20241005 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.9.31

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 3.9.31

tata ātmani loke ca
bhakti-yuktaḥ samāhitaḥ
draṣṭāsi māṁ tataṁ brahman
mayi lokāṁs tvam ātmanaḥ

Translation: O Brahmā, when you are absorbed in devotional service, in the course of your creative activities, you will see Me in you and throughout the universe, and you will see that you yourself, the universe and the living entities are all in Me.

Purport by Śrīla Prabhupāda: It is cited herein by the Lord that during his daytime Brahmā would see Him as Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. He would appreciate how the Lord expanded Himself into all the calves during His childhood at Vṛndāvana, he would know how Yaśodāmayī saw all the universes and planetary systems within the mouth of Kṛṣṇa during His playful childhood pastimes, and he would also see that there are many millions of Brahmās during the appearance of Lord Kṛṣṇa in Brahmā’s daytime. But all these manifestations of the Lord, appearing everywhere in His eternal, transcendental forms, cannot be understood by anyone but the pure devotees, who are always engaged in devotional service to the Lord and are fully absorbed in the Lord. The high qualifications of Brahmā are also indicated herein.

Jayapatākā Swami: Before I give class I would just like to say something. Since I came back from Malaysia, different devotees have seen me. And expressed their anxiety over certain decisions. As the co-directors, we are going to meet minimum every Tuesday. Maybe we meet more times, but at least on Tuesday. So, one thing was expressed that they don’t see the co-directors! I cannot speak for the others. I have some health issues. So I had a liver and kidney transplant and I take medicines. So my body does not reject the new organs, I am taking immunorepresent drugs. At present, my kidney is not working up to the optimum level. So, as a result, I am very susceptible and can get diseases very easily. I give class every Saturday morning. Every night, I give class either upstairs or in the Nāma-haṭṭa. And every day I come when it is no so crowded to take darśana of the Deities. So, that is what I do! I am very glad to see so many devotees! Sometimes I see the devotees worshiping different darśana Deities. So now we will begin the class.

So Lord Brahmā is the first living entity in each universe. He comes from Viṣṇu. Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu sprouts a lotus from His navel and on that Brahmā appears. Viṣṇu doesn’t need Lakṣmī or anyone else to produce Brahmā. So during Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes Lord Brahmā had several exchanges. One day, Brahmā came to see Lord Kṛṣṇa in Dvārakā. The doorkeeper came to Kṛṣṇa and said, “Lord Brahmā has come.” Lord Kṛṣṇa, He asked, “Which Brahmā has come?” The doorkeeper went up to Brahmā and asked him, “What is your name, what are your identity details?” So Brahmā was confused, “Am I not the only Brahmā in this universe?” He gave his identity that he was the four-headed Brahmā and that the four Kumāras came from him. So, the doorkeeper told this to Lord Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa told him, to ask Brahmā to come in. So he came in and he offered his obeisances to Lord Kṛṣṇa. And when he got up he asked, “Are there other Brahmās in this universe?” You see, Lord Kṛṣṇa said, “You have four heads, therefore yours is the smallest universe.” So, Lord Kṛṣṇa said that, “Your universe is so many yojanas.” Then Lord Kṛṣṇa called other Brahmās. And each Brahmā had a different number of heads – ten heads, twenty heads, hundred heads, thousand heads, even like millions of heads! Each universe depending on how big it was, the Brahmā there had that many heads. So, I forget what they said, they give a measure of each universe. The Caturmukha Brahmā could see all the other Brahmās. But those Brahmās could only see Kṛṣṇa and themselves. They thought they are very blessed that Kṛṣṇa had called them. Each one bowed down and paid their respects to Lord Kṛṣṇa. So how great is Kṛṣṇa, that all the universes manifest from one fourth of His energy. We are not able to understand one universe even though we are the smallest of the universes. So each universe is bigger than our universe. And there are millions of innumerable universes.

The material world is so big, but the spiritual world is three fourths of the Lord’s energy. It is far beyond our ability to measure. Everything is in the body of Kṛṣṇa. And He is so nice that He will have a personal relationship with each person. So, to please Lord Kṛṣṇa, to serve Lord Kṛṣṇa is the highest goal of human life. If we see how big Kṛṣṇa is, how great He is, then we should try to serve Him. Kṛṣṇa consciousness means that to always be conscious of Kṛṣṇa and try to please Him. Generally, we think that we are the body, and therefore the goal of our life is to gratify the senses of this body.

Actually, Kṛṣṇa comes as Lord Caitanya. He accepts, the mood and color of Śrīmati Rādhārāṇī. He wants to realize what the devotees experience in their service. So, this is a very special abode of Kṛṣṇa. His external reason for coming is to spread the Harināma saṅkīrtana. And His internal reasons are to understand what the devotees feel for Him. Rādhārāṇī experiences a greater happiness in serving Kṛṣṇa. So Kṛṣṇa wants to realize that happiness.

I heard that some twenty or so devotees have come from Japan. So we would like to welcome them. Haribol! Haribol! Haribol! To my left is His Holiness Kavicandra Swami. So Māyāpur is a very special place to get all kinds of visitors. And the devotees who have come to Māyāpur, we heartily welcome them. Every devotee here has to be geared up to welcome the devotees from different parts of the world. There is war going on between Ukraine and Russia. So many devotees, Russian speaking and others have come to Māyāpur, we should welcome them! We have devotees from Khasadeśa. We have different devotees. Spanish speaking, Portuguese speaking, all different kinds of devotees. I see Kesavī devī dāsī, I guess she is translating into Japanese. Some devotees are translating into Russian. Other devotees into Chinese. So like this, “This is a United Nations of the Spiritual world!” This is what Śrīla Prabhupāda once said.

So, back to Brahmā’s experience. All the friends of Kṛṣṇa, the cowherd boys and the calves, they were stolen by Brahmā, but what he thought was one moment of his, that was one year on earth. Then he saw all the cowherd boys and calves were still there! So, when he came back and he looked, he saw they were here, they were there, they were everywhere. So what Kṛṣṇa did was He expanded Himself as the different cowherd boys and calves. He saw they were in the cave and other place. So Brahmā could not see the difference. So, he was bewildered. He had limited mystic power but Kṛṣṇa has unlimited mystic power. During this period when Kṛṣṇa had expanded as all the cowherd boys, He married all the gopīs. Actually, the gopīs married Kṛṣṇa. But externally they were married to different cowherd boys. So many things happened at that time. So that was the experience Brahmā had.

But then the other experience was in Dvārakā. So like this Kṛṣṇa’s līlā is unlimited. And it has different meanings. So Brahmā, he was praying that during his creation he would not be affected by the different entites that he was creating bodies for. So, all these opulences of Kṛṣṇa can only be understood to some extent by the pure devotees of Kṛṣṇa. So Lord Caitanya, Pañca-tattva, They are giving us Their mercy that we can become pure devotees. Śrīla Prabhupāda travelled all over the world and distributed the mercy of the Pañca-tattva. Even Kṛṣṇa is coming Himself to experience what ecstasy His devotees have.

So we have this great opportunity by the mercy of Śrīla Prabhupāda and Lord Caitanya to have this pure bhakti for Lord Kṛṣṇa. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura and Śrīla A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, they had this vision of worldwide extension of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Somehow, if everyone chants Hare Kṛṣṇa then the prediction of Lord Caitanya will come true. Haribol! Haribol! Haribol!

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare /
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare!

Lord Caitanya, He came with His Pañca-tattva only five hundred and so many years ago. But unfortunately many people do not take advantage of this special offer of the special offer of the Pañca-tattva. And we want everyone to come to Māyāpur, get the mercy of Lord Caitanya and spread this movement. Of course in many places of the world there are our temples today. And most temples also, Kṛṣṇa consciousness is spread. But if someone comes to Māyāpur, that is our special opportunity to inspire them.

On Wednesday was Mahālayā and 56,000 visitors came to Māyāpur. And Thursday we had 22,000 visitors! Haribol! Yesterday only 15,000 visitors came. So, we have many visitors come and books are being distributed to them. Kamalāpati is distributing books. And we have a number of prasāda outlets. That announcement is made every morning.

Are there any questions?

Question: Regarding the best time for plucking flowers for the Deities. Could you kindly advise what is the best time to pluck flowers for the service of the Deities?

Jayapatākā Swami: You see, any questions means, about the class today. We read last night we were reading Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s teachings. In Bhādra Pūrṇimā we distribute Bhagavad-gītā, but he said Bhādra Pūrṇimā is also the day you should not cook. No cooking! And you should cook the day before. And you eat whatever does not need cooking. We never did this before. I never heard of it also before. So I know some of our ladies are expert at baking cakes. Anyway, that is one year away!

Question: We have to welcome and serve the devotees who visit Māyāpur. How can we welcome them better? Please advise us if you have any instructions how we can improve our service to the visitors.

Jayapatākā Swami: Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura said that in the Navadvīpa-maṇḍala parikramā, the Āryan, the Indian devotees would meet with the international devotees. They could embrace each other and say, “Jaya Śacīnandana! Jaya Śacīnandana!” That is what Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura said. So at that time we had two parties – Indian party and International party. The men embraced the men saying, “Jaya Śacīnandana!” The women embraced the women saying, “Jaya Śacīnandana! Haribol! Gaurāṅga! Nityānanda!” But Western devotees would appreciate if the devotees, who live in Māyāpur are caring for them and expressing their gratitude for them coming to Māyāpur dhāma. Now the local devotees, devotees from Bengal and other states visit Māyāpur, you can tell them about the ‘Māyāpur App’ and also welcome them. And with the Māyāpur App you can do a virtual parikramā from your home! So even if you take ‘Māyāpur App’, you could do a parikramā in Japan, China, Russia, anywhere! Hooghly, Birbhum, Medinipur, Assam! Through this App, you have the darśana of the Deities every day. So I have to end the class here. You can take your prasāda! Haribol!