rāma!” Now we don’t hear any more of that and the actor, he apologized, he said, he is sorry he did it. So, in different ways material energy inspires people to say offensive things. So, we have to understand that these are the three modes of material nature working. Now in general for the general public, we do different types of good work. Whether one feels insulted or praised, we have to be equal.

Even some of the presidents in South India was asking, “What do you do when someone insults you?” That time this example did not come to mind, but I thought about Lord Nityānanda. Lord Nityānanda was hit on the head by a wine bottle. And He was caused to bleed. But He told Jagāi and Mādhāi, “Just because you caused me to bleed, does that mean I will not give you prema?” Lord Nityānanda was so patient. He was caused to bleed and still He was giving out kṛṣṇa-prema. This is Lord Nityānanda’s mercy, where will you find so much mercy? So we are working with the Pañca-tattva and His representative A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda.

So Lord Caitanya had predicted that His name will be chanted in every town and village of the world. So, Śrīla Prabhupāda, he wanted to make that true! When he told the sādhus in Vṛndāvana his plan, they said, “pṛthivī that means the civilized world, which is India. And over there in the West this will not happen.” So Śrīla Prabhupāda had such a vision that the whole world will be Kṛṣṇa conscious. So Śrīla Prabhupāda had this vision. He did not have that vision alone but put it to action. Now this leader from Nepal said if he is brought to Māyāpur and sees Māyāpur then he will become completely surrendered to ISKCON.

Śrīla Prabhupāda said, “Keep the grass hut, that is where it all started.” That grass hut in the front by the main gate was all that there was! There was outdoor fresh air stool house! And one day Śrīla Prabhupāda complained, somebody had passed diarrhea all the way to his hut! So, then Jayapatākā Swami was enrolled to solve the problem! Someone had taken, I don’t know how much, but one or two liters of date juice and because of that he had diarrhea. Anyway, we had to have it cleaned up.

So Śrīla Prabhupāda, he was staying in a very austere situation. This way to have one’s own home and have different material objects, such kind of experiences were with Śrīla Prabhupāda. At the edge, at the end of his grass hut, we had a beehive. And one of the cows, underneath the beehive there was green grass. Mmmmm, cows like green grass! The cow knocked over the beehive and ate the grass! And that is not the end of the story, that is the beginning! All the bees fled from that beehive and went into Śrīla Prabhupāda’s house. Śrīla Prabhupāda called “Jayapatākā Swami!” “Get these bees out of here!” I had a nectarean job! And Śrīla Prabhupāda told me to put the beehive somewhere else. He was very tolerant. So many very difficult times we passed. Anyway, I got the bees out that was some trick.

Behind the grass hut we had a tarpaulin kitchen. And one day Śrīdhara Swami came from Bombay. He brought a modern equipment, machine. Do you know what that machine was? It was a lucī roller. So if you put a ball of dough then swish, swish, you get a flat round base out. So we thought that we will try that out. There was an earthen pot full of date jaggery, gūr. So Śrīdhara Swami was cooking hot lucīs, purīs. Purī is from wheat flour and lucī is from white flour. So we were sitting in a circle and Śrīdhara Swami was serving us hot lucīs. And we were eating it with the date gūr. So, that was the thing to do, that was the first day of the lucī machine. Śrīla Prabhupāda was looking through the bamboo window of his room and he called me, “Jayapatākā Swami!” So I came there. He said, “this is not sannyāsa life!” So, I was trying to show how Śrīla Prabhupāda, he was taking a lot of austerities. But along with that, all the time he always was training me.

We saw in the drama yesterday, when Śrīla Prabhupāda went to New York, he was being beaten up and attacked, many things. Śrīla Prabhupāda, he accepted so many problems. He had heart-attacks, he was beaten up. And now if you look around you can see the temple full. But this happened because Śrīla Prabhupāda took immense amount of austerities.

So here we see that Vidura, he tolerated very cutting words. So he left and went to holy places and found a pure devotee to receive instructions from. We should be very grateful that Śrīla Prabhupāda had gone through such difficulties to spread the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. So, Lord Caitanya taught that if we feel separation from Lord Kṛṣṇa then we can always be Kṛṣṇa conscious.