NOD – VIHE Nectar of Devotion—Part 11

Giriraj Swami: So now we come to hearing. Hearing has been divided into three sections. Can anyone say what they are? Nāma, līlā, and guṇa—hearing the name of the Lord, the holy name of the Lord, hearing the transcendental pastimes of the Lord, and hearing about the divine qualities of the Lord. There is one nice verse: tasmin mahan-mukharitā madhubhic-caritra (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.29.39–40) from the Fourth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which says that one should go to the place where saintly persons are discussing the pastimes of the Lord, which flow like nectar from their mouths, and one whose ears are very eager or thirsty to drink such nectar, he will never experience material thirst or hunger or hankering or illusion or lamentation.

In other words, he’ll be fully satisfied and situated in Krishna consciousness, and in Krishna consciousness he will become transcendental to the material demands of the body. And the river of nectar is always flowing. When the saintly person speaks, it’s not that he is creating the flow of nectar, but the nectar is already flowing within him—the nectar of the pastimes of the Lord is always flowing within him, but when he opens his mouth the nectar comes out.

Therefore, sometimes speakers like Śukadeva Gosvami do not recite the pastimes of the Lord in chronological order, but as the stream of nectar from the spiritual world enters into them, so the same flow of nectar comes out, and it is not necessarily arranged in logical order or chronological order, but as the pastimes flow from the spiritual world in the heart of the devotee, so the nectar comes out from the mouth of the devotee.

Then the next item is, expecting the Lord’s mercy. The actual reference from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.14.8) is quoted in the verse book on page sixty-two.

tat te ‘nukampāṁ su-samīkṣamāṇo
bhuñjāna evātma-kṛtaṁ vipākam
hṛd-vāg-vapurbhir vidadhan namas te
jīveta yo mukti-pade sa dāya-bhāk

“One who seeks Your compassion and thus tolerates all kinds of adverse conditions due to his past deeds, who engages always in Your devotional service with his mind, words, and body and who always offers obeisances unto You, is certainly a bona fide candidate for becoming Your unalloyed devotee.”

So here the words dāya-bhāk means literally rightful heir—that just as the son has the right to inherit the property of the father, similarly the devotee who acts as described in the verse has the right to enter into the Kingdom of God. All the son has to do to inherit the property of the father is to remain alive. Similarly, all the devotee has to do to enter into the Kingdom of God is to remain alive in Krishna consciousness, to continue to follow the regulative principles of Krishna consciousness, and he gets the right to enter the Kingdom of God, and nobody can take the right away from him.

Now in Bhagavad-gītā Krishna says:

sarva-dharmān parityajya

mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja

ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo

mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ

That one who surrenders to Krishna, Krishna frees him from all sinful reactions, and we know that by surrendering to Krishna we become free from sinful reactions, we become free from the effects of past activities. What is the meaning of the verse, or the purport of the verse?

Every conditioned soul has some desire to exploit and enjoy material nature. So when he comes into the material world and engages in sinful activities, he has to suffer the sinful reaction, but the whole material creation is part of a great plan of the Lord, to rectify the fallen conditioned souls so the reactions that one suffers for sinful activities are meant to curb the mentality which led to the sinful activity. So even though a devotee has surrendered to the Lord and no longer engages in sinful activities, he may still have some traces of sinful desires—to exploit and enjoy—and therefore to free the devotee from the last traces of material desire and attachment, the Lord arranges for the devotee to suffer something that resembles the sinful reaction to the same desire that he may still be holding on to, at least in a subtle way, so that the devotee will let go of the sinful desire.

Now the devotee is very anxious to achieve the mercy of the Lord and enter into the Kingdom of the Lord, to serve Him directly. And he knows that unless he is completely purified, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. Just as one cannot enter fire unless he is fire, similarly one cannot enter the Kingdom of God and serve the Supreme Pure unless he becomes completely purified. So, when the devotee suffers some difficult situation, he sees it as the mercy of the Lord, who has arranged the situation to purify him of the last vestiges of sinful desire. He is actually not suffering a sinful reaction according to the laws of karma, but he is actually receiving the mercy of the Lord who is trying to purify him and make him qualified to enter the Kingdom of God, by freeing him from all sinful desires even. So, the devotee can understand that the Lord is being merciful to him and purifying him, and therefore he offers obeisances to the Lord. And he becomes more determined in devotional service. He resolves to become more serious in devotional service, and thus he engages in the service of the Lord with body, words, and mind.

So, until the devotee is perfectly situated in Krishna consciousness, he has to suffer material reactions and he has to tolerate them and see them as the mercy of the Lord—to purify him and qualify him to enter the Kingdom of God. He sees it as the mercy of the Lord, and he also expects the mercy of the Lord to purify him further and qualify him more so that he can enter the Kingdom of God. Any questions on this?

Devotee: Is there a difference between or how do you define the difference between the reactions that a young devotee, neophyte devotee gets and the apparent miseries that for instance, the Pandavas?

Giriraj Swami: Even neophyte devotees who surrender to the Lord come under the protection of the Lord—

sarva-dharmān parityajya

mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja

ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo

mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ

sarva-dharmān parityajya, and of course, the associates of the Lord are under the protection of the Lord. They are not being purified of material desires. They’re already completely purified, but they are surrendered to the Lord in any case, and they serve the Lord’s purposes by such surrender. At the end of the battle of Kurukshetra, Maharaja Yudhisthira felt very upset because he felt that due to him, so many innocent persons had been killed, and so many innocent persons had suffered also. And he thought that he was suffering sinful reactions. Nobody could console him, not even Lord Krishna, of course for some purpose. But at the end when Grandfather Bhisma was lying on the bed of arrows, Maharaja Yudhisthira and the other Pandavas and Krishna also approached him. And Maharaja Yudhisthira admitted his confusion and his anguish before Grandfather Bhisma. Grandfather Bhisma replied, “You have not committed any sin, nor have you suffered any reaction to sin but being surrendered to the will of the Lord you acted to fulfill some purpose of the Lord, and sometimes the Lord uses pure devotees to set the example for ordinary devotees.”

How to endure trials and tribulations and remain faithful to the Lord? Srila Prabhupada gives the example that the mother-in-law will instruct the daughter-in-law by instructing the daughter. In other words, the relationship between the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law may be somewhat tense or sensitive. So, if the mother-in-law instructs the daughter-in-law, she may get disturbed or she may take offense. So, in the presence of the daughter-in-law, the mother-in-law will instruct the daughter because the mother can always instruct the daughter. She will instruct the daughter not for the sake of the daughter but for the sake of the daughter-in-law who is hearing the talk. So, in the same way there is no need for Krishna or Bhisma to instruct pure devotees like Maharaja Yudhisthira. There is no reason for Krishna to give trouble to pure devotees like Maharaja Yudhisthira, but they give instructions and create situations for the sake of the non-devotees or for the ordinary devotees’ instruction. In other words, He instructs the devotee not for the sake of the devotee but for the sake of ordinary people or neophyte devotees.

So, it was the only cause of the Pandavas’ suffering – [it] was the inconceivable will of the Lord, and the ultimate purpose was to establish some principles or teach some lessons, for the benefit of human society. But still the Pandavas were exemplary and that was also the purpose of the Lord – that the Pandavas show the example to the world. How to endure trials and tribulations and take them as the mercy of the Lord?

Queen Kunti is the perfect example. She said that by enduring so many calamities, she was able to perceive the presence of the Lord, and she would rather suffer the calamities and perceive the presence of the Lord than to be comfortably situated without the Lord. She is the ideal example of how a devotee can welcome trials and tribulations as an impetus for advancement in Krishna consciousness.

Devotee: We understand that the neophyte devotee is under the direction of the Lord that his seeming sinful reactions of his karma is just a facsimile of the sinful reactions, but they’re actually not sinful reactions but they’re given by the Lord to purify. Because in my experience many devotees have found a good astrologer to charge some of these things in a devotee's life. [unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: He [neophyte devotee] has committed sinful actions before coming to Krishna consciousness. He says that devotees, some devotees go to good astrologers who can predict events in their lives. So, he says the fact that the astrologers can predict events in their lives shows that they are enjoying and suffering something like the results of past karma. So what is the question?

Devotee: Well, they’re not. . . What you were making is a neophyte devotee; he is not really suffering sinful reactions; he is under the control of the Lord. The Lord gives him reactions which are like sinful reactions to purify him of his sinful desires.

Giriraj Swami: . . . that caused the sinful action in the first place?

Devotee: Right, but they closely resemble facsimiles of the past karma.

Giriraj Swami: But the reaction is the same.

Devotee: The result is the same although it’s not really a sinful reaction. It’s something that’s given by the Lord by His mercy.

Giriraj Swami: Srila Prabhupada gives the example of an orphan, who is roaming the streets and doing mischief will be caught by some policemen who will slap him; and the prince who misbehaves will be caught by the king and the king will slap him. So, the slapping appears to be the same, but actually there is a big difference. In one case the orphan, he is being punished for his misdeed whereas in the other case he is being personally loved and trained and protected by his father, who sees a bright future for him. So, the reaction may be the same or may appear to be the same, but the agency is different. In one case, in the case of karmis, the agency is material nature who simply punishes them according to the law of karma whereas in the other case the Lord Himself personally is trying to purify and rectify the devotee so that he is qualified to serve the Lord directly.

Devotee: So that means the verse, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ. . . the words sarva-pāpebhyo, means removal of sin. My question is this removal of all these sins doesn't depend on the degree of surrendering. If somebody surrendered 100 percent,then there is no reaction or it means. . .

Giriraj Swami: Of course, it depends on the surrender. We discussed earlier in the quotation in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu about the eradication of sinful desires. That just as a fire burns fuel wood into ashes, so the fire of devotional service burns to ashes all sinful reactions, but we should engage in devotional service like a blazing fire.

Devotee: So it means devotional service like a blazing fire then perhaps that purification means that I have the vision to see that now if I have some reaction, it is under Krishna, for my purification.

Giriraj Swami: It’s under Krishna.

Devotee: Before I couldn’t see that, but now I have surrendered to Krishna, I can see that.

Giriraj Swami: So now you are under Krishna. See ultimately Krishna wants to purify you. Now if one is purified by intense practice of śravaṇam kīrtanam, then he may not have to be purified so much by the process of suffering. But if he is lax in the spiritual practices of śravaṇam kīrtanam viṣṇoḥ smaraṇam, then Krishna will give him a little extra push in the form of some chastisement or some tribulation which is ultimately meant for the same purpose to purify the devotee and qualify him for direct service.

Devotee: I think what he was getting at. . . because he was using the word facsimile and the example of prince and the orphan. So, let’s say prince before he was an orphan. Say the prince before he became a prince, he was destined to be slapped by the policeman, but once he becomes the prince, then he doesn’t get a slap from the policeman, but he gets the facsimile from the king.

Giriraj Swami: He may, or he may not. The king is independent. If someone surrenders to the king, the king is not obliged to punish him just because he was due to be punished for something he did before he surrendered. The king is independent. So, he may slap him, or he may not. He may correct him.

Devotee: But sometimes in other words we already sometimes say that our sinful karma is minimized. Krishna dishes it out in a particular way to train us, but instead of breaking a leg, you stub your toe so therefore it’s considered a facsimile so there is some kind of correspondence.

Giriraj Swami: Krishna is independent and bhakti is also independent. Certainly, when the devotee suffers, he thinks of his past sinful activities, and he sees that Krishna has minimized the reaction that he should have broken his leg, but he only stubbed his toe. That’s true. But Krishna deals with everyone individually, and He does just what is best just like a father. A father knows what is best for his child. He knows when to reward the child. He knows when to punish the child and even without the child’s asking, he does whatever is best for the child. So the devotee sees the Lord like a loving father who is doing whatever is best for him, and he also prays to the Lord that you know what is best for me, so you deal with me accordingly, and I will accept whatever you arrange.

Then there is remembrance. Some nice verses about remembrance and of course we are reminded of the verse from Bhagavad-gītā that, “Whoever remembers Krishna at the time of death will attain to Krishna.”

Then comes meditation and again meditation is divided into different categories, meditation on the form of the Lord, meditation on the qualities of the Lord, meditation on the pastimes of the Lord, and even meditation on the service of the Lord.

And Srila Prabhupada cites one story about one devotee in South India who in meditation offered some sweet rice to the Lord. And in order to test whether the sweet rice was cool or not, in meditation he touched the sweet rice with his finger, and his finger got burnt, and his meditation broke. So, in the meantime, the Lord was with Lakshmi devi in Vaikuntha, and the Lord started to smile when He saw that the brahman actually burnt his finger by touching the sweet rice in meditation. And then He came and brought the devotee back to Godhead. So even meditation on the service of the Lord is so beneficial.

Then in the next Chapter we come to servitorship or dāsya. Srila Prabhupada begins by saying that some people say that karmārpaṇam for offering the fruits of one’s work to the Lord is dāsya, but Rupa Gosvami prefers the definition of kiṅkarya that just like a servant stands in attendance to the master and executes the order of the master, similarly the devotee, in the mood of servitorship, is always ready to do whatever the Lord asks him to do. And uttamā-bhakti is jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam. So offering the fruits of karma cannot strictly be accepted as one of the items of bhakti. But if some devotee is engaged in some activities like varnashrama-dharma, being a devotee. And if he offers some of the activities to Krishna or some of the fruits to Krishna because he is devotee, it can be accepted in bhakti in devotional service, but certainly it will help him come to the stage of devotional service because varnashrama-dharma in any case is meant to purify the conditioned souls so they can come closer to the devotional service of Krishna.

Yes, I shall explain the difference between sakāma karma-yoga, niṣkāma karma-yoga, and bhakti-yoga. The difference between karma-yoga and bhakti-yoga is that in karma-yoga, the performer is attached to the type of work. He is attached to some work but he is ready to do the work for Lord Krishna. And bhakti-yoga comes after surrender. Surrender means he is ready to do whatever the Lord wants him to do—accepting whatever is favorable for the Lord and rejecting whatever is not favorable. If something’s favorable to the Lord, even if he doesn’t want to do it, he is ready to do it, if he is surrendered. And if something’s not favorable to the Lord, he is ready to give it up even if he doesn’t want to give it up, because he is surrendered. So, surrender is the beginning of bhakti.

But in karma-yoga, he is attached to some type of work, he is not ready to give up the type of work that he is attached to, but he is ready to give up the fruits. So, I will give an example that a man is a gardener, and sakāma karma-yoga means that he gives some of the fruits to the Lord but not all. Say I’m a gardener and I have produced a hundred mangoes so sakāma karma-yoga means that I may give ten mangoes to the Lord and keep ninety for myself, or if I become more purified, I may give ninety to the Lord and keep ten for myself. But niṣkāma karma-yoga means that I do the gardening for the Lord only. I give all hundred mangoes to Him. And bhakti-yoga means that I want to be a gardener but do it for the Lord. And bhakti-yoga means that if the Lord says, “Okay, give up gardening and come to Me, start preaching,” then I give up the gardening all together, and karma-yogi says, “I’m not ready to give up gardening, but I will do the gardening for you.”

So, friendship, here again there are two types of friendship. If one is based on faith—that I have faith in the Lord, (here friendship is used in a general sense) that I have faith in the Lord, He is my best friend- suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ, and He will take care of me. And the other type of friendship has to do with sākhya-rasa, and actually cultivating that type of friendship actually comes in rāgānugā-bhakti, but it is mentioned here along with the other type of friendship.

Then ātma-nivedanam. What is the meaning of ātma-nivedanam, Kalindi? Yes, ātmā may mean the self, it may mean the mind, it may mean the body, and with the body, it may include the expansions of the body or the possessions of the person. So, one type of ātma-nivedanam is he surrenders himself, or he gives up the false conception of himself, and accepts the real conception that I am the eternal servant of Krishna. As expressed nicely by Yamunacharya. Otherwise ātmā can also mean the body or the extensions of the body, and one can also surrender them. And of course, one can surrender all—like Bhaktivinoda Thakura—mānasa, deho, geho, jo kichu mor. Then there is another item which is similar called Śaraṇāgati, which means becoming a surrendered soul, and in the verse book, one of the verses cited by Rupa Gosvami is included from Hari-bhakti-vilāsa, and another book, another verse from Hari-bhakti-vilāsa is also included about the six divisions of surrender.

So, many of the items are related to each other, and certainly, like how the devotee deals with trials and tribulations is related to the surrender of the devotee. If he considers the Lord to be his guardian, which is one of the divisions of surrender, if he considers the Lord to be his protector, which is one of the items of surrender, then he will know both that whatever suffering has come to him is by the mercy of the Lord, for his benefit, for his purification, and it has been minimized also by the grace of the Lord. And he also knows that because he is surrendered to the Lord, the Lord will take care of him. Like Bhaktivinoda Thakura and other acharyas have prayed that, “If You want to kill me, You can kill me, and if You want to save me, You can save me. In any case I am Your surrendered servant.” All right. Hare Krishna. 

Speaking of trials and tribulations, tomorrow is the exam.