The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Maharaja on April 29th, 1980 in Los Angeles, California. The class begins with a reading from the Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 7, Chapter 9, Text 28.

Jayapataka Swami:

evam janam nipatitam prabhavahi-kupe

 kamabhikamam anu yah prapatan prasangat

krtvatmasat surarsina bhagavan grhitah

 so ’ham katham nu visrje tava bhrtya-sevam

This verse was written in Srila Prabhupada’s prayer to Lord Krishna as he was approaching the United States on the Jaladuta and actually Lord Nrsimhadeva explains later that anyone who studies these prayers of Prahlada Maharaja, he’s guaranteed to become a pure devotee.

So each of the prayers are filled with so many instructions. This is also one of the most important, that… Nrsimhadeva of course is one of the avataras or incarnations of Krishna. There are not many Gods, there is one God, Krishna. But He assumes different forms and different pastimes so that He can satisfy His devotees. So on days like Nrsimha Caturdasi it is not wrong to also remember other of the guna-avatars, yuga-avatars, lila-avatars, like Varaha, like Trivkrama Vamana, like Matysa, Kurma and so on. However for the preachers the form of Nrsimhadeva, it is specially wonderful because the preacher is actually trying to follow in the footsteps of Prahlada Maharaja.

When we want to glorify the Lord, we can do that best by glorifying His favorite devotees. So today being Nrsimha Caturdasi, let us first meditate upon the wonderful qualities of Prahlada Maharaja as a suitable means of glorifying Lord Nrsimhadeva. Of course the situation in which Prahlada Maharaja received the mercy of Narada muni is known to all.

Actually Hiranyakasipu his demoniac father had gone for austerity and that time the demigods taking advantage kidnapped his wife who was pregnant with the intention that as soon as the child was born, they would kill it. They would kill that demon. Of course here we see even though they intended to kill the child, they couldn’t dream of abortion. This is a side point. Therefore they would wait until the child was born, they knew that in either case the child was, you see, going to be killed but the idea of killing within the womb of the mother, that didn’t even apparently appear to their minds. So… However, they were stopped by Narada muni who knew that in the womb there was not a demon but a great devotee and he took the mother and began to give spiritual instructions.

Prahlada Maharaja in the womb was listening to every instruction given by Narada muni and understanding. So when Prahlada Maharaja was born, he was already filled with knowledge of Krishna consciousness. So because of having that Krishna conscious devotional spirit, right from the very birth he was immediately at ends with his father and every time his father would ask him questions of course, he would always reply simply, pure devotional replies which infuriated his father Hiranyakasipu. So he wanted to murder him. So, reminds us of… (darsana opens)

Jaya Sri Sri Rukmini Dvarakadisa!

…the determination that a devotee must have to preach. just like in rama-lila.

In rama-lila when Sita was being stolen by Ravana, then the bird devotee Jatayu, he attacked Ravana to try to save Sita. He was no match. He was already old. He was no match for Ravana. But he couldn’t stand idle seeing Sita being taken away. So even though he knew that definitely he would not be able to be a equal match for Ravana, nevertheless, he attacked Ravana fearlessly, tearing his flesh, scratching with his uh, claws and his beak to try to stop him from taking Sita.

Of course extremely embarrassed by this attack, Ravana was impeded from taking Sita. First he took out his sword and he cut off the wings of Jatayu. Of course Jatayu lived long enough for Ramacandra to come and get the message of who had taken Sita. Srila Prabhupad instructs us that this mood of Jatayu that irregardless of whether it appears that he will win or not win, the devotee simply carries out his duty even if it means costing his life.

We have seen the same determination here in Prahlada Maharaja . Actually we are also seeing the same determination here in our midst. There have been some people who are saying that it is not possible to distribute any more books in America. Some such rumor has spread. In fact it reminds me how Srila Prabhupada was told by his god brothers that Lord Caitanya doesn’t mean that prthivite ache yata nagaradi grama sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama doesn’t meant that every town and village, it must mean something else. Every town and village in West Bengal or something, whatever they… they couldn’t exactly understand how it was possible by their vision that Krishna consciousness could spread to the West. So they just didn’t want to accept, verbatim, Lord Caitanya’s statement.

Similarly sometimes we hear rumors that such and such place is burned out, no more books can be given out, or you have to think of some alternative, comic books, something else. So, of course we see in Jatayu that it appeared to be a hopeless cause. Similarly it seems hopeless cause when Hanuman went to Lanka but he set the whole city on fire. Similarly it seemed a hopeless cause when Srila Prabhupada went to the West but he has also set the whole West on fire, fire of Krishna consciousness.

Also, Srila Ramesvara Swami everyone was telling him the BBT is finished. No more books can be given out. But he’s also determined that Srila Prabhupada ordered to double book distribution, how could it have been given if it wasn’t possible? What to speak of… that books are no longer to be given out? So we are seeing that same determination in our midst to carry out Srila Prabhupada’s order.

So Prahlada Maharaja , he was preaching under the most difficult conditions one could imagine. He was preaching and his father was ordering daily that he should be arrested. Not only arrested but he was hung over a sheer cliff. You can just put yourself in that position, held by the neck off a practically bottomless pit.

(Shouting) “Give up Krishna or I will cast you down in this hole! What do you say? Speak up, boy!”

“Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare”

That was his reply.

“Hmph! Damn You! Disgrace to the demons!”

Krishna catches him and again Prahlada’s back, and, “How did you get back? Throw him in boiling oil!” Throwing him… Holding him over the oil, you can smell the ghee… you see, the oil, mustard oil. Talk about being fried out! (Devotees laughing)This will be the fry of all fries!

“You give up Krishna”

“Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare”

Talk about deprogramming. Better not reveal this part to Ted Patrick.

Devotee: Jaya!

JPS: They throw Prahlada in the oil and he is swimming. Indoor pool, hot springs. So, of course when all else failed, then Hiranyakasipu, he wanted to take the law in his own hand. Of course we know that the Lord so kindly satisfied Prahlada’s prediction that the Lord was everywhere, in everything, including the pillar and He came out and killed His devotee Vijay who had taken the form of Hiranyakasipu, to all of the joy of the demigods.

When He was fighting then for a moment He allowed Hiranyakasipu to escape. At that the demigods became very afraid that they may be seen by Hiranyakasipu and he might ultimately not be killed by Nrsimhadeva and then he will be very angry at them. You see, this is the difference between a pure devotee and a sakama devotee or a devotee… the demigods are also devotees, the devas.

There are two kinds of devotees: those who are pure devotees, niskama and then there are the devas. The deva group, they are devotees with material desire. The devas, they look toward the face of Krishna and the devotees they look toward the pada, the lotus feet of Krishna, the pure devotees.

So we can see that the devas, who are still maintaining some material desire, they also are afraid. Material desire means fear. So although Nrsimhadeva was just playing with Hiranyakasipu, just like He plays with the demons… they for temporary time they show some opulence, they show some petrol dollars, or this dollars or that dollars for some time and then they get destroyed. Just to delude them into thinking that they are independent. Then ultimately Krishna, establishes His own devotees for the welfare of the world.

Devotees following in the footsteps of Prahlada , they have no fear. They know that if they simply pursue the instructions of their spiritual master sincerely, that everything will succeed. This is the parampara system. Actually if we mediate… you see, although Prahlada was born in a family of demons and… of course those days demons were very cultured people. Today we are born in the Kali-yuga and innocent or demon or even devotee, everybody is practically uncultured. So they are engaging in the grossest type of mleccha or unclean activities. But just like Prahlada Maharaja patiently tried to instruct his classmates, similarly the spiritual master, he comes, apparently as another human being like anyone else, like another classmate, another citizen but actually because he is empowered with the message of Lord Sri Krishna, he is not an ordinary person.

He can change the lives and the destiny which is otherwise unchangeable by anyone. So in such a way the spiritual master, he comes and he delivers the fallen souls from their conditioned life. Especially we have seen how Srila Prabhupad came to the Western countries where people are engaged in activities of passion and ignorance and by his intense influence, he was able to attract the minds of the souls completely engrossed in sense gratification to Krishna consciousness.

Now when we talk about owing someone something how can we evaluate a place, a price on how much a devotee is in debt, how much we are in debt to our spiritual master for giving us the spiritual life. Prahlada Maharaja he saw Nrsimhadeva face to face. What does he say here to Lord Nrsimhadeva when he is offered everything? He says that I am only able to see You now because of the mercy of my spiritual master. Where was I without his mercy? So I simply request that I continue to be the servant of Your servant.

Sometimes a devotee has a tendency to be contaminated by materialistic vision. And that manifests by the grasshopper propensity of jumping over, trying to jump over their spiritual master. Here we see that Prahlada is seeing Krishna or Nrsimhadeva face to face. He could be thinking, “Well, thank you gurudeva, now I have made it. I don’t need you anymore.” which would be some kind of materialistic understanding.

That is not his mood. Even he sees Krishna, he is not at all proud. He knows why he is seeing Krishna, why he is seeing Nrsimhadeva, “Due to my guru’s mercy.” In India they like to ask the question that if you walk into a room and there you see simultaneously your spiritual master and Krishna, to whom will you offer your obeisances first? What do you think? To the spiritual master.

If you are able to see Krishna, that is due to the mercy of your spiritual master. Therefore he always gets the respect first. By his instruction, by his mercy, then we can serve. So, sometimes we see that in spite of Srila Prabhupada coming and delivering some fallen souls from the pits of ignorance, that neglecting all kinds of common sense, intelligence and good instruction, they become very eager to know more, or what they think is more, than their spiritual master.

Of course, no one can know more than the spiritual master. But somehow, some kind of a hidden desire, some kind of a doubt thinking that “I know more.” or “There may be something else which is not being given.” drives people on. So Krishna is known as the satisfier of all desires and so for the cheaters there is also someone to cheat them. So sometimes we see that, this is especially dangerous for those who are engaged in the scholarly work in the Sanskrit department, Bengali department, due to lack of realization, due to lack of preaching and purification, they read something and… due to lack of reading Srila Prabhupad’s books very thoroughly, they see something which they think that this is something new. Now I know more than anybody else. And suddenly they are thinking I know more than my spiritual master. And then you hear about you know, even their names are after the names of the son of Sachi or this one or that one, names of Krishna. They neglect their spiritual master and take a position that they know more. So we can understand that it is like back to a mouse. They obviously didn’t understand the simple instruction of Prahald Maharaja.

Even when he sees Krishna face to face he is not thinking “How great I am!”, he is thinking this is the mercy of my guru. We become a little expert in our service and immediately we think that how wonderful I am. We forget that how wonderful my spiritual master’s mercy is that it can make such a useless person as myself do something which appears to be even slightly useful in service.

So Prahlada Maharaja is showing us very practically that we have an unlimited debt to pay. Those who are so unfortunate as to fall away into sense gratification, whatever they have done in their service, that will never go in vain and they will get another chance. But as Lord Caitanya said if someone becomes envious of the spiritual master who has selflessly taken extreme risks to simply deliver him from the worst condition of material birth and death, ignorance, if he becomes blasphemous and envious of that person, then Lord Caitanya out of His causeless mercy says even then He gives him a chance. He will get a chance to have a spiritual master again after one koti kalpa, 10 million days of Brahma, he can get a guru again, he gets a chance. So one should not bite the spiritual hand that has fed the nectar of Krishna.

If due to your extreme misfortune you cannot stomach it, the nectar, still you should not despise the person who is out of causeless mercy feeding it. So Prahlada Maharaja , he has shown that whether in extreme danger and misfortune or whether in extreme success, he was not intoxicated by fear or by success.

No one could be in a more miserable position than he was in, externally. Of course because of his devotional mood we see that there is no change so where is the question of miserable or happy? But from the objective viewpoint, being thrown in boiling oil, being tortured by his father, what worse condition was there?

But he was never intoxicated by fear, even he sees God face to face he wasn’t intoxicated by success. He didn’t once forget the words of his spiritual master. And what was his concern? Of course he is the… he is also in our sampradaya, he is a disciple of Narada muni. Narada muni is our spiritual master. He is a preacher. His intention is to preach Krishna consciousness. He didn’t like the sadhus who were interested simply in their own liberation. As he says here in Sloka 44 of Chapter 9: My dear Lord Nrsimhadeva, I see that there are many saintly persons indeed, but they are interested only in their own deliverance. Not caring for the big cities and towns, they go to the Himalayas or the forest to meditate with vows of silence [mauna-vrata]. They are not interested in delivering others. As for me, however, I do not wish to be liberated alone, leaving aside all these poor fools and rascals. I know that without Kåñëa consciousness, without taking shelter of Your lotus feet, one cannot be happy. Therefore I wish to bring them back to shelter at Your lotus feet.

Prabhupada explains that this is the decision of the Vaishnava, the pure devotee of the Lord. For himself he has no problems even if he has to stay in this material world because his only business is to remain in Krishna consciousness. The Krishna conscious person can even go to hell and still be happy. The pure devotee is never unhappy in any condition of life. So the Krishna consciousness movement has started in the interest of teaching the people Krishna consciousness. Prabhupada says we do not teach one to meditate in a secluded place just so that one may show that he has become very much advanced and may be proud of his so called transcendental meditation, although he engages in all sorts of foolish, materialistic activities.

A Vaishnava like Prahlada Maharaja is not interested in such a bluff of spiritual advancement. Rather he is interested in enlightening people in Krishna consciousness because that is the only way for them to become happy. The members of the Krishna conscious movement are not at all interested in so called meditation when one will only make a show of meditation. Rather every member of the Krishna consciousness movement is interested in going door to door to try to convince people about the teachings of Bhagavad-gita As It Is, the Teachings of Lord Caitanya. That is the purpose of the Hare Krishna movement. The members of the Krishna consciousness movement must be fully convinced that without Krishna, one cannot be happy. Thus the Krishna conscious people avoid all kinds of pseudo-spiritualists, transcendentalists, meditators, monist philosophers and philanthropists.

So this is the mood of the ghostyanandi. The devotee who takes pleasure in seeing the society of devotees increase. Of course some people say that, well you have to first of all be advanced, then you can do that. So let me chant until I become Krishna conscious, then I will go out and preach. Where they find that in the scriptures, that no one knows. But it is an excuse for not preaching. But here we see that advancement means you simply try to follow your spiritual master, he does the rest.

We see within that statement some idea that by my personal attempt I am going to become advanced, I am going step outside, sit in a secluded place, chant and when I get strong they I will follow my spiritual master’s orders. Of course this is foolishness. And Prahlada also says the same thing in verse 45… 46: O Supreme Personality of Godhead, there are ten prescribed methods on the path to liberation—to remain silent, not to speak to anyone, to observe vows, to amass all kinds of Vedic knowledge, to undergo austerities, to study the Vedas and other Vedic literatures, to execute the duties of varnasrama-dharma, to explain the sastras, to stay in a solitary place, to chant mantras silently, and to be absorbed in trance. These different methods for liberation are generally only a professional practice and means of livelihood for those who have not conquered their senses. Because such persons are falsely proud, these procedures may not be successful.

So I remember that Srila Prabhupad, he once told us that I am not planning to become Krishna conscious or expect to become Krishna conscious, by the expertise of my devotional service, by my skill in Sanskrit pronunciation, by my rising in the morning, by… he… I forget the exact examples he gave, by following regulative principles, by my service. Srila Prabhupada said that “I am simply dependent on the mercy of my spiritual master, what can I do? But simply I am trying to carry out his orders. By his mercy I will succeed or not. I am simply depending on his mercy.” Of course the devotees of Nrsimhadeva, at first they were very afraid, no one could speak to Nrsimhadeva except for Prahlada Maharaja . But after Prahlada had appeased Nrsimhadeva, then Nrsimhadeva He blessed Prahlada and then He left. He left that place and then He went to the holy dhama of Sri Mayapura, in Sri Mayapura, Madhyamdvipa, there is a place called Devapalli, Suvarna Vihara and Nrsimhapalli. Nrsimhadeva seeing His eternal dhama, tired from all the strenuous fighting, of course His tiredness is His causeless mercy, the actual reason was He knew that the devotees wanted to serve Him. They had no opportunity. He came, He was so fierce that no one could approach Him. Even Laksmi was afraid, She had to stay in hiding. She never saw Him so angry in her life. He was practically on fire.

So now He has been cooled down so now He took rest at the hill Nrsimapalli, bathed in the river Suvarna Vihara and all the demigods, they took the form of villagers and they began offering Him some nice foodstuffs and serving Him and He stayed and accepted the service of His devotees.

Still today on our parikrama, sometimes we go to the holy dhama of Narsimapalli for Lord Nrismha accepted the intimate service there from His devotees. The devotee, he gets the opportunity to worship Krishna face to face, to offer prasad directly, by the mercy of his spiritual master. He doesn’t try to jump ahead on his own to serve the Lord, directly. He simply tries to serve the spiritual master and by that in due course, by the mercy of the spiritual master he will be elevated to that position. Just as the devotees of Nrsimhadeva, they were elevated to that position, they could serve Him directly, in His dhama.

We shouldn’t get impatient, I have been chanting, although millions of unlimited number of births, I have already been chanting for eight years and I haven’t yet seen Krishna face to face, I have to do something special that Prabhupada hasn’t said, that our spiritual master hasn’t told us. Don’t be tricked. They are like prostitutes, some people they try to say, come on I have something to tell you that your guru doesn’t know. “I spit on your face! My guru knows everything!”

If anyone ever says that you know he is the worst, envious snake. We never hear from someone who says in his opening statement, “I have something to tell you that your guru doesn’t know.” But in this material world such envious snakes exist and we just allow them to be destroyed by Krishna’s cakra because we don’t want to indulge. So we don’t even look at their unfortunate, blasphemous faces. It is so unfortunate, someone if he gives up his guru. We don’t want to associate with such an unfortunate person. We are simply following in the footsteps of the great souls, Mahajana yena gathas sa pantha. Their example is one, Mahajana is singular because they are all following the same principle.

So long as the spiritual master is guiding one in his service to Krishna, it can never be neglected. Prahlada Maharaja was a preacher. He dedicated his life to simply giving everyone the chance to become Krishna conscious. He didn’t want to go back alone.

Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, He came down and He preached for 24 years. Of course from 14 to 24 in Navadvipa He constantly preached. From His… as soon as He was born, He got the people to chant Hare Krishna otherwise He wouldn’t stop crying. Then He went and He preached for 8 years all around South India. He went as far as Maharashtra. He went Vrndavana.

He sent Lord Nityananda back to Bengal, “You preach. You give My order to everyone from house to house.” Every year devotees came down to Jagannath Puri and He had a huge Ratha-Yatra festival preaching. He sent Rupa and Sanatana to excavate the holy places in Vrndavan and write literature for preaching. Lord Nityananda, Balaram, personally His whole life simply preached, begging every person to accept the order of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

If anybody gets any idea that Lord Caitanya’s movement has any other purpose than preaching Krishna consciousness, they are simply mad men. The movement was for developing Krishna consciousness by satisfying Lord Caitanya’s mission. Bhaktivinoda Thakur mentions 13 types of bogus sampradayas and most of them say that Lord Caitanya didn’t want us to preach, for one reason or another. So we have to be very clear, what is the position of our movement. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura he said, Mon tumi kishe vaishnav? Nirjana bhajan naya. You want to go in a solitary place my mind and then you want to be worshipped by people that “Oh, he is solitarily worshipping, he is a great person.”

Prabhupada in his Bengali prayers to his spiritual master and Krishna, he describes that we will taste the nectar of the residents of Vrndavan in sankirtan rasa, in the midst of so many devotees chanting kirtan, engaging in sankirtan, then we will taste what is the nectar of Krishna consciousness. What is the mood of the residents of Vrndavan, the Vrajavasis. Not by solitary attempt.

What does Nrsimhadeva Himself say of Prahlada ?

bhavanti purusa loke

mad-bhaktas tvam anuvratah

bhavan me khalu bhaktanam

sarvesam pratirupa-dhrk

Those who follow your example will naturally become My pure devotee. You are the best example of My devotee and others should follow in your footsteps. Prabhupad also says, Madhvacharya quotes from Skanda Purana:

rte tu tattvikan devan

naradadéms tathaiva ca

prahradad uttamaù ko nu

visnu-bhaktau jagat-traye

Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, he accepted the sannyas order of life. He was criticized by babajis, “Why are you becoming a sanyasi varnasrama dharma? Why are you not staying in liberated status like us?” And Bhaktisiddhanta Swami Prabhupada, he said, that I am not so great, I am simply trying to carry out the service to guru and Gauranga. Lord Caitanya, He was sitting in Gundica Mandir hearing Ramananda Rai and Swarup Damodar speak from the tenth canto and about Krishna’s Rasa-lila. He is Krishna Himself in the mood of Radharani, that is His position to enjoy. I am not Krishna, I am not Lord Caitanya, I am the servant of His servant of his servant of his servant’s servant. And He has ordered that yare dekho tare kaha Krishna upadesa. So I am simply accepting the humble service of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. I am not so great that I can imitate Him. But by His mercy if I am able to understand Krishna consciousness, that will be my fortune. I cannot imitate.

So, the devotees take the mood of the servant of the servant of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is the prayer that Srila Prabhupada has given when he came to this Western world. That is the instruction repeatedly given. That is the secret of success. That we should serve the spiritual master first. Nrsimhadeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He came because Prahlada Maharaja was His humble, non-envious, surrendered devotee.

This morning we heard that how we should pray that Nrsimhadeva sit in our hearts. We should pray that He reside there and by His transcendental virajaman presences all the evil, all the dirt, all the materialistic desires, thoughts and contaminations will be immediately eradicated.

This is a sincere and just prayer by the devotee to the Lord to, “Kindly in spite of my unqualified nature, if You will have mercy and be present in my heart so that I can simply serve You without any impediments.” This is only possible by the mercy of the spiritual master that the Lord will reside in one’s heart.

So we should not attempt to please the Supreme Personality of Godhead by concoction. This is what Srila Prabhupada says. One must first be prepared to serve the spiritual master and when one is qualified, he is automatically offered the platform of direct service to the Lord. Narada muni was struck by lightning and immediately he received his svarupa-deha. He received his spiritual form. When the time is right, Krishna reveals everything.

vasudeve bhagavati

bhakti-yogah prayojitah

janayaty asu vairagyam

jnanaà ca yad ahaitukam

Causelessly it comes on its own accord by the mercy of guru and Krishna. So we take this opportunity to pray to our spiritual master that by his presence in our heart, that the Supreme Lord Nrsimhadeva, Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Nityananda can be present within our heart. With Them in our heart where is there any scope for contamination?

Thank you very much.

Transcribed By

H.G. Jayarasesvari Devī Dāsī

Date Of Completion 30 July 2014