The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapataka Swami on December 20th, 1983 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The class begins with a reading from the Srimad-Bhagavatam, 10th Canto, Chapter 2, Verse 19.

Jayapataka Swami: sā devakī sarva-jagan-nivāsa-

Devotees: sā devakī sarva-jagan-nivāsa-

Jayapataka Swami: nivāsa-bhūtā nitarāṁ na reje

Devotees: nivāsa-bhūtā nitarāṁ na reje

Jayapataka Swami: bhojendra-gehe ’gni-śikheva ruddhā

Devotees: bhojendra-gehe ’gni-śikheva ruddhā

Jayapataka Swami: sarasvatī jṣāna-khale yathā satī

Devotees: sarasvatī jṣāna-khale yathā satī

Jayapataka Swami: sā devakī sarva-jagan-nivāsa-

Devotees: sā devakī sarva-jagan-nivāsa-

Jayapataka Swami: nivāsa-bhūtā nitarāṁ na reje

Devotees: nivāsa-bhūtā nitarāṁ na reje

Jayapataka Swami: bhojendra-gehe ’gni-śikheva ruddhā

Devotees: bhojendra-gehe ’gni-śikheva ruddhā

Jayapataka Swami: sarasvatī jṣāna-khale yathā satī

Devotees: sarasvatī jṣāna-khale yathā satī

Jayapataka Swami: Translation by His Divine Grace, Srila Abhaya Carana Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

Devotees: Jaya.

Jayapataka Swami: Devakī then kept within herself the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the cause of all causes, the foundation of the entire cosmos, but because she was under arrest in the house of Kaṁsa, she was like the flames of a fire covered by the walls of a pot, or like a person who has knowledge but cannot distribute it to the world for the benefit of human society.

Translation:

Devakī then kept within herself

Devotees: Devakī then kept within herself

Jayapataka Swami: the Supreme Personality of Godhead

Devotees: the Supreme Personality of Godhead

Jayapataka Swami: the cause of all causes

Devotees: the cause of all causes

Jayapataka Swami: the foundation of the entire cosmos

Devotees: the foundation of the entire cosmos

  Jayapataka Swami: but because she was under arrest

Devotees: but because she was under arrest

Jayapataka Swami: in the house of Kaṁsa

Devotees: in the house of Kaṁsa

Jayapataka Swami: she was like the flames of a fire

Devotees: she was like the flames of a fire

Jayapataka Swami: covered by the walls of a pot

Devotees: covered by the walls of a pot

Jayapataka Swami: or like a person who has knowledge

Devotees: or like a person who has knowledge

Jayapataka Swami: but cannot distribute it to the world

Devotees: but cannot distribute it to the world

Jayapataka Swami: for the benefit of human society

Devotees: for the benefit of human society

Jayapataka Swami:

Purport by Srila Prabhupada:

In this verse the word jṣāna-khala is most significant. Knowledge is meant for distribution. Although there is already much scientific knowledge, whenever scientists or philosophers awaken to a particular type of knowledge, they try to distribute it throughout the world, for otherwise the knowledge gradually dries up and no one benefits from it. India has the knowledge of Bhagavad-gītā, but unfortunately, for some reason or other, this sublime knowledge of the science of God was not distributed throughout the world, although it is meant for all of human society. Therefore Kṛṣṇa Himself appeared as Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and ordered all Indians to take up the cause of distributing the knowledge of Bhagavad-gītā throughout the entire world.

yāre dekha, tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa

 āmāra ājṣāya guru haṣā tāra’ ei deśa

“Instruct everyone to follow the orders of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa as they are given in Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In this way become a spiritual master and try to liberate everyone in this land.” (Cc. Madhya 7.128) Although India has the sublime knowledge of Bhagavad-gītā, Indians have not done their proper duty of distributing it. Now, therefore, the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement has been set up to distribute this knowledge as it is, without distortion. Although previously there were attempts to distribute the knowledge of Bhagavad-gītā, these attempts involved distortion and compromise with mundane knowledge. But now the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, without mundane compromises, is distributing Bhagavad-gītā as it is, and people are deriving the benefits of awakening to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and becoming devotees of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Therefore the proper distribution of knowledge has begun by which not only will the whole world benefit, but India’s glory will be magnified in human society. Kaṁsa tried to arrest Kṛṣṇa consciousness within his house (bhojendra-gehe), with the result that Kaṁsa, with all his opulences, was later vanquished. Similarly, the real knowledge of Bhagavad-gītā was being choked by unscrupulous Indian leaders, with the result that India’s culture, and knowledge of the Supreme were being lost. Now, however, because Kṛṣṇa consciousness is spreading, the proper use of Bhagavad-gītā is being attempted.

Thus end the Translation and Purport by His Divine Grace, Srila Abhaya Carana Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 10, Chapter 2, Verse 19, in the matter of the Prayers by the Demigods.
Here the end of the purport Srila Prabhupad explains why Indian culture has fallen down from its uh… used to be richest culture in the world. Actually Christopher Columbus is was only looking for short trade to India when he trembled across the America because India was were all the gold, spices, fine cloth, silk everything that was uh, valuable was the coming from India. Than why later day India has the fallen down, a secret here is given that because they choked up… because they choked up the Bhagavad-gita. Actually there were some leaders in India the brahmanas, they said that if any Indian went across the ocean they’d lose their Hindu dharma whatever you want to call it. They’d lose their religion.

That somehow the religion would vanquished simply by crossing over a body of water, and up to the time of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura people believe that. Ramakrishna’s disciple Vivekananda was practically first Indian to ever leave India and this type of mythology or type of superstition they have preached and as a result no one would preach abroad, and no one preach to the non-Hindus to the people who weren’t born.

So although the Bhagavad-gita is not a sectarian science. It’s a universal science of God Consciousness self-realization post graduate course for all religions and cultures, but due to some very bigoted, limited view this was never spread before to the other countries, to the other parts of the world. Lord Caitanya He came and said

pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma

sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma

That in every down and village throughout the whole world, My message is going to be spread, going to be sung. So actually, bha… Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu he started this sankirtana movement. Now someone might say “Well lord Caitanya started this sankirtana movement in India, but then how can we understand that why didn’t He spread it throughout the whole world, how can we understand that He is actually Krishna?” So many questions may come up.

So just like Krishna, He starts the entire universes simply by setting it up in motion and like a domino series, everything one after another manifests. Similarly, Lord Caitanya in Navadvipa He only chanted Hare Krishna and in India, but that set off the entire movement into motion. Prabhupada explained in Caitanya-Caritamrta that now by the mercy of Lord Caitanya the Krishna Consciouness movement has brought Lord Caitanya message all over the entire world. And it’s the duty of every disciple, of every follower of the Hare Krishna movement try to expand it more and more, and that eventually this movement is going to spread over the entire universe, even onto other planets all over the entire universe from the Hare Krishna Movement here.

So already there are some evidences that preachers are already working on other planets, although we don’t have all the evidence, but our previous acaryas mention that their plan was to go other planets as soon as they finished their business here, so they may already be there, starting the preaching and from here also, the preaching is going to expand all over the universe. So coming back to this verse where Devaki is sitting in the uh… the uh, prison of her brother Kamsa, and she is carrying Krishna in Her. So she’s becomes very beautiful very effulgent, similarly when Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu appeared in Nawadvipa, in Mayapura then He was in the… inside of uh, Saci. And she also became so beautiful. And the different demigods also came and offered her prayers. And when He took his appearance the demigods and demigoddesses from the higher planets, they came in the sky as… as village men and women just to see Lord Caitanya, offering Him gifts, offering uh, various presentations to Nanda… Excuse me, to Jagannatha Misra and Saci devi. Actually the pastimes are parallel. The difference is that in Kali-yuga, Caitanya Mahaprabhu coming as devotee. So He is keeping His identity hidden, where Krishna is coming directly as svayam-bhagavan, the original Supreme Personality of Godhead. So the other difference is that here, Kamsa’s trying to kill Krishna and Krishna was going to kill Kamsa, but in Caitanya Mahaprabu’s pastimes, Lord Caitanya doesn’t kill the opponent, but rather he gives them for pure love for Godhead, and He, in this way kills their demonic nature. He is so powerful that He is gives them love for Krishna and make them instead of inimical against Krishna, makes them pure devotees.

So, that is the unique and wonderful nature of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, that therefore He is described as

namo maha-vadanyaya

krsna-prema-pradaya te

krsnaya krsna-caitanya-

namne krsne-namo namah

Actually Lord Caitanya is more merciful even than Krishna. krsnaya krsna-caitanya actually more merciful than Krishna. Krishna He killed Kamsa, and Kamsa got moksa got liberation. He kill so many demons most of them got liberation. Some of them could achieve Vaikunta. The liberation most of them got with simply liberation called sayujya mukti which is merging into the effulgence of the Brahman, or into the body of Krishna. They don’t maintain their individual realization. Only a few like Putana and other one or two, they were able to achieve Vaikunta, because the way they went… because Putana gave Her own breast with poison on it to Krishna but then Krishna took it “Well, since I sucked her breast, she’s my mother.” even though He had to kill her because she had poison on her breast, but Krishna He reciprocated since “I sucked your breast you can be my mother in the spiritual world.” That’s a very rare benediction but most of them, they didn’t get the that benediction. They were inimical. They simply got… they thought they themselves were God, independent, so in the impersonal realization one thinks that one is the Brahman and one is God.

So He gave them that benediction but here Caitanya Mahaprabhu, He’s so kind more merciful because He gave the love for Krishna He gave the pure Krishna Consciousness which is much greater than this other liberations. So now we have this opportunity of taking part in the movement of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, we should take advantage of it. As long as Lord Caitanya’s movement is here in on this planet, you see, we have opportunity to go back to Krishna and to achieve this highest perfection. We should take advantage of it. Don’t leave the opportunity hidden or pass it by. We should take maximum benefit from it.

Actually even people take little practice of chanting they get such great benefit. I was reading in one the articles that was recently published about us. Some Dallas correspondent, he had read the Chant and be Happy. So, he wrote up his experience in the Dallas newspaper. How, he was standing in the street, and somebody came up to him and told him that uh, you should turn or burn. That God is holding you up like a fly over the furnace, and that if you don’t immediately take God in your heart, He’s going to throw you in the fire, and you’ll be burnt to a crisp. Then a Hare Krishna devotee came up and gave him a Chant and be Happy. So, in… in uh, comparison… “Oh, well let me read this.” And then he read it, and then he saw that you could chant Hare Krishna, even though he didn’t shave up. You could chant Hare Krishna even without being a vegetarian, and going through the ritual.

But, basically even in India, the people are very much afraid of giving up their sense gratification. They know that if you become a pure devotee of Krishna, you become so mad after Krishna that you forget about so many material attachments. They know that, so they are thinking that if a person becomes so much in love with Krishna, is so happy that even material things become insignificant, so it’s not that it’s uh, but their looking at it from the very attached point of view, that, “I don’t want to give up my family attachment or my sense gratification attachment or my business attachment or my society attachment or any of these attachments, that therefore let me not chant Hare Krishna or be part of the Hare Krishna movement except at a very great distance. I might give them a donation or something.” This is the Indian point of view. Many people are very afraid of becoming intimately connected. One family, their son became a devotee; they became very upset. They said, “Listen. You can come to the temple, do everything, but you shouldn’t become a full ti…

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…have a respect, it’s just that they’re afraid themselves of losing any form of sense gratification. All these people are bewildered. If they’re actually sincere about becoming happy, and they’re progressively, step by step they’re feeling more and more happy, and if ultimately that happiness means that actually they’re mad after Krishna, if that’s the highest happiness, then where is the problem? But of course, some people, they’re not very intelligent, so they try to avoid good attachments. That’s why to Lord Caitanya’s followers be the intelligent people. That the very intelligent people, they’ll be able to… they’ll join Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s movement. But at least, everyone, if they start to take up the chanting.

Just like that writer said so, “Anybody can chant. You don’t have to change your lifestyle or anything.” I was interviewed also by one radio interviewer here in the West and uh, I suggested, “Why don’t you try meditating and chanting Hare Krishna.” He said, “Well I don’t want to shave my head.” “No, you can chant without doing all these things. You can chant any time, any place.” “Really? Well if that’s so, I’m more interested.” And people will… haven’t really understood that anybody can chant Hare Krishna and actually the people who are living in our temples, they’re very advanced. They’re yogis. They’re people who want to actually achieve perfection in this life, but everyone can begin on the path of perfection by chanting. Basically the nama-hatta movement, which has been uh, stated as the folk movement here in the West is to get everyone in their own houses, in their own villages and towns, cities, to chant

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Rama Rama Hare Hare

Srila Prabhupada, he said that there’s no reason why in every country… why every country of the world and every place in the world that every family can’t chant Hare Krishna every day. There’s no reason why somebody can’t chant Hare Krishna in their house. That simply it’s a question of promoting it and letting people know about this chanting of Hare Krishna. Those who are a little broad-minded, even a little inquisitive, they can try it, and by chanting, if they get even a fraction, just a little bit of chanting, they’ll be able to experience the most sublime change in their lives.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Rama Rama Hare Hare

So basically now due to their fear, their paranoia, their prejudices, they’re trying to keep this Hare Krishna mantra hidden. They’re not able to see the beauty of it. Just like Devaki was having such a great beauty, but due to Kamsa keeping her locked up in the prison, no one could see, so somehow or another, we have to break free from this prison, which the media and different uh, paranoiac people have placed whereby the normal… I don’t know normal, the common person is not able to take the advantage and see what is the real beauty of this Hare Krishna mantra. So that is only possible by all of you taking up the uh… the uh… the order of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and requesting everyone, from house to house, from person to person, to try and take up the chanting of

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Rama Rama Hare Hare

Any questions?

Yes?

Question: Female devotees…

Jayapataka Swami: Yes.

Question: …can they attain complete liberation without being married?

Jayapataka Swami: Without being married… Uh, there’s no such stipulation that liberation is dependant upon getting married, but it has been recommended very strongly that uh, women should be married, but as far as… what if a girl dies when she is twelve, or something? It’s not… It’s not a lien on her soul that you have to get married to go back to Godhead. It’s a question of what consciousness you’re in when you leave your body. If you’re in Krishna consciousness, you’ll go back to Godhead.

In a general sadhana practice of devotional service, it’s conducive for women to be married and have a Krishna conscious husband. If the husband’s not Krishna conscious, then there’s a problem there. But actually the husband should be Krishna conscious and the wife should be Krishna conscious. In this way, we give each other association. To elaborate, we’re a little bit short on the time right now, but it’s not contingent on going back to Godhead, per se. That is not contingent on any material thing.

It’s contingent on chanting Hare Krishna, serving the spiritual master, following his instructions (inaudible)

Yes, bhakta Matt?

Bhakta Matt: You stated earlier our leaders were starting on other planets (inaudible)

Jayapataka Swami: Well, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, one day, he was on the morning walk and looked up and said, “There’s so many Krishna bahir-mukhas, Krishna forgetful people on the moon planet. We have to go there and preach to them. Bring them back to Krishna consciousness.” According to the Vedas, there are inhabitants on all the planets, but they don’t all live on the same vibrational level, the same consciousness level. They all live on different levels. That’s why one planet, they may be subtle beings, on another level altogether. And on one planet, there may be earthly beings, but on a different… completely (inaudible) situation. Just like on this planet, you dig in the earth, you find there are worms. You’ll find all kinds of things. You’ll find the plants are not breathing oxygen; they’re breathing carbon dioxide. You’ll find so many different things going on, even on this planet. You know, whether it’s the water, or the earth, or the air, everywhere you’ll find some form of living entity. So there’s a verse saying that living entities are everywhere, including in the fire, including in the other… all the different planets there are different living entities, even above the Earth, in outer space, there are different subtle levels, with different type of like… well here, we might call it ghost or something but, there are different type of creatures. Not… not necessarily ghosts, but other subtle beings on all the different levels, subtle or gross, whatever. But there are living entities everywhere.

So, on the Moon planet, it’s actually, that’s considered to be a higher spiritual level, or material level rather than the... than the Earth planet. The Sun is considered higher other… even other planets are considered lower, but uh, in terms of their basic developing of consciousness, this Earth… this Earth planet is considered in the middle. So we eventually want to preach in all those kinds of planets, wherever there are people that could be Krishna conscious.

So far Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati expressed about going to the Moon planet, there’s every chance that already the preaching has begun on other planets, but that we don’t have the evidence yet, which planet they went to, if they stayed in this universe might be preaching, but Prabhupada said in the Caitanya-Caritamrta that this movement has to spread all over this planet, then all over the universe. Which planet do you want to deliver next? (laughter)

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Comment: (inaudible)

Jayapataka Swami: Next door neighbor. Work on this one first.

Comment: We’ll of course, they still talk about the astronauts going to the Moon, and on… they just talked about…

Jayapataka Swami: Have you seen it?

Comment: No. I didn’t see anything. I just heard…

Jayapataka Swami: Were you there?

Comment: No… (laughs)

Jayapataka Swami: Don’t they say seeing is believing?

Comment: Right. How come they… (inaudible) …went to the Moon. You know? How can you know who to… (inaudible)

Jayapataka Swami: If they do or if they don’t do, the point is… (inaudible) …if you believe what you read in the paper. Whether they go, and I don’t know if they did go, what was the value of it? What was the benefit? $28,000,000,000,000? (inaudible) Then what was the benefit?

Comment: (inaudible) … I heard Srila Prabhupada stated that the Moon was a million miles farther than the Sun which makes it 94,000,000 miles away, then how can they possibly go?

Jayapataka Swami: Their distances are all goofed up. We’re constructing a big model in Mayapur and uh, the distances uh, that they’re saying… it’s a whole other long discussion but uh, we’re doing a lot of research according to the Bhagavatam, and a lot of things they don’t publish. Just like we were trying to match up things with the modern scientists’ view, but we can’t do it because the modern scientists don’t know what they’re talking about. (laughter)

Just like… and they cheat. They cheat like anything. Just like uh… there’s this… there’s this society in Texas called All the Phenomena that Modern Science Can’t Explain. And there, they’ve found that when you send radio waves, that there’s a place, just opposite from… just… there’s uh, two spots, just opposite from each other, and when you send radio waves, nothing ever bounces back. There should be a planet there, but they can’t see it. Things like that. And those two places match up exactly to Rahu and Ketu. But then they… they don’t tell anybody that. They call it a black hole or something. They don’t know, you know. They just make up make up some name, nobody knows what it is. So there all kind of things they do. You can’t… You can’t… if they don’t tell you all the things they find… if they see something, it doesn’t make sense with their theory, they just don’t even tell anyone.

Many Nobel Prizes, and different… Pulitzer Pri… different, whatever, they have to give them back when later on someone finds out that they cheated. So, it’s very hard to try to match up… We tried to do this by matching up with their ideas, but then we find it’s so frustrating, because as we try to match up one thing, then they say, “Well, you want to bend the truth.” Then you find out some more information from some magazine or something stating that they actually found this thing, but didn’t reveal it for five years, and it’s very hard to actually… So we were trying to… what we’re going to do, is we’re going to present the Vedic cosmology, not caring anything for the… what their idea is, and showing that… actually how things are going in such a unique way in our Mayapur temple. So, this is going to revolutionize the whole concept of uh, the astronomy.

I was just reading yesterday newspapers, about Galileo, they said he was a debauchee, he stole his disciple’s information, so many things were… about were scandals about him. How he caught cheating in a certain things, and uh… but just they hadn’t figured out any other… any other uh, explanation from the gravity. But actually there’s not such a thing as gravity, per se. It’s another type of force. But not what they think, just a force of mass. But these things, we’re going to explain. It’s very technical, very scientific, and there are people that are wor… working on this for the big Mayapur temple.

Prabhupada wants that we put the whole universe within that temple. Hare Krishna.

Devotee: Jaya om visnupada paramahamsa parivrajakacarya astottara sata sri srimad (inaudible) acaryapada ki,

Devotees: Jaya!

Devotee: Acaryapada ki,

Devotees: Jaya.

Devotee: Acaryapada ki,

Devotees: Jaya.

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Transcribed by Jagannatha dasa Brahmacari

Suvilasi Madhavi Mataji, and Rasika Govinda Prabhu contributed to the transcript