BG 7.25 – How to Serve the Lord

Giriraj Swami: 

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

We shall read from Bhagavad-gītā, Chapter Seven, “Knowledge of the Absolute,” 

TEXT 25

nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya
yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ
mūḍho ‘yaṁ nābhijānāti
loko mām ajam avyayam

TRANSLATION

I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I am covered by My internal potency, and therefore they do not know that I am unborn and infallible.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

It may be argued that since Kṛṣṇa was visible to everyone when He was present on this earth, how can it be said that He is not manifest to everyone? But actually He was not manifest to everyone. When Kṛṣṇa was present there were only a few people who could understand Him to be the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In the assembly of Kurus, when Śiśupāla spoke against Kṛṣṇa’s being elected president of the assembly, Bhīṣma supported Him and proclaimed Him to be the Supreme God. Similarly, the Pāṇḍavas and a few others knew that He was the Supreme, but not everyone. He was not revealed to the nondevotees and the common man. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa says that but for His pure devotees, all men consider Him to be like themselves. He was manifest only to His devotees as the reservoir of all pleasure. But to others, to unintelligent nondevotees, He was covered by His internal potency.

In the prayers of Kuntī in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.8.19) it is said that the Lord is covered by the curtain of yoga-māyā and thus ordinary people cannot understand Him. This yoga-māyā curtain is also confirmed in the Īśopaniṣad (Mantra 15), in which the devotee prays:

hiraṇmayena pātreṇa
satyasyāpihitaṁ mukham
tat tvaṁ pūṣann apāvṛṇu
satya-dharmāya dṛṣṭaye

“O my Lord, You are the maintainer of the entire universe, and devotional service to You is the highest religious principle. Therefore, I pray that You will also maintain me. Your transcendental form is covered by the yoga-māyā. The brahma-jyotir is the covering of the internal potency. May You kindly remove this glowing effulgence that impedes my seeing Your sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha, Your eternal form of bliss and knowledge.” The Supreme Personality of Godhead in His transcendental form of bliss and knowledge is covered by the internal potency of the brahma-jyotir, and the less intelligent impersonalists cannot see the Supreme on this account.

Also in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.14.7) there is this prayer by Brahmā: “O Supreme Personality of Godhead, O Supersoul, O master of all mystery, who can calculate Your potency and pastimes in this world? You are always expanding Your internal potency, and therefore no one can understand You. Learned scientists and learned scholars can examine the atomic constitution of the material world or even the planets, but still they are unable to calculate Your energy and potency, although You are present before them.” The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Kṛṣṇa, is not only unborn but also avyaya, inexhaustible. His eternal form is bliss and knowledge, and His energies are all inexhaustible.

COMMENT

In the Fourth Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Krishna says that one who knows the transcendental nature of His appearance and activities will be liberated and go to back home back to Godhead. He doesn’t have to take birth again.

[Unintelligable]

The fact is that Krishna has the right not to reveal Himself to anybody and everybody. He is not revealed to the non-devotees, the karmis and the yogis. For the karmis, he covered by maya in the form of eight material elements: earth, water, fire, air, space, mind, intelligence, and false ego. They cannot see beyond the material elements. And for the impersonalists, Krishna is covered by the Brahman effulgence of the Lord, the impersonal brahmajyoti. So, Krishna is concealed to both materialist and impersonal philosophers. So, those who want to understand Krishna and thus become liberated, he has to become His devotee.

In the Bhagavad-gītā, the Lord says that He instructed the knowledge of yoga to Arjuna, bhakto ‘si me sakhā ceti. So, the Arjuna was the dear friend and the devotee of Lord Sri Krishna. [break] So, He reveals Himself to devotee only. Just like the deity or arca-vigraha. Anyone can go to the temple and see the murti, but only a devotee can understand that the murti is Krishna. The karmis will think that the murti is simply stone, so these people are simply worshiping a piece of stone and jnanis, they will think that ‘Yes, they are worshiping the murti but ultimately, they have to go beyond the murti and merge into impersonal brahman. But the devotee only understands that here is God, here is Krishna. So, ye yathā māṁ prapadyante, as one approaches Krishna, Krishna reciprocates accordingly. If you receive the deity as stone then the deity will remain as stone. If you want to merge into impersonal effulgence of the Lord and you qualify yourself, you can merge into the impersonal brahmajyoti. If you want to serve Krishna, then you can go back home, back to Godhead, and play with Krishna, eat with Krishna, dance with Krishna.

So God is very kind. However, you want to, according to Him, He will reciprocate with you. The devotees want to have a direct relationship with the Lord, so they pray for the Lord to remove the covers which hide Him from the devotee so that devotees can see Him as He is. Of course, we cannot approach the Lord directly. We have to approach the Lord through paramparā. So, by the mercy of the guru, we can perceive the Lord as He is and then we can serve the Lord directly. Krishna se tomara, the devotee prays that, “I am Yours and as you like can reveal to me. I am running behind you shouting, Krishna, Krishna.”

Once in Madras, we arranged a program for Srila Prabhupada and chief justice of high court was very interested in Krishna consciousness. So he arranged the big meeting, a public gathering and especially invited to high court judges and the intelligent people of Madras. After the program, the chief justice of Madras invited Srila Prabhupada and us to his house. We went to the drawing room of the chief justice, and there was another small murti of Krishna like this. And Srila Prabhupada’s secretary had one daughter named Sarasvati, who was about three or five years old. Srila Prabhupada held the murti in front of the Sarasvati and said, “Where is Krishna?” He immediately hid the murti himself so that little girl wouldn’t understand where is Krishna went. So, she was looking at all direction ‘Where is Krishna?’

Of course, in the lecture, Srila Prabhupada has spoken about the feelings of separation by the Six Gosvamis. The Six Gosvamis were very important people in the society. They gave up everything to join the movement of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. They were staying in the Vrindavan and experienced feelings of separation of Radha and Krishna.

he rādhe vraja-devike ca lalite he nanda-sūno kutaḥ

śrī-govardhana-kalpa-pādapa-tale kālindī-vane kutaḥ

ghoṣantāv iti sarvato vraja-pure khedair mahā-vihvalau

vande rūpa-sanātanau raghu-yugau śrī-jīva-gopālakau

So, the Six Gosvamis would wonder all over Vrindavan shouting “Oh Srimati Radharani, oh son of Nanda Maharaja, where are you? Are you on Govardhana Hill or are you on the banks of the Yamuna? Where are you?” These were the mood in executing Krishna consciousness. By the Srila Prabhupada’s grace, this small girl was put into same feeling of separating from Krishna and searching for Krishna, ‘Where is Krishna.’

After some time, Srila Prabhupada said to Sarasvati, “Where is Krishna?” Again she was bewildered and could not find him. So, one devotee said to Sarasvati, “Who has Krishna?” Then immediately Sarasvati says that with the realization, she said, “Prabhupada has Krishna.” Then Srila Prabhupada took out little murti of Krishna from behind his back and presented before her. So, in this small pastime, Srila Prabhupada demonstrated one very important truth: whenever we can see Krishna when we are eager to see Him and when we feel separation from Him. Another truth is that Krishna is the property of His pure devotees. The pure devotees reveal Krishna to us or present Krishna to us, so we can see Him or serve Him. Actually, for devotee, serving God is more important that seeing God. Therefore, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura says we shouldn’t be anxious to see the God but we should act such a way that God would like to come and see us. Just like if you want to meet the king, it is not very easy. But if you serve the country very nicely then king himself want to come and see us and recognize us. So, we should not try to see the God, we should try to serve the God so that He would please to see us.

Of course, what service we can offer to God. God is great and we are insignificant, what service we can offer to God? So the shastra says,

ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi

na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ

sevonmukhe hi jihvādau
svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ

That the Lord reveals Himself to those who want to serve the Lord with tongue. Someone may say that this is very wonderful that we serve God with the tongue. How can we serve God with tongue? There is explained that we serve God by chanting His name.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Simply chanting Hare Krishna is service to God. And taking kṛṣṇa-prasāda is also service to God with the tongue. The Krishna consciousness movement gives everyone the opportunity to serve God with the tongue by chanting Hare Krishna and taking kṛṣṇa-prasāda. And beyond that one can serve Krishna by reading Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and by worshipping the deity at home or in the temple. Just by following this process, one can understand God. One can realize God and one can go back to God.

So, there are some questions here. We will answer a few of them.

Question: If people are so intelligent, why there is so much suffering? There is so much injustice in the world, why does he promote all these things?

Giriraj Swami: Well. The fact is that people are not so intelligent. Just like Krishna says here mūḍho ‘yaṁ nābhijānāti, that the foolish mūḍhā cannot understand Krishna, so very few people understand Krishna. Rather those who are intelligent, they become devotees and realize God. The shastra confirms that in this age of Kali, those are intelligence will worship the Lord by performing saṅkīrtana-yajña. So, intelligent one will join the saṅkīrtana-yajña movement.

Now, the question is if God is judge then why there is so much injustice in the world? So, everyone in the material world is more or less sinful. Everyone has to suffers the results of the sins they committed. Everyone who is suffering deserves to be suffering. But if one surrender to God, then God will free you from all sinful reactions. An intelligent person surrenders to Krishna, and Krishna will protect us from all sinful reactions.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!
Nitai-Gaura premānande Hari Haribol!