20240929 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.9.24

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

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

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.9.24

nābhi-hradād iha sato ’mbhasi yasya puṁso
vijñāna-śaktir aham āsam ananta-śakteḥ
rūpaṁ vicitram idam asya vivṛṇvato me
mā rīriṣīṣṭa nigamasya girāṁ visargaḥ

Translation: The Lord’s potencies are innumerable. As He lies down in the water of devastation, I am born as the total universal energy from the navel lake in which the lotus sprouts. I am now engaged in manifesting His diverse energies in the form of the cosmic manifestation. I therefore pray that in the course of my material activities I may not be deviated from the vibration of the Vedic hymns.

Purport by Śrīla Prabhupāda: Every person engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord in this material world is prone to so many material activities, and if one is not strong enough to protect himself against the onslaught of material affection, he may be diverted from the spiritual energy. In the material creation Brahmā has to create all kinds of living entities with bodies suitable to their material conditions. Brahmā wants to be protected by the Lord because he has to contact many, many vicious living entities. An ordinary brāhmaṇa may fall from the brahmā-tejas, or the power of brahminical excellence, due to his association with many fallen, conditioned souls. Brahmā, as the supermost brāhmaṇa, is afraid of such a falldown, and therefore he prays to the Lord for protection. This is a warning for one and all in the spiritual advancement of life. Unless one is sufficiently protected by the Lord, he may fall down from his spiritual position; therefore one has to pray constantly to the Lord for protection and the blessing to carry out one’s duty. Lord Caitanya also entrusted His missionary work to His devotees and assured them of His protection against the onslaught of material affection. The path of spiritual life is stated in the Vedas to be like the edge of a sharpened razor. A little inattentiveness may at once create havoc and bloodshed, but one who is a completely surrendered soul, always seeking protection from the Lord in the discharge of his entrusted duties, has no fear of falling into material contamination.

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Jayapatākā Swami: So, here we see that Brahmā who is doing the secondary creation, so he is like the super most brāhmaṇa. But he is constantly praying to the Lord that he may not be deviated while creating the bodies of the living entities. So, Brahmā is worried about being deviated, but we are very small compared to Lord Brahmā. We should constantly pray to the Lord at the lotus feet of Lord Kṛṣṇa that we may not deviate. I got the news that one of my disciples, just 30 years old, in Malaysia, left his body. So no one can say how long one may live. So, while we are alive we want to carry out the Lord’s mission and not get deviated. The devotee’s name was Dīnapāvana Narasiṁha dāsa. So, we pray that he may reach Kṛṣṇa’s abode. And you can also pray for him. Dīnapāvana Narasiṁha dāsa. We don’t know how long we have to stay in the body. So, we should always take shelter of the Pañca-tattva. Yesterday, we heard Śrīla Prabhupāda’s lecture, he said that, if you want to advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you should preach, you should bring people to chanting the holy name and closer to Kṛṣṇa.

Generally, devotees they think that, “Oh, I have made this much spiritual advancement in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, now let me preach.” But Śrīla Prabhupāda said that one should preach to make one’s own advancement. Sometimes, Sujitendriya translates something else!

We have every Friday, in English, a mātājī who gives the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam class. So I was thinking that we should have more opportunities for men and women to preach. Anyway, the Pañca-tattva were preaching in this matter. But now Pañca-tattva are empowering the devotees to preach. So, this is a very interesting thing! We know that the Ganges level is very high, still the security told us that 13,000 people visited Māyāpur. About 11,000 took prasāda. If 11,000 took prasāda, maybe more people came. So, last night I was meeting with His Holiness Bhakti Vijaya Bhāgavata Swami and his team of gṛhasthas, who distribute books. I was very happy that so many gṛhasthas were distributing books. I know that in the Saṅkīrtana Department, many brahmacārīs are distributing through various buses. And they are also trying through different book tables and other areas. So like this, there is an opportunity for everyone to distribute books which will be very pleasing to Śrīla Prabhupāda. I was just mentioning that you (His Holiness Bhakti Vijaya Bhāgavata Swami) came to meet me yesterday and introduced me to the gṛhastha devotees who are distributing books. There were about four brahmacārīs and the rest were about 40 to 50 gṛhasthas. Some people distributed 125 sets! Mahārāja did 233 sets! (

Bhakti Vijaya Bhāgavata Swami: Guru Mahārāja distributed 777 sets!

Jayapatākā Swami: Now, the marathon is on for distributing Bhagavad-gītās. Now we can distribute other books as well, but we are emphasizing on distributing Bhagavad-gītā now. Some of the ladies distributed 15 sets or 14 sets! I mean, some countries they don’t distribute as much books as our devotees here!

So as it is mentioned in this śloka, all the time we should pray to Kṛṣṇa, we should pray to Pañca-tattva that we should preach and not deviate. When we preach we naturally feel very ecstatic! So, Lord Caitanya wanted that His followers, His devotees also preach. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, he wanted that Lord Caitanya’s prediction be a success:

Pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma
sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma
(CB Antya-khaṇḍa 4.126)

 In every town and village My name should be preached. So Lord Caitanya, His preaching is going on by Śrīla Prabhupāda’s efforts. We are in a very fortunate place because in India there are not so much vādhas or obstacles. When I was in Montreal, Canada, preaching in 1968–69, I was arrested. And there were a lot of obstacles. While doing Harināma I was arrested. But in India I did Harināma many times but I did not get arrested. So India is a very good place! In South America and some of the Caribbean countries there are gangs. Like in grocery stores, they have armed guards outside. Grocery store in Bengal is a small shop, but these were supermarkets. Somehow some gṛhasthas are distributing books in this environment. In El Salvador one Prime Minister or President he declared war against the gangs’ issue. Only 2% of the population was put in the prison and then they had peace! Still, devotees are preaching in these places. So this is a very wonderful thing! Whether the environment is favorable or unfavorable we are desirous of pleasing Pañca-tattva. Lord Caitanya, He empowered devotees to preach and He wanted them to spread the movement. In some places it is illegal, different places have different situations. Like it says in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta,

bhārata-bhūmite haila manuṣya-janma yāra
janma sārthaka kari’ kara para-upakāra
(Cc. Ādi 9.41)

Whoever has taken his birth in the land of Bhārata should perfect their lives by preaching. So devotees they try to spread Lord Caitanya’s vāṇī to help the people.

This material world is full of dangers. Therefore, we have to always pray to the Pañca-tattva. So, we are dependent on the mercy of the Lord. Kali tries to test you in different ways. He finds out your weak points and that could be different things for different people. Now everyone has mobile phones and they talk on the phones. I said that, “It is better to be a good gṛhastha than a bad brahmacārī.” I don’t say that all the brahmacārīs are bad, but I say that whether you are a gṛhastha or a brahmacārī, all of you will be tested by Kali. So we take vow at the time of initiation to follow the four regulative principles.

One disciple, he said, “I am a rāgānuga, so I can smoke!” That is sahajiyā. They say they are very advanced and break the regulative principles. So, we have to be careful not to get influenced by these sahajiyās. But at the same time, we want to please Lord Caitanya. When someone is inspired to practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we should be happy. We don’t know how pleasing it is when somebody is in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that is a reason to be happy.

So, we are in the Brahma-sampradāya.  So, Brahmā, he has to create different bodies, some are devotee bodies, some are Rākṣasa bodies, all kinds of bodies. So he is always praying that he will not be deviated by these material activities. So, the devotees are very fortunate here that they have Pañca-tattva, Rādhā Mādhava Aṣṭa-sakhi, Rādhā Māyāpur-candra, Prahlāda Narasiṁhadeva, Lord Jagannātha, Baladeva, Subhadrā, Sudarśana cakra. So, we engage in preaching, book distributing and other preaching and in this way by the mercy of Pañca-tattva and Rādhā Mādhava we can achieve all success. We have no excuses, everybody should preach and this is a great necessity. That is the special teaching of this verse.

Are there any questions or comments?

Bhakti Vijaya Bhāgavata Swami: Very nice class. You are saying we should preach and there are a lot of opportunities to preach in India. And especially in Bengal the preaching field is very fertile. Despite that why Lord Caitanya deserted us, and go to Purī? Why did we get bereft of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu?

Jayapatākā Swami: You see, the students in Navadvīpa were offending Lord Caitanya. So, He decided that if He took sannyāsa, then people would not offend Him like that. His desire was to go to Vṛndāvana. But His mother requested Him to go to Jagannātha Purī so she would get sometimes some news about Him. So then, she said, “You can go some time to Vṛndāvana but You should stay in Jagannātha Purī.” So that is why He ended in Nīlācala. For six years, He travelled all over India. 18 years, He stayed in Jagannātha Purī constantly. But the devotees from Bengal came to visit Him. And He sent Lord Nityānanda to Bengal in His place to continue the preaching. Since He was a gṛhastha, when He took sannyāsa, He told Lord Nityānanda to enter gṛhastha-āśrama. I don’t know if this answered your question.

Also Hṛdaya Caitanya Prabhu has returned to Māyāpur, so we would like to welcome him! Haribol!

Question: Thank you for the inspiring class today. You said Dīnapāvana Narasiṁha dāsa left his body at the age of 30. So you mentioned that devotees should endeavor to take forward the mission of the Lord.  My question is what is the mission of the Lord, is it simply to preach or other things also? Secondly you mentioned to pray to the Pañca-tattva all the time, how can we pray to the Pañca-tattva with a simple heart for our spiritual benefit?

Jayapatākā Swami: The Lord has internal and external objectives. We can try to help Lord Caitanya for His external objectives. We can help Him in the Kṛṣṇa consciousness that He wants to spread, we can help Him in that respect.

Alright! Everyone can go for prasāda!