HG Bhurijana Das: (invocatary prayers)
punaś ca bhūyād bhagavaty anante
ratiḥ prasańgaś ca tad–āśrayeṣu
mahatsu yāḿ yām upayāmi sṛṣṭiḿ
maitry astu sarvatra namo dvijebhyaḥ
Bhurijana Das: This is Maharaja Pariksit speaking after being cursed to die. You know of course that he went to the Ganga and he prepared himself for leaving this world and decided to fast till death so he had no distractions so he could focus his mind on the greatest good. So when great sages heard that this great king, one who had been protected by the Lord Himself had decided to fast until death so many powerful, famous, exalted sages came from all over the world and Maharaja Pariksit welcomed them all in such a way that they would be satisfied and he would get the benefit of their association and their blessings. So this is one of the prayers, one of the slokas of the words he spoke to welcome these great sages.
So in this verse he’s, let me just go back a little bit more then the stress will become clearer. The first words that he said to the sages was that, I am a king and kings are contaminated in a sense that they touch power and wealth to such an extent that sages want to be far from them. Why? Because there is always a tendency when one is being touched with wealth and power and great opulence to become attracted to that, so the sages by virtue of their nistha, by their fixness in their determination to reach the Absolute Truth would not associate with these kings because they were contaminated by all their dealings with the material world and they wanted to be free from that.
Maharaja Pariksit thought that it was special mercy that although he was a king these great sages had surrounded him at the most important time of his life, at the time he was going to end his life, he was going to die. So he stressed his thanks to them for coming to him at this most difficult time and then he looked at his situation and being a great devotee he saw that he was cursed to die, but he was a great devotee and this unfortunate occurrence had happened. The common devotee, when something bad happens, their consciousness wavers, shakes, maybe Krsna is not there, how could He have done this, I’m a devotee. Something like that. Of course that is pratikul, against our advancement. But this happens.
But here Maharaja Pariksit, after welcoming the sages he says: This has happened to me that I’ve been cursed, by Krsna’s mercy, because He saw that I was too attached to family life and He wanted to cut that. So that he saw what happened to him, everything that had happened as Krsna’s mercy, Krsna carrying him towards Him, pulling him towards Himself. So that’s the second verse. Then he said, in order to save me, such deep nistha this Mahabhagavat King, Maharaja Pariksit had. That in order to save me from all this material attachment, that means future rebirths, He came in the form, Krsna Himself came in the form of this snake bird. He will come, so it is a snake bird externally but it is Krsna actually, it is Krsna’s mercy, Krsna being kind to me that He’s come in this form. So let the externals of my fate being given to me by Krsna, whatever it is, let it happen, let it come, let it come to me.
svargapavarga-narakesu api tulyartha-darsinah (SB6:17:28)
I don’t care about the externals, but he said to them, “I only desire that you all continue singing the deeds of Lord Visnu let my consciousness be absorbed in Krsna, and if you will do that, if you will pour the nectar of Krsna katha in my ears the externals of what is going on, whether it be a snake bird or whatever, I don’t care. This is what I care about. Please, he begged the sages, now that you have come. Please give me this benediction. And then in this verse he speaks his heart about what his actual desire is. So we’ll start again i
punah – again ca – and bhuyat – let it be
So punah, if I’m again to take birth again let it be, I don’t even care about that. Janmani janmanisvare, bhavatad bhaktir ahaituki tvayi, same mood. So I don’t care about liberation punas ca bhuyad. And then he continues,
bhagavati – unto Lord Sri Krsna anante – who has unlimited potency ratih – attracting
So this is what I want. Let my consciousness, even if I take birth again, let my consciousness, let me, be attracted to the Supreme Lord, unto Him who is unlimited. What a meditation on the unlimited Supreme Lord who is unlimited everywhere. His beauty, He is unlimited beautiful, unlimitedly kind, unlimitedly compassionate, strong, intelligent, renounced. What a meditation on Krsna! What is unlimited beauty mean. So ratih, this is what I want and this is going to come through this Krsna katha, that I’m asking you to pour into my ears. But that’s not all that he is desiring i next word:
prasangas – association ca – also tad – His
Referring back to bhagavaty anante, I want association with His asrayesu. Asrayesu, means those who are His devotees. Those who have taken shelter of Him. That is what I want, I want their association. Those who have taken shelter of Krsna.
mahatsu – within the material creation yam yam – wherever upayami – I may take srstim – my birth
So wherever I take my birth in the material world. He’s not even demanding or expecting to be freed from material existence, wherever I want this. And there are three things he wants wherever he is and we’ve heard two of them. Wherever I am, yam yam upayami srstim, wherever I am in the material world i.
maitry – friendly relations astu – let it be sarvatra – everywhere
So amongst sarvatra, all living entities, let me have no enmity, let me have on the other hand, positive friendly relationships with them and be well-wishers with them.
namah – my obeisances dvijebhyah – unto the brahmanas
Translation: Again, offering obeisances unto all you brahmanas, I pray that if I should again take my birth in the material world I will have complete attachment to the unlimited Lord Krsna, association with His devotees and friendly relations with all living beings.
Srila Prabhupadas purport. Now it’s not a long purport so I’m sure you’ll easily be able to focus. I have this habit that I was planning on, not evoking but I think I will, I’m going to ask you what you remember. That most difficult of questions, what do you remember from what you just heard and what Prabhupada has said. Because after all if Srila Prabhupada would walk in here now, we’d all jump up and we’d have kirtan and be so happy and then we would offer him a place to sit and what would we want? We would want him to speak to us. Want to hear the words from his lotus mouth which were, are, coming from the spiritual world. So here is an opportunity to hear what Prabhupada wishes to tell us about this verse. So I’m going to ask you what you remember.
PURPORT: That a devotee of the Lord is the only perfect living being is explained herein by Maharaja Pariksit. A devotee of the Lord is no one’s enemy, although there may be many enemies of a devotee. A devotee of the Lord does not like to associate with nondevotees, although he has no enmity with them. He desires association with the devotees of the Lord. That is perfectly natural because birds of the same feather mix together. And the most important function of a devotee is to have complete attachment to Lord Sri Krsna, the father of all living beings.
Bhurijana Das: I really would like to read that sentence again but I won’t. .OK thank you, I was waiting for someone to object. ‘The most important function of a devotee is to have complete attachment to Lord Sri Krsna, the father of all living beings.’
PURPORT (Cont): As a good son of the father behaves in a friendly way with all his other brothers, so also the devotee of the Lord, being a good son of the supreme father, Lord Krsna, sees all other living beings in relation with the supreme father. He tries to bring back the upstart sons of the father to a saner stage and to get them to accept the supreme fatherhood of God. Maharaja Pariksit was certainly going back to Godhead, but even if he were not to go back, he prayed for a pattern of life which is the most perfect way in the material world. A pure devotee does not desire the company of a personality as great as Brahma, but he prefers the association of a petty living being, provided he is a devotee of the Lord.
Bhurijana Das: Raise your hand if you remember something and would like to say. Each of these can be a class in itself. He doesn’t think of them as an enemy. What consciousness this is? The material world doesn’t react with them no matter where its coming from it seems Krsna, they’ve taken shelter of Krsna, they are so attached to Krsna. Most important function, interesting that Prabhupada uses the word function, what does function mean? Activity, purpose, duty, this is it’s dharma practically speaking, like sugar’s function is to provide sweetness. A devotee’s function or dharma is to be attached to Krsna. Even if a nondevotee is as great as Lord Brahma, he prefers the association of petty little insignificant living entity, provided he is a devotee of the Lord.
The upstart brothers, who have turned their back to Krsna, he works to bring them back and that’s part of the function of his relationship as a devotee with an attachment to Krsna the Supreme Father.
There was something I wanted to say about this. (om ajnana, etc.)
I just wanted to speak on that one sentence, of the devotees function as being attached to Krsna. But there is something even more I wanted to say, how universal these principles or prayers of Maharaja Pariksit are and that’s actually even more what I wanted to say. Does anyone remember the first one that he wanted? Complete attachment to the Lord. The second one? Association of the devotees. And the third one? Friendly relationships, with everyone.
Now in the 10th Canto of the Bhagavatam, there is one pastime that will end in something, when I read it I was quite amazed. But where to begin this pastime is the question with the little amount of time. The pastime is when Akrura took Krsna from Vrindavan and he arrived in Mathura. Akrura brought Krsna because he wanted to see Kamsa killed and he wanted to be with Krsna, he wanted to see Krsna. Now imagine how difficult the situation in Mathura was. Kamsa was such a tyrant that no one from Mathura could practically could go and see Krsna even though they were always hearing about Krsna’s deeds. Kamsa was powerful and he was oppressive and he was so bold that he even told Akrura his plans to have Krsna killed, when he gave Akrura, who was a Yadu after all, a relative of Krsna, he told Akrura his plans to have Krsna killed by the wrestlers and Kuvalayapida, when he brought him to Mathura.
When Akrura, who exhibited the perfect way to come to a holy place, so different from the way that we arrive at holy places nowadays. Akrura was meditating on Krsna the whole time. Krsna is going to be like this, and when I see Him He’ll recognise me as His uncle. He won’t see me as an enemy even though I’m acting on behalf of His enemy and He is going to be put His hand on my head.
He was thinking about Krsna, to such an extent that as when he saw the footprints of Krsna then he immediately became ecstatic. When he saw the foot prints of Krsna in the dust of Vraja he became ecstatic and rolled in the dust of Vrndavan. Because his mind had arrived in Vrndavan, even before he arrived in Vrndavan. When we come by airplane, our body arrives in Vrndavan, then a few days later, if we’re lucky our mind arrives in Vrndavan. The way of walking to a place of pilgrimage, it is scientific because it allows one to meditate on a place before we arrive. Then when we arrive we actually arrive, we can get the benefit of being in that holy place.
So Akrura and Lord Krsna, one devotee asked me a question, I didn’t know the answer to it, he told me one answer that I researched it a little bit, is why did Akrura leave so early in the morning? Why did it take so long for him to arrive in Mathura, he didn’t arrive in Mathura until basically late afternoon, almost the setting of the sun? So what took so long? So one things our acaryas say that took so long was that when Akrura saw in Akrura Ghat , he saw the form of Krsna and Balaram as Garbhodaksayi Vishnu and Ananta Sesa he was observing Their opulence’s and that started at dopahara, started at noon but he didn’t leave until a long time after that. Then when he came out of the water, his face as he had just seen the form of Ananta Sesa and he had seen Garbhodaksayi Vishnu, and when he came out of the water and he has left Krsna and Balaram on the chariot, and when he came out of the water he was astounded, he was full of wonder, and Krsna of course knowing what was astounding him, He said to him ‘O Uncle you look like you have seen something wonderful in the water. Is that why you’re looking like that?’
And Akrura said to Him, ‘now that I’m seeing You, who is the source of everything wonderful in existence including Lord Ananta Sesa, I’m seeing You and Balarama, I’m seeing right now the most wonderful thing. He became so attached to Krsna by seeing the wonder of His form than getting a glimpse of His potencies.
So that took a while and then also all the residents of Vrndavan heard that was Krsna was leaving, and they were all on the road, Krsna went very slowly and He looked at everyone, He gave them, this is right in the Bhagavatam, He gave them His merciful glance. They were looking at Him because everyone seeing Krsna they cannot take their eyes off Him, His effulgence sapphire like, His smile, madhuram, madhuram, madhuram, madhuram, it is unlimitedly sweet and captivating. His lotus eyes reached His ears and are reddish tinged. So all the residents of Vrndavan were on the roads of Vrndavan, and Krsna would glance at each and every one of them and that made the moving of the chariot slow.
And not only that, the third reason was that Akrura on his mission to bring Krsna and Balaram back for Kamsa to kill, he didn’t go a direct way, he took more of the back roads, because he didn’t want the residents of Vrndavan to follow him because the residents of Vrndavan were so heartbroken because they could tolerate anything but they could not tolerate even a moment’s separation from Krsna.
There is one comment by I believe by Srila Jiva Goswami in Gopal Champu, that Mother Yasoda, when Akrura was taking Krsna on the chariot she was so devastated, she was so devastated that Krsna felt so much sorrow in his heart, that he sent back a messenger, He sent back many messengers to assure the residents of Vrndavan He is coming back. To Mother Yasoda he sent a special message, that ‘O my own mother I’m going to be so hungry on the way, please send me some food immediately so I can eat during this travel.’ That will really engage Mother Yasoda and therefore she could continue living.
So anyway the residents of Vrndavan, the cowherd men, Nanda Maharaja and the other cowherd men had arrived so much earlier because they took a direct path to Mathura and they were waiting outside, they wouldn’t enter the city till Krsna came. Then they, Nanda Maharaja sent, they went to higher ground in Mathura just to look and wait for Krsna, just to see when his chariot was coming. Then of c ourse Krsna came and Akrura of course said please, what else could he say, come to my house. And Krsna said, there are some wonderful prayers, Akrura was great at offering wonderful prayers to Krsna; he achieved perfection by offering prayers to Krsna. In the last of his prayers he called Krsna Yadu-uttama and Uttamasloka, punya sravana kirtana, but he called Him Yadu-uttama, which means the best of the Yadus.
So Krsna hearing that told him first I have to go and do my duty of killing Kamsa, and then I will i He directly said that. Everyone was so fearful of Kamsa but as we shall hear Krsna wasn’t fearful at all in the slightest bit but rather Kamsa became completely full of anxiety, when he began to hear of the deeds Krsna performed in Mathura.
Then Krsna, after sending Akrura away who told Kamsa that Krsna had arrived, then Krsna and all the cowherd boys they went wandering in Mathura, because they were village boys and this was their first visit to the city. I heard this from HH Radha Govinda Maharaja, he explained this one very sweetly, and then they began to walk in the city and they saw the opulence of Mathura, with its big gates and golden, brass and the filigree and every house was decorated in such an opulent way, there were granary and there was this and there was that. Then all the residents of Mathura heard that Krsna had entered their city, and everyone actually knew, word got around that this was the son of Vasudeva. Although everyone was afraid of Kamsa when Krsna walked through the city everyone lost their fear. The brahmanas came they offered prayers, sang Purusha Sukta, different prayers to Krsna, they made offerings to Him of auspicious items, fresh water(?) barley, flower garlands and hundreds and hundreds and thousands of people, as Krsna was walking through the city, were following him.
And the ladies of Mathura they heard about Krsna and they went onto the roofs and how they reacted to Krsna’s appearance was so much like the Vraja Gopikas. They couldn’t dress themselves properly, even it’s described that ladies who were feeding their new born babies, Bhagavatam describes, would just put them down and just ran to see Krsna. Their attraction to Krsna was so complete. There’s no imitation allowed by the way! No imitation in Krsna Consciousness.
It’s so interesting that when Krsna was leaving, the gopis were praying how fortunate, the residents of Mathura, especially the ladies of Mathura going to be because soon they will be able to glance at the beautiful face of Krsna. And now their words were coming true and what do the ladies of Mathura say, ‘How fortunate are the Vraja Gopis because they were seeing Him day after day after day.’
And then Krsna, because he was dressed, he is an expert dresser, this is one of the qualities of Krsna, so he was going to walk into the wrestling arena, now He wasn’t in the village, He was going to kill Kamsa. By His arrangement, by divine arrangement He wanted to be dressed exactly right for the occasion, because He wanted to attract everyone because Krsna is all attractive, His presence, His personality is all attractive, everything He does is attractive.
So one of the first people he saw was a servant of Kamsa, who is a washer man and a dyer of clothes. Krsna very sweetly, in the most polite language, said give me, very sweetly he spoke, a very endearing way of addressing said, please give me some of your clothes. So I can dress myself with Balarama, even though all the cowherd boys were there too. Just give me some clothes, very sweetly.
And then the washer man responded in such a harsh, heavy way, ‘you are just village boys and you’re used to wandering in the fields and wandering in the mountains and you are asking for the king’s clothes? And then he made a great mistake, in the second verse of his chastisement of Krsna he said balisah, he said you fools, in plural. Because I’ve always wondered, ok he didn’t give Them the clothes but that’s quite an extreme reaction to cut off his head, Jiva Goswami says he said balisah, fools, in plural, and Krsna was there with Balarama and became very angry and cut off his head.
But also Srila Jiva Goswami explains that Krsna spoke so sweetly to him because he was a demon and He wanted him to exhibit his demonic nature before, he was a servant was of Kamsa and Kamsa had His parents imprisoned at that very moment and this washer man he knew this and yet he said ‘I am the servant of Kamsa and you dare to take something from the king? Are you a thief?’ Look what Kamsa has done, he had stolen the whole kingdom and he had placed Krsna’s own parents in prison. His demonic nature because of his service to a demon, well birds of a feather flock together as Prabhupada said, he was a demon, that’s why Krsna killed him.
Then Krsna went on further, then he saw a weaver, and the weaver was a devotee. He had not gone from Mathura to Vrndavan to see Krsna because of fear from Kamsa but he was always thinking of Krsna and being a well-wisher of Krsna and Krsna was happy to ask him to do some service and the weaver made some beautiful clothes for Krsna out of the cloth, he did it just right for Krsna and Balaram out of the cloth that Krsna had just taken from the washer man. Krsna benedicted him in such a wonderful way and gave him the spiritual world, a place in the spiritual world.
So Krsna now was entering in Mathura, thousands of people were following Him, He was beautifully dressed and of course what did He need next, beautiful garlands, Krsna loves to wear beautiful garlands. Madhava loves to wear beautiful garlands, Madhava is always wearing beautiful garlands. Srila Jiva Goswami explains something so sweetly, that this florist, this mali, named Sudama, immediately evoked affection from Krsna, but one day when he was going to the Vrndavan forest to get some special flowers, he saw Krsna herding the cows and he was so attracted that every day he would go there, just to watch Krsna’s pastimes, His gocaran pastimes of cow herding, they were so exciting, Krsna would call the cows.
So every day he would come and he developed a friendly relationship with Krsna and when Krsna was walking through Mathura, He knowing everything and forgetting nothing, thought here is the place where Sudama lives, I want to see him. So Krsna and Balaram walked into the mali’s house and Sudama was ecstatic, of course. Then Krsna just looked, glanced, because in Vrndavan everything is a little subtle and indirect, this is the culture actually, Vedic culture and the Indian culture little indirect. So Krsna just glanced at a flower garland that was still half made, and Sudama knew it and Srila Jiva Goswami himself composes this beautiful verse that how fortunate Sudama was, because Krsna came to his house just to get some service from him, to offer service being the greatest fortune, to offer service to Krsna.
Sudama of course ecstatically made the garland and he gave Krsna and Balaram garlands but he gave that special garland to Krsna and then Krsna benedicted him. But before that He asked Sudama what he wanted and this is what I wanted to say. Amazingly enough confronted directly, Krsna was right before him, Pariksit Maharaja was leaving the world, but Krsna was right before Sudama and when asked what do you want, I’ll give you whatever you want. This is what he said:
so ‘pi vavre ‘calam bhaktim
I want acalam bhakti, I want devotional service that is completely fixed, not moving, shaking, like my tends to be, but completely fixed in attraction and attachment for this all attractive, all merciful, all strong Supreme Personality of Godhead who is standing right before me. Then tasminn evakhilatmani, to that complete acalam Bhakti, to that Supreme Lord, the Supreme Self of everything who is standing right in front of him. Then next he asks for tad-bhaktesu, and to His devotees, I want the association and attachment to the devotees, friendship with the devotees, the same two points. Guess what the third point is going to be that he is going to ask for, sauhardam bhutesu ca dayam param. I want to have transcendental compassion for all living beings.
So whether Krsna is in front of us or Krsna while we are leaving this world, what wonderful prayers these great great personalities are offering to us to think about, to meditate upon and to follow in their lotus footsteps.
Well I did it, thank you very much. Srimad Bhagavatam ki jai. Srila Prabhupada ki jai.
(applause)
Actually I am completely empty, but so many devotees seeing that I was empty actually gave me so many blessings before class so if anything good came that was really by their mercy. [END]
For video of the lecture, please go to mayapurtvarchives.com
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