The following is a class given by H.H. Jayapataka Swami Maharaja on June 17th, 1981 in Los Angeles, California. The class begins with a reading from the Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 3, Chapter 15, Text 31.

Srimad Bhagavatam: 3.15.31 tābhyāḿ miṣatsv animiṣeṣu niṣidhyamānāḥ svarhattamā hy api hareḥ pratihāra-pābhyām ūcuḥ suhṛttama-didṛkṣita-bhańga īṣat kāmānujena sahasā ta upaplutākṣāḥ

Translation When the Kumāras, although by far the fittest persons, were thus forbidden entrance by the two chief doorkeepers of Śrī Hari while other divinities looked on, their eyes suddenly turned red because of anger due to their great eagerness to see their most beloved master, Śrī Hari, the Personality of Godhead.

Purport According to the Vedic system, a sannyāsī, a person in the renounced order of life, is dressed in saffron-colored garments. This saffron dress is practically a passport for the mendicant and sannyāsī to go anywhere. The sannyāsī's duty is to enlighten people in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Those in the renounced order of life have no other business but preaching the glories and supremacy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore the Vedic sociological conception is that a sannyāsī should not be restricted; he is allowed to go anywhere and everywhere he wants, and he is not refused any gift he might demand from a householder. The four Kumāras came to see the Supreme Personality of Godhead Nārāyaṇa. The word suhṛttama, "best of all friends," is important. As Lord Kṛṣṇa states in the Bhagavad-gītā, He is the best friend of all living entities. Suhṛdaḿ sarva-bhūtānām. No one can be a greater well-wishing friend to any living entity than the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is so kindly disposed towards everyone that in spite of our completely forgetting our relationship with the Supreme Lord, He comes Himself — sometimes personally, as Lord Kṛṣṇa appeared on this earth, and sometimes as His devotee, as did Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu — and sometimes He sends His bona fide devotees to reclaim all the fallen souls. Therefore, He is the greatest well-wishing friend of everyone, and the Kumāras wanted to see Him. The doorkeepers should have known that the four sages had no other business, and therefore to restrict them from entering the palace was not apt.

In this verse it is figuratively stated that the younger brother of desire suddenly appeared in person when the sages were forbidden to see their most beloved Personality of Godhead. The younger brother of desire is anger. If one's desire is not fulfilled, the younger brother, anger, follows. Here we can mark that even great saintly persons like the Kumāras were also angry, but they were not angry for their personal interests. They were angry because they were forbidden to enter the palace to see the Personality of Godhead. Therefore the theory that in the perfectional stage one should not have anger is not supported in this verse. Anger will continue even in the liberated stage. These four mendicant brothers, the Kumāras, were considered liberated persons, but still they were angry because they were restricted in their service to the Lord. The difference between the anger of an ordinary person and that of a liberated person is that an ordinary person becomes angry because his sense desires are not being fulfilled, whereas a liberated person like the Kumāras becomes angry when restricted in the discharge of duties for serving the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

In the previous verse it has been clearly mentioned that the Kumāras were liberated persons. Viditātma-tattva means "one who understands the truth of self-realization." One who does not understand the truth of self-realization is called ignorant, but one who understands the self, the Superself, their interrelation, and activities in self-realization is called viditātma-tattva. Although the Kumāras were already liberated persons, they nevertheless became angry. This point is very important. Becoming liberated does not necessitate losing one's sensual activities. Sense activities continue even in the liberated stage. The difference is, however, that sense activities in liberation are accepted only in connection with Kṛṣṇa consciousness, whereas sense activities in the conditioned stage are enacted for personal sense gratification. Thus end the purport by His Divine Grace Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, canto 3, chapter 15, text 31.

tābhyāḿ miṣatsv animiṣeṣu niṣidhyamānāḥ svarhattamā hy api hareḥ pratihāra-pābhyām ūcuḥ suhṛttama-didṛkṣita-bhańga īṣat kāmānujena sahasā ta upaplutākṣāḥ (Jayapataka Maharaja recites the verse again)

Srila Prabhupada has so kindly revealed to us all these secrets about the spiritual world: real culture based upon returning to back to our original relationship with Krsna, the duties of a devotee, of a human being, everything he has so kindly revealed. And one word here suhṛttama, best of all friends. Of course, Krsna himself is the best of all friends to the living entities and because Krsna is the best of all friends he sends his devotees like Srila Prabhupada who are simply oceans of mercy. Srila Prabhupada had come with simply the interest to carry out the desire of his spiritual master, whose desire was to carry out the order of his spiritual master.

Srila Prabhupada's desire was simply to see that the miserable living entities, those who are suffering in this material entanglement, are given a natural, blissful pure life of Krsna consciousness. Everyone in this material world is strictly under the control of this material nature. prakriteh kriyamanani gunaih karmani sarvasah ahankara-vimudhatmakartaham iti manyate. They all think they are the doers but in fact being carried always by desire and lust they are forced to act according to the dictation of their lower nature.

So the four Kumaras, they were already liberated. That means they were transcendental to material desire and to material anger. So of course the question comes how is it that they become angry? The impersonalist philosophers, they cannot understand the difference between material and spiritual quality. They think because this material world has quality therefore the spiritual reality must be quality-less. That is their mistake.

They are simply using their own material intelligence to enter into spiritual truth; this material world has quality therefore spiritual world must have no quality. This is their shortcut intelligence. But this is not the actual fact. This material world has quality which is relative and temporary because the spiritual world has permanent, eternal quality. So the qualities of these four Kumaras, these four youthful devotees of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, are also transcendental. They wanted to see Krsna so they were going to Krsna's abode. They were very eager to see Krsna.

This desire to see Krsna is not material, but it is a pure spiritual desire. That we should understand. People want to know how to be Krsna conscious, but it is not very difficult. One simply has to desire to see Krsna, desire to relish the nectar of Krsna. This desire is a most powerful and subtle thing. Because of desire, people are becoming presidents of The United States, because of desire. people are going to jail, because of desire, people are getting married and because of desire, people are becoming divorced. Because of desire, everything that is happening is happening in this world with Krsna's sanction, but because everyone is desiring imperfectly, therefore no one is satisfied. And the more that this uncontrolled material undirected desire increases the more the chaos, is the result.

So here we can see our four saintly persons and their desire being pure has led them right to the kingdom of God. Similarly the passport to get out of this material world is this pure desire, but that pure desire has to be cultivated. These four Kumaras they had no other desire except to see the Lord, they had no material desire.

So when they were restricted they also became angry. But that is not ordinary anger. Just like here we see Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. When He saw Nityananda was stuck by Jagai Madhai, when He heard about it, He became angry, “Why they are beating My devotee? They have offended a Vaishnava.” And He called, “Chakra Chakra Sudarshana” and more than millions of billions of suns, the Sudarshan Chakra came down from the spiritual sky illuminating everything at all sides, in all ten directions and came down and ready to immediately chop those two offensive brothers in two. Only by the causeless mercy of Lord Nityananda were they spared.

Even this mood of anger is there in Personality of Godhead. He becomes angry when His pure devotee who is simply dedicated to preaching this message is delivering the fallen souls from their misery is tortured, is harassed, is in so many ways offended and mistreated. Then He becomes angry. Therefore Caitanya Mahaprabhu advised that, yadi vaisnava-aparadha uthe hati mata, upade va chinde, tara Sukhi' yaya pata.That the mad elephant offence is to offend a Vaishnava.

Just like an elephant goes into the gardens and uproots all of the branches and those branches being uprooted, their leaves dry. Similarly by offending Vaishnavas, great devotees of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Lord Krsna and Vishnu, this destroys one's spiritual progress. So the quality of anger is also there in Caitanya Mahaprabhu, although He was the most merciful.

By Nityananda's mercy, He requested that, “Please save these two brothers. So many people are also unqualified like them. If We go to kill everyone then there will be no one left. Please have Your mercy upon them.” So the qualities are spiritual when they do not have connection with material sense gratification. This is the secret of working.

The Gita describes that one should work without result, work without attachments to the fruits so that is only possible when one works to please Krsna. In India, there are the people who believe that the secret of working is - You work, you get your money and you enjoy. When you are materially enjoying you think, “I am not enjoying this, I’m eating this ice cream but I’m not enjoying it, I’m taking this intoxication but I’m really unattached to it, I’m having this unlimited sex life but actually I’m very much detached to it.” So like this, there is an idea.

Prabhupada wrote a play called "The Chicken Mission" and this play was a spoof on various religious societies, missions and concepts. So at one point, you see one friend was approaching his other friend and saying how he had to spend so many hundreds and thousands of dollars and equivalent currency to fight some court case; so he didn’t have any money left to marry off his daughter because he needed dowry. So that person asked, “So what you are going to do?” So he said, “I am going to take sannyasa in the Chicken Mission.” And he said, “What! If you do that then you have to give up so many things.” “No, no you don't have to give up anything.” “Oh of course, I know you don't have to give up eating meat, fish, eggs and intoxication. At least you have to give up your wife. A sannyasi means you have to give up your wife.” So he said, “No, of course I just follow the system of renunciation that is given in the Gita. Even though I enjoy, I just think that I’m not enjoying. So finish, no enjoyment. It is all transcendental. While enjoying I just think I’m not enjoying. Finish. This is the philosophy of the Gita.” So Prabhupada, he presented like this a very nice little play. We show it sometimes. Because now it is very direct to some missions that are there in India, so people sometimes take offense. So we have to be careful but…(devotees laugh)

Because of course that person said, “Well I’m not worried about taking sannyasa there because a friend of mine took sannyasa from that mission and he used to visit his wife every weekend. And I have a program that I’ll go begging for that mission and whatever I collect, I’ll give 50% to the mission and 50% I keep. 50:50. Sannyasa. So in this way Prabhupada made so many instructions using this medium of drama, humour.

Eventually that person was convinced to not join the mission because he was a little doubtful.

The person challenged, “Well, are you sure that you know what you are talking about?”

“Well, I heard it from so many people at the tea stall and in the public parks well that this was the thing.”

“Well are you sure?”

“Well, alright, I am not positive that if I join the Chicken Mission I’ll be able to still be with my wife after taking Sannyasa.”

So then he said, “I have another program where you can join the Bhojananda Akhra. Bhojan means eating and ananda means pleasure, to take pleasure in eating. Akhra means institution. An institution of pleasure and sense gratification, the Bhojananda Akhra. You can join here. There is a team. There is one Karmanya Aviratha, one renounced person, he wears white and he has his private business that he is operating from the Akharas.

There is this other person who is a renounced grhastha. He works and takes the percentage of the collections of the deities for his family and then this other Bhojananda Swadhu... Swadhu not Sadhu. Swadhu. Swadh means taste. So the Bhojananda Swadhu is the one who enjoys the taste of eating. So how did he get a name like that? So when he was going around in North Calcutta begging he would always ask the Marwaris tak tak tak (sound which comes from tapping his stomach) ‘Feed a Sadhu’ tak tak tak (sound which comes from tapping his stomach) ‘Feed a Sadhu’. So the Bengalis were little bit tight but he would always find a Marwari.

So one Marwari sat him down to the sweet shop and would tell, “Eat as many sandhesh, rasgullas and samosas that you can eat” and he just starts stuffing himself. From this he got his name. From that time he was give this title Bhojananda Swadhu for his valour. So this is the play, this is written by Prabhupada. Every word is a deep spoof you know. So then you can be still be a grhastha and at the same time you can be a part of this mission and you can without any restriction go on. So in this way, that sounds like a better mission. He was trying to pick the best place but of course because all these so called spiritual missions, if they don’t have the actual objective of reaching Krsna or spiritual realization then what is the purpose? People look “What is good for my sense gratification, what is good for my sense? I can’t join this mission, I can’t join this institution, I can’t join this society because this doesn't fit my idea of sense gratification.”

But there is one very important word that is used here in describing these Kumaras Viditātma-tattva. Vidita - ātma: living entities who know Tattva, the truth. What is the truth? If that is not desire of the person, then everything else is just a farce. All the outward shows have no meaning unless one actually wants to reach the truth, unless one actually wants to reach the perfection. So the Kumaras of course, they such were real seekers of the truth. So therefore they shouldn't have stopped. But other people who are such Bhojanandas Swadhus and Chicken Missions, they will be stopped at the gate of Vaikunta, they wouldn't even get close. What to speak of the 6 first gates! They won’t get close, because their desires will lead them elsewhere.

Krsna will satisfy their desire. They don’t have to become just as a saintly persons in order to satisfy their desires materially. Those desire Krsna will satisfy. There are 8,400,000 species of life in which they can satisfy their desires. But if one wants to get out of that repetition of birth and death to actually re-establish the original relationship with Krsna which is the goal of life, which is the only secret for actually becoming satisfied, then one has to be dedicated to truth, to doing whatever will be beneficial to achieving the truth and to giving up whatever is hypocritical and whatever is detrimental.

So Caitanya Mahaprabhu, He is actually Krsna Himself. That means He is the origin of all the Vaishnava sampradayas. These four Kumaras, they were originally Brahmanandis or impersonally realized, liberated. They have seen the light, the brahmajyoti coming from Lord Krsna and they had not yet seen Narayana. Narayana Himself, He came to see the Kumaras at His gate, at His kingdom and they bowed down at His lotus feet. And although they were in Brahman realization, when they smelled the Tulasi offered at His lotus feet, then their whole existence became filled with ecstatic symptoms. And at that time they could understand that the Lord’s transcendental position was so much higher than their own realization. So immediately they were converted.

tasyaravinda-nayanasya padaravinda- kinjalka-misra-tulasi-makaranda-vayuh antar-gatah sva-vivarena cakara tesham sankshobham akshara-jusham api citta-tanvoh

Translation When the breeze carrying the aroma of tulasi leaves from the toes of the lotus feet of the Personality of Godhead entered the nostrils of those sages, they experienced a change both in body and in mind, even though they were attached to the impersonal Brahman understanding.

Purport Because of the fragrance of His lotus feet, carried by the air and mixed with the aroma of tulasi, their minds changed; instead of becoming one with the Supreme Lord, they thought it wise to be devotees. Becoming a servitor of the lotus feet of the Lord is better than becoming one with the Lord. In other words the impersonalist who feels pleasure in striving to become one with the Lord is defeated when he sees the transcendental features of the Lord. So these four Kumaras, then they went to Navadvipa Dham after this episode and they began worshiping the Lord for a long time in the beautiful garden of Bael trees called Bael Pukur today and is known as Bilva Pushkar, the same as the Bilva Van in Vrindavan, not different. One saintly devotee called Nimbaditya, he was worshiping Lord Shiva and he requested Lord Shiva how he could find a Spiritual Master. He worshiped Lord Shiva as a devotee. He was a Vaishnava Nimaditya, then Lord Shiva told him to go to Navadwip. There in the forest of Bilva Van you will find four Kumaras meditating. They will give you their mercy. So there he went. In the forest he saw the four brothers engaged in meditation on Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So he began to chant ‘Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare: Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare’ And the four Kumaras, hearing this holy name of Hare Krsna mahamantra, they came out of there meditation and there they saw this beautiful Vaishnav Nimaditya who immediately offered his obeisance. And they very simply then asked who he was. He said he was Nimaditya. He had come because he wanted to have the mercy of serving the Lord. The four Kumaras said, “Yes we were once impersonalist philosophers. But we have been converted now to devotional service. We want to initiate you because we want to have our own Vaishnava sampradaya to spread the teachings of Vaishnava philosophy. Already Lakshmi Devi has a sampradaya with Ramanuja, Lord Brahma has his sampradaya with Madhvacarya and Lord Siva has his sampradaya with Vishnu Swami. So now we also want to have one sampradaya. So you take bath in Ganges and come back and we will initiate you.”

So he went and took a bath in the Ganges at Navadvipa and came back and he was initiated as Nimbarka Acarya. There he worshiped. He was given Radha Krsna mantras by the four Kumaras. Worshiping there, Lord Caitanya appeared to him in Navadvipa Dham and he wanted to simply serve Caitanya Mahaprabhu. But then Lord Caitanya said, “No, you are doing what is dear most to Me, that is, to spread the message of Radha Krsna worship. They are My worshipable object, My worshipable deities. So you should go now and preach this Radha Krsna worship and in the future all the Vaishnavas sampradaya will all unite and I’ll come and I’ll be preaching the philosophy which will unite all the four Vaishnava sampradayas. Taking two qualities from each of the sampradayas I will make the perfect philosophy. So now go and preach Radha Krsna worship and later again We shall be rejoined. But do not tell anyone now about My coming because this will disturb the secretiveness of My coming as a devotee.”

So like this the four Kumaras they also have a Vaishnava sampradaya: the Nimbarka Goswami Sampradaya and they worship Radha and Krsna. So although they were impersonalists, they became Radha Krsna worshippers. This was there. Because of the mercy of Caitanya Mahaprabhu now the worship of Radha and Krsna has spread all over the world. In order to understand Radha and Krsna one has to worship Lord Caitanya. Lord Caitanya, He is very merciful. The Kumaras became very angry and they cursed the door keepers Jaya and Vijaya to take birth in this material world; Jagai Madhai, they hit Nityananda causing blood to come but just on the appeal of Nityananda, who is the ocean of mercy personified, they were given also initiation. They were forgiven. But the wonderful thing is that after getting initiation they did not break their oath.

When they realized that it was now or never, they begged, “Please forgive us! Please give us Your mercy.” They were forced practically in one sense. They were going to have their heads chopped off by the Sudharshan Chakra. But they knew that once one takes an oath whether under duress, whether under whatever circumstances, an oath is an oath. They were determined to maintain their oath at all costs, so they took their initiation, and never once did they break their regulative principles that they accepted. Daily they were chanting Hare Krsna... Jagai Madhai, I mean Madhava Das brahmacari and his brother, they would dance in kirtan down to the Ganges in ecstasy, take their bath, come back offer there rice and prasadam, bhoga to the Lord and take prasad. And people would come and donate rice, vegetables from thousands of miles to see how these two violent brothers who had before been rapists, murderers, the black marketeers, had become pure Vaishnavas, devotees of Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

So to take different types of initiations and to take oaths before the Deity and before the fire, it is a very serious matter. So of course to encourage people who have not yet got that determination to take such oaths we are encouraging people in India that everyone should chant Hare Krsna. Just like here it is mentioned in the purport that Agni Dev, that this morning, Lord Caitanya when he met the brahmana, the Kurma brahmana in Southern India and that brahmana said, “I want to go out with Lord Caitanya. I want to leave my family and I want to leave my home.” And Lord Caitanya said, “No, you have to stay at home and worship from there and make all your friends and village people Krsna conscious. It is not necessary just to give up your family, to give up your house.”

In Latin America this program has been started called Amigo de Krsna, friends of Lord Krsna with eight hundred to thousand people from each country already in just eight months. When someone gets Krsna consciousness they are also grateful.

Chile is a little advanced than other European countries, but Lima and Peru is like India almost economically. So there someone came and dropped off one slide projector with automatic controls, a friend of Krsna. That was a very big donation for them, three or four hundred dollars. Of course in Chile one lady has donated 70,000 dollars worth of land to the temple after being a friend of Krsna. So someone may have something to give and someone may not. Our goal is to give people Krsna consciousness. So those who are not determined enough, this lady was not determined enough to become a full time devotee, she must be some 60 year old follower of some other mission for her whole life. She saw Krsna consciousness is doing the most benefit for the public, “I want to help.” She was chanting two or three rounds a day, gradually learning how to be a vegetarian; she was a friend of Krsna, Amiga de Krsna. And in this way, we encourage everyone to be connected.

Someone who is not strictly following, they can be a legue of devotee... that means a vegetarian chanting four rounds, no strong intoxication and no extra-marital sex; the two and half regulative principles and chant at least four rounds a day. Sometimes devotees who leave these strict principles, they come down a stage, but it’s already a saddest for them but that is unfortunate. So we always try to encourage people. That system is one of positive alternatives.

We simply always offer the next stage, we always offer the positive alternative. Because there are many people who are too much entangled to just immediately come forward. In India we have the same experience when distributing books. People read books and come forward and say, “I want to take part in your movement. What can I do?” And a distributor would tell him to just move in to our temple. So “I have 8 children, I have worked for 20 years worked in railway and I have eight more years to go before I get my pension and I have 20 cows and ten acres of land in the house and I live 200 miles away from the temple and it is not possible to come right now. So what else can I do?” “Buy another book!” So “Okay, give me another book, what else can I do? “Ah.. see you later.” “All right, Hari Bol” “Who's next? Here take a book” and that is it. And these people would be crying writing letters saying, “I want to be part of your movement. What can I do? What can I do?”

And I asked Srila Prabhupada and he said, “You should engage them. You should train them up and have them practice in there village. Let them come for few days to our temples see how we do and you have them go back and they should do the same thing in there village. And they should practice.” And practically there are many people who are not able to 100% follow but at least if they start to follow, then after some lifetimes they may be able to 100% follow. We guarantee anyone who follows completely, dedicates themselves to this preaching movement ‘You will go back to Godhead in this lifetime.’ We don't make that guarantee if someone doesn't take that dedication but at least they should start somewhere. That we encourage everyone.

The difference is this Bhojananda and these other groups, they tell everyone, “Oh whatever you do, you are going to reach perfection.” No, we don't cheat people like that. Whatever you do you don't get the same result. But you should at least start to chant Hare Krsna, you should start to perfect yourselves spiritually. That encouragement we want to give to everyone. Anyone who reads our books, they want to know what else to do. “Oh You should chant Hare Krsna. We will help you. We will teach you. You should start to offer prasadam in your home.” And if they are right to become devotees to fully move in and help our preaching movement to make other devotees, then of course that's wonderful. At least they should practice in there house. What is the difficulty? There is no difficulty.

We need so many people; they can help this movement in different ways and that will purify them. By helping our preaching movement, that will purify them of their offenses. So we're very anxious to see the people. Like here is a very nice beach. There is no reason why everyone in this beach can’t chant Hare Krsna. It may be difficult to get everyone to move in our temple and it will become a financial burden if they come too quickly. Of course that's not a problem. But at least everyone should chant Hare Krsna or those who are intelligent and sincere.

So the four Kumaras, they of course went back to the spiritual sky and they were so kind to again come back here to give us that mercy. So some living entities are liberated and some are conditioned. Those who are conditioned living entities, they should try to get liberated. That is the goal. And those who are liberated and still here, those who have realized what is the truth, they should take the mercy of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and give it to everyone without prejudice. That is the mood of Lord Nityananda.

Actually Lord Nityananda, He is a very unusual, extraordinary transcendental personality, always with ankle bells on His ankles, dancing, always a blissful character dancing and singing and simply by His glance people would be transformed into ecstatic symptoms. So we try to get even one drop of mercy, one speck of dust from Lord Nityananda's lotus feet because by His mercy glance one is immersed in transcendental ecstatic love for Krsna. By Lord Nityananda's mercy, one gets the mercy of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Srila Prabhupada is the representative of Lord Nityananda. He freely gives out that mercy. So everyone in this movement, we are simply the representatives and servants and assistants for Lord Nityananda and His representatives to give out the mercy wholesale, as much as we can market, as much as we can give out. That is our program, to flood everyone, but to not distort the truth-- Viditātma-tattva, to make people know what the actual truth is.

They can then choose how much of the truth they want to embrace. But someone who rejects any contact with Krsna, that person is most unfortunate because that person's fortune is undetermined; or rather he is determined that he is going to remain rotting in this material world for literally millions of births, unlimited births. Because this opportunity does not come very often... once in a day of Brahma, once in billions of years by our calculations.

So everyone should pick up this opportunity because simply by chanting the names of Nitai Gaur, the Pancha Tattva, by following Their instructions of chanting Hare Krsna, one is guaranteed very quickly the highest realization of pure Krsna prema. Jai Sri Krsna Caitanya Prabhu Nityananda Sri Advaita Gadadhara Srivas adi Guara Bhakta Vrnda. Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

One Devotee : Srila Jayapataka Swami Maharaja ki!

Devotees : Jai!

Transcribed by:

Cinmayi Citra Devi Dasi, March 15 2013.