SB 4.30.36 – Unity and Fraternity

Giriraj Swami: 

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

Reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Four, Chapter Thirty, “The Activities of the Pracetās.” 

TEXT 36

yatra nārāyaṇaḥ sākṣād
bhagavān nyāsināṁ gatiḥ
saṁstūyate sat-kathāsu
mukta-saṅgaiḥ punaḥ punaḥ

TRANSLATION

The Supreme Lord, Nārāyaṇa, is present among devotees who are engaged in hearing and chanting the holy name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Lord Nārāyaṇa is the ultimate goal of sannyāsīs, those in the renounced order of life, and Nārāyaṇa is worshiped through this saṅkīrtana movement by those who are liberated from material contamination. Indeed, they recite the holy name again and again.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

The Māyāvādī sannyāsīs are missing the real presence of Nārāyaṇa. This is because they falsely claim to be Nārāyaṇa Himself. According to the customary etiquette of Māyāvādī sannyāsīs, they address one another as Nārāyaṇa. To say that everyone is a temple of Nārāyaṇa is correct, but to accept another human being as Nārāyaṇa is a great offense. The conception of daridra-nārāyaṇa (poor Nārāyaṇa), an attempt to identify the poor with Nārāyaṇa, is also a great offense. Even to identify Nārāyaṇa with demigods like Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva is an offense:

yas tu nārāyaṇaṁ devaṁ
brahma-rudrādi-daivataiḥ
samatvenaiva vīkṣeta
sa pāṣaṇḍī bhaved dhruvam

“One who considers Lord Nārāyaṇa on a level with great demigods like Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva is immediately listed among nonbelievers.” The fact is that by performing saṅkīrtana-yajña one can immediately please the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Then Nārāyaṇa Himself descends and immediately is present. In this Age of Kali, Nārāyaṇa is immediately present in the form of Lord Caitanya. Concerning Lord Caitanya, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.5.32) states:

kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣākṛṣṇaṁ
sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam
yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair
yajanti hi sumedhasaḥ

“In the Age of Kali, intelligent persons perform congregational chanting to worship the incarnation of Godhead who constantly sings the name of Kṛṣṇa. Although His complexion is not blackish, He is Kṛṣṇa Himself. He is accompanied by His associates, servants, weapons, and confidential companions.” After all, human life is meant for pleasing Nārāyaṇa, and this can easily be done by performing saṅkīrtana-yajña. Whenever there is congregational chanting of the holy names of the Lord, Gaura Nārāyaṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His incarnation as Lord Caitanya, immediately appears and is worshiped by saṅkīrtana-yajña.

In this verse it is said that Nārāyaṇa is nyāsināṁ gatiḥ, the ultimate goal of the sannyāsīs. The goal of those who have renounced the material world is the attainment of Nārāyaṇa. A Vaiṣṇava sannyāsī therefore dedicates his life to serving Nārāyaṇa; he does not falsely claim to be Nārāyaṇa. Instead of becoming nirvaira (nonenvious of other living entities), one who tries to become Nārāyaṇa becomes envious of the Supreme Lord. Therefore the attempt to become Nārāyaṇa constitutes the greatest offense. Actually, when one chants or discusses the transcendental activities of the Lord, he immediately becomes nonenvious. In this material world everyone is envious of everyone else, but by vibrating or discussing the holy name of the Lord, one becomes nonenvious and devoid of material hankering. Because of our envy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, we have become envious of all other living entities. When we are no longer envious of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, there will be real peace, unity, and fraternity in human society. Without Nārāyaṇa or saṅkīrtana-yajña there cannot be peace in this material world.

COMMENT

So because the Lord is absolute, the Lord’s name and the Lord Himself are the same, and wherever there is offenseless chanting of the holy names of the Lord, the Lord Himself is personally present. The Lord Himself says,

nāhaṁ tiṣṭhāmi vaikuṇṭhe

yogināṁ hṛdayeṣu vā

yatra gāyanti mad-bhaktāḥ

tatra tiṣṭhāmi nārada

Nāhaṁ tiṣṭhāmi vaikuṇṭhe; The Lord says, “I am not present in Vaikuntha, yogināṁ hṛdayeṣu vā, nor am I present in the hearts of the yogīs, tatra tiṣṭhāmi nārada, but I reside oh Narada, yatra gāyanti mad-bhaktāḥ, where my devotees are chanting my glories. So whenever there is offenseless chanting of the glories and the holy name of the Lord, the Lord is present.

Now we are in Kali-yuga, and in Kali-yuga, the specific method recommended here, saṅkīrtana, is specifically meant to please the Supreme Lord as Sri Krishna Chaitanya. As stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣākṛṣṇaṁ. kṛṣṇa of course means Krishna, and varṇaṁ means to utter or to describe. So the incarnation of God for the Kali-yuga is always chanting the holy name of Krishna and describing Krishna, but His complexion akṛṣṇaṁ, not blackish like Krishna. When Garga Muni performed the name-giving ceremony for Lord Krishna, he said that this child appears in different forms in different ages, and in different ages, he appears in different colors. Garga Rishi said that sometimes he appears in a whitish color, sometimes in a reddish color, sometimes in a blackish color, and sometimes in a yellowish or golden color. So in Satya-yuga and Treta-yuga, the Lord appeared in whitish and reddish colors, and in Dvapara-yuga as Krishna, He appeared in a blackish color. So now in Kali-yuga, the only color which remains is golden color. So to say that He is not in the black color is to say that He is in the yellow color - sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam, and He appears with His aṅga. Aṅga means expansions. So he appears with Nityananda Prabhu, who is Baladeva Prabhu, and with Advaita Prabhu, who is Maha-Vishnu. Aṅga also means bodily limb, astra means weapons. In previous ages, the Lord used to appear as a warrior with his armies and his weapons to kill the demons, but in the age of Kali, the Lord does not kill the demons, but he kills the demonic mentality, or he kills the atheistic ideas with his weapons. And his weapons here include his bodily limbs or his personal beauty. We see in the case of Prakasananda Sarasvati who was a great māyāvādī, māyāvādī kṛṣṇa-aparādhī. In other words, he was a big offender, but he was changed by the beauty of Lord Chaitanya. He was defeated by the weapon of Chaitanya’s beauty. And Lord Chaitanya’s associates also act as weapons to defeat the atheists. And the associates of Lord Chaitanya included many stalwart scholars and devotees who were very powerful and capable of defeating pāṣaṇḍīs. Pāṣaṇḍīs means atheists or non-believers.

So who is an atheist or a non-believer? Of course, an impersonalist is an atheist because he does not accept the transcendental name or form or qualities or pastimes of the Lord. And Lord Chaitanya defeated the foremost of the impersonalists, Prakasananda Sarasvati and the foremost of the logicians, who was also an impersonalist, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya. And those who consider the demigods to be on the same level as the Supreme Personality of Godhead are also pāṣaṇḍīs. Actually, the demigods are all servants of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and when Lord Chaitanya appeared, many of the demigods also appeared to assist him in his pastimes. The sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam also includes the demigods, like Lord Brahma, who took birth as Haridasa Thakura to serve Lord Chaitanya. So, ekale īśvara kṛṣṇa ara saba bhṛtya, only Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and all others are his servants, including Lord Brahma, Lord Shiva, and all other demigods.

So if one considers the demigods to be on the same level as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, they are pāṣaṇḍīs or non-believers, and they are also aparādhīs because one of the offenses is to consider the demigods to be equal to or independent of the Supreme God - yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair yajanti hi sumedhasaḥ. And those who are intelligent will worship the Personality of Godhead in the age of Kali by performance of saṅkīrtana-yajña. kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ. varṇa-iti means to utter or to describe. So sometimes Lord Chaitanya would utter the holy name and sometimes he would describe the holy name and Krishna. And similarly, any devotee who came in contact with Lord Chaitanya would do the same. He would chant the holy name of Krishna and describe Krishna directly. When Lord Chaitanya was touring in South India and he came to a particular town or village, he might show mercy to a resident of the village and embrace the villager and infuse him with ecstatic love of Godhead. Then he also would chant Hare Krishna and describe Sri Krishna. Then he would go to the next village. In the another village, whoever Lord Chaitanya embraced would become ecstatic and develop love for Krsna. He would also chant the Hare Krishna mantra and sing Lord Krsna’s glories.

In this way, kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ—where varṇaṁ also means category—indicates that Krishna Chaitanya is in the same category as Lord Krishna. Although he is akṛṣṇa, not blackish in color, he is kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ, meaning he is in the same category as Krishna. He is Krishna himself, Krishna Chaitanya. And therefore, he could bestow love of Krsna. Whoever came in contact with Lord Chaitanya would develop love of Krsna, provided they were not offenders. Those who are intelligent will worship Krishna or Krishna Chaitanya by saṅkīrtana-yajña. Those who do not worship the Lord by saṅkīrtana-yajña are the opposite; they are foolish. It is said in the scriptures that one may perform ten million Aśvamedha yajñas, one may live at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna for millions of years, or feed millions of brahmans in charity. However, all of these performances are not equal to the chanting of the holy names of the Lord. Therefore, intelligent persons will chant the holy names of Lord Krishna, while those who do not do so are foolish. Not only are they foolish, but they are also offensive, as one of the offenses against the holy name of the Lord is considering the chanting of Hare Krishna to be one of the auspicious ritualistic activities mentioned in the Vedas. If one performs other Vedic sacrifices, thinking them to be the same as chanting Hare Krishna, one commits an offense against the holy name of the Lord.

By chanting Hare Krishna, one becomes free from envy. All conditioned souls come into the material world due to envy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When we are envious of Krishna, we naturally become envious of others. We should remove our envy of Krishna by chanting Hare Krishna. We see in the devotees of Lord Chaitanya that they are not envious of the Lord or anyone else. For example, Sanatana Gosvami was engaged in the service of Nawab Hussain Shah, but he wanted to leave government service to study the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. He knew that the king or emperor, Nawab Hussain Shah, would not grant him permission, so he took sick leave. Although not actually sick, he stayed at home, reading and discussing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam with learned devotees.

The king became suspicious of Sanatana Gosvami and, one day, without prior notice, visited his residence of Sanatana Gosvami. There, he found Sanatana Gosvami and the brahmans engaged in the study of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. When Nawab Hussain Shah entered the room, all the great devotees and learned scholars present stood in respect for the king. Someone may question why such pure devotees and learned scholars would stand up in respect for Nawab Hussain Shah, who was a mlechchha, meat-eater, not only a meat-eater but a cow-eater. Why they gave him respect? The answer is that they saw he was in his position by the arrangement of the Lord. Because they are not envious of the Lord, they are not envious of the king and therefore showed respect to king, thinking he was placed as the king by the Lord.

In Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Krsna says that anything wonderful in the material world is a manifestation of Krsna’s potency. Therefore, pure devotees do not see anything as separate from Krishna. Because they are not envious of Krishna, they have no envy of any living entity. They see that every living entity is placed in a particular position by Krsna, and they do not try, out of envy, to pull anyone else down.

Srila Prabhupada says that when we are no longer envious of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, there will be real peace, unity, and fraternity in human society. Everyone wants peace. People come to Krishna consciousness because they want peace and unity. In the material world, there is so much disunity. When they come to Krishna consciousness, they want to experience unity and fraternity. Fraternity means brotherhood. They want to experience brotherhood. Srila Prabhupada always says that when we see Krishna as the Supreme Father, we will know that we are all brothers, and only then will there be real fraternity or brotherhood. If we are envious of Krishna, we will not have peace, unity, or fraternity. We can deduce from the absence of peace, unity, or fraternity that there is envy. Therefore, we have to rid ourselves of envy.

And here the process recommended is to chant the holy names of the Lord as the way to become free from envy. However, sometimes we see that people who have been chanting the holy name for many years are still envious. What is the reason? Well, the reason is that, although they chant, they commit offenses. Of course, they commit offenses because they are envious. Still, we have to keep trying, but we should also make special efforts to become free from envy. When we are contaminated by envy, even our chanting becomes affected, and by chanting we do not quickly get the desired results.

Once, I personally asked Srila Prabhupada about envy. Before I asked him, I considered the subject myself and came to certain conclusions. One conclusion was that Krishna is unlimited and therefore Krishna can have unlimited numbers of servants rendering unlimited service. Again, because Krishna is unlimited, he can give himself and his mercy to unlimited devotees. If another devotee is rendering some service to Krishna, it does not really affect me because Krishna’s service is unlimited. Even if someone else is doing some service, I can also do some service because Krishna’s service is unlimited. Even if I see that some devotee is getting Krishna’s mercy or attention through the spiritual master, it still does not affect me because Krishna is unlimited, and his mercy is unlimited. He can give unlimited mercy to unlimited numbers of devotees. There is no reason to be envious of another devotee. In fact, if I am envious, I am only disturbing my own Krishna consciousness. I am not helping myself in any way, but I am hurting myself by being envious and disturbing my own Krishna consciousness.

I considered these facts, but still, envy was there. So I approached and asked Srila Prabhupada what to do about envy. Srila Prabhupada replied by asking, “Can you think of any reasons not to be envious?” Immediately, I said yes, because I had already thought of three good reasons why not to be envious. Then Srila Prabhupada said that being envious means not liking someone, and that not liking should not be directed against devotees. That not liking should be directed against demons who are creating havoc in the world and causing misery for devotees and even ordinary innocent people. Not liking devotees may be a symptom of envy, and envy is very harmful in spiritual life. It is harmful for us and also harmful for others because those who receive the offenses we commit due to envy also suffer. And of course, when we preach, we come to a higher level. We develop love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, make friendship with devotees, show mercy to innocent persons, and avoid the envious. Srila Prabhupada wanted us to preach, to be fully engaged and fully absorbed in preaching. Then we will have the right consciousness, develop love for Krishna, make friends with devotees, and show mercy to innocent people by engaging them in chanting. We will also, in one sense, show mercy to envious persons by neglecting them.

We should be fully engaged in preaching. However, when we are not so fully engaged, we have lots of time for prajalpaḥ, lots of time to find faults with devotees, and lots of time to lord over other devotees. we have too much time, too much free time. And Srila Prabhupada use to quote the English expression: An ideal mind is devil’s workshop. As soon as the mind is not absorbed in thinking of preaching, then the devil comes in and starts his work. What is his work? Pointing out the faults of devotees, pointing out the reasons why the other devotees should love us and worship us and serve us and honor us. Then we get angry when they don’t do it. So we should really be absorbed in the saṅkīrtana movement. Then we will become free from envy, and then we will experience real happiness and Krishna consciousness. Hare Krishna.

Are there any questions or comments?

Question: When we are in saṅkīrtana, sometimes we have to be aggressive to get people to take. Then, when we come back to the temple, how can we change the mood and not be aggressive?

Giriraj Swami: Well, we have to deal with the people that we are dealing with. We can’t just be in the mood of being aggressive or in a mood of being passive. When we have to be aggressive, we should be aggressive, and when there is no need to be aggressive, we should be passive. And of course, the example is Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva, the lion. Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva is very fearful to the demons, but he is very blissful to the devotees. So we have to be the same. Otherwise, we are not acting properly as preachers. Preachers have to make distinctions. They deal one way with innocent people to whom they preach, and they deal another way with devotees with whom they make friends.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:38:35]

Giriraj Swami: Well, when we chant in the clearing stage, the Lord is present but not fully manifest. Just like the sun is present, but there may be some clouds or some mist. So the sun is present; it’s not complete darkness. The sun is present, but we don’t get the full effect of the light and heat of the sun.

Sri Sri Radha-Damodara ki jaya!
Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!
Nitai-Gaura premānande Hari Haribol!