TRANSLATION: Dear Lord, we offer our respectful obeisances unto You because Your existence is completely independent of all material influences. Your Lordship always takes away the devotee’s miserable conditions, for Your brain plans how to do so. You live everywhere as Paramatma; therefore You are known as Vasudeva. You also accept Vasudeva as Your father, and You are celebrated by the name Krishna. You are so kind that You always increase the influence of all kinds of devotees.
PURPORT: In the previous verse it has been said (grihita-maya-guna-vigrahaya) that the Lord accepts three kinds of bodies (Vishnu, Brahma and Siva) for the purposes of creating, maintaining and annihilating the cosmic manifestation. The three predominating deities of the material universe (Brahma, Vishnu and Siva) are called guna-avataras. There are many kinds of incarnations of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and the first incarnations within this material world are Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesvara (Siva). Out of these three, Lord Brahma and Lord Siva accept material bodies, but Lord Vishnu does not accept a material body. Lord Vishnu is therefore known as visuddha-sattva. His existence is completely free from the contamination of the material modes of nature. One should therefore not think that Lord Vishnu is in the same category with Lord Brahma and Siva. The sastras forbid us to think in this way.
yas tu narayanam devam brahma-rudradi-daivataih samatvenaiva viksheta sa pashandi bhaved dhruvam
One who considers Lord Vishnu to be in the same category with devas like Lord Brahma or Lord Siva or who thinks Lord Brahma and Siva to be equal to Lord Vishnu is to be considered as pashandi (a faithless nonbeliever). Therefore in this verse Lord Vishnu is distinguished in the words namo visuddha-sattvaya. Although a living entity like us, Lord Brahma is exalted due to his pious activities; therefore he is given the high post of Brahma. Lord Siva is not actually like a living entity, but he is not the Supreme Personality of Godhead. His position is somewhere between Vishnu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and Brahma, the living entity. Lord Siva is therefore explained in Brahma-samhita (5.45) in this way:
kshiram yatha dadhi vikara-visesha-yogat sanjayate na hi tatah prithag asti hetoh yah sambhutam api tatha samupaiti karyad govindam adi-purusham tam aham bhajami
Lord Siva is considered to be like yogurt (dadhi). Yogurt is nothing but transformed milk; nonetheless, yogurt cannot be accepted as milk. Similarly, Lord Siva holds almost all the powers of Lord Vishnu, and he is also above the qualities of the living entity, but he is not exactly like Vishnu, just as yogurt, although transformed milk, is not exactly like milk.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead is also described herein as vasudevaya krishnaya. Krishna is the original Supreme Personality of Godhead, and all Vishnu expansions are His plenary portions or portions of His plenary portions (known as svamsa and kala). The svamsa, or direct expansion, is also called amsa. All vishnu-tattvas are svamsa, direct parts and parcels of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna. Krishna is known as Vasudeva because He appeared in this material world as the son of Vasudeva. Similarly, He is known as Devaki-nandana, Yasoda-nandana, Nanda-nandana and so on.
Again and again the Lord is very much interested in increasing the influence of His devotees. Therefore He is described herein as prabhave sarva-satvatam. The satvata community is a community of Vaishnavas, pure devotees of the Lord. The Supreme Personality of Godhead has unlimited powers, and He wants to see that His devotees are also entrusted with unlimited powers. A devotee of the Lord is always, therefore, distinguished from all other living entities.
The word hari means “one who takes away all miserable conditions,” and hari-medhase means that the Lord is always planning ways to deliver the conditioned soul from the clutches of maya. The Lord is so kind that He personally incarnates to deliver the conditioned souls, and whenever He comes, He makes His plans.
paritranaya sadhunam vinasaya ca dushkritam dharma-samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge
“To deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I advent Myself millennium after millennium.” (Bg. 4.8)
Since the Lord delivers all conditioned souls from the clutches of maya, He is known as hari-medhas. In the list of incarnations, Krishna is described as the supreme and original Personality of Godhead.
ete camsa-kalah pumsah krishnas tu bhagavan svayam indrari-vyakulam lokam mridayanti yuge yuge (Bhag. 1.3.28)
Krishna, the original Personality of Godhead, appears in this material world when the demigods, who are devotees of the Lord, are disturbed by the demons. (end)
HH Danavir Goswami: (invocatory prayers)
So Krishna is the supreme master, ekale isvara krishna, ara saba bhritya (CC Adi 5.142) everyone else is servant. He is the original person, govindam adi purusam ( Brahma samhita), that Govinda is Krishna who resides in Goloka, He has His own transcendental abode that is greater than all the other abodes.
Although in one sense there is no difference between Krishna and His expansions, ete camsa kalah pumsah krsnas tu bhagavan svayam (SB 1.3.28) a amsa and kalah the expansions of the Lord, the expansions of the expansions of the Lord are compared to candles ignited from an original candle but they have the same strength. There is no difference.
Just like Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita, sarvasya caham hridi sannivishto mattah smritir jnanam apohanam ca, that I am situated in everyone’s heart as Supersoul. So the Supersoul means an expansion of Ksirodakasayi Visnu and Ksirodakasayi Visnu is an expansion of Garbhodakasayi Visnu who is an expansion of Karanodakasayi Visnu who is an expansion of Sankarsana, Pradyumna, Aniruddha, Vasudeva – second quadruple expansion, who is an expansion from Lord Balarama who comes from Krishna.
So but still Krishna says that I am in everyone’s heart. So there is no difference. Then again, acintya bhedabheda tattva there is a difference simultaneous inconceivable oneness and difference and therefore Krishna is the Supreme worshipable deity, the Supreme worshipable person and Lord Brahma he says, he explains very nicely in his Brahma samhita how everyone is coming from Krishna, sarva karana karanam – the cause of all causes.
Even Maha Visnu, even the Brahman effulgence is coming from Krishna, the demigods, Lord Siva is coming, even the Goddess of fortune she is also coming, everyone aham sarvasya prabhavo, mattah sarvam pravartate (BG 10.8), everything is emanating from Krishna. That to accept that requires faith. If one has faith that Krishna said that He is the source of everything or if some how or other he has faith, perhaps not be Krishna’s words but by Krishna’s deeds or words of someone else then one has faith.
Vaisnavas are those who worship Krishna or Visnu features. They are distinct and they are considered to be on the top platform of Bhagavan realization. There are others who worship the Supersoul and Bhagavan Krishna is complete in all opulences in His personal feature as Krishna, dvi bhuja – two handed form, four handed form is Narayana, Visnu and He is realized by the yogis.
The yogis practice the astanga yoga system, at least the yogis who are sincerely looking for the Absolute Truth and they ultimately meditate on the Supersoul within the heart. The Lord reveals Himself to them when they become purified and then they become qualified to enter into the Vaikuntha planets. There are innumerable Vaikuntha planets just as there are innumerable material planets or material universes, there are even greater number of Vaikuntha planets and different forms of the Lord are present there and all the devotees can go and associate and serve them. Material tinges of anxiety, Vaikuntha means without anxiety. So that is the natural state of the living entity.
The living entity is part and parcel and he is meant to serve the Supreme whole just like the hand is meant to serve the Supreme whole. If the hand does not act according to the desires of the Supreme whole then it is a diseased state. It is not natural, it is unnatural.
So in the material world the living entities are acting unnaturally they are forgetful of their relationship with Krishna. They do not accept that they are meant to serve Him, whatever He requests, whatever He orders they are supposed to follow that. And because they don’t follow they are subjected to birth after birth, life after life and all kinds of suffering – Adhibhautika miseries, adhidaivika miseries and adhyatmika miseries.
Unlimited varieties and the Lord is not pleased to see His beloved parts and parcels suffering in that way birth after birth. Imagine if you are a father or mother and your child runs away from home and then someone sends you an anonymous video of your child eating out of a garbage bin. You’ll be greatly upset that I want to bring him back, want to bring back my child, I’ll do anything if I can just find out where he is then I’ll go there or I’ll send someone there.
This is Krishna’s mood. He is coming personally, paritranaya sadhunam (BG 4.8) the son’s who are willing to listen to the Lord, who have some faith in the Lord, He comes to deliver them, to pick them up. It’s like if the parent gets a phone call even if its for a few seconds and then it gets cut off and says father I am in such and such come and get me.
So the Lord or the father and the mother they’ll try their best to find out where the phone call came from and search out. So that gives us some idea how Krishna wants to bring back His parts and parcels. He is making all arrangements, He is more eager to deliver the living entities than they are eager to go back.
And this is the advantage of being a devotee or a Vaisnava or being an aspiring Vaisnava because it depends largely on the strength of Krishna whereas the yogis they try to depend on their own strength. The analogy is given that the baby monkey is carried by its mother and the mother monkey swings from tree to tree and baby monkey has to hold on with its little arms to the body of the mother. But that is dangerous because the baby is weak and the mother is moving quickly so sometimes the baby falls off. Whereas the kitten is taken by the mother cat in her mouth and the mother cat is very careful to see that the kitten is taken care of. So it doesn’t depend on the kitten’s strength.
So although its true that the individual is supposed to use his free will, tivrena bhakti yogena (SB 2.3.10) in surrendering to Krishna and engaging in bhakti yoga very determinately. So is ultimately it is Krishna’s mercy because, I remember not too long ago I was speaking on this point and there was an objection.
Someone said ‘well! If I want to love Krishna why does it depend on Krishna? I should be able to love Him whether He gives His blessings or not. That’s up to me.’ But actually love of Krishna does depend upon Him, it’s His causeless mercy. Because one has to be extremely fortunate to be able to love Krishna and one cannot love Krishna unless one’s heart is completely pure. How can we love Krishna who is visuddha sattva, He is completely pure. How can we love Him with an impure heart? How can a person who has perverted desires perform good for anyone? There will always be some impurity in the attempt in the activity.
So similarly to love Krishna one has to completely purified, ceto darpanam marjanam bhava mahadavagni nirvapanam (Sri Sikshashtakam) therefore the process given by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is chanting, sankirana, hari nama sankirtana, chanting the Lord’s name or chanting His glories such as Srimad Bhagavatam, Bhagavad-gita, chanting instructions of the Lord as given in Bhagavad-gita. This is also sankirtana.
Therefore when our devotees distribute books its also sankirtana and when they are chanting with kartals and mrdangas that is also sankirtana and this is the process for cleansing our hearts. And in fact it’s the most effective means to clean the heart. Its more effective than going to holy places, taking bath in holy rivers, its more effective than performing activities, giving in charity, performing sacrifices and it’s the process recommended for this age. It’s one that we can follow.
This is a fallen age kaler dosa nidhe rajann asti hy eko mahan gunah kirtanad eva krsnasya mukta sangah param vrajet (SB 12.3.51) This age of kali is an ocean of faults. Everywhere you look its faults. Even Caitanya Caritamrta says that there are no religious principles that can be followed in this age. The only principles are the instructions of the pure devotees mahajana yena gatah sa pantah. Because its such a degraded age our intelligences are lost, our duration of life is short, always disturbed, always unfortunate so there are so many faults. We don’t have a good opportunity to practice other means of yoga, meditation, sacrifices or even deity worship but fortunately there is still one process – the name of Krishna, especially the Mahamantra:
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Is ultimately completely effective and there is proof. Someone may say how do I know? The proof is that so many persons who were in the line of Jagai and Madai have taken up the chanting of Hare Krishna and now they have become full devotees of Krishna.
Krishna is God. Its not that its someone’s opinion, its not sectarian. If we say that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead that doesn’t mean we are being sectarian because we are excluding someone else’s God. There is not two God’s. There is only one God and that one God happens to be Krishna. Some people may object that we don’t accept Krishna we accept God as different, that just means that they are not familiar, they are not educated.
When Srila Prabhupada came to Portland and in Portland there were lot of Christians there at that time and there were many interviews, television radio and other interviews. And so Prabhupada was teaching that we are giving full information about God, His name, address, mother’s name, what He is doing. So why will any sincere God conscious person not want to know this.
Why will they not be interested? If they are worshipping God and believe in God and someone comes with bona-fide information about God’s name, address, His mother’s name, His father’s name, what He is doing, they will be interested. If they are not interested then it brings into question their sincerity. But even if they are not sincere, this is the age of Kali, nobody is very sincere about spiritual life. Still there are other ways, the chanting can get them to become sincere because by chanting their hearts will become cleansed. Even if think it’s a cinema song or a catchy tune doesn’t matter.
Lord Caitanya would encourage children if some children were making fun of Him by chanting Hare Krishna He would cover His ears, don’t do that it hurts my ears and then they would do it more. So in this way He encouraged everyone to chant and even by His appearance on an eclipse, some of the Muslims were chanting critically not in a loving way but in a critical way imitating the Hindus who were chanting.
But that is also beneficial. Even if one chants in a detrimental way – those Hare Krishna people! I don’t like them – He gets benefitted. Because Krishna is Absolute and His name,
nama cintamanih krishnas caitanya-rasa-vigrahah purnah suddho nitya-mukto ‘bhinnatvan nama-naminoh (CC Madhya 17.33)
His name and the Lord are the same and as demons who are killed by the touch of the Lord or touch of His weapon get liberation, get purified so by the touch of His Holy name also.
So there is another point here, prabhave sarva-satvatam that the Lord wants to increase the influence of His pure devotees and He makes arrangement to do that and sometimes the arrangements may be quite difficult for understanding. Just like Bhismadeva even cried when he thought of the difficulties the Pandavas had to go through. Even a great mahajana like Bhismadeva was, he found it difficult. They are such pure devotees, how could they have to go through such difficulties?
Certainly the Lord has something to do with this because not a blade of grass moves without the will of the Lord. So He arranged it and He arranged for the good for everyone. Certainly good for the devotees and they accepted it, they never complained that Krishna we know You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, why are you arranging or why are You allowing these difficulties to come to us? They never objected.
They knew the Lord has a plan and it will be a perfect plan, better than any plan that we may have. We may have some idea how we think Krishna consciousness should be spread or how I should be engaged where I should be engaged but Krishna has his plan and we should accept that. Whatever happens to me is ultimately ordained by Krishna and it’s the best thing for me, this is the best arrangement for me to make spiritual advancement and even if we are thinking that we want to be recognized or we want to be famous, this is the best way to be famous is to go along with Krishna’s plan enthusiastically.
tat te ‘nukampam su-samikshamano bhunjana evatma-kritam vipakam hrid-vag-vapurbhir vidadhan namas te jiveta yo mukti-pade sa daya-bhak (SB 10.14.8)
The devotee goes on tolerating and waiting for the mercy of the Lord. We may think that the Lord should have given His mercy to me a lot more than he has cause look I’ve still got material desires, plague by fear of death and so many things, so many anxieties. Why didn’t He, I’ve been serving for so many years! Why hasn’t Krishna given me more mercy?
No! we shouldn’t think like that. We should be prepared to wait like Mukunda. Lord Caitanyas devotee Mukunda he displeased Lord Caitanya, at least apparently by going and spending time with Mayavadis. So Lord Caitanya said don’t bring him here any more, I don’t want to associate with him again. And devotees they are more kind, so they kept pleading on behalf of Mukunda. He made a mistake but he wont do it again and they kept going to Mukunda and said He is not willing to change. Finally they came to Lord Caitanya and said Mukunda is just asking one question. He just wants to know when, he knows he has displeased You and he doesn’t deserve your association but he just wants to know how long he’ll have to wait, that’s all he want to know. Lord Caitanya said ‘ten thousand births’!
So the devotees they went back to Mukunda, they didn’t want to tell him the bad news. But finally he got them to tell him and when they said that Lord Caitanya told that you will have to wait ten thousand births he was dancing in ecstasy. He considered that a short time to wait. Because after all if one gets the association of the Lord as an associate of the Lord that means he will live for ever eternally in bliss and knowledge. So what is ten thousand births to wait for that, not very long, insignificant, snap of the finger.
So we be patient, utsahan niscayad dhairyat tat-tat-karma-pravartanat (NOI 3) following the rules and regulations, yama – niyama. Yama means things we should not do – the do not’s and the niyama means the things we should do – chant sixteen rounds. The things we should not do are the four regulative principles. Going on with enthusiasm, determination and patience, this is devotional service, the process works but it may take some time. We cannot expect to become mahatmas in one day.
So thank you very much for you kind attention. If there are any questions. . .
Devotee: Thank you Maharaj for a very clear presentation. Towards the beginning of the lecture and the purport was this point about Lord Siva and it came up the first time I thought of this one of those apparent contradictions that the emphasis is on Krishna’s purity on how He cant become contaminated like Bhagavad-gita 10.12 and ISO Mantra 8, He is described as apapa viddham or in Bhagavad-gita He is described as pavitram supreme purifier. So He never becomes contaminated, He never becomes involved in karmic activities or anything like that and yet the example of Lord Siva is somehow or another its like the example is milk becomes adulterated to yoghurt and the result is like Lord Siva, so much like hearing that milk is equivalent of Lord Visnu or Krishna and then there is some adulteration. So how could it be explained, how can we understand this apparent contradiction.
Maharaj: slight difference. Milk can become yoghurt but yoghurt cant become milk. And Prabhupada explains that one who is in good health he can digest milk but if he is not in good health then he can benefited by milk in another feature as like yoghurt. So Lord Siva is specially merciful to those who are in the mode of ignorance and also Lord Visnu He doesn’t directly come in contact with the material energy, He casts His glance but that glance is Lord Siva. So then Lord Siva he accepts his consort Maya. So he is in touch, he touches the material energy. That’s the difference. Otherwise yoghurt and milk same, slight difference.
Devotee: Maharaj thank you for the lecture. You said that in the Caitanya Caritamrta it is said that we cant follow religious tradition in this age. You can only follow saints. Can you elaborate on that?
Maharaj: who is a good brahmacari? Who can follow brahmacari principles?
Devotee: I don’t know. Maybe..
Maharaj: let me finish. I’ll make it more clear. Sravanam smaranam kalihi prekshanam guhya bhashanam sankalpa vyavasayanam etc so Sridhara Swami gives definition of brahmacarya principles – never hears about sex life, never speaks about it, never dallies with women, never gives them lusty glances, anyways there are so many principles, who can follow such brahmacari principles especially in kaliyuga it is very difficult. What to speak of being a perfect grhastha, perfect vanaprastha, going to the forest wearing tree bark, eating roots and just seeds, it’s not practical for this age.
Therefore Lord Caitaya was speaking with Ramananda Raya. Ramananda Raya said the process of achieving the ultimate goal is varnasrama. Lord Caitanya said its external. The principle was its not possible to follow strictly, all these rules and regulations in the kaliyuga. Its just a contaminated age but the chanting of Hare Krishna after the ways of Lord Caitanya Mahprabhu, He showed us how to chant. He went out and chanted the Holy names in the public and also in the temple both.
So if you think you can follow all the regulative principles strictly it will be very difficult. So we don’t have so much confidence in our ability to follow strictly. We still should try, try our best to follow strictly but we don’t have much confidence in our abilities to do so.
So go on chanting and try our best and pray for Krishna’s mercy and pray for the mercy of the spiritual master and the Vaisnavas. That will be effective. Thank you.
So I think we will stop here. Thank you very much. Srila Prabhupada ki jaya! Srimad Bhagavatam ki jaya!
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