19821213_Srimad_Bhagavatam.2.1.37_Bangkok_Literal_Version

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The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapataka Swami on December 13th, 1982 in Bangkok, Thailand. The class begins with a reading from the Srimad-Bhagavatam, 2nd Canto, Chapter 1, Verse 37.

Jayapataka Swami: Translation of Canto 2, Chapter 1, Text 37.

The virat-purusa’s face is the brahmanas, His arms are the ksatriyas, His thighs are the vaisyas, and the sudras are under the protection of His feet. All the worshipable demigods are also overtaken by Him, and it is the duty of everyone to perform sacrifices with feasible goods to appease the Lord.

brahmananam ksatra-bhujo mahatma

 vid urur anghri-srita-krsna-varnah

nanabhidhabhijya-ganopapanno

 dravyatmakah karma vitana-yogah

So, in this way all the people in society can engage their propensities for serving the Lord. As Prabhupada has mentioned here, “The intelligent class of men, or brahmanas, may give direction for such sacrifices in consultation with the previous acaryas;”

The brahmanas are those persons who are trained to advise rest of the society how to perform sacrifices, how to serve Krishna. Not that they do so by their own imagination. But they do so, taking consultation with the advice of previous acaryas. In this way the sacrifices are all perfect.

So, we need first of all the brahmanas to… to teach people how to perform sacrifice. If people do not perform sacrifice, then it’s very difficult for them to become purified and become advanced. So, in any society first thing is necessary are the brahmanas, to train the ordinary… the rest of the society. But we find that in some countries where the government is not giving the facilities to perform such sacrifice, it’s more difficult for the brahmanas to preach. So the administrators or ksatryia’s, Prabhupada says “may give all facilities to perform such sacrifices.”

Just like in Bangladesh, it’s a Muslim government, so they’re not giving very much facility to the Krishna devotees for performing sacrifice. So it’s more difficult for preaching under such circumstances. Because, not only they don’t give facility but… much… but, many ways they may put up obstacles, although, somehow or another to the extent we get facility we’re able to do. But even there, we get some facility, so we are able to do. But, say in some other countries like Peking, or something like that, it’s very difficult… the government gives absolutely no facility to perform any sacrifice for Krishna, so therefore it’s very difficult.

On the other hand, if the government actually supports, makes it very easy. Just like some places we’re trying to get registration for ISKCON society. Where we get registration, immediately our activities they can expand in many ways. And where the registration is being withheld, we are experiencing so many difficulties, you see. That means that government support is also a factor. In spite of absence of government support, still then the preachers somehow or another, go on. But then its, in spite of that. It’s against that, it’s without… but if we have the support, then it makes everything very easy.

So that’s the second point here. First you need the preachers, the intelligent class of people who can present Krishna consciousness. Then, after that you need the support of the government, you need the administrator’s support. Just like if actually, we had the full support of the government, they give so much money for welfare, so much money for so many different programs. If they gave regular budget for performing sacrifice to Krishna, as they did in the Vedic time then people would naturally be encouraged, more and more to becoming God conscious… be very ideal situation. Even in uh, America they give 100% tax exemption for religion. So, even though the government otherwise doesn’t uh, involve itself, they take a hand-off policy, still indirectly they are helping by giving the tax exemption.

In India, if a donor gives money to a religion, he doesn’t get any tax exemption. So, indirectly the government fining the person to give to his religion, because if he gives to the religion he has to again pay income tax on that. That means he… not only is he taking out from his pocket giving to the religion, but also again he has to pay tax on that to the government. So that’s like paying a fine. So, it discourages people from giving for religious purposes.

So, that’s why we have seen that in India the religious practices are going down, as compared to the time when the British were there. When all the kings and the zamindars, they would make money and they would give a lot of donation, for religious functions. Even a… even a Muhammadan ruler at that time would also give money for the Hindu function. And even a Hindu ruler would give money for a Buddhist, or for a Muhammadan function. It was very open. And so in this way, all the religious institutions were flourishing. As soon as the democratic government came in, all these landlords, kings, rajas, nawabs were abolished, then the government took sectarian, “We don’t favor any religion.” Then at that point everything went down.

Now those same royal families are coming to us and begging us, “You please take over our temples, we cannot maintain any more.” One is working in a bank, one is working in a factory, one is here, they are all scattered. There is no one to look at the temple, they have some property, some… their old royal property, everything is taken away except for the deity house and a little land around the temple, stuck off in different parts of the country, as they were managing all the little princely states. Now there is no one to see for the religious activities.

So this is… right before our eyes in the last thirty years we could see how due to lack of administrative support, how the religious enthusiasm of the people was down. First the brahmanas lost, second administration was somehow or another keeping it going. When they came… when they left, then it was that much harder for the brahmanas who were not that enthusiastic to begin with. There was no one to support the brahmanas, then they came down.

And now, then the only other thing here, the next point is that the vaisyas, “the vaisya or mercantile community, who produce such goods, may offer them for sacrifice;”. So, vaisyas, generally speaking they are always very active in making money and making goods and making various kind of production, you see. They’re completely absorbed in this uh, mood of production. So… especially if the government and the brahmanas are favorable, if the government and the preachers are encouraging them, then the mercantile community they can give the products of their hard labor, of their… of their uh, business enterprises for propagating Krishna consciousness.

So, Prabhupada is saying, here not only they should give ghee, clarified butter, but they should give the manufactured items, Sony tape recorders, PA systems, cars, whatever maybe they are producing, Boeing jets, they should give what they are producing, not only that they should give, “Alright, give some… take some butter, here you go. Take some chapatti.”

But here, whatever they are producing… All these big big companies, all the big Japanese firm, Mitsubishi, etc. etc., they should all be giving some percentage of their products, “All right, these products, you take for propagating God consciousness all over the world.” Just like they’re giving under uh, U… uh, United Nation, Food organization under UNESCO, so many things are being given for… just like uh, Swedish government gave 20 million dollars to an African country to buy uh, nets to put over the orange trees, so that the birds would not eat the oranges, you see. Things like this, they spending so much money. So then you know instead they use the nets to catch fish. Anyway that’s another thing.

The point is that they are use… have so much money. The government is taking that money from the mercantile community, and they don’t know what to do with it, so they’re… they’re using so many ideas. One story happened that in Japan they sent one whole shipload of tractors and everything to Bangladesh and uh, this is a donation to Bangladesh, they can use the tractor for ploughing and everything like that, but then Bangladesh government said that, “You have to pay the duty, then only we’ll accept.” “They said, we are giving you the thing, why I have to pay the duty? You take it and use it, you can do whatever you like with it.”, you see. They said, “No. You are giving us, that’s all right. But who will pay the duty?” (laughs) They said, “We are giving you our duty, you see. You take it’s the government, you can do whatever you want.” “No no! You have to pay the duty.” So for one year that ship was just tied up.

So finally the Japanese government got so fed up that they pulled their ship out of the dock and right in the bay outside the dock one by one they threw off all the tractor, all the bulldozer, right in the ocean there, just in front, “Here you take it, we don’t want.”, and then went off. (laughs)

So these things are going on, you see. They don’t know what to do. Now if all these products were given to Krishna consciousness, we know how to use them in sacrifice, producing grains, producing uh, different uh, preaching programs, you see. The brahmanas, they can advise, but then you.. also you need people who can offer their manual labor for the successful uh,, functioning of the sacrifice. Everyone… some are there who will give manual labor, you see.

Not that everyone will be the, uh… even though they may be technically all Vaisnavas so they are all higher than brahmanas, you see. But some will be there for using their brain how to perform sacrifice, some will be there administrating, some will be there producing the products, making the money and some will be there, they will be able to do just do the manual labor. Different type of uh, service… some may do all the four services needed. That’s a separate thing, you see. Not that everyone will necessarily will always do all the four.

One person may do just one, one may do another. And someone may be so expert, obviously brahmana if needed he could even do manual labor but he won’t be very expert. He won’t be very physically strong necessarily, you see. But, if necessary he may also be able to do something. But that won’t be his propensity. So each person may have some specific propensity. Someone may be more versatile, some may be more uh, specialized. Whatever it may be, that propensity should be used for offering a sacrifice.

What is meaning of sacrifice? Hari-tosanam… samsiddhim hari-tosanam, that you get all perfection when you satisfy Krishna. Sacrifice is not something abstract but it means to uh, satisfy the Lord. So what can be more satisfying to the Lord in this Kali- yuga than chanting His holy names? Because by this all the people are benefited, you see.

“Thus by their cooperation of all classes of human beings, the sacrifice recommended in this age, namely the sacrifice of congregational chanting of the holy name of the Lord, may be executed for the common welfare of all the people of the world.” (SB 2.1.37 Purport)

So here, chanting Hare Krishna, distributing uh, Krishna prasadam and performing various types of preaching function, these can be executed. Just like now in Bangladesh uh, we were just there, they put on one drama. So they used strobe light. They used the amplifying system, they used the lighting system, they used the tape recorder, they used so many uh, equipments. Because of that the drama was very attractive. They had Lord Siva coming out there with a strobe light, and then he was dancing with his trishur and he had some ghost dancing behind him and because of the lighting was so dynamic, the people were all shrieking and shouting and crying out, you see.

So, we used all these things. Prabupada… “We can use everything in the service of Krishna”, you see. Even if they give us, even if they may give us the atomic bomb we will find some way of using it. Maybe we will use to crack stones for building temples you see. Just knock down one mountain and have so many bricks, whatever. We’ll think of something or another. (laughs) So in this way when people engage their products in the service of Krishna you see. Then immediately they get purified. They get purified in so many different ways that all the little defects in their life, those things are rectified.

Just like what is sinful life? Sinful life means I am hurting my body, I am hurting others body. Just like you eat meat. That means you have to kill an animal. So for killing an animal, that means you cause a animal suffering, you have to suffer. So like this people are doing things throughout the day, throughout their life which are causing pain to others. So na… undoubtedly they are going to have to suffer.

So the thing is by this chanting, by performing this sacrifice, so many other living entities are being benefitted. They are being purified. They are being uplifted. They are being brought closer to Krishna. So that means you are relieving them of so many pains. That means that the person who… in his own life he may commit so many sinful activities. But by helping others then those are all counteracted. Sometimes people think that, “Oh! He is such a wealthy man. He is doing so much black market. He is doing so many illegal activity. Then he goes to the temple and he gives something. So how, by… how he will be forgiven for that?” But they are not understanding that by going to temple if that person gives something so even though… all right he may have something black, but yes he does get purified because he is doing with… even if there might be some black stigma on that money, although it’s technicality nowadays what’s black what’s white, it’s all a relative affair you see, but even take it that it might be black. He is doing something for uplifting people. So yes naturally it will counteract that.

In fact if the upliftment is more than the uh, contamination, say the black money is he smuggled in something from the government , he didn’t pay the proper tax. But whether or not how much he actually hurt anyone by that. He may have broken a law of man but did he break any law of God. This is one factor. Then if he gives something to God and then he by this, he is benefitting other people. Yes the result will be far greater in that sense. That will be weighed out that, by what the person is doing, how much benefit is given and by what he did bad how much harm was done and accordingly, it will be adjusted.

So one when is engaging in preaching of Krishna consciousness, in that sacrifice because the good is eternal whatever is being done for a person who hears Hare Krishna, who is taking prasada, that benefit doesn’t go. That remains as a permanent asset. Therefore naturally, that effect is far greater than even uh… the other, he might make some small mistakes in his life.

So then the problem comes… not a problem but then the thing is there that all right the person is doing some sinful activity and then the person may be doing some sacrifice. So that sinful activity is counteracted by the sacrifice. But, what happens is that if that person doesn’t chant Hare Krishna regularly, if the person doesn’t have any sadhana then actually the heart doesn’t become purified. The actual karmas may become purified. Suffering and enjoying may be adjusted, but the heart, the attraction to Krishna that doesn’t get uh, purified by some ordinary just donation or some ordinary just manual labor.

But this is where the congregational chanting of the holy name is so important because by chanting

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna Hare Hare /

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Rama Rama Hare Hare

That actually cleans away the dirts in the heart. The dirts which block us from knowing that we are the servant of Krishna. Just as in Bhagavad Gita it says,

bahunam janmanam ante

jnanavan mam prapadyante

vasudevah sarvam iti

sa mahatma su-durlabhah

that great great jnanis, great uh, yogis, even after many many births only, they are able to understand that Krishna is everything. Then they can understand, “I am the servant of Krishna.” But by this chanting of Hare Krishna one becomes purified so quickly that anywhere in the world by chanting people can very quickly come to understand, “Yes, I am a servant of Krishna.”

So by understanding that they are the servant of Krishna then it is very easy for them to make further advancement. That’s a very big hurdle, even they may know that I am not the body, they may know I am the spirit soul, they may know about karma, they may know so many things. But then that actual understanding that “I am the servant of Krishna.”, that is the most advanced stage. That’s their actual svarupa siddhi, of being situated in their real constitutional position. So that is given very quickly by this congregational chanting of

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna Hare Hare /

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Rama Rama Hare Hare

Therefore we should encourage people to chant Hare Krishna and engage them somehow or another also in the preaching, because individually chanting will help them a lot and if they engage in helping others to chant then it also will help them more in getting rid of any offenses that they may be committing against the holy name.

So, Prabhupada is so merciful that he has engaged everyone immediately into the preaching of Krishna consciousness. Actually Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura wrote a beautiful poem called the uh, “Dusta man tumi kisera vaisnava” that materialistic mind or “You rascal mind what type of Vaisnava are you?” And in the last stanzas of that poem he said that, yes the devotees, that they are also hungry for some kind of a position you see. But they are not hungry for any material position. They are not hungry for any material name fame or glory. But they are hungry for a position in the service of Krishna, they are hungry to see that Krishna is put in everyone’s heart and everyone’s head. For that, they can accept any position, or any facility or any… uh, thing whatsoever for preaching Krishna consciousness. And within that there is not even the slightest scent of any kind of material desire. That is a pure spiritual desire.

And he stated, “Why they are preaching? They are preaching because they are the real Brijabasis, they are the real residents of Vrindavana.” He says, prana ache yara… prana ache tara se hetu pracara, because they have prana, because they have got life, they have compassion, they have actually spiritual assets, spiritual wealth of uh, pure spiritual life, therefore they have this desire to preach this Krishna consciousness. This desire to preach, actually to bring people to become servants of Krishna, is not a material desire. It is a pure spiritual desire, it is the symptom of being situated in confidential devotional service to the Lord.

So, we should absorb ourself in the preaching mood of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Whatever is necessary to bring people to that platform of chanting Hare Krishna, of surrendering to Krishna, we should simply throw ourselves - heart, soul, mind, words, deeds, everything, - we should simply absorb ourselves in that mood of bringing people somehow or another to chanting the holy name of,

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna Hare Hare /

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Rama Rama Hare Hare

Reading Srila Prabhupada’s books which will give them that faith and understanding and uh, taking Krishna prasadam and all the other programs which will bring them to complete surrender to Krishna and to rendering devotional service.

Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.

Panca tattva ki jaya!

Any questions?

Devotees: one technical question. I’ve heard two opinions about uh, those who have first initiation from Prabhupada, and second from now the present acaryas, are they considered to be Prabhupada disciple or their disciple. Lately, I’ve heard both opinions. You know… I really…

Jayapataka Swami: When Tamal Krishna Goswami asked Prabhupada that what about those disciples of yours who have taken first initiation but you have not yet given them second. And uh, if they take initiation from one of your disciples then what will be there position.

Then Prabhupada said, “They are my disciples. They are my disciples, then.” So it is just like when Rsabhadeva left, He told all the hundred sons that you look at Bharata just like Me. You follow him as your head.” You see.

So if someone takes second initiation that means they have to just see that their initiating… this second initiator just like the such a senior brother that directly Prabhupada is working through that person. Still their direct relationship is there with Prabhupada.

Just like say a person is born, and just then the mother and father died. And he is brought up by their son. Then what is his situation? Still it is not that he is the father. But still the relationship is not just the same as brother, twin brother or something, it’s not going to be the same, different type of relationship.

Hare Krishna.

Devotees: Hare Krishna.

Jayapataka Swami: That means that Prabhupada is considering they are his sons. But definitely there is some responsibility there for the second initiating guru’s, so there should be some deep respect

Devotee: Oh, yeah…

Jayapataka Swami: …and because some responsibility is there, special responsibility no doubt.

Any other question?

Devotee: (inaudible)

Jayapataka Swami: He is saying that we are supposed to get right away. So Prabhavisnu Maharaj is going to go to uh, Nepal but now we are trying to convince him to that he should go on the way to Puri and get Jagannatha and order the Lord Caitanya, both.

Devotee: sad-bhuja

Jayapataka Swami: sad-bhuja.

Devotee: (inaudible.)

Jayapataka Swami: You see, this actually quite big, you can have very big Jagannath here. You don’t have to have little… this big. There is vacant space. I think you can have four, five feet.

Devotee: We must have some space between the deities... (inaudible)

Jayapataka Swami: The deities should be up a little bit. You see, here… I think they have to have like overwhelming type of awe and there should be some bright lights. Maybe you can use the system of swiping sounds, you know opening and closing like in Bankebihari temple (laughs)

Devotee: And. just now you were saying that there will be one more deity of sad bhuja deity in bronze.

Jayapataka Swami: For utsav deity you can have small sad-bhuja in front, that could be wood or brass. But brass is easy for bathing and everything.

Devotee: Sad-bhuja?

Jayapataka Swami: Sad-bhuja, six armed Lord Caitanya will be here. Rama, Krishna and Caitanya. Prabhupada recommended in Hongkong or for in China that for Chinese people it should be six armed Lord Caitanya. They need the mercy of Lord Caitanya but the six arms will be very. I think even in Thailand our best uh, cand… our best customers are the Chinese Thai’s anyway and in any case uh, it’s all similar. But here also because Rama is very prominent in uh, so sad-bhuja Caitanya with Rama, Krishna and Lord Caitanya must be very appropriate.

Devotees: Many people have small Narayana deities in their altars.

Jayapataka Swami: In fact you could have the small brass ones made here and then have them for sale so that people can worship them in their homes.

Devotee: They have nice deities.

Devotee(2): But they’re talking about sad-bhuja.

Jayapataka Swami: They want out of wood so that they can paint the arms blue, green, yellow golden. Actually, Lord Caitanya He can be quite big.

Devotee: We can have the paraphernalia, real metal.

Jayapataka Swami: Yes, real paraphernalia. What about Prabhupada’s murti?

[end of recording]

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Transcribed by Suvilasi Madhavi devi dasi March 27th, 2015