SB 1.11.5–4

Giriraj Swami: 

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

Reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Canto One, Chapter Eleven: “Lord Kṛṣṇa’s Entrance into Dvārakā.”

TEXTS 4–5

tatropanīta-balayo
raver dīpam ivādṛtāḥ
ātmārāmaṁ pūrṇa-kāmaṁ
nija-lābhena nityadā

prīty-utphulla-mukhāḥ procur
harṣa-gadgadayā girā
pitaraṁ sarva-suhṛdam
avitāram ivārbhakāḥ

TRANSLATION

The citizens arrived before the Lord with their respective presentations, offering them to the fully satisfied and self-sufficient one, who, by His own potency, incessantly supplies others. These presentations were like the offering of a lamp to the sun. Yet the citizens began to speak in ecstatic language to receive the Lord, just as wards welcome their guardian and father.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

The Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa is described herein as ātmārāma. He is self-sufficient, and there is no need for Him to seek happiness from anything beyond Himself. He is self-sufficient because His very transcendental existence is total bliss. He is eternally existent; He is all-cognizant and all-blissful. Therefore, any presentation, however valuable it may be, is not needed by Him. But still, because He is the well-wisher for one and all, He accepts from everyone everything that is offered to Him in pure devotional service. It is not that He is in want for such things, because the things are themselves generated from His energy. The comparison is made herein that making offerings to the Lord is something like offering a lamp in the worship of the sun-god. Anything fiery and illuminating is but an emanation of the energy of the sun, and yet to worship the sun-god it is necessary to offer him a lamp. In the worship of the sun, there is some sort of demand made by the worshiper, but in the case of devotional service to the Lord, there is no question of demand from either side. It is all a sign of pure love and affection between the Lord and the devotee.

The Lord is the supreme father of all living beings, and therefore those who are conscious of this vital relation with God can make filial demands from the father, and the father is pleased to supply the demands of such obedient sons without bargaining. The Lord is just like the desire tree, and from Him everyone can have everything by the causeless mercy of the Lord. As the supreme father, the Lord, however, does not supply to a pure devotee what is considered to be a barrier to the discharge of devotional service. Those who are engaged in the devotional service of the Lord can rise to the position of unalloyed devotional service by His transcendental attraction.

COMMENT

So, the Lord is described as ātmārāmaṁ pūrṇa-kāmaṁ nija-lābhena, that He is self-satisfied. He doesn’t need anything outside of Himself for His satisfaction. And in one sense, nothing can be said to exist outside of Him, because everything is an expansion of Him. So, if He has any desires to be fulfilled, they are fulfilled by His own energy, and thus, He is fully satisfied. And he is also nityadā, or one who is incessantly supplying everything for others. So when He is self-satisfied, and when He is fully satisfied by the actions of His potencies, and when He is supplying everything to everyone, what was the need for the residence of Dvaraka to present offerings to the Lord when He arrives? Their offering presentations to the Lord is just like offering a lamp to the sun. The sun is full of light and heat, more light and heat than we could ever offer to the sun? So what is the use of offering one lamp to the sun. The lamp has no value to the sun. But the act of offering has value to the devotee who makes the offering provided the offering is made with love and devotion.

patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ

yo me bhaktyā prayacchati

[Bg. 9.26].

Lord Krishna, who is supplying the necessities of life to everyone, accepts the offering of a leaf, a fruit, a flower, or some water provided the offering is made with love and devotion. Therefore, the Lord is not exactly accepting the offering in the sense of the fruit or the leaf, but He is actually accepting the devotion, because Krishna is not hungry. He is completely satisfied. And even if He was hungry, He could produce the needs He requires for the satisfaction of the hunger. But actually, He is hungry for the bhakti, and the devotees also are not approaching the Lord for anything material. They are also interested only in the bhakti. So, therefore, bhakti is the only thing that matters to the devotee and to the Lord both. And bhakti becomes so attractive that both the Lord and the devotee forget everything else for the sake of bhakti. The emblem of bhakti is Srimati Radharani. She is also the potency of the Lord, hlādinī-śakti, pleasure potency. So even Krishna wants pleasure, but Krishna cannot derive any pleasure from anything material. Actually, the material nature is the inferior energy of Krishna, so He cannot be attracted by the inferior energy. There are many evidences in the scriptures to the effect that Krishna has no material attraction. What to speak of Krishna, even transcendentalists who surrender to Krishna, or become absorbed in Krishna, they also become free from material attraction. But still, Krishna is attracted by bhakti, and it is said that the devotee who has bhakti is invested with the hlādinī-śakti for giving pleasure to Krishna. Therefore, pure bhakti is very rare.

In the beginning of The Nectar of Devotion, Rupa Gosvami lists different characteristics of pure bhakti. So, one of the characteristics is rareness, because when Krishna gives someone bhakti, He invests the person with hlādinī-śakti which attracts Krishna and actually conquers Krishna. Just like one disciple of Srila Prabhupada, in India – well, we were living in Calcutta, and this devotee met the landlord of the house where we were staying. The landlord was Bengali, and he was speaking to Achyutananda about his ideas of spiritual life. He told Achyutananda that actually Lord Chaitanya was greater than Radha and Krishna. Just like rasagullā is made of the milk and sugar, but actually rasagullā is greater than milk and sugar, separately. And he said that Lord Chaitanya is the origin of Radha and Krishna. So, Achyutananda Swami asked Srila Prabhupada about it. Srila Prabhupada said that, actually using the landlord’s example, the milk and the sugar come first, then they combine to make the rasagullā. So, therefore, Radha and Krishna come first, and They combine together to become Lord Chaitanya.

Then, Achyutananda Swami asked Srila Prabhupada, “Well, who is greater, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu or Radha and Krishna?” So Srila Prabhupada paused for a moment, and thought, and then he said, “Radharani, Radharani is the greatest.” Then he pointed to one picture on the wall where Radharani was sitting up, and Krishna was kneeling at Her feet, and I guess begging Her to forgive Him or accept Him again. He said, “Radharani is the greatest.” Then he pointed to another picture on the wall where Krishna was carrying the shoes of Nanda Maharaja on His head, and then he said, “Nanda Maharaja is the greatest.” Then he said the devotee is the greatest, because Krishna actually becomes subservient to the devotee because Krishna also wants to enjoy. So, the thing that gives Krishna pleasure is bhakti. So, when the devotee has bhakti, then Krishna becomes enthusiastic to enjoy reciprocations with the devotee. Therefore, bhakti is very rare. Rupa Gosvami says that Krishna may very easily give material opulence, and He may even give liberation, but He doesn’t give bhakti very easily, because by bhakti, Krishna Himself becomes purchased by the devotee. So, how does one get bhakti? That is also a very interesting question, because in different places in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Srila Prabhupada mentions the fact that one cannot get bhakti by any material means. He says that one cannot even get bhakti by the mechanical process of chanting and hearing. For example, in India, there are many – well, not so many now, but before, at least, there were many pious Hindus. Every day, they would read Bhagavad-gītā, but they wouldn’t actually develop bhakti. So then, how does bhakti manifest? So Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura says that bhakti is self-manifesting. Of course, Srila Prabhupada says the same thing.

In the First Canto, Narada Muni is described by one Sanskrit word which Srila Prabhupada translates as “free.” That Narada Muni is free to travel anywhere and everywhere that he likes without restriction. So Srila Prabhupada comments that the whole range of devotional service is also free, that it may appear or it may not appear. Then again, he mentions that one may even try for the association of devotees, but one may or may not get the association of devotees. Similarly, one may try by so many procedures to get bhakti, but one may or may not develop bhakti. So, how does bhakti manifest? Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura analyzes that bhakti is free; it is completely self-manifesting. So someone may say, “Well, actually Krishna gives bhakti.” But then, the question would arise, why does Krishna give bhakti to some and not to others? Because Krishna is equal to everyone. So we can’t say that Krishna gives it to all. So then, the next explanation is that one gets bhakti by the mercy of the devotee. This is actually closer. Still, the question could be raised that the devotee only does what Krishna wants him to do. So, therefore, when the devotee bestows bhakti, it is because of Krishna. So, Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura says that actually, Krishna gives the power to the devotee to give bhakti; He gives the devotee the freedom to bestow bhakti. Then the devotee could be accused, that he is partial, “Why does he give to some and not to others?” But actually, the nature of the preacher is that he does distinguish. We all know he makes friends with other devotees, he shows mercy to innocent persons, and he avoids envious persons. But then again, the devotee, he already has bhakti, that is why he is a devotee. So therefore, his ability to show mercy comes from bhakti. So bhakti comes from bhakti. Someone might say, “Well, love of God, or kṛṣṇa-prema, comes from sādhana-bhakti.” But sādhana-bhakti is also bhakti. So prema-bhakti comes from sādhana-bhakti. We still come back to the same point that bhakti comes from bhakti.

But now, we have just celebrated, Ratha-yatra, and in Ratha-yatra, Lord Jagannatha, Baladeva, Lady Subhadra, They come out to show mercy to everyone. Actually, yesterday, you heard the story of how Jagannatha, Baladeva, and Subhadra look so ecstatic. Was everyone here, for that? So, it is said that because Jagannatha, Baladeva, and Subhadra are so much in the mood of ecstasy, that if anyone approaches Them in that mood, They will give the person whatever he asks for. So, the Deities are very much in the mood of ecstasy; in the mood of giving, and everyone can feel it. Even the devotees, they are all brought together by Ratha-yatra, and all of the mundane qualities, like envy and pride, they all tend to disappear. Even so-called ordinary people, they also get affected by the mood of Ratha-yatra. They forget [Unintelligible 00:43:49 – 00:49:54] They also get [Unintelligible; 00:44:00] But this is special mercy. Many of you can get the spiritual benefit. But even if they don’t get fully Krishna conscious, they cannot forget Ratha-yatra. The Nectar of Devotion explains that when one participates in Ratha-yatra, then he will be promoted to Vrindavan dhāma? [Unintelligible 00:45:14] So that is why we should at least try not to offend any devotees even if we think they are neophytes. They still count as devotees. So, we should be careful in all of our dealings with devotees, because if we chant without offense, then we can advance very nicely.

[Unintelligible 00:51:12] Because, like in the Ratha-yatra, the devotees pull the cart, and Jagannatha follows. Guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya, by the mercy of the devotee, one gets the mercy of Krishna. Krishna gives the kṛpā-śakti to the devotees. So, when someone gets the mercy of the devotee, then the mercy of the Lord will follow. Therefore, Lord Chaitanya has emphasized in His teachings to Sanatana Gosvami that one cannot attain the platform of devotional service without the mercy of pure devotees. And He quotes many verses that without serving a pure devotee, one cannot get bhakti. This is an interesting case, now. Prahlada Maharaja, he became a devotee, but he had no association of other devotees, apparently, and the father and the teachers and the friends were all demons. And the father never wanted that the boy should become devotee. So, it was a great mystery. How could he become a devotee, because he was born in the family of demons. The father was demon. The teachers were demons. The friends were demons. Everyone was demon, so how could he become devotee? So the father, Hiraṇyakaśipu, accused the teacher that, “You are responsible that he has become Krishna conscious.” So, they said, “We are not responsible. You are blaming us wrongly, and we are brahmans. You shouldn’t blame brahmans wrongly.”

So, Hiraṇyakaśipu accused that, “You let Vaishnavas in disguise enter into the school.” So they said, “No, we did not.” So, Hiraṇyakaśipu said, “Well, then how did he become Krishna conscious?” So the teacher said, “Well, why don’t you ask him?” So, he asked the boy. The boy replied, matir na kṛṣṇe parataḥ svato vā, that one cannot become Krishna conscious by the efforts of others, and one cannot become Krishna conscious by one’s own effort, and one cannot become Krishna conscious by combined effort between oneself and others. So, how can one become Krishna conscious? So then, Prahlada says,

naiṣāṁ matis tāvad urukramāṅghriṁ
spṛśaty anarthāpagamo yad-arthaḥ

By Krishna consciousness one becomes freed from all miseries of life. How does one become Krishna consciousness?

mahīyasāṁ pāda-rajo-’bhiṣekaṁ
niṣkiñcanānāṁ na vṛṇīta yāvat

Unless one smears his body with the dust of the lotus feet of the pure devotees one cannot become Krishna conscious.

So what does it mean to get the dust of the lotus feet of the devotee? Does it mean that we should roll in the dust where the devotees walk? Of course, some people do that. That is also beneficial. But the other meaning is to follow the instructions of the pure devotee. That means to accept the dust of the lotus feet of the devotees. So, in other words, one cannot become Krishna conscious without following the instructions of the devotees or without serving the devotees. So, it is the same thing that we sing morning; yasya prasādād bhagavat prasādo. By the mercy of the spiritual master one gets the mercy of Krishna. Yasya prasādād na gatiḥ kuto ‘pi, Without the mercy of the spiritual master, or the devotees, one has no position in spiritual life or in devotional service. There are so many examples: when King Rahugana was being carried in the palanquin by Jaḍa Bharata and three other carriers. So, Jaḍa Bharata was a great devotee. He didn’t want to step on any ants while he was carrying the king on the palanquin, so he was going in a zigzag way to avoid stepping on the ants. The king got very upset. So finally, the king got out of the palanquin, and he started to abuse Jaḍa Bharata, but Jaḍa Bharata remained very peaceful and calm. Then, he started to preach to the king. So then, the king realized he is a great paramahamsa, and he asked him, “You seem to be a dull person. How did you become so advanced in spiritual life? So he gave the same answer, vinā mahat-pāda-rajo-’bhiṣekam. “Without being favored by the dust of the lotus feet of pure devotees, one can’t become spiritually advanced.”

This is the teaching of Lord Chaitanya: Become the servant of the servant of the servant. That is the best way to please the Supreme Lord and get the mercy. So one will only serve the pure devotees if one is humble. Otherwise, the person will think, “Well, why should I serve him? He is just a human being, like I am. So, indirectly, Prahlada Maharaja was telling his father that, “You want to know how I became Krishna consciousness? Well, without bowing down to the lotus feet of the pure devotees one cannot become Krishna conscious. And you are too puffed up. You will never bow down to the feet of the pure devotee. So you don’t have to worry about becoming Krishna conscious. It won’t happen to you. Don’t worry. It might have happened to me, but it won’t happen to you.”

Devotee: [Unintelligible 01:06:12]

Giriraj Swami: He didn’t ask. He just became angry. Actually, Prahlada got the instructions from Narada Muni in the womb. That was the mystery. How did Prahlada get the instructions which, by following, made him Krishna consciousness? So he got the instructions in the womb. Even when he saw Nṛsiṁhadeva face to face, he said to Nṛsiṁhadeva, “I have attained this position by the mercy of Narada Muni. Therefore, I can never give up his service.” So, in Vaishnava philosophy, we never give up the relationship with the spiritual master; the service of the spiritual master. Even if we are liberated; even if we are seeing the Lord face to face.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 1:09:15]

Giriraj Swami: Prahlada Maharaja is considered to be a combination of sādhana-siddha and nitya-siddha, because when Prahlada was praying to Nṛsiṁhadeva, he said, “You have caused my appearance in order to teach the principles of pure devotional service.” So Srila Prabhupada comments that because he says that Nṛsiṁhadeva caused him to appear to teach pure devotional service, that implies that he was already perfect; that means nitya-siddha. But Prahlada also attained perfection by following the instructions of Narada Muni, so he is also considered a sādhana-siddha. Kṛpā-siddha is a division of sādhana-siddha, serving the devotee or following the instructions of the devotee by which one gets special mercy that comes in sādhana-siddha.

Devotee: But what about the case of Jaḍa Bharata? [Unintelligible 01:12:26]

Giriraj Swami: He is saying that Jaḍa Bharata didn’t appear to take the instructions of any devotee; to take the dust of any devotee during his life as Jaḍa Bharata.

Jaḍa Bharata was previously Bharata Maharaja. He was the son of Ṛṣabhadeva; he was instructed by Ṛṣabhadeva. Now, he circumstantially fell down, but he kept the memory. So, in one sense, the change of body did not affect the fact that he had received instructions from Ṛṣabhadeva and was serving him; was following the instructions. Generally, conditioned souls forget with the change of body, but he didn’t forget, so he remained as the servant of Ṛṣabhadeva. We also sing, janme janme prabhu se, we remain the servant of the spiritual master life after life. Now, from one life to the next, if we forget the instructions of the spiritual master, then the spiritual master has to come again in some other way to remind us of the instruction. But Jaḍa Bharata did not forget with the change of body. So whether he was reminded of the same instructions again in the same life, doesn’t really matter.

Devotees: [Discussing in French and English]

Translator: He says that looking for bhakti, one is supposed to reject other activities.

Giriraj Swami: Bhakti begins with sraddha. So when we have faith that by bhakti we will get everything; we don’t need anything else besides bhakti, then automatically, we will give up the other processes. Just like, if you have a piece of dry bread, and then I give you nice plate of hot kṛṣṇa-prasāda, then automatically you will give up the dry, stale bread. So nobody will give up something for nothing. You will give up something for something better. So, when we get bhakti, then we will give up karma and jnana. That is why people who try to give up karma without bhakti usually fail, because they don’t really have something better. Ultimately, we want pleasure, so we try to get happiness from material activities. But instead of getting happiness, we just get entangled, and we get miseries.

Karmis, when they get frustrated with the attempt to enjoy materially, then they want relief, then they think of liberation. So the jnanis, they want to give up fruitive activities and merge into impersonal Brahman. But they also don’t get the pleasure that they want. So they can fall down again; usually they fall down again. But when they get bhakti, they get the pleasure that they really wanted, that they don’t fall down again. It is not that by giving up. You can’t give up something to get something better. Just like, if I tell you to give me a hundred francs, will you give me a hundred francs for nothing? Will you? But if I tell you, “If you give me a hundred francs, I will give you a thousand francs,” and if you believe me, then you will give me the hundred francs. So the hundred francs are included in the thousand francs. So the benefits of karma and jnana, they are included in bhakti. [Unintelligible 01:24:54]

Devotee: [Unintelligible 01:25:02]

Giriraj Swami: He says that the question is, “When you lose your false ego, does bhakti automatically manifest?”

Well, false ego is “I am this body.” So when one realizes, “I am not this body, but I am spirit,” that is the beginning of self-realization. But just by realizing, “I am not this body,” one will not necessarily develop bhakti. But when one realizes, “I am the eternal servant of Krishna,” then that is complete self-realization. That is the platform of bhakti. So the understanding that I am the eternal servant of Krishna comes through the mercy of Balarama. So, such knowledge comes by the grace of Lord Balarama, not by submitting academic study.

Devotee: When one leaves the spiritual world, he becomes covered by subtle bodies, and when one loses, again, these bodies, does that mean that he recovers his natural conceptions?

Giriraj Swami: He keeps asking the same question. The false conception has to be replaced by the real conception. The real conception is, “I am the eternal servant of Krishna.” When we understand fully, “I am the eternal servant of Krishna,” then the false conceptions go and the subtle body goes. The subtle material body is actually the spiritual body covered with false conception. So when the false conceptions are replaced by the real conception that, “I am the eternal servant of Krishna,” then the material coverings will go, and the spiritual body will be manifest. 

Devotee: Does that mean that the spiritual body is already existing and is only actually covered, and his bhakti is present in the spiritual body? It just has to be uncovered.

Giriraj Swami: Okay. But the process for uncovering is hearing. Hearing is the first process of bhakti. So we come to the same point that the process for uncovering the original prema-bhakti is sādhana-bhakti. So therefore, Srila Prabhupada says that Krishna consciousness is absolute, because the means and the end are the same. 

Devotee: Does it mean that, if you actually develop hearing – It means that the soul, being covered by many layers – Does it mean that, actually the material energy, the layers, have to be less wide so the hearing may enter?

Giriraj Swami: The hearing will remove the coverings.

Devotee: But, in the previous scriptures, that one has to be ready to receive mercy; ready to be worthy to receive mercy.

Giriraj Swami: Where does it say in the scriptures that one has to be ready to receive the mercy?

Devotee: Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, where [Unintelligible, 01:35:24]. . .qualified. That may mean he is qualified.

Giriraj Swami: What is the qualification?

Devotee: It is said in Bhāgavatam that when one receives the mercy, it is because in past lives, he has done some pious activities.

Giriraj Swami: No. Pious activities are material. Devotional service is ahaitukī; ahaitukī means without any cause. If devotional service was caused by pious activity, it would be karma-phala. So if it was caused by pious activity, that would contradict Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. But it would be karma-phala. It wouldn’t be bhakti. So, I would say this: that if you are thinking that because you have not done enough pious activity in the past life that you cannot become Krishna conscious in the present life, I would say that just by participating in the Ratha-yatra and listening to the discussions of the devotees, you have amassed so much pious activity that you can become Krishna conscious in the present life.

Devotees: Haribol! Jaya! Haribol!

Giriraj Swami: srnvatam sva-kathāh kṛṣṇah puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ. You have already got all the puṇya just by hearing, so you can become Krishna conscious in this very life. Has some devotee who has come to meet you and make you Krishna consciousness. Is that all right?

Srila Prabhupada, ki jaya! 

Jagannatha, Baladeva, Subhadra, ki jaya!

Nitai-Gaura-premānande! Hari Haribol!

Giriraj Maharaja ki jaya!