SB 1.8.7

Giriraj Swami: 

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

Reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto One, Chapter Eight, “Prayers by Queen Kunti and Parīkṣit Saved,” 

TEXT 7

āmantrya pāṇḍu-putrāṁś ca
śaineyoddhava-saṁyutaḥ
dvaipāyanādibhir vipraiḥ
pūjitaiḥ pratipūjitaḥ

TRANSLATION

Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa then prepared for His departure. He invited the sons of Pāṇḍu, after having been worshiped by the brāhmaṇas, headed by Śrīla Vyāsadeva. The Lord also reciprocated greetings.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Apparently Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa was a kṣatriya and was not worshipable by the brāhmaṇas. But the brāhmaṇas present there, headed by Śrīla Vyāsadeva, all knew Him to be the Personality of Godhead, and therefore they worshiped Him. The Lord reciprocated the greetings just to honor the social order that a kṣatriya is obedient to the orders of the brāhmaṇas. Although Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa was always offered the respects due the Supreme Lord from all responsible quarters, the Lord never deviated from the customary usages between the four orders of society. The Lord purposely observed all these social customs so that others would follow Him in the future.

COMMENT

So, the present verse of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam gives very good instructions to us about proper Vaishnava etiquette. It said here, pūjitaiḥ pratipūjitaḥ, that the Lord reciprocated with the worship of the others. In other words, the Lord observed the proper social etiquette to set the example for us. In social etiquette, there are various considerations of respectability. One consideration is age. If someone is older, he is respectable by the younger person. For example, the Pandavas in other aspects were at the same level as Lord Krishna. But Maharaja Yudhisthira was older than Lord Krishna. Of course, Krishna is eternal and the soul is also eternal. But in terms of the pastimes, Maharaja Yudhisthira played the part of someone who was older than Lord Krishna. So when they would have met, Lord Krishna give respect to Maharaja Yudhisthira. And Arjuna and Bhima were of similar ages as Lord Krishna. So when they met, they would embrace each other. And Nakula and Sahadeva appeared to be younger than Lord Krishna, so they would offer respects at Krishna’s feet. Similarly, as the son of Vasudeva and Devaki, Lord Krishna offered obeisances at the feet of His mother and father. Because not only were they elder to him, but they were his parents as well. And thus they were worshipable by him. So we have to be very careful to observe the proper etiquette. Otherwise, we may create problems and conflicts.

Another consideration is varṇa or caste and ashrama or a spiritual status. So because Lord Krishna was playing the part of kshatriya, He would offer respect and worship to someone who was a brahman. Even though he was Supreme Personality of Godhead. He wants to show by his personal example that a person in a lower caste should offer respects to a person in a higher caste. And in the same way he would offer respects to a sannyasi because he was playing the part of a grihastha. But here we find that Srila Vyasadeva and the other brahmans were offering worship to Lord Krishna. Why? Because actually Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He only played the part of a kshatriya for the sake of pastimes. And as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is worshipable by all living entities, especially brahmans. Namo brahmaṇya-devāya means that we offer respect to Lord Krishna who is the worshipable Lord of the brahmans.

So therefore, because Vyasadeva and the other brahmans knew that Krishna was the Supreme Personality of Godhead, they worshipped Him. They put aside the formalities that they were brahmans and that Krishna played the role of a kshatriya. They gave more importance to the fact that he really is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And in fact, they wanted to worship Him. Brahmans or devotees take the pleasure in worshipping Krishna or God. In the material world we don’t like to worship others because of envy. In the spiritual realm we like to offer worship, we like to render service, we take pleasure in it. Indeed, the more we like it to offer respect to others and the more we like to offer service to the more, we are progressing in spiritual understanding. Because in the material world, all want to be served and respected by others. But in the spiritual realm we have a different idea. There is on instructive incident with Srila Prabhupada and two other devotees in Mayapur. Srila Prabhupada had just finished his prasāda and he heard some arguing or fighting coming from the next room. He asked his servant to see what was happening. And the servant came back and said that two of the secretaries of Srila Prabhupada were fighting because the more senior devotee was feeling sick. He told the more junior devotee that because he was sick he couldn’t take the regular devotee’s prasāda. So, he wants mahā-prasāda from Srila Prabhupada’s plate. Whereas the other devotees said no, he was going to distribute the mahā-prasāda equally to everyone.

So there was some argument. And then Srila Prabhupada told the servant to call the secretaries in the room. And then he said that actually the younger secretary was wrong, that he actually should have given the prasāda to the sick devotee. And then he said that it is not enough just to serve the spiritual master. But we should also serve the other servants of the spiritual master. And he gave the example also of the sadhus or saintly persons in Bengal. That the sadhus would go to some village, and the village people would greet the sadhu by offering obeisances and giving them invitations and so on. They were thinking that if I offer worship to the sadhu, then I will make spiritual advancement. And the sadhu was thinking, why are they worshipping me? I am just an ordinary person. I am nothing special. Srila Prabhupada said that because both parties were very humble, both parties made great advancement. So we should always try to be humble and respectful in our dealings. Instead of finding the reasons why the other person should worship me, I should rather look for the reasons why I should give respect to the other person.

Just like Krishna was thinking that they are brahmans, so I have to worship them. As Krishna was thinking, they are brahmans, so I must worship them. And they thought, Krishna is the Supreme Lord, we must worship Him. For this reason, each one was looking for a reason why he should adore the other. Just as sometimes a person joins the movement later. And it may happen that he takes himself to a higher position than others who joined the movement before. But still, he must think, oh, this is my older godbrother, I must offer him respect. And the older devotee must think that he is united with the movement recently, but is doing a good service, I must offer respect. In this way, everyone will advance very nicely, and the relationships will be very harmonious. So we should not fight amongst ourselves. We can see there are so many people who actually want Krishna consciousness. If we look, we can find faults everywhere. But Srila Prabhupada said that we should not be like the flies who are always looking for wounds and dirt. But we should be like the bees that go from flower to flower looking for nectar.

We see that the people here at least are very interested in Krishna consciousness, and we should try to give ourselves to them. Giving ourselves to them means giving our association to them, giving Krishna consciousness to them. Then they will be satisfied, Srila Prabhupada will also be satisfied, and Lord Krishna will be very satisfied. So, so many devotees have so many talents that they can contribute to make everything a success.

Are there any questions or comments?

Translator: The question he was asking is that sometimes it seems that Krishna had all the occupations. That at first were a vaishya, a shepherd of cows, then was a kshatriya, when he was a child, and a king, and sometimes it seems that he is a brahman. It seems that the he has all varṇas are in the same time.

Giriraj Swami: The original form of Krishna is the cowherd boy in Vrindavan. And the expansion of the original Krishna by the name Vasudeva is the kshatriya in Dvaraka. But he is always the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When he speaks transcendental knowledge, like the Bhagavad-gītā, he is speaking as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, not as a brahman or a kshatriya or a vaishya or a sudra.

Similarly, a devotee may play the part of a kshatriya or a vaishya. But because he is a Vaishnava, he is transcendental to all the varṇas and ashramas, and can speak the absolute truth. So, when a Lord speaks the absolute truth, he speaks as the Lord. Even a Vaishnava speak absolute truth as Vaishnava. Both the Lord and the Vaishnava are transcendental. They are more than brahmans. Because a brahman may only know brahman in the sense of impersonal brahman, whereas a Vaishnava knows all of the features of the Absolute Truth: Brahman, Paramātmā, and Bhagavān. So a Vaishnava is actually more than a brahman, although he might play the part of a brahman or a kshatriya or a vaishya. But Krishna can act as anything and similarly a Vaishnava can act as anything. But because the greatest need in human society now is for brahmans, so Srila Prabhupada wanted to train us as brahmans, and he wanted us to act as brahmans.

In Kali-yuga also, the Lord comes as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and plays the part of brahman. But what you said is true, that Krishna can play the part of any position, take the part of any position. Just like Maharaja Yudhisthira performed the Rājasūya sacrifice, and people from all over the world came. So the different duties were divided amongst the different personalities. Srila Prabhupada said that when we organize a big festival, we must divide all different duties in the same way among all. For example, Bhima was put in charge of the kitchen department, someone in charge of receiving the elders. Maybe Sahadeva was put in charge of giving charity. Each person was put in charge of a department. Do you know what department Lord Krishna took? Yes, he washed the feet of the guests. He took the most humble position. So, Krishna can take any position to please His devotees. And a Vaishnava can take any position to please Lord and other devotees.

So, we will have guru-puja.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!