The following is a class given by H.H. Jayapataka Swami Maharaja on January 26th, 1982 in Malaysia. The class is on the Isopanishad invocation mantra.

The Isopanishad describes that the absolute truth is “Om purnam adah purnam idam/ purnat purnam udacyate/ purnasya purnam adaya/ purnam evavasisyate” and from that supreme complete whole, other complete units are manifested, and each of those units is also complete in themselves. But they are dependent upon the original complete unit for their existence.

Just like, mother and father are producing, are both complete, in form of having body,e arms, lips and the child that they produce also is complete with all of those faculties. Of course, the Supreme Lord, His completeness is fully complete. That's why He is om purnam, absolutely complete. Because in this world, to produce the child, the help of wife is required for the man and for the mother, the help of the man is required; but Krsna, in his Garbhodakashayi Vishnu form...You must have seen the picture or seen the murthy here in South India where the Lord is lying down and from his navel, the lotus comes and Brahma deva is born on that lotus. Where is Lakshmi? Lakshmi is there at the feet of Vishnu, massaging the feet. She was not necessary to give birth. He is complete in Himself; He can alone produce unlimited living entities without any help, you see.

The ordinary living entities, do not have that capacity. They require the help of someone else. Nonetheless, they are able to also create, give birth to complete units. So, just as the Lord is complete, so this universe is also complete. He has made a perfect machine which will automatically run by itself with only a slight maintenance.

For maintenance purpose, Krsna has come as Vishnu, just to see that things go on. But He doesn’t directly get involved. He stays in his Managing Director's, rather you can say, the Chairman’s office in the kshira sindhu or the ocean of milk. And if there is any difficulty, then the Managing Director, Brahma dev comes along with other demigods, Assistant Directors and Sub-Directors and Secretaries of the firm and they pray by the ocean of milk that.. for the Chairman-in-Chief, Vishnu, to come and straighten up the affairs. Because they are not able to manage it at that point, in a smooth way. So then, Kshirodakashayi Vishnu comes down as one of his unlimited Avatars as Varaha Dev or Kurma or Matsya.

Once in a day of Brahma, the chief for which, the chief(the chairman-in-chief) Himself, Krsna, comes down from the spiritual sky to this universe. Other Avatars are coming simply from the expansion of Krsna, Kshirodakashayi Vishnu. So we are very fortunate to be here in this material world just after the appearance of Lord Krsna. This is a very rare occasion. Those living entities who are present in the material world after the presence or during the presence, especially fortunate, of Lord Sri Krsna. They are able to transfer themselves easily back to the planet of Krsna. Other devotees of the different Narayana forms are only able to transfer themselves to the Vaikunda Loka due to poor fund of knowledge about the transcendental personality of Krsna.

Krsna is the original and confidential personality and one can see the difference in Krsna’s pastimes, because of the varieties of loving affairs, the beautiful features of Krsna, the playing of the flute, as well as the exceptional and wonderful devotees who are surrounding Lord Sri Krsna’s transcendental pastimes. So, although this world is created by Krsna through His expansions, He himself is aloof. His expansions are aloof. Things are going on in their own way, almost automatically. Therefore, although Lord Shiva is also the expansion of Lord Krsna, because Lord Shiva is in touch with this material world, his characteristics and activities are slightly different, although he is himself fully the expansion of Vishnu. So because of that slightly different characteristic he is worshiped differently by different devotees. So Shiva, he can also be prayed to, for getting the transcendental benediction or for getting the material benediction. Because Vishnu is primarily interested in liberating the souls of the material world, He is the only giver of liberation. This is also confirmed by Lord Shiva. That Vishnu alone gives liberation from the material world of birth and death.

“Bhava,” Bhava means this world of birth and death. So Vishnu expands Himself as Bhava Iswara, Shiva with the purpose of manifesting this material world and therefore Lord Shiva is the Chief of all the demigods and he is the Maheswara or the great controller. So some are approaching the different demigods as independent Isvaras and getting benedictions from them. But they should know it, they go for everyone, there is the supreme deity. And everything is within the purview of the controlling power of that supreme authority.

Just like the Chairman of so many companies. May be the Chairman of each company in India, but over each state, there is one Chief Minister. And over each country, there is a supreme controller, or The Prime Minister. Like that over the all material universe there is, each universe there is a Kshirodakashayi Vishnu. And over all the material universes there is Maha Vishnu. But over all the material spiritual universes, everything, in the topmost planet is Krsna. But He doesn’t get involved in the managing of affairs. Generally, He is simply delivering through the devotees His loving, affection and his mercy. Krsna, you can say, is like the form of the Prime Minister while on vacation, and the Narayan is the form while in the office. So Krsna is simply active in vacation, he is only enjoying Himself and enjoying all of his devotees, so the devotees would rather spend the time in loving pastimes with Krsna while He is in his vacationing mood. And those who want to relate with Him in his formal mood, in the office, or in His supreme powerful position, they approach as Narayana or Vishnu in a mood of awe and reverence, while Krsna they approach in a mood of servitude initially, but the aspiration is to be accepted as a friend, a parent or a lover in the service of Krsna according to one’s eternal relationship.

All these things are very confidential subject matters and the great acaryas like Madhvacarya, Nimbarka and Vishnu Swamy could understand the difference between Krsna and Narayana. Ramanuja Acarya, could understand that Narayana or Vishnu is supreme above all other demigods, that He is the original and the absolute truth. So, all of these confidential subject matters have been given in the Vedas, but in time, in the eternal time, sometimes people could understand and sometimes they cannot understand all of the purports of the Vedas.

Vedas contain so much information that there is an unlimited source of spiritual knowledge there, but not everyone of us reading the Veda will be able to get all of purports and no one can get all of the purports... even Anantha Dev with thousands and millions of heads, he cannot find the end to the glories of the Vedas and to the meanings of all the slokas and lessons in the Vedas. Because each lesson and each sloka, even each divine name is possessed of unlimited characteristics and qualities, because they are all transcendental. So, to understand these things, one has to be a devotee.

Krsna says in Gita, “Bhaktya mam abhijanati,” that except for the devotee, no one else can know me. Unless one has got the favour of the Lord, it is not possible to know the secrets about the Lord. Just like an ordinary business man, he will never disclose his business secret to his competitors, will he? So if a person is competing with Krsna like an asura or he has a separate, a separate mood, then why Krsna will give him his confidential secrets? But if such a person is a dear devotee who has no separate interest, who has surrendered to Krsna’s own existence and to Krsna’s own interests that, “Whatever is your interest, Krsna, that is my interest. I have no separate interest.” Then Krsna can, in full confidence, reveal secrets to him, because he will not misuse that knowledge. Others will not be able to comprehend, because Maya covers their intelligence from that confidential information. So, one should give up the competitive spirit with Krsna; competitive spirit with other devotees is there only in a very warm and favorable way of trying to please Krsna more.

Since the goal is to please Krsna, if another devotee is more successful in pleasing Krsna, then that devotee is not envied or spited in anyway; rather he is appreciated that "Oh! He has so nicely pleased Krsna, when will I be also able to please Krsna like that?" But because Krsna is pleased and also satisfied, even the devotee who may be defeated by an excellent type of service, he is further enthused to increase his service and to increase the amount of happiness he is able to give to Krsna.

The unusual thing is that in a business of course one is working for the firm and he gets back some salary or some percentage of profit in return. But in terms of... We are part of Krsna... mamaivamso jiva-loke jiva-bhuta sanatanah manah-sasthanindriyani prakrti-sthani karsathi; the living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal, fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind(B.G15.7).

When we serve Krsna, give him a little happiness even, a little satisfaction through our humble but sincere effort to please him; even when we aren’t able to do anything, that attempt, that desire to serve him alone, is satisfying to the Lord. So, when he achieves or when he is pleased by our attempt to satisfy Him, then His happiness---because He is unlimited just like a whole gold mine, we are just like a small particle of gold, small ring So just like we are like a drop, you see, compared to the ocean. So like that ,when in the ocean there is a huge tidal wave or even a small wave; for the drop, it is a tidal wave. Even a ripple, for the drop is like a tidal wave. So we are just like such a small fish or drop and when that ocean of happiness, even if it's a ripple of happiness, in our attempt to please him, for us is like an overwhelming flood of happiness. That's why the devotees experience an inconceivable ecstasy in love of Godhead while serving the Lord.

Even the kumaras, who have first of all realized the impersonal Brahman, when they had the darshan of Narayana, then their body... tulasi scent, their bodies began to quiver when the scent of the tulsi entered into their nostrils. The tulsi which is offered to the lotus feet of Lord Narayana, when got that scent, their bodies started to quiver, their eyes were filled with tears, and they became stunned with ecstasy. Then they could realize that the service of Vishu or Narayana is a much higher happiness in a much higher level than the appreciation of the ‘Nirakar’ or impersonal aspect of His effulgence. So, this Krsna conscious movement is distributing that highest happiness of life.

This is such a rare thing; it is such an extremely high achievement that ordinarily, even the great demigods are not able to get it. That’s why it is described in the Bhagavatam that even the demigods are crying, that why they are not able to take appearance in the Kaliyuga to participate in this movement of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, whereby in a few short years fifty, sixty, seventy years' life span, within that time, if one is able to simply chant the name of Krsna and achieve the highest benediction of life. kaler doṣa-nidhe rājann/ asti hy eko mahān guṇaḥ/ kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya/ mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet. So this opportunity that we are getting as even as insignificant human beings, the great demigods, are very anxious to achieve. But since they have already taken their birth in the heavenly planets, then they have no opportunity to participate in this movement by human birth very easily. So to become a devotee is not very difficult, if one chants name of Krsna.

In the Third Canto of Bhagavatam, Kapila Avatar told his mother Devahuti that there are two types of devotees : 1)those who are materialistically contaminated, and 2)those who are pure devotees. Both of these devotees render devotional service. Of the materialistically contaminated devotees, there are three main categories, namely tamasic, rajasic and sattvic. The devotees who are very angry, who are revengeful, who are fault finding, and have a separatist envious type of attitude to other devotees, are in the mode of ignorance. Their devotional service is mixed with the mode of ignorance. Therefore, they should be avoided. Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said that to offend Vaishnavas especially, is the most dangerous activity.

Sometimes the devotees begin their devotional service, but certain devotees can be found who have the tinge of tamasic nature where they are very particularly envious. Even if there is no fault, as this all this may be slight glimpse of the fall in a devotee who is 99% completely progressed. Actually, 100% progress, but may be something appears to be slightly like a fall. But such devotees who are mixed with tamo guna, they will pick out and they will see that there is little percent of everything good in such a person and will simply see that “Oh.”

Such devotee is mentioned in Chaitanya Caritamrta that by chance he would be this type of devotee that he will invite me to come to his house and take prasad and then he would feed this sadhu jan. He invites the sadhu to take prasadam, he would overfeed the sadhu first, " take more” “take more." And after filling them upto here, then he would chastise them, “You are not a sadhu. You have over eaten.” Just see.... (Gurudev laughs). Neither they intended to eat so much, but he was forcing by hospitality, but then it was over, he criticized, “They are not sadhus; they are glutton, overeating.” Such devotee there was, in Chaitanya Caritamrta. So then other devotee were very afraid of him that he would insist that you had to accept his invitation but if you accept his invitation, then no doubt, you would only be criticized in this way. So it was very critical, because they all see he was a senior devotee, an older devotee, even all the devotees, but his nature was very peculiar like that. His name was Ramachandra Puri. Because he became so critical, Lord Chaitanya stopped eating and only ate a handful of one eighth of the ordinary amount, because he just became,... “All right, he is criticizing, I won’t take anything, Just give me that much.”

And all the devotees were going just mad, “This man, why Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is not eating anything? They began to detest that Ramachandra Puri... that he has come here and our Lord now is practically fasting because of all these criticisms...” One day, Ramachandra Puri came into the house of Lord Chaitanya. He couldn’t find anything wrong about Lord Chaitanya; but he was looking. He saw some four five ants walking across the floor. He said, “Aha! You call yourself a sannyasi... The ants are here. You must be eating sweets in secret way. You are not a real sannyasi. You are sweet-monger.” (devotees laugh) you see. So then somehow after that he left, that Ramanchandra Puri... and everyone felt a great relief that that type of devotee had gone.

So like that, sometimes certain devotees, appears to be advanced, older this type of devotee, but he may be a such type of person that picks out any little excuse to find a fault with others. And that is very disturbing to the devotees, but out of politeness, they may tolerate “All right, he's an older person, let him...” But actually it is recommended by Kapila Muni that one should avoid such type of devotees, because to hear that type of statements are very detrimental for one’s spiritual life.

Even Lord Chaitanya said one should avoid those devotees. Yes, we offer them respect in our heart, because somehow they have accepted that Vishnu, Krsna is the topmost summum bonnum , greatest good. But they still have got some tamasic influence upon their mentalities. So we avoid their association and try to keep out a distance. Then the other type of materialistically influenced devotee is that devotee influenced by the mode of rajas or passion. They are not so bad. But that devotee influenced by the mode of passion, he has also got some type of separate feeling from the Lord because through his devotional service, he wants to get some recognition from other people that he is a great devotee or that he is very expert. So in this way, he wants some recognition or he wants some type of benefit from that devotional service or some improvement in his material situation. So, of course one can get all these from devotional service, no doubt, one may get Svarga, one may get Siddhi, but to decide this type of thing is not to turn up the mercy of the Lord. That is also a type of influence of the mode of passion. So that is second type of materialistically influenced devotee. The third main category of material influence is the sattva guna. Those devotees who are influenced by sattva guna, they are performing pujas very carefully and different rules of varnashram dharma and they want to get mukti or moksha from their devotional activities. So that desire for moksha, independent of the pure service of Krsna, is also a type of materialistic viewpoint.

It’s not the platform of pure prema or love. So that is the influence of the sattva guna. So these three main categories can be further subdivided into nine categories because there is sravana, kirtana, smarana, vandana, pada-sevana, dasya, sakhya, atma-nivedana- hearing, chanting, remembering, offering prayers, bowing down before the Lord, being a servant of the Lord, offering worship to the Lord, being a friend of Lord and complete surrender. So these nine practices of devotional service, when mixed with these three main categories of material contamination make twenty one.

Hearing in goodness, hearing in passion and hearing in ignorance, in devotional service, speaking in goodness...like that. So then, those each of those can be further subdivided into the three again. Hearing in goodness with a slight tamasic influence, hearing in goodness with a slight rajasic influence, hearing in goodness with a slight superlative sattvic influence like that. So in this way, that any one is (under) subdivisions of material contamination.

Of course, then you can go on subdividing, but you can say that principles ahead and then within subdivisions and like that it goes down. So the pure devotional service, that is of a different nature. What is that? Vasudeve bhagavati bhakti yogah prayojitah janayaty asu vairagyam jnanam ca yad ahaitukam... sa vai pumsam paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhoksaje ahaituky apratihata yayatma suprasidati....The pure devotional service is that devotional service, which is ahaituky.

There is no material cause, neither tamasic cause of some angry mood, neither a cause of some material, direct result.. immediate cause for getting liberation and the various variations. But that it is causeless to serve the Lord, let Him be pleased by the service, let the greatest good be done by His mercy. Then, that ahaituky bhakti, should be also aparihata. Aparihata means that there is no break, no cessation. Today I am doing, then I stop. Then I do something else. Then again I start. Like that. No. This should be a type of regular, unbroken link. That's why we encourage people to chant a fixed number everyday that keeps day by day the sequence, the unbroken nature. Also, some day they worship Krsna, another day we think that we worship Shiva as independent or we worship another demigod as independent. Even devotees of Krsna, sometimes worship demigods knowing that they are great devotees of the Lord and they can give some benediction for the service of Krsna, but they don’t see such demigods as independent. They know that they are expansions or servants, like that.

Just like a director in a company, or sometimes we may go to the Minister rather than Prime minister, because we just need that particular department’s facility. But if the Prime minister gives the order, then any department is obliged, they have to do it. So we don’t know, we don’t think that the ministers can become Prime ministers, we know that only one Prime minister is there and others various deputy prime, subsequent ministers, chief ministers, deputy ministers, they are all there in the government administration. Similarly in universal administration there is only one Prime minister; deputy ministers there are three, you can say Brahma, Shiva and expansion Vishnu; chief deputy minister is there or you can say Prime minister and two deputies, whichever you like use the analogy and president is Krsna.

Any case of the other demigods like Indra is like minister and others some similar category ministers and other junior deputy ministers and so on. So like that one doesn’t take any demigod to be independent. If you worship the demigod as independent, then there shows some break in devotional service. Then when one does causeless and unbroken devotional service, then yayatma su prasidhati-- the atma becomes su-prasidhati that he completely satisfied.

Atma means mind, means soul, mind and body. Three things are described in the Vedic dictionary. So when the spiritual happiness, spiritual satisfaction gives the atma su-prasidhati, that also satisfies the mind, satisfies the body. So, to prove to the world that the Bhagavat, the pure devotee, didn’t have any material desire, He puts them to great test. Krsna doesn’t have to put on to get test; sometimes he doesn’t put the devotee to such great test. You see. Just like, Vipra Sudhama was very poor, that was a test. Krsna put him to a little test, so he went to Dvaraka. Vipra Sudhama could have asked Krsna to “Give me money, my wife is all the time bothering me for money, for this, for that.” But Vipra Sudhama, he gave Krsna just some chida, he couldn’t ask for anything. In the... Yesterday, we had some of that preparation, that type of chida, what do we call it? “Metaka pova” (a devotee says to Gurudev) “Metaka pova”(Gurudev repeats)

Anyway the pova, He didn't have the Metaka, he was poor, but he gave only the pova. He might not have afforded anything material, but at least he gave the rice, the chida, the “pova.” So that was so satisfying to Krsna because it was given by a pure devotee that He gave him unlimited fortune, when he came back... But he couldn’t ask Krsna for anything. That was the truth Krsna wanted to prove, show everyone. That is, pure devotee actually doesn’t ask Krsna for anything, but Krsna Himself provides. Krsna gave unlimited palatial buildings and servants and everything to his devotee, but so what he used-He made a beautiful arrangement for Krsna’s puja, for glorifying Krsna with all those facility. So that type of pure devotee doesn’t become enamored by some opulence and forget about the Lord.

Sometimes devotees of Lord Shiva, they get some boons from Shiva and they forget Shiva. Krsna doesn’t give that type of blessings ordinarily to his devotee, whereby will forget Him. Otherwise what is the use? Just like that one, Vrtrasura; he got the boon to take off the head of anyone. Next thing he wanted, take of the head of Shiva.(Devotees laugh) What is the fun? He is worshiping Shiva and then he gets boon and then Shiva himself, He wants to kill. So like that, Vishnu is not in the habit of giving such types of boons. So, in this first type of boon, envious form of Lord Shiva, not in his original form. Just like the mother, if the child says, “Give me one knife; I want to play.” “No, no. I won’t give you. You will cut yourself.” “No, no. I want to play.” “No, no, I won’t give you.” ‘No, no. I just want to play; I want to sharpen my finger.” ‘No, no, you don't know; you don’t know.”

In that way if we ask something from Krsna that is not very good for us, then somehow He has to get us that idea out of our head. He might show us that it is a bad idea as a token. Then you know, “Oh why did I want this?” But He will do it in such a way that you will learn from that not to desire these types of useless things. But in that way, many people, they know that. So they prefer to worship directly Shiva or some demigod Karthikeya, Subramaniya or other, to get some immediate benefit without consideration . They don’t consider good or bad. “Just give this to me.” So those demigods, are usually not so much concerned with what is the future; nor they have all that Trikala-jnan. Of course, Lord Shiva does, but he also doesn’t usually get involved. He tells them, “Why do you want such a thing it's useless; it will cause trouble. “No,no. You must give.” “All right, take it.” That’s his nature –aashuthosh. He gives easily. So that way, people are preferring the demigods, because they know they can get some easy result.

Even the Vaishnav kings would worship demigods as part of the maintenance of their kingdom, you see; but they were keen about the ultimate objective, achieving the favor of Krsna in pure devotion. Those who don’t have any other objective, but pure devotion of Krsna, and they want to use everything they have their family, their establishment, whatever it may be, to promote that type of satisfaction to Krsna, the devotion to Krsna, then you see, they get complete shelter of Krsna. So that shelter of Krsna means they get completely satisfied, they get relief from all type of misery and all type of difficulty. So Krsna also shows that to the Pandavas. He put them in different difficulty, but they couldn’t ask Him “Give me this, give me that.” They won’t ask, they are only asking Krsna that they want to continue serving Him the lifetime. Thus the result Krsna would always come and protect them and ultimately He established them in top of kingdom of the whole world as the Samrat or Emperor. So sometimes in duties of great devotees, he gives some tests to just to show that whether they have faith or not, to show others, “Just see! Even difficulty came... just think our great Draupadi, Draupadi is actually the symbol of heroism in devotion. Heroic amongst the women in our Vedic history; she was taken into the courtroom of Kurus to be stripped naked and her chastity was to be insulted.

Even in the assembly of great heroes, she simply took shelter of Krsna, “He Kesava, He Krsna,” and Krsna protected her by giving unlimited sari. But even though she was such a great devotee, Ashwathama was able to come and kill her five children sleeping in bed, by cutting off their head. Even Duryodhana and others hated that activity. They couldn’t believe that such a heinous act was done by Ashwathama. They were also not pleased. It was so bad. But think that although she was such a great devotee, such a great test was given to her. Her own children when they were killed! But she never once lost her faith in Krsna. She never lost faith in devotion to Krsna. Even though she had such a test; she had such a pure devotion that even when Ashwathama was brought in front of her, “Here is the culprit,” Arjuna said, “Now am going to cut off his head and you can stand on that to (have) abhishek in his blood.” But Draupadi said, “He is the son of our Guru Dronacharya had made some mistake. Why, when I am a mother suffering, why should another mother suffer?” Like that she expressed her sentiments.

Of course Krsna, He won’t let him go away. “No, He did such a heinous act. You cut off his hair, You cut off the jewel” and in this way, he will die but he will be alive. Ashwathama is now in Himalaya doing Tapasya, and after this Kali Yuga, he will come down and he will be the part of the contingent which will establish the Satya Yuga. He is now in samadhi in Himalayas, according to the Veda Sastra. So like that, sometimes great tests will come. So those devotees they come down to show that even in greatest tests they don’t lose faith.

And Krsna protects and even those children who died also had so many curses, things and vows, that they came here for a particular purpose, like that they were killed and then they were transferred back and they all got mukti. But all those things are very confidential matters described in very hidden way in the Vedas. So if something like that happens someone is sick and someone gets killed that also, everything that happens like that with a devotee, one should know it that it must be for the good. Just like the six brothers of Krsna were killed, those were also Vidhagda garbas, or that particular demigods were cursed to take birth. Because they are born as Krsna’s brothers, they also received the highest benediction. So like that sometimes one is born in a certain way, suddenly some accident or some suffering comes, sometimes even the devotees’ channel leaves the world; that may be also because he is already by doing the Holyname and having some Prasad, he is already finished up his karmas. He has gone back to Krsna. No need to stay for more time. So this life we are always all dependent, none of us are independent.

We can’t say what’s going to happen. We try to carry out our duty, go on in our service keeping our faith to Krsna. But what happens ultimately. He is the supreme authority. Man proposes, God disposes. You may propose some plan for His satisfaction, but along doing He may decide to give us any benediction. That we have to take without losing faith in Him. And know that apart from His mercy and the devotees’ mercy, there is no other recourse. So in this way a devotee very quickly finishes up his business, all his previous karmas are burned out. They are all burned out and then one is simply left as a pure soul. So then it is very easy to achieve the eternal association of the Lord. So we hope people try to understand the science of devotional service, science of spiritual life, it is a great science and with a little bit of care and attention and determination, it is very easy to achieve the perfection in this life. That is the assurance of all the sastras. Simply we can achieve it if we stick to the process of chanting the name of Hari. Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.