20241123 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.11.34-35

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 3.11.34

yad ardham āyuṣas tasya
parārdham abhidhīyate
pūrvaḥ parārdho ’pakrānto
hy aparo ’dya pravartate

Translation: The one hundred years of Brahmā’s life are divided into two parts, the first half and the second half. The first half of the duration of Brahmā’s life is already over, and the second half is now current.

Purport by Śrīla Prabhupāda: The duration of one hundred years in the life of Brahmā has already been discussed in many places in this work, and it is described in Bhagavad-gītā (8.17) also. Fifty years of the life of Brahmā are already over, and fifty years are yet to be completed; then, for Brahmā also, death is inevitable.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.11.35

pūrvasyādau parārdhasya
brāhmo nāma mahān abhūt
kalpo yatrābhavad brahmā
śabda-brahmeti yaṁ viduḥ

Translation: In the beginning of the first half of Brahmā’s life, there was a millennium called Brāhma-kalpa, wherein Lord Brahmā appeared. The birth of the Vedas was simultaneous with Brahmā’s birth.

Purport: According to Padma Purāṇa (Prabhāsa-khaṇḍa), in thirty days of Brahmā many kalpas take place, such as the Varāha-kalpa and Pitṛ-kalpa. Thirty days make one month of Brahmā, beginning from the full moon to the disappearance of the moon. Twelve such months complete one year, and fifty years complete one parārdha, or one half the duration of the life of Brahmā. The Śveta-varāha appearance of the Lord is the first birthday of Brahmā. The birth date of Brahmā is in the month of March, according to Hindu astronomical calculation. This statement is reproduced from the explanation of Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, today we are having verses which explain a little more about the life of Lord Brahmā. Lord Brahmā lives 100 years. And his life is divided into two halves. So, each half is called a parārdha. So recently we just entered into the fiftieth parārdha, the second parārdha. One day is a thousand catur-yugas. Night time is also the same length as the day time. So, at the end of Brahmā’s day the whole universe gets flooded, lower than Satyaloka. We have short lives and the demigods have more lifespan than us. So, it is interesting to note how long Brahmā lives. Hiraṇyakaśipu asked Brahmā for a blessing to be deathless. Lord Brahmā said, “I am not deathless, so I cannot give that blessing.” In this verse in the purport it also speaks that Lord Brahmā dies after 100 years of his life. So if you are born in the material world you also have to die. So the sādhana-bhakti is so that we go back to Kṛṣṇa. Who all of you want to go back to Kṛṣṇa? So, we see a lot of devotees like to go back to Kṛṣṇa! The secret to do that is to do everything for Kṛṣṇa.

The karma-yogīs or karmīs, they do things to please their senses. But to engage in devotional service, to engage in Kṛṣṇa’s service is called devotional service. So there are five relationships with Kṛṣṇa. Śānta-rasa, dāsya-rasa, sakhya-rasa, vātsalya-rasa and then mādhurya-rasa. So, if we are able to realize our rasa which never changes, if one develops a relationship with Kṛṣṇa, that makes one happy as well as Kṛṣṇa happy. Therefore, we always endeavor to please Kṛṣṇa, to please the spiritual master. So Brahmā, he has the service to create the universe at the beginning of every day. That is his service. And what is your service? Śrīla Prabhupāda, he has given us various services. Distributing books, worshiping Deities. Here in Māyāpur we have the TOVP. I was asking devotees if they can think of any way to preach to the tens of thousands of visitors we have every day. Yesterday, 23,000 and last weekend there were 60,000 visitors. So, Braja-vilāsa Prabhu is making the TOVP. And many devotees including our Rameśvara Prabhu is making the Science Museum of the Vedic Planetarium. So one devotee wrote to me and said that we could have booths for questions and answers. We can have a stall which says questions and answers. This was an idea given by a Vaiṣṇavī. And so like that there may be many ideas. I was saying how in Uḍupī, they have brāhmaṇas, who are guiding the people around. Pañca-tattva kī jaya! And let us chant Hare Kṛṣṇa in Russian!

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

Let us chant in Japanese!

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

Let us chant in Bengali!

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

So, I was thinking we could have a devotee taking turns before each altar. Before the Bhajan-kuṭīr, before Śrīla Prabhupāda Samādhi Mandir. Become expert in the different Deities and different pastimes. So like this, we want to illuminate all the people who visit so that they can get inspired to practice bhakti-yoga.

Here in the purport we heard how Varāhadeva, He appeared in the first birthday of Lord Brahmā. One of these kalpas is called the Varāha-kalpa. And Varāha fought with Hiraṇyākṣa. And when He kicked Hiraṇyākṣa, it is said that one of His lotus feet touched Navadvīpa Dhāma. That place is called Koladvīpa. So, what he (repeater Sujintendriya dāsa) was telling me was is that this kalpa is known as Śveta-Varāha-kalpa. So that means Sveta-Varāha may have appeared in this kalpa. There are different Varāhas, one of them is Śveta-Varāha.

So, the time period of Lord Brahmā is very interesting. We are reading about these personalities with long life like Lord Brahmā. Now, we probably live for about 100 years and if we do devotional service in this short period then we can attain the lotus feet of Lord Kṛṣṇa. So, every Purāṇa tells us something about the cosmic manifestation. So if we are able to help someone to become Kṛṣṇa conscious then Kṛṣṇa will be very pleased with us. So, that is the difference between bhakti and karma. In karma, one tries to do the artha, kāma, economic development and sense gratification. But bhakti means to try to please the Lord.

Now, somehow Kṛṣṇa, He experiences happiness when He sees Śrī Rādhā. But He sees Rādhā experiences a ten million times more than He does! He wants to realize that! But He cannot! He tried! But He could not! So, the devotee experiences more bliss than Kṛṣṇa. So Kṛṣṇa came as Lord Caitanya, He came as a devotee. So, although Kṛṣṇa is black, but He took the mood and color of Śrī Rādhā and came as Gaurāṅga. Gaurāṅga! So, Gaurāṅga is a very esoteric appearance of the Lord. He came as a devotee to experience the bliss of devotees. So, He had external reasons for coming – He established the saṅkīrtana movement. And the internal confidential reason for coming was to experience the happiness or bliss that Rādhārāṇī felt, the bliss that the devotee felt for Him. When He was in Jagannātha Purī in the last part of His līlā, He saw a sand dune and thought it to be Govardhana Hill. So He started running towards that Govardhana! And all the devotees ran after Him! Then, He got stunned and He fell down and He could not run any further. This way, He saw Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa entering into the Govardhana Hill. So,  all these things Lord Caitanya was experiencing.

Lord Caitanya would hear about Vṛndāvana and He would become ecstatic. Actually, in Vṛndāvana He would get a hundred thousand times ecstasy. We are very glad that devotees from Vṛndāvana have come to Navadvīpa! Like Pañca Gauḍa Prabhu, His Holiness Bhakti Anugraha Janārdana Swami Maharāja, Mukunda Datta Prabhu and his good wife and many other devotees from Vṛndāvana! So, Rādhārāṇī created this Navadvīpa Dhāma. She played on the flute a very enchanting melody. And Kṛṣṇa came to see who was playing on the flute. Kṛṣṇa said, You have created this dhāma for Me, very nice! This will be non-different from Vṛndāvana!

My time is almost up now. Just as Lord Brahmā, his time ran out after hundred years! Śrīla Prabhupāda has given us Vṛndāvana, Māyāpur and many places to do service.

Any questions or comments?

Question: Hare Kṛṣṇa Guru Mahārāja, my name is Jāhnavī Nimāipriyā devī dāsī.  Thank you for this wonderful class Guru Mahārāja. I seek your blessings so that I can do my service to Kṛṣṇa, Śrīla Prabhupāda and to you. With your mercy, I am trying to preach online on social media. So the page is followed by over 300,000 people. My question is based on an observation. In a recent class you were talking about the ten offences that should not be committed against the holy name. The last one said that we should not preach the glories of the holy name to a faithless person. My question Guru Mahārāja is, are not most of the people faithless in this time? My observation is, when I post a video and talk about the benefits, for example, Kārtika month you do, those videos are well received and I get positive feedback from people that they did the Kārtika. You said in that class, we can tell people, like Śrīla Prabhupāda said chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and be happy. But is my understanding wrong if we tell them the glories of chanting they start chanting, because they want the benefit but eventually maybe the holy name works.

Jayapatākā Swami: Two things I would like to say. Śrīla Prabhupāda would say chant and be happy. That is actually not saying anything about the glories of the holy name. It is not saying you are going back to Godhead, if you chant, all your sins will be forgiven, it says none of that. So in one sense he is not telling any of the glories of the holy name. The other thing is that if people are listening on their own accord then that means they have some faith. But if you think some of the people do not have any faith, then you should not tell the esoteric glories of the holy name. But if you think that they have some little faith because they are coming, then just tell a little bit of the glories of the holy name. Is that alright?

Alright, time up!

Let us chant Hare Kṛṣṇa in Chinese!

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