19900101 Srimad-Bhagavatam.10.13.62 @ New Talavan, USA

SB 10.13.62

dṛṣṭvā tvareṇa nija-dhoraṇato ’vatīrya

 pṛthvyāṁ vapuḥ kanaka-daṇḍam ivābhipātya

spṛṣṭvā catur-mukuṭa-koṭibhir aṅghri-yugmaṁ

 natvā mud-aśru-sujalair akṛtābhiṣekam

Synonyms:

dṛṣṭvā — after seeing; tvareṇa — with great speed, hastily; nija-dhoraṇataḥ — from his swan carrier; avatīrya — descended; pṛthvyām — on the ground; vapuḥ — his body; kanaka-daṇḍam iva — like a golden rod; abhipātya — fell down; spṛṣṭvā — touching; catuḥ-mukuṭa-koṭi-bhiḥ — with the tips of his four crowns; aṅghri-yugmam — the two lotus feet; natvā — making obeisances; mut-aśru-su-jalaiḥ — with the water of his tears of joy; akṛta — performed; abhiṣekam — the ceremony of bathing His lotus feet.

 

Translation:

After seeing this, Lord Brahmā hastily got down from his swan carrier, fell down like a golden rod and touched the lotus feet of Lord Kṛṣṇa with the tips of the four crowns on his heads. Offering his obeisances, he bathed the feet of Kṛṣṇa with the water of his tears of joy.

Purport:

Lord Brahmā bowed down like a stick, and because Lord Brahmā’s complexion is golden, he appeared to be like a golden stick lying down before Lord Kṛṣṇa. When one falls down before a superior just like a stick, one’s offering of obeisances is called daṇḍavat. Daṇḍa means “stick,” and vat means “like.” It is not that one should simply say “Daṇḍavat.” Rather, one must fall down. Thus Brahmā fell down, touching his foreheads to the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, and his crying in ecstasy is to be regarded as an abhiṣeka bathing ceremony of Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet.

[GM speaks]

In India the Vaisnavas, when they see each other many times they yell 'Dandavaat, dandavaat, bow down to your feet, bow down to your feet, like a stick'(devotees laughing )But they don't bow down. They say 'dandavaat'. Then Prabhupada said 'What is that? If you want to make dandavat you bow down. Why just say it?' He didn't like that. Now, here he put it in the Bhagavatam. __(unclear 4:20) they say dandavat. You shouldn’t. You don’t have to say you mean it to pay obeisance.

We continue.

[End of speech]

He who appeared before Brahmā as a human child was in fact the Absolute Truth, Parabrahman (brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate). The Supreme Lord is narākṛti; that is, He resembles a human being. It is not that He is four-armed (catur-bāhu). Nārāyaṇa is catur-bāhu, but the Supreme Person resembles a human being. This is also confirmed in the Bible, where it is said that man was made in the image of God.

Lord Brahmā saw that Kṛṣṇa, in His form as a cowherd boy, was Parabrahman, the root cause of everything, but was now appearing as a human child, loitering in Vṛndāvana with a morsel of food in His hand. Astonished, Lord Brahmā hastily got down from his swan carrier and let his body fall to the earth. Usually, the demigods never touch the ground, but Lord Brahmā, voluntarily giving up his prestige as a demigod, bowed down on the ground before Kṛṣṇa. Although Brahmā has one head in each direction, he voluntarily brought all his heads to the ground and touched Kṛṣṇa’s feet with the tips of his four helmets. Although his intelligence works in every direction, he surrendered everything before the boy Kṛṣṇa.

It is mentioned that Brahmā washed the feet of Kṛṣṇa with his stears, and here the word sujalaiḥ indicates that his tears were purified. As soon as bhakti is present, everything is purified (sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam). Therefore Brahmā’s crying was a form of bhakty-anubhāva, a transformation of transcendental ecstatic love.

Thus end the Bhakti Vedanta Swami translation and purport to text 62 chapter 13 canto 10 , this eleventh ,first of November 1990 504 Gaurabdha, second parardha of lord Brahma.

So this beautiful pastime reveal to Lord Brahma the transcendental position of Lord Krishna. Krishna’s pastimes are so mysterious that unless Krishna reveals Himself to His devotees His pastimes are not easily understood. Here Lord Krishna revealed Himself to Lord Brahma and then Lord Brahma could see that Krishna was indeed the absolute truth. So he got off his swan carrier. It is not an ordinary swan. Lord Brahma’s swan carrier can travel all over the universe. It’s a type of, not transcendental, but very spiritualized or very advanced higher, subtle type of swan travel all over the universe faster than the speed of light. In fact, one time Lord Siva wanted to come down to Mayapur very quickly to see Lord Caitanya. His carrier is the ‘Nandi’, the big bull. He thought the bull goes too slow. So he requested Lord Brahma if he can borrow his car, I mean his swan. (devotees laughing) Because he wanted to get there in a hurry. So he borrowed the swan and he zipped down to Mayapur Navadwip dham. There is a temple in Navadwip dham known as ‘Hamsa Vahan’ meaning the place where Lord Shiva came quickly to Mayapur using ‘Hamsa’ the swan carrier of Lord Brahma and ‘Hamsa vaahan’ deity is under water 364 days in a year and comes out one day a year for being worshipped from the water. This swan is a very fast carrier and Lord Brahma is also not an ordinary person, but he is the original living entity in the whole universe. He is bowing down, on the ground before Lord Krishna. Brahma doesn’t have to walk, he can float, but for Krishna he bows right on the ground and touches his head to the lotus feet of the Lord. In the Vedas there is a lot of description about Brahma and about Lord Shiva. So we find that many people worship Lord Shiva or Lord Brahma in India. Not many people worship Brahma because he was cursed not to be worshipped in a temple. They do something but Lord Siva especially is worshipped but Lord Brahma is officiated. But there are some places where he is worshipped, but not in formal temples. So when in this pastime, one sees that Lord Brahma is bowing down to Krishna and accepting Krishna as Supreme Absolute truth, several places Lord Siva – he also glorifies Lord Krishna. So this way, those who have faith in Brahma or Siva, it should be easy for them to accept the supreme transcendental position of our Krishna. It’s a type of logic that if Lord Brahma is great, if Lord Siva is great and they accept that Lord Krishna is the greatest, well, that’s a pretty important point. Lord Brahma didn’t recognize Krishna at first, but now after He showed all the Vishnu forms and showed him the transcendental forms coming from Gopal, then it is very clear that Lord Krishna’s position is supreme. Lord Brahma is feeling ecstasy in serving Lord Krishna. One day during the ‘Maha Prakasa’ pastime Lord Caitanya was showing his transcendental form that He was also Krishna. And Haridas Thakur came before him offering his obeisance and all of a sudden he could see that he was Brahma and Lord Caitanya was Krishna. Then he fainted on the ground, became conscious and again he was Brahma and Lord Krishna __(unclear 10:34). The purpose of offering one's obeisances falling down on the ground and paying obeisances is for surrender. Even in the west people understand that bowing down before someone is something pretty significant because people say “I’m not going to bow down before no one. I’m not going to bow down before no man". They don’t. So bowing down is something significant. Otherwise they wouldn't state so emphatically that they are not going to do it, they don't want to do it. Prabhupada explained that by bowing down before the Lord, this is very is good for developing one's God consciousness.

In fact in the beginning in New York he told the devotees, ‘Well, just try bowing down.' Someone said 'Why will you bow down? You know why?' We bow down to Lord Krishna, He comes to His (pause) to reciprocate. When we surrender to Krishna He will protect us. So the importance of actual ___(unclear 11:23) position about Krishna is  not less than from this verse the importance of bowing down. Procedure of bowing down -one goes down quickly to prostrated position. Sometimes there is a confusion because women would like to also offer the prostrated obeisance. I think that there is some kind of a prejudice between men and women, why men are offering prostrated obeisances and why women are not. There is some letter circulating around demanding equal rights in bowing down.

(Devotees laughing) But apparently the breasts of women are, have got some special significance in relation to mother Bhumi. I don't remember off hand the full import. But, for that reason a women's breasts are not supposed to touch the ground when paying obeisances. So that's why we only do the 'Panca-anga' kneeling because they are not, their breasts are not supposed to touch the ground when they offer obeisances. I saw a verse in Hari Bhakti Vilas, at that time I didn't think it was an important thing, so I didn't -like read the purport and everything, then all the details. So I just remember seeing that this as one of the instructions given. It's not something that ISKCON has made in order to create some kind of caste distinction or nobody should feel bad about it. It’s apparently that rather something special about woman's body that something is supposed to do in different ways in it. In any case mentally one is to fully surrender. The idea of bowing down is also we are surrendering our mind.

When Lord Brahma bowed down he bathed the lotus feet of Krishna with the tears of love. In the bowing down the different parts of the body are mentioned and the last part is our mind. We are also offering our mind to the lotus feet of the Lord. Another important aspect Prabhupada brought out is that Lord Brahma or the Absolute Truth, the Param Brahma was appearing before Lord Brahma as a child, as a human like child. Look at (__unclear13:29) conversations with the Christians and in the Vatican they portray that God is an old man. But here it’s stating how God appeared as a young child. So, of course they objected in the Vatican that they painted the actual figure of God because that was speculative. (Unclear 13:42) Krishna conscious movement proclaims that the Lord appears in various human like form from various age groups up till the youth. He doesn't become middle or old age, always stays youthful. Sometimes people object how can this be. But they don't know what the God looks like, except that man is made in the image of God. That means that the Lord must be having a human like form. He must be like a human form if we are made in His image. So this truth is revealed in the Vedas also that the Lord appears in human like form. But He is not a human, He is always the Lord. This is an important aspect because nowadays there is lot of confusion due to Mayavadi philosophy. Even many Christians believe that God might be a, some kind of a energy (unclear 14:33) or something, some sort of impersonal reality. The Mohammedans say that the Allah is niraakar, He is having no material 'aakar' or form. Of course the Vedas also say that the Lord is ‘Nirguna’, He is without material quality. But the Lord is having, that doesn't bar the Lord from having spiritual qualities or a spiritual form, which is actually what the Lord has. When we think of the Lord as impersonal, then we also tend to think that everything is mechanical and this precludes us from giving our love to the Lord. It is very important that we understand how the Lord is a person. Lord Krishna of course has many different forms, just like we know that the He appears in Visnu form, as Varaha as the boar, matsya - the fish, kurma- the tortoise and so on. So this quote from the Bible that God appears in the human like , man is in the image of God confirms that the personal form of Krishna, the form as human-like form is the original form of God from their point of view, which is what the Vedas say. 

 Isvarah parama Krishna sacidananda vigraha

Anadir adir Govinda sarva karana karanam

(Inserting sloka BS 5.1 here)

īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ

sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ

anādir ādir govindaḥ

sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam

Synonyms: 

īśvaraḥ — the controller; paramaḥ — supreme; kṛṣṇaḥ — Lord Kṛṣṇa; sat — comprising eternal existence; cit — absolute knowledge; ānanda — and absolute bliss; vigrahaḥ — whose form; anādiḥ — without beginning; ādiḥ — the origin; govindaḥ — Lord Govinda; sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam — the cause of all causes.

Translation: 

Kṛṣṇa who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.

Purport: 

Kṛṣṇa is the exalted Supreme entity having His eternal name, eternal form, eternal attribution and eternal pastimes. The very name "Kṛṣṇa" implies His love-attracting designation, expressing by His eternal nomenclature the acme of entity. His eternal beautiful heavenly blue-tinged body glowing with the intensity of ever-existing knowledge has a flute in both His hands. As His inconceivable spiritual energy is all-extending, still He maintains His all-charming medium size by His qualifying spiritual instrumentals. His all-accommodating supreme subjectivity is nicely manifested in His eternal form. The concentrated all-time presence, uncovered knowledge and inebriating felicity have their beauty in Him. The mundane manifestive portion of His own Self is known as all-pervading Paramātmā, Īśvara (Superior Lord) or Viṣṇu (All-fostering). Hence it is evident that Kṛṣṇa is sole Supreme Godhead. His unrivaled or unique spiritual body of superexcellent charm is eternally unveiled with innumerable spiritual instrumentals (senses) and unreckonable attributes keeping their signifying location properly, adjusting at the same time by His inconceivable conciliative powers. This beautiful spiritual figure is identical with Kṛṣṇa and the spiritual entity of Kṛṣṇa is identical with His own figure.

The very intensely blended entity of eternal presence of felicitous cognition is the charming targeted holding or transcendental icon. It follows that the conception of the indistinguishable formless magnitude (Brahman) which is an indolent, lax, presentment of cognitive bliss, is merely a penumbra of intensely blended glow of the three concomitants, viz., the blissful, the substantive and the cognitive. This transcendental manifestive icon Kṛṣṇa in His original face is primordial background of magnitudinal infinite Brahman and of the all-pervasive oversoul. Kṛṣṇa as truly visioned in His variegated pastimes, such as owner of transcendental cows, chief of cowherds, consort of milk-maids, ruler of the terrestrial abode Gokula and object of worship by transcendental residents of Goloka beauties, is Govinda. He is the root cause of all causes who are the predominating and predominated agents of the universe. The glance of His projected fractional portion in the sacred originating water viz., the personal oversoul or Paramātmā, gives rise to a secondary potency-nature who creates this mundane universe. This oversoul's intermediate energy brings forth the individual souls analogously to the emanated rays of the sun.

This book is a treatise of Kṛṣṇa; so the preamble is enacted by chanting His name in the beginning.

(End of sloka BS 5.1)

ete camsa kalapumsah Krsnas tu bhagavan swayam

(Inserting sloka SB 1.3.28 here)

ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ

kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam

indrāri-vyākulaṁ lokaṁ

mṛḍayanti yuge yuge

Translation: 

All of the above-mentioned incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the original Personality of Godhead. All of them appear on planets whenever there is a disturbance created by the atheists. The Lord incarnates to protect the theists.

Purport: 

In this particular stanza Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead, is distinguished from other incarnations. He is counted amongst the avatāras (incarnations) because out of His causeless mercy the Lord descends from His transcendental abode. Avatāra means “one who descends.” All the incarnations of the Lord, including the Lord Himself, descend to the different planets of the material world as also in different species of life to fulfill particular missions. Sometimes He comes Himself, and sometimes His different plenary portions or parts of the plenary portions, or His differentiated portions directly or indirectly empowered by Him, descend to this material world to execute certain specific functions. Originally the Lord is full of all opulences, all prowess, all fame, all beauty, all knowledge and all renunciation. When they are partly manifested through the plenary portions or parts of the plenary portions, it should be noted that certain manifestations of His different powers are required for those particular functions. When in the room small electric bulbs are displayed, it does not mean that the electric powerhouse is limited by the small bulbs. The same powerhouse can supply power to operate large-scale industrial dynamos with greater volts. Similarly, the incarnations of the Lord display limited powers because so much power is needed at that particular time.

For example, Lord Paraśurāma and Lord Nṛsiṁha displayed unusual opulence by killing the disobedient kṣatriyas twenty-one times and killing the greatly powerful atheist Hiraṇyakaśipu. Hiraṇyakaśipu was so powerful that even the demigods in other planets would tremble simply by the unfavorable raising of his eyebrow. The demigods in the higher level of material existence many, many times excel the most well-to-do human beings in duration of life, beauty, wealth, paraphernalia and all other respects. Still they were afraid of Hiraṇyakaśipu. Thus we can simply imagine how powerful Hiraṇyakaśipu was in this material world. But even Hiraṇyakaśipu was cut into small pieces by the nails of Lord Nṛsiṁha. This means that anyone materially powerful cannot stand the strength of the Lord’s nails. Similarly, Jāmadagnya displayed the Lord’s power to kill all the disobedient kings powerfully situated in their respective states. The Lord’s empowered incarnation Nārada and plenary incarnation Varāha, as well as indirectly empowered Lord Buddha, created faith in the mass of people. The incarnations of Rāma and Dhanvantari displayed His fame, and Balarāma, Mohinī and Vāmana exhibited His beauty. Dattātreya, Matsya, Kumāra and Kapila exhibited His transcendental knowledge. Nara and Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣis exhibited His renunciation. So all the different indirectly or directly empowered incarnations of the Lord manifested different features, but Lord Kṛṣṇa, the primeval Lord, exhibited the complete features of Godhead, and thus it is confirmed that He is the source of all other incarnations. And the most extraordinary feature exhibited by Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa was His internal energetic manifestation of His pastimes with the cowherd girls. His pastimes with the gopīs are all displays of transcendental existence, bliss and knowledge, although these are manifested apparently as sex love. The specific attraction of His pastimes with the gopīs should never be misunderstood. The Bhāgavatam relates these transcendental pastimes in the Tenth Canto. And in order to reach the position to understand the transcendental nature of Lord Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes with the gopīs, the Bhāgavatam promotes the student gradually in nine other cantos.

According to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī’s statement, in accordance with authoritative sources, Lord Kṛṣṇa is the source of all other incarnations. It is not that Lord Kṛṣṇa has any source of incarnation. All the symptoms of the Supreme Truth in full are present in the person of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and in the Bhagavad-gītā the Lord emphatically declares that there is no truth greater than or equal to Himself. In this stanza the word svayam is particularly mentioned to confirm that Lord Kṛṣṇa has no other source than Himself. Although in other places the incarnations are described as bhagavān because of their specific functions, nowhere are they declared to be the Supreme Personality. In this stanza the word svayam signifies the supremacy as the summum bonum.

The summum bonum Kṛṣṇa is one without a second. He Himself has expanded Himself in various parts, portions and particles as svayaṁ-rūpa, svayam-prakāśa, tad-ekātmā, prābhava, vaibhava, vilāsa, avatāra, āveśa, and jīvas, all provided with innumerable energies just suitable to the respective persons and personalities. Learned scholars in transcendental subjects have carefully analyzed the summum bonum Kṛṣṇa to have sixty-four principal attributes. All the expansions or categories of the Lord possess only some percentages of these attributes. But Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the possessor of the attributes cent percent. And His personal expansions such as svayam-prakāśa and tad-ekātmā, up to the categories of the avatāras who are all viṣṇu-tattva, possess up to ninety-three percent of these transcendental attributes. Lord Śiva, who is neither avatāra nor āveśa nor in between them, possesses almost eighty-four percent of the attributes. But the jīvas, or the individual living beings in different statuses of life, possess up to the limit of seventy-eight percent of the attributes. In the conditioned state of material existence, the living being possesses these attributes in very minute quantity, varying in terms of the pious life of the living being. The most perfect of living beings is Brahmā, the supreme administrator of one universe. He possesses seventy-eight percent of the attributes in full. All other demigods have the same attributes in less quantity, whereas human beings possess the attributes in very minute quantity. The standard of perfection for a human being is to develop the attributes up to seventy-eight percent in full. The living being can never possess attributes like Śiva, Viṣṇu or Lord Kṛṣṇa. A living being can become godly by developing the seventy-eight-percent transcendental attributes in fullness, but he can never become a God like Śiva, Viṣṇu or Kṛṣṇa. He can become a Brahmā in due course. The godly living beings who are all residents of the planets in the spiritual sky are eternal associates of God in different spiritual planets called Hari-dhāma and Maheśa-dhāma. The abode of Lord Kṛṣṇa above all spiritual planets is called Kṛṣṇaloka or Goloka Vṛndāvana, and the perfected living being, by developing seventy-eight percent of the above attributes in fullness, can enter the planet of Kṛṣṇaloka after leaving the present material body.

(End of sloka SB 1.3.28 insertion)

 What is so mysterious and difficult for people to understand how Lord Krishna can appear in His form as a cowherd boy with a morsel of half eaten food in His hand, playing just like a cowherd boy running in the forest and still be the Absolute truth. It is very difficult for anyone to comprehend except for the pure devotees of the Lord. So Krishna explains ' bhakta mam abhijaanati '(BG 18.55) that except for my devotees no one else can understand Me.

So Brahma had done some mischief with Lord Krishna. But now when he is bowing down his heart is purified because he is overwhelmed with great devotion for Lord Krishna. In the Vedas there are many examples of great devotees seeing the Lord. It's not something unusual. If we ask people of other religion 'What does the God look like? What does He do? ', they say 'Nobody can see Him'. But actually the Lord can be seen. The Lord can be seen performing His different pastimes all of the time. But only if He wants to reveal Himself to different devotees. So many different devotees have seen Lord Krishna throughout the ages.

 When I was trying to fly to India my flight was misdirected for eleven and a half hours being stuck in an airport without being let out of the plane. So I got surrounded by a group of evangelists-Christians (devotees laughing) and tried to discuss about the Personality of Godhead. But then they didn't want to pin it down, they didn't want to accept that the Lord has a human like form and could come to this world. They could accept only that Jesus could come to the world, they couldn't accept that God, the father could come. And at any time we get to a particular crucial point in the discussion they would say 'Well, it’s a mystery. These are things that we don't know, this increases our faith to know that there are some things we don't know.' I said 'It increases our faith to know many things that are previously unknown about. But they are revealed by Krishna.' They didn't like to hear that. So Krishna does reveal Himself, but He reveals Himself to His devotees. This is special, really special mercy because Brahma wasn't acting exactly in a most devotional mood. But still He revealed Himself to Lord Brahma. So we can accept that this is a special causeless mercy that Lord Krishna showed to Lord Brahma. Due to the previous devotional service unto Lord, Krishna’s __(unclear 18:17) really causeless mercy, He revealed. Must be that Brahma has done so much service before and then Lord Krishna, even though he was not in the most devotional mood at that time, He revealed Himself. First He revealed His Visnu form and then shocked, it stunned Lord Brahma and then Lord Brahma wanted to offer his worship to Lord Krishna and then Krishna revealed Himself in His two handed form. So in this way we think we came here (unclear 18:46). When we realize the glory of Lord and we realize the eternal relationship as the servitor of the Lord then all the other temporary designations recede to the background. We become purified. This is very important because nowadays there's lot of problem in the world due to these superficial designations, Upaadhi. Upaadhi means designations or body consciousness. Someone thinks they are white or black or someone thinks they are Jew or Catholic or protestant, someone thinks that they are Asian or American or European or Latin or whatever and this is already creating problems in the world.

__(Unclear 19:27) Recently in Georgia there's some problem, some racial crisis came out in one high school, still not fully settled. Here, Mississippi it's an ongoing potential problem all the time because somebody considers that white, someone is black & things like that. In Middle East because of someone thinks that they are Arab, someone else as a Jew, Israeli and therefore lot of problems are there. So there's no easy solution for these things. Even they make some temporary truce later on things crop up. In South Africa there's also lot of problems which they are trying to settle, but it’s not fully settled. One devotee from Africa was preaching in a Namahatta tour in India and he told all the people that his name was 'Anandini das'. _____(unclear 20:10)The point that is in South Africa there is apartheid- prejudice according to the skin color. But that in, even though now it is some more liberal, but previously only the Hare Krishna temple was the only religious monument in the entire country practically where they had people from all the different communities living together without any caste distinction. There were the Indian origin, African origin, European origin and all the different racial representatives were all there because they didn’t have any consciousness of body as being their real self. Because they had devotion to Krishna they could see that they are all eternal spirit souls. And this is actually the solution for this racial prejudice in the world that people should become devoted to the Lord. Then they become free from all this temporary designations. How this happens? This happens automatic by the mercy of the Lord. So Srila Prabhupada once said that his books should go to every person. If they can read his books they can understand easier- what is devotional service, may be they can even become fixed in devotional service. This is special benediction of the Lord, especially in this age Lord Caitanya has made this opportunity very accessible. In India this problem is going on right now between Hindus and Muslims. The Muslims when they attacked India, __(unclear 22:37)according to history they tore down many Hindu temples including the temples of Lord Krishna and Lord Rama. And one Power, a heavy duty Mughal emperor, he built one mosque right over the birth place of Lord Ram some thousands of years ago, over a thousand or about a thousand years ago. Now the Hindus they wanted this temple of Ram should be returned and the mosque should be moved creating a lot of (pause). That could be solved .That problem could be solved probably by sober minded Muslims and Hindus, they could get together and solve it. The problem is that most people are not sober minded, they just identify as a kind of racial or racial designation as a matter of pride. Whatever may be (unclear 22:34) we got a master, we don’t want to go and the other say ‘Well, we won’t care you, we want to get it, we want to have our temple’. So most people are not that Krishna conscious that they truly worry to see Ram worship so much that they may never go to the temple after that. But as a kind of a racial thing, it attracted the mind of many people as a matter of prestige that this thing happened. And as a racial thing, the Muslims, they do not want to give it . So there is riots going on now for the past week every day and this is the nature of course of Kali yuga that you cannot, you get all this unnecessary idea. But the thing that fuels it people may mistake that it's religion that's the problem. It's not. It's the lack of real spiritual understanding that is the real problem. And the fact that people are simply identifying with their bodies. So as conditioned souls they are considering that 'I am a Muslim, I am a Christian or I'm a Hindu. Whether they practiced or not, it's simply more designation than actually a belief that they deeply adheres to. So if actual spiritual knowledge were given, then people would become purified from these false designations. 

Lord Caitanya, He had one devotee was there who was like a lord, he was a general also for one, the emperor-one Hussain shah. When Hussain shah was a young man, he taught him military art. That time Hussain shah was a young prince. He was a teacher. So when Hussain shah was misbehaving and with his horse whip he whipped him in the back once- Hindu ksatriya Lord. But apart from that they had a very close relationship. He was actually deserving it .Later on of course he ascended to the throne and he became an emperor and the lord remained a lord, lord remained a general. But the queen saw that the emperor had a little mark in his back. Apparently the whip pretty heavy, so left a little bit of a scar or some kind of a mark. And she said ' How did this happen?'

And he didn't want to say, he said 'Somebody whipped me'.

' Somebody whipped you ? Who is that person? I want to know.' Then the emperor wouldn't tell her because he didn't want her wrath to go on with this Hindu lord. But, I believe his name was Buddhimanta khan[VN1] , I might be mistaken. So eventually she kept hounding him and then he told her who did it. Then she said, 'I want him to be killed, it's a matter of prestige'. But the emperor won't do it. He said, ’He is uncle to me, he is like he was my teacher, how can I kill him?‘

She kept insisting ' __(unclear 25:05) ok. At least you convert him'. So one day the emperor decided 'Okay, I will convert him'.

In those days the understanding of what it was to be a Hindu was so superficial that someone thought if you got contaminated, you are outcast. To be followers of the Vedas was something very, changing one's religion was something very superficial. The actual teaching given in the Vedas, 'Santana dharma' - is our eternal religious principle to be a servitor of the Lord, the question of changing like this doesn't come up. But in Kali yuga, the Brahmanas created this havoc so that if a Mohammedan spit in a glass of water and make you drink it or threw it on you, you are considered polluted and then no Brahmana would accept you as a member of Vedic culture __(unclear 25:50) you are outcaste. So then, in this way today there is 12 percent or more of Mohammedans in India. Some states like in Bengal over twenty five percent just because of these kind of speculative idea about somebody's identity. So the king, the emperor brought in this Lord and said ' I'm going to convert you.' 

He said 'What! Why?'

There was apparently that respectable Hindus were not converted like that. It was done only as a kind of punishment.

He said ' Now because my queen is insisting because you whipped me once when I was a prince. I don't want to do it, but the queen insists, I can't say no'. 

Apparently he was a hen-pecked emperor. So then he spit in a glass of water and held up.

'No, No..., No'

Splish (splashing sound)

Threw it over. That was it.

'Now you no longer (devotees laughing) Vedic, you are now Muslim.'

 So then he went to different brahmanas and requested them. Somebody said, 

‘Well, you go to the bottom of the Ganges and (seems missing 26:50)drink it.'

 'That will kill me.'

'Yes, but next birth you take birth as Hindu'.

This was not like what he was looking for. 

(Devotees laughing)

 You can see how people didn’t convert back. You know the solutions they gave were like one way dead end roads. Somehow he came to Lord Caitanya and asked how he could get purified. Lord caitanya thought for a second and said 'You just chant Hare krishna 3 times'

'Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Hare Krishna'

'Okay. You are purified.'

He became one of the big generals of the Sankirtan movement after that.

(Devotees saying 'Haribol')

Someone said,' Why three times? Once was enough.'

One Harinam is enough to purify one of so many sins, more than what one can commit _(unclear 27:36) measure. So in Krishna consciousness, they are, this idea of caste or creed or colour, designations and false identifications are crossed over very easily. But to get people to be Krishna conscious, we need to give them Srila Prabhupad's books. If they can get the books of Srila Prabhupada then they convey them __(unclear 27:52),then they can understand what is the actual purpose of life, who they are. So it's not uncommon that one will identify strongly with the body and identify with other similar types of bodies. Even though there was nobody similar to Lord Brahma, but he was identifying with his body. He thought that his body was better than Krishna’s body at first and when Krishna revealed His unlimited potency, then Brahma became overwhelmed with devotion, fell down at His feet and became purified. From his dehatma budhi as a Brahma he became fixed in his identity as a devotee of the Lord. So this is our purpose- is to, people can identify- Daiva varnasrama means, the daiva part means we identify as a devotee. We don't identify that I'm a brahmana, a ksatriya, Vaisya, sudra. But we identify 'I'm a devotee of the Lord. But my body has got a particular nature. I'm not my body. So I use my body according to the type or nature that the body has, although I will keep my own identity very clear that I'm a pure devotee of the Lord, I'm a nitya- eternal living entity’. This consciousness is lacking in the previous varnasrama system, especially the perverted varnasrama system that is generated during this kali yuga. That created all these problems. We don't want to reproduce, neither is it possible to reproduce the kind of caste system. What we wanted to do is to organize society and educate the people large about their real spiritual identity. Because we have a material body which has a certain nature, everyone different. So for the organization of the society, we do according to Varnasram. But we don't ever lose sight of our actual spiritual identity as the eternal devotee of the Lord. So that even if somebody has a Brahma body, or they have a Siva or they have a whatever daiva body or human body or Brahmana, vaisya, sudra, what type of, but they all engaged in devotional service. When they engage in devotional service, when they identifying as a devotee of the Lord, actually they are purified. Even though they may be functioning superficially according to the particular varna or asram, but actually they are purified. This is what the world needs and this is what the Krishna conscious movement is offering to the world. 

Yesterday in the library we were doing some service for Lord Krishna. So I just happened to look at New Orleans public library database. And most of the Bhagavatams there are so many cantos (unclear 30:20) still all the first canto first part Bhagavatam every copy is not there. But all the other cantos, up to the ninth canto is there. There is only another, other small books are only ‘Science of Self Realization’, ‘Bhagavad Gita’ 1972 edition, few copies but under Bhakti Vedanta Swami- author, nothing under Krishna. Under Krishna, if you look under Krishna the only thing you find is ‘Dark horse’, ‘Where did joy disappear in the Hare Krishna’ or something like that, ‘The Monkey and sticks’ 16 copies. More, there is only two copies of Bhagavad Gita but 16 copies of that (pause). See there is a definite bias in the..Anyway under Krishna, there is no, Bhagavad Gita is not under Krishna. Actually the author of Bhagavad Gita should be cross referenced. We should have our, our Krishna sakti ___(unclear 31:16) librarian should get the cross references there proper. Krishna spoke the Bhagavad Gita, but under Krishna there is no mention of Bhagavad Gita. So only way you can find the Bhagavatam is if you look Bhakti Vedanta Swami or you actually give the actual title. But if you look at Krishna I don't know how many other cross reference they had but at least I didn't, it's a huge database and I just looked about those two names. Under yoga it wasn't there either. Under yoga there were some other bogus books. I didn't see any bhakti Bhagavata __(unclear 31:50)

People don't know even what these books stand for, what they mean. Probably the librarians don't know how to cross reference. But Bhagavatam could be cross referenced you know thousand times. So many important instructions are there. Specially each volume could have its own cross reference according to, some volumes are talking of Brahma, some about Siva, some about different things. People in general, they need these books. But even if they go to the library, the books are there but they can't get to remember easy.They have to know the name of Bhakti Vedanta Swami or they gave to pick up-I don't know how they will find it. Not very easy to get to.

When someone has a problem, this ecological problem or they will look for a book to solve ecology. Well, they want to have a book to solve these different problems. 

Actually these answers are there in different parts of the Bhagavatam. But if they look in the index of the database, they don't find - Bhagavatam won't come up, unfortunately. That's why the books are in the library still we, have to distribute the books to the people. Because that's the only way we can easily get them in their hands.

So Brahma is crying, but he is crying in ecstasy, he is crying in joy. This is the perfection of life is when we can cry in love of Krishna, cry in ecstasy for Krishna. Brahma forgot everything -his position, his (pause) he just fell down at the feet of Krishna and put his head on the lotus feet of Krishna. So we can understand how glorified Lord Brahma is, how merciful Lord Krishna is. 

Sri Sri Radha Radhakanth ki Jaii

Sri GauraNitai ki Jai

Sri BrahmaMadhva GaudiyaVaisnava Guruparampara ki Jaii

Sri Sri Brahma dev ki jaii 

Any questions?

(Devotee asks question – not audible 33:40)

How can a devotee be proud when the devotee never forgets that everything that the devotee is able to do is simply by the mercy of Guru and Krishna. In the Bhagavad Gita there is an important verse- find it savyasaci, is the word that comes there is not used very often , where Lord Krishna tells Arjuna that he is a 'nimitta matram'. That he is simply via media for manifesting the Lords -or instrument for manifesting Lord's mercy, Lord's will. And there in the purport Prabhupada very nicely explains-what verse is that? - that we should act as an instrument. So it's because we forget, we think that we are the doer, therefore we get into the difficulty. Krishna explains that it's actually the bewilderment of maya that we think that we are the doer. We are the soul, because of our ‘karta ham iti manyate’ (BG 3.27),

(Inserting sloka BG 3.27 here)

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni

guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ

ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā

kartāham iti manyate

Translation: 

The spirit soul bewildered by the influence of false ego thinks himself the doer of activities that are in actuality carried out by the three modes of material nature.

Purport: 

Two persons, one in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and the other in material consciousness, working on the same level, may appear to be working on the same platform, but there is a wide gulf of difference in their respective positions. The person in material consciousness is convinced by false ego that he is the doer of everything. He does not know that the mechanism of the body is produced by material nature, which works under the supervision of the Supreme Lord. The materialistic person has no knowledge that ultimately he is under the control of Kṛṣṇa. The person in false ego takes all credit for doing everything independently, and that is the symptom of his nescience. He does not know that this gross and subtle body is the creation of material nature, under the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and as such his bodily and mental activities should be engaged in the service of Kṛṣṇa, in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The ignorant man forgets that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is known as Hṛṣīkeśa, or the master of the senses of the material body, for due to his long misuse of the senses in sense gratification, he is factually bewildered by the false ego, which makes him forget his eternal relationship with Kṛṣṇa

(End of sloka BG 3.27)

Because of our ‘kartaham iti manyate’, we think we are doing, then we get puffed up. But if we remember, just like there was this devotee Govinda who was servitor of, although he was a disciple when somebody came up to him and glorified him 'You are very great, you have all good qualities'. And then they Ramanuja (unclear 35:18) took exceptional. Normally Vaisnavas are supposed to be very humble. 

Then they asked him ' How is it that you are saying like that?'

He said, 'Well I know that before I was a devotee I had no transcendental or spiritual qualities and if I have any qualities now that they are seeing, it must be that they are seeing simply the good qualities of the Guru. Only by his mercy can I do anything. But because the Guru has given me some mercy, that's why I'm saying, accepting their praise. Actually I don't have any personal good quality or credit. Because I had nothing spiritual about me when I came.’

That's actually simply the mercy of the Lord and his devotees, his guru. 

________(Question unclear 36:30)

Well, that's everything we do we do according to sadhu,sastra and guru.

 According to sadhu, sastra and guru if Brahma had considered what he was doing then he would not have done like that. So to avoid that kind of mistake we should also not act under the platform of false ego but do everything considering what will be pleasing to Guru and Krishna and what was authorized by previous great devotees.

Read the verse. (Devotee reads out the verse BG 11.33)

tasmāt tvam uttiṣṭha yaśo labhasva

jitvā śatrūn bhuṅkṣva rājyaṁ samṛddham

mayaivaite nihatāḥ pūrvam eva

nimitta-mātraṁ bhava savya-sācin

Synonyms:

tasmāt — therefore; tvam — you; uttiṣṭha — get up; yaśaḥ — fame; labhasva — gain; jitvā — conquering; śatrūn — enemies; bhuṅkṣva — enjoy; rājyam — kingdom; samṛddham — flourishing; mayā — by Me; eva — certainly; ete — all these; nihatāḥ — killed; pūrvam eva — by previous arrangement; nimitta-mātram — just the cause; bhava — become; savya-sācin — O Savyasācī.

Translation:

Therefore get up. Prepare to fight and win glory. Conquer your enemies and enjoy a flourishing kingdom. They are already put to death by My arrangement, and you, O Savyasācī, can be but an instrument in the fight.

Purport:

Savya-sācin refers to one who can shoot arrows very expertly in the field; thus Arjuna is addressed as an expert warrior capable of delivering arrows to kill his enemies. “Just become an instrument”: nimitta-mātram. This word is also very significant. The whole world is moving according to the plan of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Foolish persons who do not have sufficient knowledge think that nature is moving without a plan and all manifestations are but accidental formations. There are many so-called scientists who suggest that perhaps it was like this, or maybe like that, but there is no question of “perhaps” and “maybe.” There is a specific plan being carried out in this material world. What is this plan? This cosmic manifestation is a chance for the conditioned souls to go back to Godhead, back to home. As long as they have the domineering mentality which makes them try to lord it over material nature, they are conditioned. But anyone who can understand the plan of the Supreme Lord and cultivate Kṛṣṇa consciousness is most intelligent. The creation and destruction of the cosmic manifestation are under the superior guidance of God. Thus the Battle of Kurukṣetra was fought according to the plan of God. Arjuna was refusing to fight, but he was told that he should fight in accordance with the desire of the Supreme Lord. Then he would be happy. If one is in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness and his life is devoted to the Lord’s transcendental service, he is perfect.

(Reading finished)

Any other question? 

Srila Prabhupada ki jaii

Srimad Bhagavatam granthraj ki Jaii.                                   


Transcriber: Lakshmi Radha Devi dasi .[Mathuradesh]

Date of completion: 09 September 2017.

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