HH JAYAPATAKA SWAMI MAHARAJ

SRIMAD BHAGAVATAM 4th Canto Chapter 3 Verse: 4

24^th July 1990 Bangalore Karnataka

tasmin brahmarṣayaḥ sarve

devarṣi-pitṛ-devatāḥ

āsan kṛta-svastyayanās

tat-patnyaś ca sa-bhartṛkāḥ

Synonyms: 

tasmin — in that (sacrifice); brahma-ṛṣayaḥ — the brahmarṣis; sarve — all; devarṣi — the devarṣis; pitṛ — ancestors; devatāḥ — demigods; āsan — were; kṛta-svasti-ayanāḥ — were very nicely decorated with ornaments; tat-patnyaḥ — their wives; ca — and; sa-bhartṛkāḥ — along with their husbands.

Translation: 

While the sacrifice was being performed, many brahmarṣis, great sages, ancestral demigods and other demigods, their wives all very nicely decorated with ornaments, attended from different parts of the universe.

Purport: 

In any auspicious ceremony, such as a marriage ceremony, sacrificial ceremony or pūjā ceremony, it is auspicious for married women to decorate themselves very nicely with ornaments, fine clothing and cosmetics. These are auspicious signs. Many heavenly women assembled with their husbands, the devarṣis, demigods and rājarṣis, in that great sacrifice named bṛhaspati-sava. It is specifically mentioned in this verse that they approached with their husbands, for when a woman is decorated nicely, her husband becomes more cheerful. The nice decorations, ornaments and dress of the wives of the demigods and sages and the cheerfulness of the demigods and sages themselves were all auspicious signs for the ceremony.

Thus ends Bhaktivedanta Swami Translation and purport to text 4 Chapter 3 Canto 4

Lecture Begins :

Daksha this section of the SB describes activities around Daksha’s sacrifice.Daksha the father of Sati one of the prominent Prajapati of the universe. Was appointed chief Prajapati by Lord Brahma This made him very proud of his position and out of pride he acted in improper way.Unnecessary pride causes people to misbehave in various ways. So he wanted to show his greatness he had full support of Brahma since he was appointed as prinicipal Prajapati.  He performed Raja Suya Yajna. Which is called a Brihaspati yakna. These Yajnas are very difficult to perform in this planet in higher planets.So while this puja is going on Daksha he has as bad relationship with his son-in-law Shiva. He didn’t appreciate the qualities of Lord Shiva.

Daksha is pretty much in Karma Kanda. He believes in one should fully enjoy life and after enjoying life then renunciation will automatically come. Of course his idea was one should enjoy life according to vedic principle by performing yajnas he was in to the Karma Kanda. Like Karma Nishta. But he was neglecting Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva. Neglecting to call him to sacrifice. He saw her worship to ______[02:57 Not Clear]. In the Previous verse Prabhupada explains how Krishna himself

 mad-bhakta-pūjābhyadhikā: “The worship of My devotees is better than worship of Myself.”

Similarly in the siva purana parvati has asked siva there are so many types of worship which type of worship is best. Lord Siva replied

 Padma Purāṇa States:

ārādhanānāṁ sarveṣāṁ

viṣṇor ārādhanaṁ param

tasmāt parataraṁ devi

tadīyānāṁ samarcanam

Of all the different types of worship, Vishnu worship is the topmost, with one exception My dear devi to worship the devotee those who are connected with Krishna is more beneficial. Krishna is more pleased when his devotees are respected than when he himself is worshipped. So Brahma, Shiva they are great devotees of the Lord they are very faithful servitor they are running the universe for him. So Daksha was neglecting the senior devas, Junior devas are all coming they are appreciating Daksha’s big Sacrifice. So many brahmanas were there.

But some important person like Mahadev he was being neglected. But Sati was keen to go and see the sacrifice performed by her father. She wanted to go with her husband to attend the sacrifice. So she wanted to go and this is the discussion asking her husband “Let’s Go. Let’s Go to the Festival.” She was also dressed up. Of course Lord Shiva can seeing the whole situation He also felt he may be offended by Daksha not inviting him. It was not appropriate to go without invitation. He wanted Sati to understand and better not to go. In the end Sati goes anyway. Then Daksha offends Lord Shiva. When he offends Lord Shiva Sati becomes very angry. Says I have taken this body from you but it has contaminated the process of removing this body is generated you are offender of great Vaishnava such a great soul Lord Shiva. So she by her own mystic _______ [05:23] she immolated herself and Shakti ceased to exist on that Body. She took birth in another body and again married Lord Shiva.

When that happened Lord Shiva came her followers came they were very angry and then there was massive curse. There was riot and all story developed. The Lord Brahma came and Lord Shiva corrected everything. Daksha was given goat head. The Sacrificial goad head was put. Daksh had his  head cut off by Shiva’s followers. It was big fight. So everything was taken out by Lord Shiva offered respect to Lord Shiva then the sacrifice was restarted. This time Shiva and everyone was in place then Vishnu came. Then Vishnu was pleased he say his devotees being properly respected. This is a very big story a several chapters of Bhagavatam is devoted to this story. Lot of different lessons. It also gives a very clear understanding of positions of Brahma, Siva and Devas and Vishnu.

The other confusion exists today in the Hindu society is what is the position of different devas.

Even in South India there were fights between Shivaites and Vaishnavites. There was attacks between them. But actually for all the vaishnavas Shiva is also workshippable.

Only difference is the Vaishnavas worships Shiva in the

“Vaishnavanam Yatha Shambhu”

He is the greatest Vaishnava.

When Shiva himself is worshipping Vishnu respecting Vishnu Shivites should also , why the follower of Shiva should show enmity to Vaishnavites.

The another confusion is that has been somewhat ________[07:11 Not clear]

Shankaracharya’s preaching everything is one. Doesn’t matter real thing is impersonal every this is one.

So ultimately everything is impersonal. But this philosophy is incomplete. That philosophy is not supported that Vishnu is coming from the impersonal Brahman is also not supported by the Vedas. Infact this is _______[07:43 Not clear] understanding of Sankara’s followers. Even Shankaracharya says

“Narayanah Paro Avyaktat”

Narayana is above the impersonal. In 14^th Chapter Gita says

 “brahmaṇo hi pratiṣṭhāham”

I am the basis of Impersonal Brahman

BG 14:27

brahmaṇo hi pratiṣṭhāham

amṛtasyāvyayasya ca

śāśvatasya ca dharmasya

sukhasyaikāntikasya ca

In the Bhagavatam in the first canto it clearly says

Brahman is situated in the 3 manifestations which are non different.

SB 1.2.11

vadanti tat tattva-vidas

tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam

brahmeti paramātmeti

bhagavān iti śabdyate

Brahmeti paramatmety Bhagvan iti sabdyate.

Brahman, Pramatma and Bhagavan Brahman is Sat, Pramatma is Sacchit and Bhagavan is SacchitAnanda Vigraha

The complete form of absolute truth is Sachiananda or bhagawan. Localized is paramatma and all pervasive is Brahman.

In the Bhagavatam Philosophically and practically gives these examples.

Also we can understand the vedic culture, vedic culture is very colourful. Here  Devas and devis are all going through the poojas . They are going to the festival the big sacrifice . Who is the sacrifice is offered to? The sacrifice is offered to Lord Vishnu. He is Yajnopathi. Every one decorated being big festival the women are decorated with earrings , ornaments and nice dresses. Any religious ceremony husband has to be accompanied with the wife.

So very colourful now people want to, western culture means you go to some cinema you go to theatre you go to some social functions. But in higher planet social functions mean some Pooja, some yajna something uplifting in the . Utsav to uplift the consciousness.

So the higher culture is based on spiritual upliftment.Now the culture means same superficial things everything is based simply in bodily identifications. So Srila Prabhupad introduce festivals spiritual festivals all over the world. Rath yatras, Janmashtami so many are there. Those festivals women may nicely decorate everyone may come nice festive occasion.and in the end prasadam is distributed. There is spiritual discourses there is various meditations. Even like Gopa Ashtami the cow is worshipped cows are decorated with garland fed sumptuously. Govardhan Pooja all the devotees go out with cows go around Govardhan.

Big mountain of Rice, Annakoot served in northern india very luxuriously. Annakoot to make a rice mountain. And then afterwards everyone is fed not only all the human beings, after all humans are fed then animals should be fed. Everyone should be fed on the day of Govardhan Pooja. No one should go hungry. That’s it.

Commemorating Lord’s Krishna’s worship of Govardhan. Showing all how the society is dependent on especially the cow protection, agriculture, we Cannot eat nuts and bolts. Agriculture produces and how cow milk produces finer brain tissues to understand spiritual subject matter.

Therefore cow milk is very important to human society. It develops spiritually it develops finer brain tissues.

Animal are also dependent and part of the human civilization. They are dependent on the human beings in many ways. So Srila Prabhupad said so one should see animal as younger brother and sisters.

When Younger brother and sisters become they may be weaker than the big brother that “does it mean big brother should kill it? No.” Big brother should protect the younger ones.

Cow is providing milk therefore cow is respected like mother. Bull is working in the fields and he is respected like a father.

To grow all the grain.

When mother and father grow old and become unproductive that time they also eating less doing less but does not mean old unproductive mother and father they should be killed. In some tribal cultures in Africa in some places the old people are also killed. Cannibalism is there. These are considered to  to be sub culture. To be uncivilized.

Human Civilization means you protect the weaker section even if it difficult but still one needs to protect aged parents similarly old cows they should also be protected.  Even they are not fed sumptuously _________ [13:15 – 13:19 Not Clear]. maybe I could kill you ______.[13:23 Not Clear]

No one wants to die prematurely. So like this vedic culture is very vast it deals with total upliftment of human society. So  part of that we find festivals spiritual festivals poojas yajnas, beautiful ______ [13:46 Not Clear] nice decoration of the body not for any other purpose because it is spiritual occasion festival we are going to worship Vishnu. So wear your best. So the sources on instincts are fulfilled they are dove tailed to spiritual purpose. Prabhupad explains how if goal of life is not fixed that the human society become aimless society.

Economics are the only objective of the human society when it becomes godless society demoniac society so many crimes against nature and god will be performed. If world is actual to be actually peaceful world harmonious balanced world the objective of life has to be fixed. The objective is to reach god. To serve god. To realize the self and the supreme self. If we take out the objective then naturally everything else also becomes aimless. If you put in the objective, Prabhupad says you put so many zeroes without one it remains zero. If you put one in the front then everything becomes valuable. What is that one? One is the goal of life you should understand the goal. Goal of life is to realize god. We have that realization automatically [15:17 Not Clear] realization of god.

Krishna explains that all living entities my parts and parcel

mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke

My eternal part and parcel so if we realise Krishna we will realise ourselves that we are part of Krishna.

BG 15.07

mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke

jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ

manaḥ-ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi

prakṛti-sthāni karṣati

Aham Brahmasmi

We are the spirit. If we realise parabrahma we will realise also brahma. Krishna himself is parabrahma. Whether you call him by Krishna whatever name refers to that supreme Allah , Jehovah there is only one supreme. The objective is to achieve that Supreme. As Krishna says or as the vedas says

Vasudeiva Kutumbakam

Whole world is one family then we should work for the collective upliftment, protection everything is related to the supreme so there is imbalance every time there is disturbance.

Daksha also creating an imbalance. So that also created a reactions. Whatever we do there is a reaction is going to come. If we do something good we get good reaction. If we do something bad we get bad reaction. If we do some transcendental activity then to Vishnu directly there is no material reaction. This is spiritual upliftment.

So the devotee is neither good nor bad. In this material world there is always good and evil always combating with each other sometime good wins or sometimes evil. There are devas and demons or asuras. Suras and Asuras. Suras means they accepting supremacy of Vishnu. According to Vedas if you are Suras you are accepting the supreme god Vishnu.

And also _______[17:11 Not clear] Those who are against the supreme god demoniac society which does not accept supreme controller supreme power of the god naturally think we are the controllers of our work we can do whatever we like. It’s our nature to do it. Resolving so many imbalances that come.

Because they are not the ultimate power. Krishna has created the world with particular balance in the universe when we start to mess it up that actually create more and more problem to ourselves.

Vishnu as the maintainer he has all his __________[17:50 – 17:53 Not clear] that humans create. _________[17:55]. Disturb the earth which has fallen out of the orbit because of the excesses created by hirayaksha and other demons

sambhavāmi yuge yuge he comes to establish the religious principles.

BG 4.8

paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ

vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām

dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya

sambhavāmi yuge yuge

If we live by religious principles then automatically thing become balanced. If we try to create balance without religious principle it is very artificial.That does not produce any lasting results.

Lord Chaitanya when he discussed with Chand Kazi , the mohammedan ruler who was appointed like a sub governor of nabadwip. First thing he is telling is why you are killing cows and bull why you are killing your mother and father ? Kazi said why you are doing animal sacrifice you are doing Go medha , Asva medha. Then Lord Chaitanya replied at that period Brahmanas had such power that they could take in all the ailing cow and kill it and by mantra can bring it back to life to show the efficacy of the vedic mantra. But in Kali Yuga such brahmanas are not available such power in them are lost therefore specifically vedas prohibit aswa medh and Go medh. 5 things are prohibited in Vedas for Kali yuga two of which is this animal sacrifice. Then he came back to the point the cow and bull are like your mother and father so why you are killing them?” Koran also says one should not kill the cow. They have specific verses to this effect. Actually the higher path is to be Vegetarian higher path is not to kill any animals. Two paths are given in Quran lower and higher. Higher is recommended if you don’t follow ________[19:45 Not clear].

Then Chand Kazi admitted yes that actually our Quran states that at many places it glorifies that one should not eat any meat. But on this the Mullahs they don’t understand these verses they generally neglect it and they are promoting the lower path. There is lot of contradictions in our scripture but what you say is correct and also glorified being vegetarian in the Koran.

Like this they discussed and in the end Chand Kazi chanted Hare Krishna and he gave the order that no one should disturb the Sankirtan movement of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

This is a bonafide movement and even I request my descendants they should never obstruct the Sankirtan movement of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. So Lord Chaitanya on the basis of vedas , on the basis of Koran and on the basis of whatever philosophy whether buddism,Jainism he would discuss with those people using their own logic as well as throught the vedic understanding he would establish the principle of Krishna consciousness. He would do it in a very humble way. He would do it in a forceful way. He would get the point across. He would always come out successful in every one of these discussions.

He didn’t necessarily look for fight with people but when it could not be avoided or when a situation was such that need was there to defend the philosophy then he would do the needful.

When we went to banares he was sent to the Sanyasis he didn’t want to go to the Mayawadi sanyasi followers of Sankara. But they were criticizing his Sankirtan movement that he didn’t mind. But his followers were begging him that “we cannot bear to hear all these criticisms.” They are saying what type of sanyasi are you? You are Singing and dancing Harekrishna in the street with all the people. You are taking nabadwip brahmins all the type of castes everyone you are taking together. So what type of Sanyasi is this? Sentimentalist. You are ruining the Hindu Dharma._______[22:02 Unclear] .We cannot take this all criticism. They said at that time one big rishi  he came to invite Chaitanya Mahaprabhu please come to my house want to have special festival for all sanyasis.

All Sankara Sanyasis have agreed to come I also requested you should come. So he agreed to go. So prakashananda saraswati was the chief Acharya having 50000 disciples. So all the prominent disciples are gathered in this big Lord’s house. Lord Chaitanya came and it was the custom then at the doorway people would wash their feet and then walk in. Lord Chaitanya sat right next to the place in the dirty water. He just sat there. Whereas all the other sanyasis were sitting at the raised area. So he started emitting Brahma Jyoti from his body so that attracted all the mayawadi sanyasis there. They were attracted by the Jyoti. So this Praksananda saraswati asked what are you doing sitting at the dirty place? No No You are all great sanyasis I am very insignificant. How can I sit amongst all of you?” I am just taking my natural position here. Iam not worthy of sitting among you I am a lower Category of Sanyasis of all of you. Then Prakashananda No No What you are speaking ___________ [23:37- 23:43 Not Clear] so immediately he has already by his humility he won their hearts to some extent.

Let me explain you are one of us you took initiation from Keshav Bharati we understand he is in a bharati school he is one of our _____ [24:06 Not clear] sampradhaya . So “why you are chanting all these HareKrishna in the street.Why you are singing and dancing?”Why you are not studying Vedanta with all of us? Lord Chaitanya he spoke to them

“ I can speak something if you don’t mind. “

“No,No please speak to us”.

So he explained I went to see my Guru told me that you are a fool. So don’t spend your time studying Vedanta Sutras that in this age the Vedas say that

harer nāma harer nāma

harer nāmaiva kevalam

kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva

nāsty eva gatir anyathā

Translation: 

“ ‘For spiritual progress in this Age of Kali, there is no alternative, there is no alternative, there is no alternative to the holy name, the holy name, the holy name of the Lord.’

There is no other way no other way no other way guaranteed to achieve success in spiritual progress simply chant Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Hare Krishna this is the recommended process at this age of Kali. So I begun to chant

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare rama Hare Rama Rama rama Hare hare

Mahamantra. I was chanting then I found that sometime great ecstasy tears are coming in my eyes my hair standing on end. I was some time laughing some time crying sometime dancing. And though may be I became mad. I went to my Guru and asked what kind of mantra have you given me? By chanting this mantra iam behaving like a mad man crying and dancing. What is that? Am I doing something wrong?

And my guru explained No these are very good signs.

These are the signs of love of Krishna Krishna Prema coming in your consciousness. So You go on chanting and there is nothing wrong with that. These are all auspicious signs.

With this reason he said “ Iam chanting and dancing on the order of my Guru.”

According to Vedas like this they had lengthy discussion actually. They said well it is quite alright but you still study Vedanta. Then he had discussion. Lord Chaitanya explained how the Vedanta actual Vedanta

“janmādy asya yato”

Everything is coming from the one source. Everything is coming from one origin. So this proves since we are Krishna’s we have qualities and the origin must have qualities how can something can come nothing. How can that come from the origin when the origin doesn’t have it. If we have qualities then origin must has qualities. If we have personality the origin must have personality. This way very technical discussion on Vedanta, advaita philosophy on Achintya abeda beda tatva philosophy. Like in this way Lord Chaitanya very humbly he was able to completely establish the principle of spiritual duality of spiritual diversity as the actual understanding of spiritual life.

The complete understanding of Advaita completely non different non dual reality He was explaining everything. Then the Acharya was speechless.

Chaitanya mahaprabhu has convince everyone but the Acharya was also he didn’t know what to speak. Because Chaitany Mahaprabhu has defeated him. While he was not able to say anything. His chief disciples stood up actually whatever you said  also explain how shankaracharya he was actually incarnation of Shiva. In the puranas Vishnu told Shiva you come as Brahmin in order to bring all Buddhists back to Vedic culture. You preach covered Buddhism as a Brahmin. You twist the Vedas in order to accommodate this philosophy. Before thinking everything is personal this will increase the population. People will more become materially attached. When they think supreme truth is Nirakara they become attached to aakar this material world and they should become sexually active and they will produce further progeny. This will create a bigger population later this will help in liberating more living beings by coming as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and spreading this Sankirtan yajnya which liberates humans very easily. Now population is more we can liberate more human beings. And that part was mentioned. Other part was Vedas but shankaracharya being Siva coming for this purpose is clearly mentioned in the several part of Vedas. So Shankaracharya actually changed, he didn’t give a clear direction he gave a kind of indirect twisting the thing.

So Lord Chaitanya pointed all this and explained to them so that chief disciples stood up and he said actually whatever you have said is correct.

So our guru was somewhat hesitating to speak anything but we request him to accept you as his guru. And this way we all will follow you through him something like that. Anyway they all surrendered to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and they all become his followers. Then he had big Sankirtan with all these followers of Shankaracharya now become the followers of Lord Chaitanya so many sanyasis. So Lord Chaitanya everywhere he went he was spreading this message of Krishna Bhakti to everyone. This is the big thing everyone should know the goal of life. Whole Vedic culture is based on this

“Athato brahma jijnasa.janmady asya yatah”

First enquire what is the absolute truth if we know what is absolute truth all relative truth will be revealed once we miss the point we miss everything. This is the big problem in the modern world people miss what is the actual point.

Lecture ends

Trascription By Harinama Krshna Dasa

Date : 27-09-2017