20260328 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.24.47

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 3.24.47

icchā-dveṣa-vihīnena
sarvatra sama-cetasā
bhagavad-bhakti-yuktena
prāptā bhāgavatī gatiḥ

Translation: Freed from all hatred and desire, Kardama Muni, being equal to everyone because of discharging uncontaminated devotional service, ultimately attained the path back to Godhead.

Purport: As stated in Bhagavad-gītā, only by devotional service can one understand the transcendental nature of the Supreme Lord and, after understanding Him perfectly in His transcendental position, enter into the kingdom of God. The process of entering into the kingdom of God is tri-pāda-bhūti-gati, or the path back home, back to Godhead, by which one can attain the ultimate goal of life. Kardama Muni, by his perfect devotional knowledge and service, achieved this ultimate goal, which is known as bhāgavatī gatiḥ.

Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purports of the Third Canto, Twenty-fourth Chapter, of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, entitled “The Renunciation of Kardama Muni.”

Jayapatākā Swami: Since there are a lot of devotees I was asked to sit up here! So, this is happening in the time of Svayambhuva Manu. Each Manu lives for 71 catur-yugas.

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

So, I was told that Manu lives for 306,720,000 years. And that is a long time! We are in Kali-yuga, we hardly live a hundred years! So, we cannot even imagine the situation where Manu is in or Kardama muni is in. Like in those times, Kardama muni had performed austerities and penances for ten thousand years. So, Lord Viṣṇu, Lord Kṛṣṇa told him, that He would become His son and He came as Kapila. Thus He fulfilled His promise. So in verse 38, Kapila Muni said that Kardama Muni should surrender all his activities unto the Supreme Lord. So, Kapiladeva said that you surrender all your activities to Me. This is a kind of daiva-varnāśrama, or spiritual social order. So, he was in a very elevated situation. And he was ordered to create progeny. And he had nine daughters and one son. The son was the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Now, we cannot compare ourselves in any way with Kardama Muni. But, Kardama Muni was fixed in devotional service. And he surrendered all his work to Kṛṣṇa. So he was renouncing and leaving home and Kapila would instruct His mother. We are in Kali-yuga, short lived, misguided, quarrelsome, lazy, etc. Always disturbed!

So, in Satya-yuga the process was meditation, Kardama Muni meditated for ten thousand years. And Tretā-yuga, the process was sacrifice or homa yajña. And Dvāpara-yuga people lived a thousand years and the process of sacrifice was Deity worship. But we have all those processes now, but they are not sufficient. So, we have the process of saṅkīrtana! Actually, the holy name of Kṛṣṇa is the most merciful! If you commit any offence in Deity worship, or any other service, by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra you will get forgiven. Even if a sinner, a sinful man tries to commit as much sins as possible, he still cannot commit enough sins that one Harināma cannot deliver! Anyway, after knowing that yes, by chanting the holy name so many sinful reactions can be eradicated then one thinks that let me commit sins and chant the holy names and the holy names will remove all my sinful activities, that is not the way to do things. But that is not so. As the scriptures say we cannot cheat the holy name. If we do this then the sinful reactions will not be removed but they will get double the reaction!

Last night, I was reading the Prema-Vaivarta about the secret glories of the holy name. And in that it mentions how Nārada Muni wanted to know the wonderful qualities of the holy name. So, it is said that even Kṛṣṇa, even Kṛṣṇa does not know the limit of the mercy of His holy name! The name of Kṛṣṇa is so powerful! At the time of initiation we always say the ten offences to the holy name. But how much importance is given, we do not know. If we commit offences at the holy name or the name of Kṛṣṇa, we will not get shelter anywhere. I already said that how any other aparādhās can be forgiven by the holy name. But if you commit an offence to the holy name, then we cannot get anywhere! The remedy is that one can only constantly beg the holy name for forgiveness and keep chanting the holy name. Here in Māyāpur many people come to visit and if they chant the holy name of the Lord they will get unlimited mercy. So we are in the Kali-yuga, the most sinful age! But we have been given by Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the most merciful, most merciful process! So, Lord Caitanya taught us we should chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, we should chant in saṅkīrtana, we should take shelter of the holy name!

Yesterday we were observing Rāma Navamī, when Lord Rāma came from the spiritual world to give mercy to His devotees. So, in the Vāyu Purāṇa it is explained that Lord Brahmā went to the gates of Vaikuṇṭha and asked Lord Viṣṇu what to do in the Kali-yuga? I heard both Vāyu Purāṇa and Brahma-yāmala, I am not sure in which one it was mentioned. Lord Kṛṣṇa said, I will come as the son of Śacīmātā. And Balarāma will come as Nitāi. So, They have come just to give us this Harināma. Gaurāṅga! Nityānanda! So this is a great thing! So, the Lord has come mercifully to deliver all of you! So we should very carefully chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, take the blessings of the Pañca-tattva.

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

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

That is which Kardama Muni received from the Lord Himself. What he received, we can get the same in this short life! That is why we need to chant the holy name with extreme sincerity. We have short lives. So, in this life, we should fully concentrate on chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa! And just as Kapila told Kardama Muni, surrender all your activities to Me, the gṛhastha devotees should surrender all their activities to Kṛṣṇa. Not just gṛhasthas, but the brahmacārīs and all others too! Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura said that the Vaiṣṇavas have the qualities of the brāhmaṇas and therefore he had given the sacred thread to the Vaiṣṇavas. So, we are trying to encourage everyone to be a Vaiṣṇava or a Vaiṣṇavī. Chant the holy name and be successful in your life!

Here we see that Kardama Muni is completely detached from material sense gratification. So, he had the great good fortune to have the Supreme Personality of Godhead to be his son! Some days ago, many gṛhastha couples had brought their babies up for anna-praśna. So, it is a responsibility of the parents that is said in the scriptures that the child has to be liberated from the hell called Puta. But generally the parents now want their child should get good job, etc. They do not think this way as to how their children can go back to Godhead, but they only think how their children get good jobs, how they will get good education, etc. So, Śrīla Prabhupāda was telling all the gṛhasthas in London, that they should have ācāryas as children, as we need a lot of ācāryas! I hope all the children brought to me for anna-praśna will become ācāryas!

Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He did not write any books. He only wrote eight ślokas of the Śikṣāṣṭaka. He said to read the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. You have a nice facility here with the Māyāpur Institute, to study the Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and now you also have the opportunity to study the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that by distributing his books, you will be happy, and by reading his books, you will be! So we want everybody to also read the books and study them. Generally, in a maṭha there is only one ācārya. But Śrīla Prabhupāda had a different vision. He desired that all become initiating gurus! But, they have to be qualified. They have to be a Vaiṣṇava or a Vaiṣṇavī. I mean, there is a śloka that says:

ṣaṭ-karma-nipuṇo vipro
mantra-tantra-viśāradaḥ
avaiṣṇavo gurur na syād
vaiṣṇavaḥ śva-paco guruḥ
(Padma Purāṇa)

That even if one is a qualified brāhmaṇa, he knows all the mantras, tantras, but if he is not a Vaiṣṇava, he cannot be a guru! But even if one is born in the family of dog eaters, meat eaters, he can be a guru if he is a Vaiṣṇava! We are all atomic parts and parcels of Kṛṣṇa. It is our duty to engage in the devotional service of Kṛṣṇa. This is a Vaiṣṇava! So, we have the most merciful process of chanting the holy names. We should be careful that we are not committing any of the ten offences to the holy name. How many know the ten offences to the holy name? Please avoid the ten offences! And the only qualification to be a guru that Lord Caitanya gave is yei kṛṣṇa-tattva-vettā, sei 'guru' haya [Cc. Madhya 8.128]. One who knows the science of devotional service is qualified to be a spiritual master. So we should know the science of Kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa-bhakti. That is why the Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam has all this information. Then we can achieve the same success as Kardama Muni and go back to Godhead!

Questions, answers, comments?

Question: While chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, I get different ideas and plans for my other services like the Bhaktivedanta Charity Trust related or school related. How should I deal with this?

Jayapatākā Swami: Śrīla Prabhupāda said that first we should see our health and then chanting, service and reading. I used to keep a notebook in my pocket. I also had this problem that many times ideas came to me while I was chanting. Since I had a debt to pay to Śrīla Prabhupāda of chanting 16 rounds minimum a day, I would write down the idea in the book and continue to chant. While doing the japa I would not think about it anymore. After the japa I would open my notebook and see what I had to do. One more question.

Question: As you said, there is no way to get shelter if we commit offences to the holy name. If somehow or other knowingly or unknowingly we commit offences to the holy name, how to get freed from that offence?

Jayapatākā Swami: So this was mentioned in my class. If you commit offence to the holy name, then you have no one else to go to. You have to pray to the holy name to forgive you and chant constantly! Since the holy name is the most merciful, if we commit offence to the holy name there is no one else you can go to. So you have to stop that offence to the holy name and take shelter of the holy name and chant the holy name. Haribol!

Alright, let us end here!