The following is a class given by His Holiness, Jayapataka Swami Maharaja on November 5th, 1980. The class begins with a reading from the Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 1, Chapter 13, Text 21.

Jayapataka Swami:

nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale

śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine

namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe

nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe

namo mahā-vadānyāya kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāya te

kṛṣṇāya kṛṣṇa-caitanya-nāmne gaura-tviṣe namaḥ

he kṛṣṇa karuṇā-sindho

dīna-bandho jagat-pate

gopeśa gopikā-kānta

rādhā-kānta namo 'stu te

tapta-kāñcana-gaurāṅgi

rādhe vṛndāvaneśvari

vṛṣabhānu-sute devi

praṇamāmi hari-priye

vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaś ca

kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca

patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo

vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya

prabhu-nityānanda

jaya-advaita gadādhara

śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa

kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare

hare rāma hare rāma

rāma rāma hare hare

Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya

Devotees: Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya

Jayapataka Swami: Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya

Devotees: Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya

Jayapataka Swami: Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya

Devotees: Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya

Jayapataka Swami:

nārāyaṇaṁ namaskṛtya

naraṁ caiva narottamam

devīṁ sarasvatīṁ vyāsaṁ

tato jayam udīrayet

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ

paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim

yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande

śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam

Text 21. “Your father, brother, well-wishers and sons are all dead and you… and passed away. You yourself have expended the major portion of your life, your body is now overtaken by invalidity, and you are living in the home of another.”

Purport:

“The King is reminded of his precarious condition, influenced by cruel time, and by his past experience he should have been more intelligent to see what was going to happen to his own life. His father, Vicitravīrya, died long ago, when he and his younger brothers were all little children, and it was due to the care and kindness of Bhīṣmadeva that they were properly brought up. Then again his brother Pāṇḍu died also. Then in the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra his one hundred sons and his grandsons all died, along with all other well-wishers like Bhīṣmadeva, Droṇācārya, Karṇa and many other kings and friends. So he had lost all men and money, and now he was living at the mercy of his nephew, whom he had put into troubles of various types. And despite all these reverses, he thought that he would prolong his life more and more. Vidura wanted to point out to Dhṛtarāṣṭra that everyone must… has to protect himself by his action and the grace of the Lord. One has to execute his duty faithfully, depending for the result on the supreme authority. No friend, no children, no father, no brother, no state and no one else can protect a person who is not protected by the Supreme Lord. One should, therefore, seek the protection of the Supreme Lord, for the human form of life is meant for seeking that protection. He has warned of his precarious conditions more and more by the following words.

Thus end the purport by Srila Prabhupada

So, Vidura, the half-brother of Dron… uh, Dhrtarastra he is speaking to Dhrtarastra without pulling any punches, without holding back the truth. This is necessary for one to preach even if the hearer doesn’t like what he is hearing. The preacher has to tell that which is really going to help him otherwise what is the use? Uh, today we are plagued in an era where there are countless, so called preachers not one of them saying anything which can elevate one’s consciousness. Therefore Srila Prabhupada, he has brought the message of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu all over the world. So that real preaching which will go to the heart, can transform the consciousness of the people.

Here we see Dhrtarastra has schemed and he has killed only his own relatives by his scheming. Although he tried to kill the good nephews who were devoted to Krishna because they were faultless the reaction instead came back upon him. But he is so heartless, he is so callous that he is living at their expense, he is living in their house and they are maintaining him and he tried to kill them.

So, Vidura’s not telling this simply to criticize. He’s telling this to get him off his seat. To get him to leave and go in the forest to take up the path of renunciation, to get him to become advanced, spiritually.
Yesterday, we were visiting the museum of science and as we were driving back from the museum there we saw inside the museum so many ugra-karmas. They had achieved so many so-called wonders of levers and electricity and mechanics but as we were driving away we saw… we had to stop at the light and although the light had turned… we could go, but one old man was hunched over, and he was walking very slowly across the road, so we had to wait for him to pass.

They did not have any scientific cure for old age. That would’ve been the real exhibit, “How to cure old age.” Prabhupada said these old people who are bent over, that is due to too much sex. Someone who is too promiscuous in old age his back goes out and he cannot stand straight. Sometimes you see them, absolutely 90 degree angle, you see. Simply disgraced.

So Dhrtarastra, he is in old age and like everyone in old age they don’t really think about it as much as they should that, “Now is the last moment. Now is the last chance when I can fix myself in spiritual life.” Instead, what they think about? “How is my son? How is my granddaughter? How is the great-granddaughter? How to get grandson married? How to get granddaughter married?” So on. So, even to last movement what are they thinking about? They’re simply thinking how to arrange the different family arrangements, the different sex arrangements for the family. This is grhamedhi.

So Vidura’s trying to get Dhrtarastra off this platform. Instead, he’s saying, “Why are you sitting here?” He has to get him angry so he’ll do something. He said, “Why are you sitting here to mercy of your grand nephews, your nephews, when they’re the very enemies that you tried to kill and who killed all of your own sons?” Then later, he gives him the spiritual knowledge. “Now you are in old age. You get out. You focus your mind in meditation. Die honorably, not like an old dog sitting at the mercy of enemies.”

So, this also proves to us that according to time and place… You may say, “Well, this argument is not completely spiritual.” Yes, it’s getting his sentiment up, because on the absolute platform who is the enemy? Who is the friend? We have no enemies. If we understand Krishna is our eternal friend everyone is Krishna’s part and parcel, where is the enemy? Who can hurt us? But, Dhrtarastra’s not on that platform.

He’s tried to kill Krishna. He’s tried to kill Krishna’s devotees. Still Vidura is trying to give him mercy. You see, that is the liberalness of a pure devotee. That, even one is completely inimical, if he gets a chance, if he gets an opportunity, he’ll also try to deliver. So, this preaching is just according to time, place and circumstance: kala, desa, patra.

Because Dhrtarastra is materially attached, so he is getting his attachment, he’s getting his sentiment up. “Why you are wasting your time here? You are disgraced.” Anyway he can get him out of his attached condition. The people like to think that they’re very well protected, but today is a good time for people to realize that there is no protection, no friend, no father, no brother, no sister, no mother, no nation, can protect one from the cruel hand of old age and death, whether it’s by Russian missiles or whether it by accident on the highway: padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ na teṣām. There is danger at every step.

Samāśritā yepada-pallava-plavaṁ mahat-padaṁ puṇya-yaśo murāreḥ vasa… vatsa-padaṁ…

bhavāmbudhir vatsa-padaṁ paraṁ padaṁ padaṁ padaṁ padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ na teṣām

That someone who is actually spiritually advance, he doesn’t take shelter in this material world. He doesn’t take shelter in these material arrangements. Dhrtarastra, he was feeling very safe in his material arrangements. He had his nephews. He had a nice roof so he wasn’t worried. So, Vidura’s saying the same thing, “Get up! You think you’re safe? You are going to die at any moment!”

So everyone, like this is trying to surround himself. “I have apartment. I have house. I have bank balance. I have nation. I have this. I have that.” Are they safe? No. So, Srila Prabhupada, when he came he wanted to give people this essence, and so he told people in very straight language.

When he landed in Australia they said, “Srila Prabhupada what you think of our Western civilization?” He said, “I think you are leading a dog’s life. You are leading a dog’s life and your United Nation means you are simply barking.” Srila Prabhupada, he was blunt when the people could take it, because people have to see things in a different perceptive.

People drive by and they look at the devotees when devotees with shaved head and they’re thinking, “What is that?” They walk on the other side of road. Or they… they look astonished, because… What is their standard? They are thinking that, “Oh, if you’re suit and tie, that is civilization.” And then… now if it’s a sports shirt, it’s civilization. Last year was mini skit, now it’s another skirt. Whatever the fashion, that’s civilized.

So here in the Srimad-Bhagavatam we find that uh… where is the nectar. Sri Krsna Caitanya… Caitanya means the living force. Sri Krsna Caitanya Caritamrita means the nectar of the past times of Lord Sri Caitanya and it means studying the nectar of the living force.

What is nature of the living force? That is to serve. Jivera svarupa haya nitya krsna dasa. Our eternal nature is to serve. Serve who? Serve Krsna. This devotional service, or Krsna conscious movement is meant to develop one’s real service.

In material life everyone is serving. They’re serving these people: their family, their nation whom they are protect… They are expecting protection from, but they don’t get that protection at the ultimate moment. It’s just like Karna. We hear how Karna, he was great warrior. He is maharathi. Karna could single-handedly fight with thousands and thousands of soldiers. But he was cursed. He was cursed that “You can fight and have supreme ability, but when you need your power most, then you will fail. Then you will lose.

That is the materialist. He is so great in his uh… you see, in his battle, but when he really needs the shelter from all of his money, all of his power, all of his accumulations, he fails. And again he’s dragged back down into repeated birth and death.

It’s not who makes the good show, but it’s who ultimately wins the battle, you see? In Bengal, there’s class of people who argue that Ravana, Ravana is actually the winner of the Ramayana, because Ravana, he was such a galliant warrior. He stole Rama’s wife, he had so many soldiers, such a big palace everything at Sri Lanka. Every way, his whole life he was that… simply he defeated Rama. Only one time was he defeated by Rama at the end. They try to take a point system, and give Ravana technical victory, but it’s the one time at the end when the heart… the arrow pierced his heart that was the casting blow. Up to then, Rama was simply accommodating. In this way Krsna accommodates the demons. But the swell blow at the end is deciding factor. The devotee, he lives to spread the holy name around, and living… and dying he lives, in sound. This is the prayer of Bhaktivinoda Thakura. So, it’s not how one gloriously lives; It’s how one gloriously dies. If he dies crying, if he dies evacuating, this is not glorious. Let… you see, if one dies chanting Hare Krishna, leaves his body in full devotion, peaceful that is glorious. That is human life.

People are not understanding they think a person’s greatness how he is living, you see. No, we’re saying a person’s greatness is not only how he’s living, how he’s dying, that is ultimate test. That will show that actually how he lived. Anybody can bluff how great they are, but the ultimate issue, that Krishna will see. So, this Krishna conscious movement is to form people into the perfect life and the perfect death, which means eternal life, and so to do that… You see, in material life people don’t like to talk about death. This is very distasteful, because they don’t know what is death, simply giving up this rotten body and accepting, you see, a new body.

Even if you take rebirth you’re gettomg a new body. What is there to lament? And if they’re actually Krishna conscious, then there’s no more material body they get a spiritual body. Krishna came down to manifest His pastimes so people can know what it… what is it to have a spiritual body, how we can eternally be engaged in Krishna’s service. But people’ve forgotten what it meant. They misinterpret it. So again, Krsna came as Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, simply to show how to worship Krsna.

Krsna, in the Gita gave His final instruction to surrender to Him, and Him means a spiritual body. He has a spiritual form. So that surrender is eternal. So Lord Caitanya, He came and He showed how one surrenders.
How did He show? He sent all of His followers. First He did big kirtan, sankirtan, and He sent His followers out to preach, to induce people to take up the Krsna conscious movement. Lord Nitynanda and Haridasa Thakura, they are going door to door, begging the people, “Please take to the order of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. His order is for you to chant Hare Krsna, worship Krsna and learn the teachings of Lord Sri Krsna.” When the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself is going, even door to door begging the people to take up this message, even He was abused, even he was uh, beaten by Jagai, Madhai, no matter what condition, He continued to go on.

Sometimes He was praised, sometimes He was glorified, sometimes He was uh, neglected, but He had His orders; therefore, Lord Nityananda’s described as the original spiritual master because He is taking the duty of spiritual master by going and preaching Krishna consciousness. And Lord Caitanya requested everyone to be a preacher. He requested everyone to cooperate with preaching this Krishna conscious movement all over the world.

Of course, when Lord Caitanya appeared, He was in a mood of a devotee. You know that during Caitanya’s presence, He wouldn’t allow any murti of Himself to be made. Of course, near the end of His pastimes in Nava… in Navadvipa, His dear friend, who was Subala in the Krsna-lila, Gauridasa Pandita, he couldn’t bear the separation of Lord Caitanya, so he requested that, You make an exception, and You allow a Deity to be made of You that I can worship, so I can have someone to discuss krsna-katha with. I cannot just be here all alone, and You leave. Then I won’t have any more friend to be with.”

So, Lord Caitanya said, “How can I have Deity made up of Me? People will misinterpret.”
and he said… insisted, “I won’t let You go then. You must… one or the other.”

So then, Lord Caitanya agreed. They went back to Navadvipa. They were in Ambika Kalna about thirty miles from Navadvipa, and they got a big neem tree and they brought it to Ambika Kalna and there, they carved two beautiful Deities of… one of Nityananda and one of Lord Caitanya full… full-size, seven feet high.

While Lord Caitanya was there, they were making the… of the, uh carver was making exactly the uh… as far as possible, the exact murti and when they were completed, then Lord Caitanya and Nityananda, they said “Alright now we’re going, and Gauridasa Pandita, he said, “No. You stay; let them go.” (laughter) and he indicated to the Deities. “You stay. There’s no difference, so you stay.”

He thought that this time he had outsmarted Lord Caitanya, and so Lord Caitanya says, “Alright I agree and He stood and He became just in the form of the Deities, and the Deities became movable and walked away. (laughter) Gauridas said “No, no, no, no! You stay!” (laughter) “Let them go.” Then again Lord Caitanya, He said “Alright.” He took again the form of Deity, and the other Deities became Lord Caitanya movable, and started walking away. “No, no, no! You stay! Let the Deities go.” Again Lord Caitanya did the same thing. Gauridasa Pandita said “Alright.” There is no difference. (laughter)

Because he knew that… of course. So many other devotees, they also want to see Lord Caitanya. That was the first Deities of Lord Caitanya to be established in this world so far as I know and uh… Lord Caitanya… I was researching where Lord Nityananda was uh… married. And so I… in my research, I was reading the uh… the scriptures uh, about that tirtha.

So, they were claiming that Lord Nityananda was married there which I didn’t accept because scriptures did not say that He was married there. They say He was married some were else saligram. And when I went there, I defeated them and they accepted that Lord Nityananda wasn’t married there. It was something that… that they heard passed down, but they had no scriptural evidence. So, when I went to that temple I was taking darshen of the Deities, very beautiful, and uh… after about two minutes, they closed the door and I said uh, “Why is this?” And uh, they said, “We are afraid if we keep the door open too long, Lord Caitanya will run off so we just… wait a second. It’ll again open. So, we don’t leave open more than two or three minutes at a time.

So, then I referred that why is this custom there, and in the scriptures it mentions that uh, these Deities are very active, and there’s well-founded reason for why they’re opening and closing the doors, because one time a disciple of Gauridasa Pandita, Hrdayananda, he was arranging a big festival to celebrate the vyasa-puja of his spiritual master, when the spiritual master was out. Then when Gauridasa Pandita came back, he saw, “What is this?”

Externally, he became very angry because he didn’t ask permission. So, a little bit uh, over-extending himself, but inside he was satisfied that actually, he had the proper devotional service attitude. But externally he chastised Hrdayananda, “What are you doing? You have not taking permission. There should be no festival. You cancel everything.” Hrdayananda, he had no choice.

He cancelled, went, sat by the side at the Ganges, chanting japa, thinking, “How can I serve my spiritual master?” But in the meantime, he told so many people about the festival. All kind of devotees were bringing food grains, fruits, dahi, cida, everything and uh, as the carloads were comig, Gauridasa Pandita saw these people coming and then they were hearing there is no festival, he said, “Alright, you call for Hrdayananda. Let there be a festival, since already they’ve brought the things.”

So then he started a big kirtana, and all of the people who had come, all devotees, hundreds and hundreds of devotees, they were all chanting very enthusiastically by the side of ganges, kirtana. So Gauridasa Pandita had gone inside of the asrama, and he went to the temple, and looked and there he saw that, “Lord Caitanya, Nityananda, they’re gone! What is this? Where they’re gone?”

He ran outside, looked and there he saw that Hrtai… Hrdayananda, there Lord Caitanya and Nityananda are dancing. With Their arms up, they’re jumping and shouting, ‘Haribol!’ and chanting. and he saw, and he was amazed. And then he became fearful that “What if they just go on with the kirtana and then completely go away? I won’t have anyone.”

So, he picked up his cowherd stick, and… remember he is Subala. He had that mood. He chased after Lord Caitanya and Lord Nitananda, “What are you doing leaving the temple? Next thing, you’ll run off!” and he chased them back to the temple. “Get in that temple and don’t go away again!” (laughter) and when uh… when Lord Caitanya saw uh, Gauridasa Pandita coming in that mood, he hid in the heart of Hrdayananda.

So then after that, Hrdayananda became known… famous you’ll see in Caitanya-caritamrta Hridaya-Caitanya, one who had Caitanya in the heart. So, those Deities are still being worshipped and uh, they… that’s why they only… they just… that have… if you take a darsana, they don’t allow you to take a photograph. They have a (indistinct). I would have liked to. Maybe by hook or by cook but uh, officially they won’t allow.

And uh, they just give about a three minute darsana and then close the door, wait for few seconds and then open. They said they’re afraid like if there’s… some devotee comes, the Lord gets too attracted, He may go off, so they’re afraid. So Lord Caitanya, His worship of His Deity and all Deities is not different from His personal worship, and actually the special mercy of Lord Caitanya is that by His worship, once gets immediately purified from all offences.

Someone who’s very attached to sinful activity, he should chant a lot of

sri-krsna-caitanya

prabhu nityananda

sri advaita gadadhara

srivasadi gaura-bhakta vrinda

before he chants Hare Krishna. It’s more important if one is very much attached. Sometimes people asked Prabhupada, “Why we don’t just chant Lord Caitanya’s name?” He said, “Because we are following Caitanya. He chanted Hare Krishna therefore we also chant Hare Krishna.”

We don’t jump over, but we follow in the footsteps. But because He chanted, Lord Caitanya, all of the great acaryas chant, and He chanted Hare Krishna mahamantra, all the great acaryas chanted Hare Krishna Mahamantra, we also chant Hare Krishna mahamantra, but before we chant Hare Krishna we do avahana, we do invitation for Caitanya Mahaprbhu. We chant his holy names to enable us to chant Hare Krishna without offenses by His mercy.

So of course Dhrtarastra, at that time he had no Lord Caitanya, so therefore although he was a… not more of an offender than the people today, especially the (indistinct) but because he couldn’t have Lord Caitanya, he couldn’t engage in devotional service, so we should understand how fortunate we are, and because Srila Prabhupada has brought us, because the acaryas have brought us Caitanya Mahaprabhu, therefore we are getting the opportunity of actually serving Krsna in spite of committing so many offences: to vaisnavas, to holy name. That is His special mercy, that He forgives one of offenses.

Even someone who… he personally hit Nityananda: Jagai Madhai, they became completely forgiven by Lord Caitanya. But, once they received this pardon, then they didn’t commit any more aparadha. That is also part of… once who accepts the spiritual master, he should not commit any more offence. That will be very inconsiderate, and that will be very detrimental, both to the spiritual master, and disciple.

The spiritual master is a ocean of mercy. He accepts on behalf of Krsna, the responsibility to deliver the fallen conditioned soul back to home, back to godhead. That means that when the disciple commits any offenses, engaging in sinful activity, the spiritual master has to suffers for that. The spiritual master, being transparent medium, even if some offense, that is sinful life is generally transmitted back to Krsna, but when he’s negligent by initiating unqualified people and they commit sinful activities, so then Krsna gives him a token. Even he’s transparent medium, He gives him a token: Sickness, or some kind of misery so he can understand that everything is not the way it should be.

And if someone who is not a transparent medium, who is not simply being spiritual master on behalf of Krsna, but who is being spiritual master for some other motive, then in proportion to his lack of transparency, like a filter, the reactions are not going back to Krsna, but they’re getting stuck up. They’re getting jammed up, and that becomes a tremendous burden.

So, in the same way, a preacher who is going out, his duty… he may not be initiating people he meets, but any preacher, he duty is to repeat the message exactly as he’s heard it. A preachers also respon… if he misdirects someone, if he gives an instruction which is not bonafide according to sadhu, sastra, guru, he’s responsible. If a person follows all instruction, and following it, gets himself further implicated in material life, then the reaction comes back on that preacher.

The siksa guru, he doesn’t take any permenant responsibility for the people to whom he gave siksa. His responsibility is to simply give the message of Krsna. There is one initiating guru and many siksa gurus; anyone who purely repeats the message of Krsna, he is giving the siksa. And someone who always giving purely giving the message of Krishna then he is respected as siksa guru.

So every preacher, he is giving teachings of Krsna, so in that movement when he’s preaching, he wants to be careful that he’s exactly repeating Krsna’s message otherwise, if he gives a miss-message and misdirects him, he’s responsible. Therefore the preacher, he has to listen very carefully: sravanam-kirtanam. To preach you have to listen; therefore, Srila Prabhupada said, “To do kirtan, my preachers should read. They should attend class, and they should hear carefully.”

Because Vidura was a pure transparent medium, he simply was able to give Dhrtarastra the message even he was materialist, even he was engrossed, even he was lowest person, envious even of his own nephews, by Vidura’s transparency, he gave him the message which saved him from this material situation.

So, on the same way every devotee has to strive for that transparency, strive for that pure devotional mood, simply by hearing, and chanting, and serving without any material motive, without distraction, without raja and tama, without passion and ignorance contaminating their consciousness. And the more that one becomes transparent, the more he will be able to deliver the most fallen people. Thank you very much. Are there any questions?

Question: Maharaja, you mentioned how when presenting Krishna consciousness, if you tell someone the wrong thing, you earn yourself some kind of reaction. Sometimes when distributing literatures we meet Christians who are, you know, strictly Christian, and sometimes I just go along with it and, you know, tell them, just to get a donation (inaudible)

Jayapataka Swami: I remember that. Srila Prabhupada was on a morning walk, and there was some old lady in the West who came up to him and uh, requested, “Please give me some instruction, father.” and he said, “Have faith in God.” That… her situation, if he would’ve said… our Srila Prabhupada saw this was the teaching which was most appropriate and capable for that person to assimilate.

There’s nothing wrong with uh, Jesus Christ. It’s just that he’s only taking one up to a certain level, and beyond that he had giving his instructions. A devotee can give an instruction to a person which may not need the complete instruction, but he shouldn’t give a completely misleading instruction, encouraging a person to do something which is completely detrimental.

A person that’s a fanatic Christian and uh, you’re encouraging him in his uh, religious fervor. It’s not reducing him of his spirit… it’s not taking any further away from where he has gone, but if someone isn’t a fervant Christian, instead of giving him… and He’s receptive to Krsna, instead of getting him fired up in Krsna consciousness, if you then take him like back off on the left side and send him over to some more karma kanda type of religious principles, then that’s not doing any favor. As far as I understand, if it’s record distribution, the basic principle is fund collecting, as far as preaching potential, I think Adikesava Maharaja would have a different program for the future. So for fundraising of course, sometimes it’s a different situation.

Question: (Inaudible) …it’s easier for people to take to evil than to take to the righteous path. With these principles in mind, would Your Divine Grace like to give me some clarification on what is the philosophy without (inaudible) demons and the demoniac?

Jayapataka Swami: Living entities in this material world are fallen spirit souls who have forgotten the Lord’s lotus feet. So, He is giving them a chance in this material world to:

Number one: get back to Him and

Number two: to satisfy their material desires.

So, some living entities doesn’t want to serve Krsna, Krsna allows them to act. In fact, in Bhagavad-gita, He says for someone who acts in a demonic mood, that Krsna says, “I satisfy him and he, for countless births, he, again and again and again, takes birth in the families and the wombs of the demons.

So Krsna, He tells, everyone, they should surrender to Him. Just like a father tells his grown son that, “You should still stay with us, and don’t go out alone.” But, if the son wants to go out, and go to the brothels, the father, what can he do? He can’t tie him down.

So, Krsna’s treating the jivas as adults. He’s giving them a chance: “You can do what you like, but you should do this.” So some are good sons and some are bad sons; some are devotees and some are demons. So, naturally if uh… if a bad son start to inflect pain on the good sons, then the Lord has to step in. The Lord has to say, but apart from that, if the bad son is doing nonsense, someone… He’s watching, “When you’ll come back?” but He’s not interfering until it creates too much of a disturbance, and then He makes an arrangement so that everything can be properly arranged, so that people can all be good sons, they can all be engaged in devotional service.

So this way, it is considered that Krsna’s liberalism to allow His jivas, His part and parcel living entity to become misdirected is less merciful than the pure devotee, who goes even to those misdirected souls and requests them, “Why you have forgotten Krsna? You don’t see how you are suffering. You come back to Krsna and be happy.”
So Krsna, He doesn’t have to come here to actually defeat the demons. What he does is he allows two demons to become very powerful, and the demons, in their power, they fight against eachother, and they destroy eachother, and then devotees, they don’t have any more trouble with the demons.

Generally speaking the demons, they are very envious. Especially they became envious of eachother. They’re also envious of devotees, but devotees are not so presumptuous. They’re non-assuming, so they see the non-devotees are also very proud, so they’re very conspicuous. So the demons, they fight against eachother. That is also Krsna’s mercy.

So in previous age, Krsna would come down to kill the demons, and this age, He’s came down as Caitanya Mahaprabhu, as harinama, and to kill the demonic mentality of the demon. In this way, He kills the demon, not by taking the life, but by taking their demonic mentality, and killing that, and turning them into devotees.

So, Krishna is giving very easy way out to the demons, but how much can He do alone? He needs His devotees. He’s actually given the opportunity for His devotees to go out and give Krsna. And this will change the demonic mentality of the fallen souls.

Question: You mentioned that because devotees are non-assuming, or they’re not so presumptious, they don’t stand out as much, but sometimes, seeing that uh, even as devotees, we attract demons to greater and lesser degrees. Is that attraction that the demons are having for such devotees due at all to the consiousness of the devotees?

Jayapataka Swami: Just like Prahlada Maharaja, he was simply preaching Krishna consciousness but he attracted the envy of his own father, so when a devotee is actually completely humble, simply preaching without any uh, false ego, even then because demons are there, still they’ll want to persecute. This is their district.

Demons and devotees, they’re always having a clash, but when Krsna wants to kill the demon, He allows some other demon to became powerful they kill off eachother. The thing is that if a devotee becomes contaminated with a demoniac attitude and acts very untactfully, getting a person agitated, and then thinks that, “I am a devotee”… I remember in Mayapur, theres a Gurudeva-lila, Srila Tamal Krsna had a wonderful lila. There was a bunch of rowdies. We were distributing prasadam to about 4,000 people, and there were a bunch of… actually there were so many people. It was during a festival. The whole place was packed, maybe 30,000 people all over the grounds, and about 4,000 sitting down in a field.

We were giving out prasadam, and some rowdies came into the kitchen and tried to pollute the uh, prasadam and different, different things, so one of the cooks picked up the spoon and uh, he uh, discouraged the rowdies from entering further into the kitchen and they run off, but there was one devotee who later on went to New Vrindavan, and was head of the Ksatriya thing.

At that time, the people probably could’ve gone. But they were pretty rowdy. He wasn’t really wrong in what he did. I am not saying this in a criticism for what he did, but just to illustrate a point. He picks up a bamboo about twenty feet long. He starts swinging it around his head, and at this point, of course, it looked more like Kuruksetra than a prasadam distribution field.

The people started running in all different directions. 1971-2 like that. He chased the people off the property. Then they started throwing brick bags through our windows from the road up to the godown. So this uh, devotee, at that point he hid somewhere because they… those persons were out to get him for picking up the bamboo, and swinging it at them.

So, Srila Prabhupada heard about the difficulty, and he told Tamal Krsna gu… Goswami that he should go and settle up the whole thing. So, Tamal Krsna took about twenty devotees and they started chanting kirtana, and they went from the building up to the… to the land, and they started to chant kirtana. They sat down on the road junction right at the uh, front gate. There was no gate at that time. This was before there was any gate, and they just started to chant Hare Krsna, and some of the rowdies wanted to throw bricks on them, or do something, and the people, the public stopped them, and said, “No they’re chanting. You can’t do anything.”

Things were becoming quiet, but then all of a sudden that devotee who had picked up bamboo, he walked in and was sitting in the kirtana party, and they said, “There he is!” (laughing) They weren’t expecting that suddenly he’d became you know… like you know, a saint. They were remembering that this was the guy that just about smashed their head with a bamboo. They picked him up and started to work him over, and it got pretty serious. He had to be dragged off and hidden somewhere, so the example I’m trying to give of course is, you come out very heavy, but at the same time, you want the shelter from Krsna as a devotee.

Of course, actually, his heaviness wasn’t bad. He just shouldn’t of immediately gone with the kirtan party and tried to… you know, expect that they’re going to immediately have transcendental vision. But actually, you know Gurudeva, was very brave. He was sitting and chanting, and uh, it took a lot of nerve to do that in the middle of about 200 rioting people.

Sometimes you see devotees, they act uh, inconsiderate of a person, yet they feel, “I’m a devotee.” He’s… when a person reciprocates, and does something back, then they become very indignant. So we should see that actually we are not taking out our passion or our material thing onto the other person, and keeping the pride that, “I am a devotee.” when he was reciprocates.

Even then, they’ll be demons. It’s a fact. If one is very considerate, simply preaching they will persecute a devotee, but that another thing. That even happened to Prahlada Maharaja. That happens to all great devotees. Krsna, He protects such devotees, and when a devotee doesn’t get protected when a devotee gets what appears to be lack of protection, generally speaking it can be traced to the fact he was insensitive to what was the actually etiquette at that movement.

Then the other way you see, when devotee is preaching and some demon comes and uh, he is protected. I remember so many sankirtana stories how a devotee was preaching, and some demon comes up and just at the movement it looks like he’s going to get his head smashed in, something happens. I remember that I told this story at ratha-yatra last year, how this one demon came up, tried to excite a whole riot and out of nowhere, a bull came, whoosh, picked him up right off ground. dharma personified. (laughter)

And I remember in Los Angeles, and so many times in the West demons would come and devotees would take care of them before the person that they were percecuting could do anything… could be hurt. So, of course the devotees also use self-defense. They use whatever’s necessary in Krsna’s service, but the preacher, if he’s actually just purely trying to spread Krsna consciousness he gets protected, but if he gets a little to the modes, and starts to over-react, lose his cool, whatever you like to call it, then the reaction may be more, and you can’t blame that on Krsna.

ye yathā māṁ prapadyante

tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham

According to one’s surrender Krsna’s going to give shelter, in that proportion.

Transcribed by:

H.G. Subhadra Shubhangi Devi Dasi on 26th June 2014

Revised by:

H.G. Jagannatha Dasa Brahmacari