(kindly transcribed by Sheela Mataji, Singapore)
From Sri Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir!
Date: February 19, 2014
Speaker: HH Kadamba Kanana Swami
Verse: Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.8.5
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So today we are reading from Srimad Bhagavatam Second Canto Chapter Eight entitled ‘Questions by King Pariksit’, Text number 5:
pravistah karna-randhrena svanam bhava-saroruham
dhunoti samalam krsnah salilasya yatha sarat
Translation: The sound incarnation of Lord Krsna, the Supreme Soul [i.e., Srimad-Bhagavatam], enters into the heart of a self-realized devotee, sits on the lotus flower of his loving relationship, and thus cleanses the dust of material association, such as lust, anger and hankering. Thus it acts like autumnal rains upon pools of muddy water.
Purport: It is said that a single pure devotee of the Lord can deliver all the fallen souls of the world. Thus one who is actually in the confidence of a pure devotee like Narada or Sukadeva Gosvami and thus is empowered by one’s spiritual master, as Narada was by Brahmaji, can not only deliver himself from the clutches of maya, or illusion, but can deliver the whole world by his pure and empowered devotional strength. The comparison to the autumnal rain that falls on muddy reservoirs of water is very appropriate. During the rainy season, all the waters of the rivers become muddy, but in the month of July-August, the autumn season, when there is a slight rainfall, the muddy waters of the rivers all over the world become at once clear. By addition of some chemical, a small reservoir of water like that of a metropolitan waterworks tank can be cleared, but by such a tiny effort it is not possible to clear up all the reservoirs of water like the rivers. A powerful pure devotee of the Lord, however, can deliver not only his personal self but also many others in his association.
In other words, the cleansing of the polluted heart by other methods (like the culture of empiric knowledge or mystic gymnastics) can simply cleanse one’s own heart, but devotional service to the Lord is so powerful that it can cleanse the hearts of the people in general, by the devotional service of the pure, empowered devotee. A true representative of the Lord like Narada, Sukadeva Gosvami, Lord Caitanya, the Six Gosvamis and later Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura and Srimad Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, etc., can deliver all people by their empowered devotional service.
By sincere efforts to hear Srimad-Bhagavatam one realizes his constitutional relationship with the Lord in the transcendental humor of servitude, friendship, parental affection or conjugal love, and by such self-realization one becomes situated at once in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. Not only were all the pure devotees like Narada self-realized souls, but they were engaged in preaching work automatically by spiritual impetus, and thus they delivered many poor souls entangled in the material modes. They became so powerful because they sincerely followed the Bhagavatam principles by regular hearing and worshiping. By such actions the accumulated material lusts, etc., become cleansed by the personal endeavor of the Lord within the heart. The Lord is always within the heart of the living being, but He becomes manifested by one’s devotional service.
Purification of the heart by culture of knowledge or mystic yoga may be all right for the time being for an individual person, but it is like the cleansing of a small quantity of stagnant water by chemical processes. Such clarification of water may stand for the time being and the sediments settle down, but by a slight agitation everything becomes muddy. The idea is that devotional service to the Lord is the only method of cleansing the heart for good. Whereas other methods may be superficially good for the time being, there is a risk of becoming muddy again due to agitation of the mind. Devotional service to the Lord, with specific attention for hearing Srimad-Bhagavatam regularly and always, is the best recommended method for liberation from the clutches of illusion.”
HH Kadamba Kanana Swami: So in the opening line of the purport Srila Prabhupada describes, “It is said that a single pure devotee of the Lord can deliver all the fallen souls of the world.” And of course Srila Prabhupada is such a devotee and what can we say? Srila Prabhupada obviously did that in many ways. He did that through prayers to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he did that by hard work, and he did that by instilling faith in people’s heart, fith that actually happiness was possible after all.
The world in this age of Kali is very frustrating, it is full of suffering, and there is no scope for happiness. Although people are desperately trying to enjoy their senses, people are all very, very frustrated, very restless and very fearful because the conditions are actually very difficult due to the fact that sense gratification is not producing the desired success of happiness, frustration is the result. And as a result anger is rising and we see the aggression in the entire world is mounting day by day and so on. And therefore where is peaceful existence? Exploitive government leaders are adding further pressure by taxing people in so many ways, manipulating people, creating artificial pressure, creating economic crisis, all for the purpose of exploiting people more and more. And in that world, who, who is happy?
And so were we in the same condition, frustrated, not happy, somehow or other trying and practically losing hope, losing hope that it was possible. At least that was my state of mind. I kind of felt trapped in a world that I thought I haven’t made, because I didn’t see my karmic responsibility at that time for the environment I was in. And I felt trapped in that world and I didn’t see a way out until, until I came across Srila Prabhupada’s books where new hope awakened, new hope awakened that happiness could be achieved.
The living being is, it is stated in the Vedanta sutra—anandamayo abyasat—by nature pleasure seeking. So by nature pleasure seeking and wherever we think that pleasure is to be found there we deposit our faith. And some have faith that by money happiness will be attained, and some have faith that sex life will bring great happiness, but so many don’t and are actually frustrated and therefore are very fertile ground for the message of Krishna consciousness.
So many people actually are waiting for something more, but they don’t where. But they are looking. Srila Prabhupada has come across the Atlantic on the Jaladuta carrying with him Srimad Bhagavatam and with that the essence of the treasure of Krishna consciousness. That Srimad Bhagavatam described as the literary incarnation of Krishna. And that is described in this verse, “The sound incarnation of Lord Krsna” enters through the ears into the heart and eventually will be seated there within the heart on the result of our devotional service.
Srila Prabhupada gave us that devotional service, he gave us that initial faith in Krishna. We had never heard of Krishna, never thought of Krishna and but somehow or other Prabhupada presented Krishna in such a way that it makes sense. Why should the Absolute Truth be impersonal if everywhere in this world we see personality? And if there is personality in the creation of the Lord then how could there not be in the creator Himself?
Therefore Srila Prabhupada explains that the opening verse of the Srimad-Bhagavatam ends with the words param satyam dhimahi, to meditate on the Absolute Truth. And param satyam, Srila Prabhupada said the purpose of the Srimad-Bhagavatam is to establish that param satyam is paramesvara. Or that the Absolute Truth is the Supreme controller. And Prabhupada said when you speak of Absolute Truth it could be impersonal. But you speak of Supreme controller paramesvara then you speak of personality.
Therefore the purpose of the Srimad Bhagavatam is to establish the Supreme Personality of Godhead:
ete camsa-kalah pumsah krsnas tu bhagavan svayam
indrari-vyakulam lokam mrdayanti yuge yuge (SB 1.3.28)
Srila Prabhupada stressed the importance of hearing and chanting. I guess today the theme of my lecture is the individual effort which is a foundation for the collective effort. First of all individually we must grow, and we must develop our Krishna consciousness before we can do anything. It is the very key to our success.
Therefore although we are at the moment in the middle of the ILS—the ISKCON Leader Sanga—and in a way making a collective effort, I thought of choosing a verse which puts the emphasis on individual effort because krsna-sakti vina nahe tara pravartana (CC Antya 7.11), without being empowered it is not possible to push on this mission and such empowerment simply comes from hearing and chanting.
In one analogy, we have a large ship plying at sea and it is very difficult to change the course of such a ship because it’s a huge heavy vehicle and it has its momentum; if you want to steer it and change the course it can only be done gradually. And we see that the course of such a huge ship is changed by a very small part of metal. There is a huge chunk of metal going in one direction and a small part, the rudder, is changing the course of that direction.
We can compare the ship to the course of the living entity who life after life has a certain momentum, yam yam vapi smaran bhavam tyajaty ante kalevaram (BG 8.6) life after life carries forward the consciousness of the previous life and continues in the same direction and gradually shifts here and there, like that. But by a small particle, by the rudder that ship can change and in the same way by the tongue a small particle of our body, by the tongue our destiny can change. By the chanting of the holy name we can change our destiny.
Srila Prabhupada gave us that and also explained that the essence is the chanting must be performed attentively otherwise the desired success will not be attained. And he said “attentive chanting means to hear oneself chanting.” So it is the tongue in connection with the ear that is the means by which we can become empowered, by which we can get the connection.
Not that Srila Prabhupada desired us to sit and chant all day from morning to night. No, he desired that we would do more. He desired that beyond that we would take up the mission to change the entire world, to spread Krishna consciousness anywhere and everywhere and that vision is the great challenge.
Srila Prabhupada was a very, was and is, a very challenging personality. From day one he challenged, he challenged the devotees when he incorporated ISKCON in 1966 it sort of, no one had thought that Krishna consciousness would go beyond the lower East Side. He always wanted bigger and way bigger than what seemed logical. When there was no money he wanted big temples and so on.
And when book distribution was getting big—“now double it”—endless challenge and challenge and challenge. “One man is enough to open one temple”, very challenging. So many challenges, one can make a long list.
Recently I have spent time here in Sridham Mayapur because the GBC asked me to do some service and they asked me to do a kind of analysis of Mayapur and develop a strategy of how it should develop, in which direction it should go and asked me to write a report. So I spent four months working on that and I had to temporarily cut down my reading of Bhagavatam and had to sort of come down to management, management, management, Mayapur, Mayapur. So even now in this lecture that’s what will come out. It’s inevitably so because whatever we hear that ultimately finds, it roots in our hearts, stays there and will manifest.
But I did read interesting and nice things about Mayapur to comfort you. It’s not that bad [laughter]. After all it is the spiritual world, so it was a positive meditation. One interesting point that came up in an old BTG article where Ambarisa was being interviewed about the Mayapur project and Ambarisa was saying that this project in Sridhama Mayapur is very challenging. It’s challenging us to go beyond anything we could have ever imagined.
So the interviewer was asking in what respects do you mean? Are you talking about the money? He said no, I am not talking about the money. He said money can come. I am talking in terms of organization. He says this is the biggest thing, the biggest thing that this movement has ever undertaken and its just way beyond anything that we ever imagined we would do in this life and in this way we are greatly challenged and that is indeed a fact.
In the course of interviewing various leaders, one of them said that just to build the temple, he said “I bet you my bottom dollar that it will never be done unless everyone gets involved.” And I thought that was the general principle, I thought which applies to the entire city and I thought it only comes only if we all start giving to Mayapur.
We have come again and again for inspiration. We have received the mercy of the dhama. Here it is so easy. While I was here I automatically could get up early. In other places it’s so difficult, but here it’s so easy. It just comes natural, especially if there is no festival; there is nothing to do here at night. Most of the time even the Pizzeria is not functioning [laughter]. So then where would you go? Nowhere to go!
So just go to bed and then rise early and then chant before Mangala-arati when there is really nothing going on, when there is no one talking and when one can just actually chant sixteen uninterrupted rounds, which is such an opulence to just chant sixteen rounds without doing anything else day after day. So I had a great time in that respect I must say.
So the dhama was generous, because the dhama is surcharged with generosity of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. But we know that Caitanya-caritamrta highlights that generosity is an essential principle and that when we take the fruit of love of God, that when we start to distribute that fruit of love of God, we will find that we wind up with more than we had before.
So this principle applies also here. It equally applies to Sridhama Mayapur. That actually we have to give to the dhama, our effort has to be here, pranair arthair dhiya vaca (SB 10.22.35) our energy, our wealth, our intelligence, our words they all have to manifest here for this project to become what it is meant to be. That’s what it is meant to be.
Srila Prabhupada also said to Bhagavata Prabhu. He said that at one point “when Mayapur develops then we will declare independence from India and we will make it a separate country” [laughter]. Yes, “and we will have our own currency called Caitanyas” yes, very nice, and then, Prabhupada said “then every temple in the world will become an embassy of Mayapur.” [jaya! Haribol!] “and every Temple President an ambassador.” [laughter] I think these days maybe not the Temple President maybe we should make someone else the ambassador. But whatever.
So such a large vision, such an enormous broad vision of how to spread out the net of Krishna consciousness all over the world, how to engage the devotees, how to empower them by hearing and chanting and especially Srimad-Bhagavatam which is the central corpus, this literature of our movement, it is the foundation.
The other day the discussion came up that some are not accepting Srimad-Bhagavatam as Vedic literature. But Jiva Goswami particularly dedicated the entire Tattva Sandarbha to establish that Srimad-Bhagavatam is, on the basis of the Chandogya Upanishad, actually also the Vedic literature. The Itihasa, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Puranas, are also the pancama Veda, the fifth Veda.
So in this way Srimad-Bhagavatam is the essence, nigama kalpa taror galitam phalam. That verse continues and says, pibata bhagavatam rasam alayam, that one must drink this Srimad-Bhagavatam through the ears. And Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura breaks up that word rasam alayam and takes laya as a separate word and says laya is one of the eight ecstatic transformations in devotional service and means to faint. So one should hear Srimad Bhagavatam until one faints not of exhaustion [laughter] but of actually relishing, until one faints.
But if one faints, Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura says, then you cannot hear Bhagavatam any more. Anyway when we return to consciousness we should hear again till we faint again. So this absorption is really the essence. That must be there constantly. It is only then that we have the strength to rise to the occasion of all these incredible challenges that Srila Prabhupada came up with, to build this temple.
I heard from the construction team it’s going to take a cash flow of a million dollars a month. That’s way beyond anything ISKCON has ever come up with, I’ll tell you that. A million dollars a month, it’s a lot of money for us, simple guys [laughter]. And that’s nothing, because the figure that is on the city of Mayapur is a billion dollars. If you thought we were finished with the temple, (laughs) a billion.
So things are mind blowing, mind blowing. How it will be done we don’t know but we do know that it can only be done through purity and purity means to be absorbed in chanting the holy name, in deeply hearing Bhagavatam and living the Bhagavatam and creating a standard of life based on the Bhagavatam, to look at the great personalities in Srimad-Bhagavatam as example, to be tolerant, to be faithful. All these things are required.
So the challenges are very great and the ultimate challenge is that we are meant to become pure devotees because if there is one pure devotee, Prabhupada said, “if I can make one pure devotee I consider this mission successful.” Because one pure devotee can do it all.
It is not that Srila Rupa and Sri Sanatana Goswami’s were standing on the construction site of the Radha Govinda temple with plastic helmets on, supervising the work and somehow or other getting that temple built. Rather they did it by their deep absorption, krsnotkirtana-gana-nartana-parau premamritambho-nidhi, by always being absorbed in chanting, always absorbed in glorifying the Lord. And then becoming immersed in an ocean of transcendental ecstasy and therefore always absorbed in remembering the Lord and not interested in anything material. And in this way creating faith, dhiradhira-jana-priyau priya-karau.
So in this way by creating faith we can push on this movement, this vision of Srila Prabhupada can actually come to pass and be successful. It is in that way we can lead and only in that way and therefore I chose this verse.
The time slot is very short so you speak and when you open your eyes the clock is approaching 8.45. So all I can say is one last point,
sarva maha-guna-gana vaisnava-sarire
krsna-bhakte krsnera guna sakali sañcare (CC Madhya 22.75)
That all, that a great collection of good qualities is present within the Vaisnavas. And a Vaisnava gradually develops all the good qualities of Krishna. So in this way the Vaisnavas also like Krishna become all-attractive and that is what we see in Srila Prabhupada, that he became all-attractive. Like when Prabhupada was here wherever he was that was the center of the universe. Wherever he was that became the place where ‘it’ was happening. And so in this way we hope that this movement will produce, it has already produced many amazing devotees to whom I am offering my obeisances.
Still the thought comes to my mind that if we would take a scale and if we would put all the collective wealth, all the wealth, all the jewels that we have received of realizations in Krishna consciousness of all the devotees on one end on the scale and we put the weight of Prabhupada’s wealth on the other side, I am sure that his wealth, his spiritual wealth outweighs the collective wealth of all of us.
Therefore I am thinking we are greatly challenged, greatly challenged to push on this movement since we do not have the adequate wealth to come up with what is needed but by trying, by trying we can by the mercy of guru and Krishna become empowered and attract mercy of Prabhupada and Krishna. Then it can be done.
So let that be the conclusion for today and if there is any question or comment, most welcome.
Suresvara Das: Maharaja, as you were suggesting the whole Mayapur project and specially the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium is perhaps the greatest challenge to us to—as Prabhupada was always saying, not just at the end—cooperate. So as I am travelling the world with my ‘Founder Acarya’ seminar when I bring this up I find that most, almost to a temple, they feel so challenged locally that it is very hard for them to think about this project. What is your message to such a feeling of being overwhelmed locally?
HH Kadamba Kanana Swami: Yes. Life is very overwhelming, locally. Every morning I feel overwhelmed [laughter] and throughout the day, throughout the day it doesn’t get any better [laughter]. What can I say? At night I feel challenged to sleep and it just goes on and on and on. So what shall say, everything is overwhelming constantly.
I think that’s the amazing feature of Srila Prabhupada that he was not overwhelmed by the biggest things. He did one big thing after another. And then he thought of bigger things to do and he was not overwhelmed. Because he had that faith that somehow or other Krishna will help.
It is with that faith that we have to begin to work. We have to stop the logical calculation. Logically we are very small, limited, logically we can only take care of our own turf, that logic doesn’t apply. When we are trying to take on more, Krishna will help us and give us the strength to do it and it is on that strength that this movement will go forward and that consciousness we will have to instill and of course we have to hear that from our leaders.
That’s why I thought I had to at least bring this out so that our leaders can take this and actually I am going to ask the GBC body to make every temple an embassy of Mayapur. And I have a few other ideas as well to push Mayapur more into the foreground of everyone’s thought. For example to put it on the meeting agenda as a permanent item of every RGB and National Council. At every meeting, Mayapur should be discussed. I have more ideas.
Hari Sauri Prabhu?
Hari Sauri Das: In the early eighties the Australian Yatra was sending a lot of money to Mayapur every year and as the GBC I was a bit concerned that we had so many projects going on that we needed to do. Then I came across a letter and I have never seen it since, it’s not on the Vedabase, but I have read it and it’s on my mind where Prabhupada told some Temple President, I cant remember who the letter was to, but he said that, “the more that you send money to Mayapur to develop Mayapur, the more your temple will flourish.”
[Devotees applaud and chant Haribol!]
Kesava Bharati Maharaja: With your permission, may I add one small insignificant thought to answer that question: It’s already done! The battle of Kuruksetra was a huge endeavor, Arjuna felt overwhelmed. Krishna told him “Don’t be overwhelmed. It’s already done! I have already done it. You just have to try.” As Maharaja so eloquently put it, Lord Caitanya has already spread this movement all over the world. It’s already done. We just have to try sincerely. Hare Krishna!
[Devotees applaud and chant Haribol!]
HH Kadamba Kanana Swami: Thank you Maharaja. Thank you.
Kesava Bharati Maharaja: And if you don’t take the credit somebody else will. That’s from Hari Sauri direct from Prabhupada [laughter].
HH Kadamba Kanana Swami: That’s the point. It’s about taking the credit. It’s about getting a chance for us. Taking the credit means actually real credit. Credit that will transport us back to the spiritual world, not just name, fame and glory, but real credit. We are not the doer but we get a chance to get the mercy. And therefore we should come forward with eagerness.
And with that we thank you very much.
Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!
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