NOD – VIHE Nectar of Devotion—Part 06

Giriraj Swami: From the mouth of Brahma, the brahmanical order has come into existence. Similarly, from his arms the kshatriyas have come. From his waist, the vaishyas have come, and from his legs the sudras have come. These four orders and their spiritual counterparts, brahmacharya, grihastha, vanaprastha, and sannyasa combine to make human society complete.

TEXT 1.2.11

ya eṣāṁ puruṣaṁ sākṣād

ātma-prabhavam īśvaram

na bhajanty avajānanti

sthānād bhraṣṭāḥ patanty adhaḥ

TRANSLATION

If one simply maintains an official position in the four varṇas and āśramas but does not worship the Supreme Lord Viṣṇu, he falls down from his puffed-up position into a hellish condition. 

COMMENT

Once, Srila Prabhupada and the devotees were invited by one life member to take prasāda at his house in Bombay. He was a very nice man, a very pious man, and the whole family was pious and nice. So the man and the family served prasāda to Prabhupada and the devotees and after the devotees had finished, they took prasāda. And while they were taking prasāda, a few devotees gathered around Srila Prabhupada, and Srila Prabhupada was talking. Then he glanced over towards the man and his family at the table taking prasāda and said, “Even if one executes his duties as a householder very perfectly but if he is not Krishna conscious, he will go to hell.” 

I thought that Srila Prabhupada is speaking strong words, but later I came across the verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and I found that what Srila Prabhupada had said was exactly the same as what is found in the Bhāgavatam—hat even if you execute your duties in the varnashrama very perfectly, but if you are not Krishna conscious or if you don’t worship the Supreme Lord Krishna, you will fall down and go to hell. How is it possible? The clue comes in the first verse that all members of society in all social orders and all spiritual orders come from the Supreme Lord. Therefore they all have some relationship with Him. He is their source, or He is their father or our father and therefore, we all have some relationship with Him.

Now in the second verse, na bhajanty means if one does not worship the Lord, and avajānanti means if one neglects the Lord or if one disrespects the Lord. So here, there are actually two cases. In one case, the person is not aware of the Lord, and therefore he does not worship Him. In the second case, the person is aware of the Lord, but he deliberately does not worship Him. But even in the case of the person who is not aware of the Lord, there is some fault because he comes from the Lord, so he should inquire about the Lord. Just like a child should know who his father is, and if he doesn’t know he should inquire who his father is. It is natural. And if he doesn’t inquire, there is something wrong. And if he knows who his father is, and he doesn’t serve his father, there is something wrong also. So in both cases there is some offense against the Lord. And because of the offense against the Lord, even though the person is following the rules and regulations of varnashrama, the person will fall down from varnashrama.

And varnashrama is the basic principle to regulate the human society. If people do not follow varnashrama-dharma, they are unregulated, like animals. So when they are unregulated like animals, they engage in sinful activities and when they engage in sinful activities, they go to hell. So here there are two stages, sthānād bhraṣṭāḥ, they fall down from their position in varnashrama and when they fall down from their position in varnashrama, they gradually engage in sinful activities and patanty adhaḥ, they go to hell. Actually, we have experience of devotees, even in ISKCON, who want to become good householders, good grihasthas or good vaishyas or something, and they start with the intention of following the regulative principles. They start with the intention of contributing to the temple as prescribed in the scriptures, but gradually, they drift from the association of devotees. They fall down from their positions as good grihasthas or good vaishyas. They gradually break the regulative principles and go to hell. So therefore, one must maintain Krishna consciousness at all cost. One can be a good grihastha or a good vaishya or anything, if he is Krishna conscious. But if he neglects Krishna consciousness, even if he is trying to be a good grihastha or a good vaishya, he will fall down and eventually go to hell.

Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura comments that the basis of the original offense against the Lord which is not to worship the Lord or not to serve the Lord, comes from not properly respecting or worshipping the bona fide spiritual master. He says that if one properly honors and worships the bona fide spiritual master, then naturally he will honor and worship the Lord. But if he neglects the bona fide spiritual master, he will gradually become offensive to the Lord also, and then he will fall down.

Devotee: [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: Yes, but if you think that because you have engaged in devotional service you can do any nonsense and not go to hell, you are committing an offense — committing sin on the strength of chanting, or committing sin on the strength of rendering devotional service. So, if one deliberately engages in sinful activities thinking that he will be freed from hellish punishment because he had engaged in devotional service earlier, he is involved in the offense, committing sin on the strength of chanting. And when one commits sin on the strength of chanting not only does he have to suffer the result of the sin, but he also has to suffer the result of the offense. So one cannot intentionally commit sin and think that he will be saved from the reaction because he did some service or did some chanting. Well, being separated from God is certainly hellish but there are also physical hellish conditions, hellish species of life, hellish planets where one goes if one engages in sinful activities. 

Devotee: [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: I would not say so. But the question is, was he indicating that the life member was not Krishna conscious and would go to hell? So I said, “I wouldn’t say so. He is Krishna conscious partially.”

Devotee: [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: Why does he ask Arjuna to say it or why the statement?

Devotee: [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: No, no, no. The verse is not about devotees. The verse is about non-devotees who follow varnashrama-dharma.

Devotee: [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: True. Temporarily. Going to hell is temporary. Going to heaven is temporary. Everything is temporary in the material world. Of course, he should come back. We hope that Krishna will bring him back. But for the time being, he is engaging in sinful activities, and he has to suffer. Srila Prabhupada has stated in several places that if the devotee neglects his duties for devotional service but is not serious about devotional service and falls down, he may have to suffer the reactions for his neglect of his duties. What to speak of his engagement in sinful activity, but he will still get the chance to engage in devotional service in spite of the fact that he takes birth in a hellish condition.

Devotee: [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: Are those the only two choices?

Devotee: [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: No, it is better to approach Krishna. Even if one is offensive, it is better to approach Krishna because one may give up his offensive mentality. And if he doesn’t give up his offensive mentality, he will go away anyway. So he will be in the same position as if he never approached Krishna. One time one disciple asked Srila Prabhupada about getting free from offenses, how to become free from the reactions to offenses. Srila Prabhupada replied, “You are asking this question because you want to commit offenses.”

Ok, now we will go to the next section, the next discussion – Eligibility of the candidate for devotional service: Page twenty-three, the bottom of the left column.

Rupa Gosvami in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu says that when some person by extreme good fortune develops faith in devotional service and is not too attached or too detached, he is eligible to enter devotional service. That is verse 1.2.14. And then, he quotes this verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam [11.20.8] as evidence. This is 1.2.15:

yadṛcchayā mat-kathādau
jāta-śraddhas tu yaḥ pumān 
na nirviṇṇo nāti-sakto
bhakti-yogo ‘sya siddhi-daḥ

Somehow or other, if one is attracted to talks about Krishna, and he has faith in the instructions of Krishna, and if he is actually detached from material things, means, not falsely detached and not attached, his dormant love for Krishna will be awakened by devotional service. Now the first word is yadṛcchayā, ‘somehow or other,’ or in the synonyms, Srila Prabhupada translates it ‘by some good fortune.’ Now if we say that one becomes eligible for devotional service by some good fortune, we have to inquire what is the cause of the good fortune. Generally, the cause of good fortune is supposed to be the performance of pious activities, but here the explanation of good fortune cannot be pious activities because pious activities in the system of karma or jnana cannot bring one to devotional service because devotional service or bhakti is independent of karma or anything else. Here good fortune means, really, to get the association of a pure devotee and render service to a pure devotee even if he does not have faith in devotional service. He does not know that he is dealing with a pure devotee, but somehow or other he gets the association of a pure devotee and serves the devotee.

When Srila Prabhupada first went to the west, some fortunate persons served him. They didn’t know that he is a pure devotee, they didn’t think that they are rendering devotional service, yet they served him. Sally Agarwal, in Butler, Pennsylvania, she didn’t know what pure devotee is, what is devotional service but she thought that Prabhupada is a friend of her father-in-law, and he is like her father also. She served him as a friend or as a guest or as a stranger, but she got so much benefit. So this is known as ajñāta-sukṛti or pious activity performed without knowledge. And here pious activity specifically means service to a pure devotee. That brings one good fortune, not material pious activities. But yadṛcchayā also has another meaning. Rupa Gosvami says, ‘by good fortune,’ in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, and Lord Chaitanya also says, ‘by good fortune,’ in Caitanya-caritāmṛta:

brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva 
guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja

That after wandering through so many species of life in so many universes or planetary systems, one who is fortunate receives the seed of devotional service by the mercy of Guru and Krishna. So that is bhāgya, good fortune. Now yadṛcchayā specifically means independent or by one’s own sweet will. In the Fifth Chapter of the First Canto, there is one nice verse about Narada muni where almost the same word comes. And Srila Prabhupada explains the verse says that Narada muni travels everywhere throughout the universe, yadṛcchayā, by his own sweet will, independently. And in the purport, Srila Prabhupada explains that the devotee is independent. He can travel anywhere he likes or not travel anywhere he doesn’t like. Then he says that the process of devotional service is also independent. One may attain devotional service or not and the association of devotees is also independent. One may try for it for a long time with great efforts, and he may not get it, or he may get it. So the meaning of yadṛcchayā is, by one’s own sweet will.

Now someone may say that the cause of bhakti, the cause of the appearance of bhakti or the cause of the person getting bhakti is the mercy of the Lord. If we say that the cause is the mercy of the Lord, we have to consider what is the reason that the Lord has bestowed mercy. Does He bestow it equally on everyone and we say no, because some people get bhakti and others don’t. So how can the Lord give bhakti or give mercy to one and not another? Because He is the Supreme Father of all. He has to be equal to everyone. So we cannot say that the cause of bhakti is the mercy of Krishna because then He will be guilty of partiality which He cannot be. Someone could say that the cause is the mercy of the devotee and here again the objection could be raised that the devotee is partial. He gives bhakti to some and not to others. But if we see the characteristics of the madhyama-bhakta, we see that he does make distinction, he does discriminate. 

prema-maitrī-kṛpopekṣā

yaḥ karoti sa madhyamaḥ

He gives his love to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He makes friendship with devotees; he shows or gives mercy to innocent persons, and he neglects the envious persons. So he does make distinctions, he does discriminate where to give mercy and where not to give mercy, and it is not a fault in him. Now what about the uttamādhikārī? Will he give mercy to some and not to others? What will be his position? 

Devotee: Narada muni, as you were saying, he travels all over the universe [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: Yes, this is the answer that the uttamādhikārī sees that everyone is already a devotee. He sees everyone already has bhakti. So he sees no need to give bhakti. If the uttamādhikārī wants to give mercy, he has to come to the platform of madhyamādhikārī. But as long as he is acting on the platform of uttamādhikārī, he doesn’t give mercy because he thinks that everyone is already engaged better than him, so what does he have to do? 

I will give one example. In one discussion with Srila Prabhupada in Indore, in Madhya Pradesh, Srila Prabhupada was criticizing certain popular religious figures of India. And some of the Indians in the audience started to squeal because some of their favorite gurus were being attacked. So then he started to accuse Srila Prabhupada that you should see everyone equally. You should not criticize others and he quoted the verse: 

vidyā-vinaya-sampanne

brāhmaṇe gavi hastini

śuni caiva śva-pāke ca

paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ

A learned person will see everyone equally. He will see a gentle and learned brahman, a cow, an elephant, a dog, and a dog eater, all equally, and he will not criticize anyone. Srila Prabhupada replied, “That is a very advanced stage. But I am not on that platform.” Why is someone born as a brahman and why is someone born as a dog? We discussed it two or three lessons ago. Who can answer? By his sinful activities, one gets a lower birth. So someone who performs pious activities, he may get birth as a brahman and someone who engages in sinful activities, he may get birth as a dog eater or as a dog. So not to make any distinction between a brahman and a dog eater means not to make any distinction between pious activity and sinful activity. So Srila Prabhupada said, “I am not on that platform. I make distinctions. I see that you are doing nonsense, and I say that you should stop it.” In other words, that verse, paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ refers to the uttamādhikārī, and here Srila Prabhupada was saying, “I am not acting on the platform of uttamādhikārī, I am acting on the platform of madhyamādhikārī. I am distinguishing between pious activities and sinful activities, and if you are doing something wrong, I am chastising you.” 

Devotee: [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: He is surrendered to the will of Krishna. So if the will of Krishna is that he should preach, then he is surrendered to the will of Krishna and by the influence of yogamāyā, he is an uttamādhikārī but he doesn’t think he is uttamādhikārī or he has the same vision as uttamādhikārī.

Of course, this is a little different but Krishna also comes under the influence of yogamāyā and when Mother Yasoda picks up the stick to chastise Him, He becomes afraid. He begins to tremble. Tears come out of His eyes. He wants to run away. He is not pretending. He is actually feeling afraid by the influence of yogamāyā. And generally, in Vrindavan, under the influence of yogamāyā, He forgets that He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But sometimes when there is some threat to His devotees. . . When Indra sent torrents of rain to flood Vrindavan, yogamāyā allowed Him to remember that He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead so that He could give protection to His devotees and lift Govardhana Hill. And then when the crisis was over, again yogamāyā came and again Krishna thought, I am the son of Nanda Maharaja. And everyone thought that He is the son of Nanda Maharaja. So yogamāyā works like that. She will cover a person’s actual position or a person’s actual glories for some purpose, and she will uncover the same things for some purpose also in accordance with the will of Krishna. She knows the will of Krishna, and she serves it.

Devotee: [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: We will come to that. In fact, the next verses deal with the same thing, uttamā, madhyam, and kaniṣṭhā but there is a little difference. There is a difference but let us discuss when we come to that because first, we have to understand the basic principle of eligibility and then we can understand first class eligible, second class eligible, third class eligible.

Devotee: Is there a difference between how a devotee gives his mercy from when he is a madhyam-bhakta coming down from uttamā platform or it is a madhyam-bhakta coming from kaniṣṭhā platform? [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: Yes, when he is preaching he has to discriminate between devotees and innocent persons and envious persons. But certainly, the uttamādhikārī who is acting on the madhyam platform has some more potency than the madhyamādhikārī who is acting on the madhyam platform. He can give mercy to persons who really are not qualified to receive mercy as he gave the example of Narada. But it is a special case, but generally he acts like a madhyamādhikārī and he makes distinctions and especially acting as the acharya, he has to set the example for the others who preach.

Devotee: Why we say that these. . . it is so difficult to attain bhāva-bhakti? And then we say Krishna does not give so easily. So in the stage of bhāva-bhakti [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: Bhakti comes from bhakti. Bhāva-bhakti comes from sādhana-bhakti. But you have to do sādhana-bhakti with some intensity to get bhāva-bhakti. If you do sādhana-bhakti with some slackness, then you won’t be able to get bhāva-bhakti very easily.

Devotee: [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: He says Nityananda Prabhu gave mercy to all. That is very hopeful for us. We should go to Nityananda Prabhu at once and get His mercy. 

Devotee: [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: That is also one answer. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati says that from the point of view of eternal time, the period that some conditioned soul is in the material world is just one moment or less than one moment. So he doesn’t consider this one moment to have any significance. He says that the person is eternally engaged in devotional service. That is one answer. The other answer is that he sees that everything is Krishna’s energy and his vision is so broad that he doesn’t make any distinction between Krishna and Krishna’s energy. And everyone is serving Krishna’s energy, that is a fact. Therefore everyone is serving Krishna.

Devotee: [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: He has perfect knowledge and he sees, ātmavan manyate jagat, that as you think, others also think. So the uttamādhikārī is always in the mood of separation from Krishna, and he feels, “I am suffering due to separation from Krishna,” and he sees that everyone else is also suffering due to separation from Krishna. The drunkard is also suffering due to separation from Krishna. Everyone is suffering due to separation from Krishna. So he sees everyone like himself, suffering in separation from Krishna although we distinguish his separation from the separation of a soul who has forgotten Krishna. He is in the mood of separation but he hasn’t forgotten Krishna. He is always thinking of Krishna in the mood of separation. But the souls who have forgotten Krishna are also separated from Krishna, and they are also suffering because they are separated from Krishna.

So in one sense we cannot say that the vision of the mahā-bhāgavata is an illusion. The vision of the mahā-bhāgavata is correct because everyone is suffering in separation from Krishna. You see there is some difference between these three divisions of adhikāra and three divisions of devotees, and that is one reason why there is some confusion although there is also some relationship. But here Rupa Gosvami is discussing eligibility for uttamā-bhakti and in the verses in the Bhāgavatam, different categories of devotees are being described although generally we combine the two. But certainly, someone is. . . the uttamādhikārī has all the qualifications but if he sees that everyone is serving Krishna doesn’t mean that he is not seeing according to the scripture. He is also seeing according to the scripture but in a higher way. He is seeing that everyone is suffering in separation from Krishna. They are devotees, and they are suffering in separation from Krishna. 

Devotee: [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: He is in the mood of separation. In the mood of separation, one feels oneself to be completely unqualified. He thinks that the reason he is in separation is because he is not qualified to serve Krishna. It is humility. It is the extreme of humility. If you think that his real position is that he is superior to others, and therefore since he should know everything as it is, he should think that he is superior to others, then where is the humility?

Devotee: [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: He did so for the sake of preaching. But when he is absorbed in his own devotional service, he doesn’t think so. It is not that the uttamādhikārī has to be engaged. If he wants to preach, he has to be engaged in the mood of preaching day and night like Srila Prabhupada was. He may be absorbed in his own mood of devotional service for most of the time, and only on special occasions he may come and distinguish between people and preach to them.

Ok, I think I will take one more question and as usual the ones who want to stay on, we can discuss. Otherwise, we can continue tomorrow. Ok, two more.

Devotee: He sees that this verse we are talking about today from the Bhāgavatam, the way Prabhupada paraphrased it in The Nectar of Devotion is so much different from the translation in the Bhāgavatam. Because Prabhupada says in The Nectar of Devotion that even if one is completely attached or detached [Unintelligible]

Devotee: Not completely detached.

Giriraj Swami: Not completely detached.

Devotee: [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: We will discuss it tomorrow. We have only started to discuss one word, yadṛcchayā. Tomorrow we will discuss na nirvina which means not falsely detached and nāti-sakto, not too attached. He shouldn’t be too attached or too detached. He can have some attachment but we will discuss it tomorrow.

Devotee: [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: On bhakti becoming more fully manifest, Srila Prabhupada gave the example of the unripe mango and the ripe mango. That when the devotee is in the beginning stage, he is like the unripe mango. That when he is in the advanced stage, he is like a ripe mango. Mango is mango. One stage is more unripe or immature, and the other is more ripe and matured.

Devotee: [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: Bhakti is composed of saṁvit shakti and hlādinī shakti. So when we begin sādhana-bhakti we have both, but a very small amount of both. But when we come to the stage of bhāva-bhakti and get the mercy of Krishna or the Vaishnava, then from the heart of Krishna or some associates of Krishna, bhakti, which means bhāva-bhakti, comes into our heart from them. Do you understand? It is like we are trying to fry a samosa but we only have two drops of ghee. It is ghee, no doubt, but we only have two drops and we are not able to cook the samosa very well. But some Vaishnava sees that we are sincerely trying to cook the samosa, and he takes compassion on us, and he pours so much ghee in the pan, and then we can make very nice samosas to offer to Krishna. So the ghee is the same, but in the beginning stages we don’t have so much bhakti. We can’t do so much with it. But when Krishna gives mercy or some Vaishnava gives mercy in that sense because even to begin, we need mercy but to come to the higher stage we also need more mercy, then they give us bhakti from their stock. So still bhakti comes from bhakti.

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