Srimad Bhagavatam 10.2.40

The following is a class given by HH Jayapataka Swami on October 11,1989 in Carriar, Mississippi. The class begins with the reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, Tenth Canto, Chapter two, Text 40.

matsyāśva-kacchapa-nrsimha-varāha-hamsa

rājanya-vipra-vibudhesu krtāvatāraḥ

tvam pāsi nas tri-bhuvanam ca yathādhuneśa

bhāramṁ bhuvo hara yadūttama vandanamṁ te

Translation: O supreme controller, Your Lordship previously accepted incarnations as a fish, a horse, a tortoise, Narasiṁhadeva, a boar, a swan, Lord Rāmacandra, Paraśurāma and, among the demigods, Vāmanadeva, to protect the entire world by Your mercy. Now please protect us again by Your mercy by diminishing the disturbances in this world. O Kṛṣṇa, best of the Yadus, we respectfully offer our obeisances unto You.

Purport: In every incarnation, the Supreme Personality of Godhead has a particular mission to execute, and this was true in His appearance as the son of Devakī in the family of the Yadus. Thus all the demigods offered their prayers to the Lord, bowing down before Him, and requested the Lord to do the needful. We cannot order the Supreme Personality of Godhead to do anything for us. We can simply offer Him our obeisances, as advised in Bhagavad-gītā (man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru [Bg. 18.65]), and pray to Him for annihilation of dangers.

Om tat sat

The whole material world is going on automatically by the arrangements that Krsna made at the time of creation. With the psychological balances, with the demigods controlling, things are set up to go on like a clock work. But in the universe there's always some disturbances since everyone is given a freewill, although they dont have complete knowledge. So out of their ignorance for what is their real welfare, different persons influenced by atheistic or demoniac desires for increasing theirown sense gratification. They disturb the natural order. Just like things have been going on for thousands and thousands of years even within recorded history there was no problem with ozone layer, there was no problem with green house effect or anything but in the past century, since man has become more expert in yantra bijnan and they have started to exploit natural resources. For increasing their profit they have already created enough imbalance that is very noticeable and its getting everybody worried. Temperatures are changing in the world. Water levels are changing. People are getting skin cancer because the hyper atmospheric composition is changing due to so many things going in the atmosphere. So similarly in the past there had also been problems created by these kinds of irresponsible actions.

When earth fell out of the orbit Varaha had to come to put it back. At present time we donot know what the effect is going to be from digging miles into the earth and pulling out all the petroleum products which takes millions of years to produce because in the center of our planet there's constant fire thats burning. Sometimes volcano comes up we see the evidence of this fact that there's fire in the center of the earth. According to the vedic understanding, this fire is the part of the unique balance which keeps our planet in the orbit properly. So in the future sometimes down the line all the petroleum is supposed to go to the center and this fire wont reach cause we've already drained it out and who knows whats gonna happen with the orbit so all these things are not so amazing. Myths are amazing, how can we take the planet out of orbit but its not so amazing when we see whats going on today. We are just taking, exploiting the earth as if you know its nobody's business. We dont think about what the future, we dont even know how the earth works. We always hear this so much we dont know cause this is famous catch up, scientist you know who even dont know so much we dont know may be in the future we will know it. Meanwhile how to fix the ozone, how to fix this how to fix that so that there's a natural balance. Krsna's plan was perfect but because everyone because everyone wants independence to do what they want in the material world and some people they dont act responsibly so there becomes imbalance. This creates disturbance in the whole world. 

So devotees feeling lot of disturbances when they are really desirous of having Lord's mercy, many different avataras incarnations, he descends just like Prahlada was being disturbed threatened by Hiranyakasipu so Nrsinghadev came. We talked about Varaha. Ladt night Vijaya Dashami celebration, dashara, yhe victory of Lord Rama over Ravana. Today is ekadasi. Dasi means...eka means one, dasi means 10. 10 & 1 means 11. 11th day of the moon cycle, dashami means the 10th day. So it was 10th day of lunar cycle yesterday. Today is 11th. 15 days normally. So there also Ravana he was creating a lot of disturbance, he didnt care anyone. He became very powerful by worshipping Lord Shiva, so powerful that he defeated all the demigods, in fact he kept them captured on the steps going up to his throne. He put them, he put their bodies, the bodies of the nine great demigods were the stairway upto his throne. So everyday when he goes to his throne, he would step on their bodies. So he was so powerful, defeated Indra, Varuna, Agni, Saturn, Jupiter everything. So apparently Narada Muni said, "You are stepping on their back, but if you step on their belly then its much more painful for them. It shows your power over them even in a more dynamic way." So he thought like a good idea.(everyone laughing) step on the stomach everytime i go up. Sometimes i mean..so stepping on your back and stepping on stomach you know its much more painful but because the demigods were faced down and they were the astrological demigods, they couldn't put their influence on Ravana. But when he turned them over then they could give all their blessings so that his..his karma astrological future would be the worst to get possibly to being his end to it quicker. Actually this is his blessing because by being brought to the end by Ramachandra, Ravana also receives deliverance. He was creating disturbance in the whole universe, threw everything off, so the Lord came and he protected the universe because of the prayers of his devotees.

So sometimes the devotees pray for his Lord to come just like the demigods were thrown out of their kingdom, the heavenly planet by Bali Maharaj. He made interplanetary attack and he conquered over the entire galaxies of the swarga, empire of Lord Indra, coming from lower regions of the universe, one of the original. They ave to actually flee from their planet. So the mother of Indra, she did a __(unclear 10:49) to the Lord. Lord agred to become her son. He came as Vamanadev and delivered Bali Maharaj, in the form of Trivikrama. Then He turned the universal order and He gave Bali Maharaj a planet in the lower regions Sutala. But inside that planet, so oppulent that it was not less and he personally remained there, that was like spiritual planet. In the end everybody was happy. Everyone established in order.

So they can only pray to the Lord to please come, save us in this predicament. How He is gonna do it they didn't have idea. They didn't know what was the trick. What was the means He is going to use. So the Lord He comes with His own plans. Sometimes He just does it, takes everybody by surprisr. When the earth fell out of orbit and she prayed to Krsna to Vishnu to come and all of a sudden Lord Brahma, He sneezed, little speck of something came out of his nose just like a you know what you normally think a little dry phlegm or something but instead it was actually a baby boar. Suddenly start to grow right from that little speck, growing growing growing boar running around, kept growing got bigger and bigger, bigger than house, pretty soon got so bigger that bigger than whole planet, pretty soon it made the whole planet look small, it was in outer space. So Hiranyakshya he was the great fighter, he wanted someone to fight. He used to just go and smash mountains with his fist, just for the heck of it. He couldnot find anyone to fight with him. So then Varaha satisfied his desire __(13:00 unclear) literally kicked them to a pulp. He really wanted a good fight. So the Lord satisfied his desire and at the same time satisfied mother earth's desire and put her back into orbit, somehow set everything alright. But when they just prayed Lord for their protection, they didnt know when He appeared and when He was fighting with Hiranyakshya, I mean He got few punches from Hiranyakshya and all the demigods got worried - Well looks like may be Varaha is not able to defeat this Hiranyakshya. But Varaha was just giving him a good fight. Let me have a few punches, playing with him a little biy then finally finished him off and he got liberated. Of course he got liberated because dying in the presence of the Lord. 

So like this Lord's mission is all mysterious always. So here they dont know what exactly Lord Krishna is going to do. They know that He is coming, He is going to have everything under control. So they just praying to Him that He protect the entire world by His mercy. Actually residence of the higher planetary system, they like to see the order maintained. So they pray that the whole world be peaceful, that the whole universe be peaceful, that everything be in proer order. Actually there are people like that in this planet who have like demigod nature. They wanna se everything peaceful, everything nice, everyone enjoy, no disturbance. So there are great sages like that in higher planet so they pray to the Lord for world peace, universal peace, universal brotherhood. Prabhupada said that there is a good and bad in this universe and the good and bad fight with each other. The struggle is going on and sometimes, generally good wins but sometimes the evil also wins. So Krishna is actually transcendental to material good and evil but it appears that he is on both side because good generally is very submissive to God and prays to the Lord to help but actually he is neutral. Evil also they are willing they wanna fight with the Lord, they want to so He also reciprocates with everyone and ultimately he does good for all. Everyone benefits. But it appears that He is on the good side but its the way it works out. The good asks for the help and the evil they are against Him. So when Krishna left the universe, dharma, religiosity, austerity all the good qualities they also went. That time the great sages were really concerned that how the universe is going to be protected, how is it going to be proper, how the people are going to make any spiritual progress since the Lord has left and all the good qualities have gone with Him. So then Srimad Bhagavatam appeared. So the Srimad Bhagavatam is the literary incarnation of the Lord, the book incarnation.

We have the boar incarnation, we have a tortoise incarnation, we have half man half lion incarnation, why not a book incarnation? So the book incarnation by reading it daily automatically gives us spiritual blessings of the presence of the Lord. How to change the imbalances in the universe? If the Bhagavatam is being read everywhere then the whole world would be a different place. Lord appears in the age of Kali in form of Srimad Bhagavatam. Also He appears in the form of Holy name. Namarupa Kali kale Avatar. Then in the form of Holy name the Lord appears in the age of Kali. So by chanting the Holy name we are also bringing the presence of the Lord. 

Actually when I arrived Atlanta from London, after this recent incident happened for recuperation. Saying I was coming from __ of India,the customs directed me to go to agricultural inspection. They thought I had some agricultural goods. But the lady who was inspector, she said,"Oh you are a Hare Krishna!" I said,"Yes." "I don't see you people much anymore. Are you still around? I used to hear you people singing in the street. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Hare Rama Rama.." You know she couldn't get exactly. She was very favorable. I said," No we still go out and chant." But so actually she was missing the chanting. She was expressing ii don't hear you all. In another words that meant she liked it, she was missing it and she chanted Krishna's name so many times.

I met another ..I was sitting, I was waiting for Pandava Das at Atlanta airport and a man walked out to means said,"I used to fly in and out of my __(18:33), I used to meet devotees. I don't see you anymore there. Are you still.. Is your movement still expanding? Imean its going on or?" I said," No its going on." And we talked for a while. So like so many people, they understand that I was in a traditional dress of a Hare Krishna, the costume. Then people walked up to me and said Are you still around? And see all chant. 

So actually by hearing the Holy name,by reading Srimad Bhagavatam.. One man said he got one book and he asked some questions from the book right in the airport. And actually they are feeling some kind of separation from Krishna. They have already developed some kind of attachment. Even Gaurachandra Prabhu told some story how some Christian lady walked by while distributing books and said Jesus will save you and you all are so wonderful wonderful. Just making some friendly exchange and by the end she was chanting Hare..what you need some professional dance you know she started spinning around and did some baley you know and singing Hare.....Krishna... She was joking with him. But she chanted Hare Krishna.

So there's a devotee of Lord Caitanya who kept telling to Chand Kaji,"You have to chant Hare Krishna." He said,"No,no,no." One day he came really fired up Today you chant Hare Krishna. He said No no I'll chant Hare Krishna tomorrow. He said "Hari Bol Hari bol..You chanted. You have already said Hare Krishna. So now don't stop." Even one time chanting means that they have begun chanting. And then yesterday Gurukrpa Prabhu told me how superintendents of schools came here and every time they call up from the school they ask some questions. Oh they are always talking about your school, it's so nice. But Hare Krishna..I wanted to bring my daughter down to enter into the school. Heard its the best one. You know Hare Krishna oh I want children to be exposed to eastern culture you know. So people they can't. One way or other they have to talk about Hare Krishna cause they like to talk favorably. Actually the people are missing. You don't realize the importance of going and doing Harinam and the people are happy to hear our chanting or the importance of giving our books, giving these. Actually when I first came to this hall there was a big drive for sankirtan and distribution. So many books and everything was gift for them. Now lot of obstacles have come up and we have been surviving but we can still see the preaching seeds that we have planted. So many people have been coming. We can't imagine the effect just like the demigods see they are praying to the Lord to come. They don't know what His plan is. They don't know how its going to work but they just know of the Lord hears on the spot. So actually Krishna has come, He comes in the form of Bhagavatam, coming in the form of Holy name. Prabhupada put Bhagavatam in the center of Back to Godhead because we are giving out Back to Godhead so people at least get a part of Srimad Bhagavatam, giving more pages of Srimad Bhagavatam so that way Bhagavatam is going out to so many people.

One devotee said how one man got 12th canto Bhagavatam, he met the devotees in the Smokey mountains just a week ago. He said,"I have been looking for you people. I've got this book from you- Sri..Mad..Bhag..va...tam. Well that is the most interesting book I've ever got. I wanna read the whole set. You have? Where's the first one? I've got No.12." Somehow he got one of the Bhagavatam and he wanted to read all of the Bhagavatam. So they had Krishna book and gave him Krishna book and took his name and address. They gonna give him whole catalog and show him all the books.

Actually in the age of Kali, the Lord has appeared in different ways but these forms of the Lord are brought to the people through devotees. If the devotees don't chant the Holy name then how does the Holy name get to the people. If devotees don't distribute the books then how will the books get to the people. Of course the Lord is also present in the temple. So bring the people to the temples. If there's no temple then where does the devotee live and how do they, what's their base for preaching? So certainly everything is connected. Its all part of the grand plan. But the thing is the most dynamic thing in the age of Kali is in the form of books and Holy name. Of course Lord Caitanya came,Krishna himself He came as a devotee. He do but He personally chanted Hare Krishna everywhere then He instructed His followers to write the books. And after the books were written then the next string of acaryas next level distributed them. Lord Caitanya primarily chanted, the chanting is most important. Distributing books is most important.

Of course after the six Goswamis, they also established temples and dieties, and Srila Prabhupada he also kindly brought the sublime presence of the Lord. Actually he brought Krishna, he brought to the west. There was no Krishna here, there was no incarnation of Godhead present but he directly brought the Lord in His different forms- His deity form, His name form, His book form. And for having a dynamic effect, we need to..Maya always tries to put on obstacles for us but we really need to keep the Lord here in the west that's possible by chanting Hare Krishna, chanting here in the temple, chanting in the street. Its possible by some devotees distributing the books, and keeping on, keeping the vibration going on. In fact I was told that our devotees are faithfully going to LICU to different universities for years together. They have some kind of three speech alley. Someone goes there, they have chance to chant and speak for 5minutes. Usually, they like to hear the Hare Krishna speak so they give a little extension. Sometimes the captain of the three speech alley, they say every week we hear you but you always say towards the end of speech to say Hare Krishna but we stand and watch. So we should actually reciprocate with you. Why don't you try one more time? So then the devotee says Hare Krishna and everybody and the captain say Hare Krishna. So in this way they have been engaged in chanting Hare Krishna. They actually had direct association of the supreme personality of Godhead and so they all chanted together. There was a kirtan. There was two word kirtan (everyone laughing). They did kirtan so that giving them unlimited blessings. So Srila Prabhupada said we can simply offer the Lord obeisances and pray to Him for annihilation of danger. The demigods offered their obeisances and prayers to the Lord, bowing down before Him, request the Lord to do the needful.

The thing is that Krishna was appearing that time, He would immediately come for 100 some years and go. But actually now the Lord is so merciful. We need Him more now in the kaliyuga. We need the Lord's presence more than before so we keep chanting Hare Krishna. He will stay with us as long as we chant. In fact prabhupada said that He can even stay with us for 10000 years but how will he stay? How will we have that golden age when the Lord will be with us 10000 years unless we chant? Of course, the Lord will be there when somebody will chant. But how wonderful merciful the Lord is we can get more association here on this planet at this time than ever before when most of the avataras of the Lord comes. Even they lived for long you know their life span was much longer than ours. Now we are only 100years maximum usually 60,70,80 years then its over. We have to go on to the next life so now we can have the constant association with Lord for whole lifetime. We can get the wonderful mercy of being born in a Krishna conscious family. We are getting association with incarnation of Godhead from the moment of their birth until the last breath in this body.Even Prahlada Maharaja how he got some association for days or weeks with Nrsinghadev. Varaha came and he went back. Matsya, all the avataras I mean, Lord Rama was there quite a little time. But Parshurama was there a lot time of.... It depends on as brahmana or kshetriya how you looked upon it. 

Here the all merciful presence of the Lord as Hare Krishna Mahamantra, Srimad Bhagavatam. We just have to keep associating with the Lord. We don't wanna break that daily association. Prabhupada was so kind giving us: for the devotees, for Mangal arati right on, opportunity to associate with holy name and Srimad Bhagavatam everyday. I was feeling very, didn't realize, I never stayed outside of a temple even apart from your traveling sankirtan which was also like taking the temple with you with devotees chanting a different thing. I never stayed outside the temple, here I was in the hospital for so many days so it was very dry then they were saying well why don't you stay in the hotel because the temple is far away, 2hours drive. As soon as I got out of this hospital, I went back to the temple where there is chanting of the Holy name. And to be without chanting, daily class,I was feeling lot of separation. All of a sudden, Shivaram Maharaj came and what did he bring? He brought his personal Nitai Gaura deities right into the hospital and set out little arati,kirtan. Personally the Lord came into the hospital. Lord came into the temple and made temple. No the Lord came into the hospital and made it into temple. So the causeless mercy of Nitai Gaura. So its the thing we can meditate upon, how the Lord is so merciful. He annihilates the danger and how we have the opportunity to keep the Lord with us everyday, the whole life even you know for generation to generation, you wanna train up the future generation then keep the Lord present, you never... Now the Lord has given us this opportunity to have His direct association of chanting and the Srimad Bhagavatam. By chanting.. Srimad Bhagavatam then our deity worship will also be effective then we can have the Lord in the deity form so we want to maintain this association of Lord as long as possible at least for 10000years.

Hare Krishna.

Srila Prabhupada ki Jaya!

Caitanya Mahaprabhu ki Jaya!

Namavatara ki Jaya!

Srimad Bhagavatam Grantharaja ki Jaya!!

Transcribed by Sadanandini yogini devi dasi (21-SEP-2017)