Ratha-yatra—Q&A with Bhakti Charu Swami—Part 02

Giriraj Swami: Well, a devotee who is engaged in the process of Krishna consciousness experiences tests. Is this due to past karma, or Krishna’s intervention to purify the devotee? When one surrenders to Krishna, Krishna takes responsibility for the devotee. Srila Prabhupada said that when one surrenders to Krishna, Krishna takes the person’s karma and uses it for the best interest of the devotee. In other words, suppose I surrender to Krishna, so I brought with me so many sinful reactions due to me. So, Krishna will take those from me, but He will keep them, and He will release them when required for my benefit.

So, in one sense, the distinction between past karma and Krishna’s intervention does not apply in the life of a devotee. But more important is what the devotees does when such tests come. In one sense, there is only one test, and that is whether we will serve Krishna, or serve maya.

And again, karma comes in two categories; pious reactions and sinful reactions. And both can attract us, like Srila Prabhupada said of himself, that in the beginning, Krishna tested him by taking everything away from him, and later, Krishna tested him by giving him everything. So, the test is, will we remember Krishna, or will we forget Him? So, suppose some terrible pain comes, will we remember Krishna, or will we forget Krishna? A devotee who passes the test will remember Krishna even more intensely, pray to Krishna even more intensely, and serve Krishna even more sincerely. But sometimes, the test comes and we forget Krishna. The pain comes and immediately, we think, What to do? What to do? Bring some medicine. Call the doctor. We forget Krishna.

Similarly, if we get something very enjoyable, that’s another test. And then, we may forget Krishna and want to enjoy. But the devotee who passes the test will think, Krishna has sent some facility. Can I use this facility in Krishna’s service? And if he can use it in Krishna’s service, he will. And if he sees that he can’t really use this facility in Krishna’s service, then he rejects it. He accepts what is favorable only, and rejects what’s not favorable. So, when some calamity comes upon us, we should become more Krishna conscious and just depend on Krishna’s mercy. And if some good facility comes to us, we should also take it as Krishna’s mercy, to serve Krishna better. So, both are Krishna’s mercy, even the pain is Krishna’s mercy to make us more serious about Krishna consciousness. And the facility is Krishna’s mercy to give us a better opportunity to serve Krishna.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:08:00] please tell us some of your pastimes with Srila Prabhupada.

Bhakti Charu Swami: To the later part of Srila Prabhupada’s pastimes in Vrindavan, I had the good fortune of serving him. He actually wanted me to take care of his Indian affairs, like replying to his letters in Hindi and Bengali. He was also training me to translate his books into Bengali. But I also [Unintelligible 00:09:15] cooking for him, and His Divine Grace personally taught me how to cook. And although during the later days, Srila Prabhupada hardly used to eat anything, we used to cook a full course for him, about seven or eight preparations, and I prepared them at exactly [Unintelligible 00:09:52]. And Srila Prabhupada, just because I was doing that service for him, he used to come without [Unintelligible 00:10:08].

So, one day, he told me, “I don’t have any appetite, you can see that I am not eating anything, so why do you cook? Why are you cooking? Better you don’t cook because we have so many other things to do. Don’t cook anymore for me. [Unintelligible 00:10:49].” And at one time, Srila Prabhupada said that if he could eat four chapatis, then he would become all right again. He actually hinted that he was having an appetite, because he was healthy, that he could eat four chapatis. [Unintelligible 00:11:15].

So, I told Prabhupada, “Prabhupada, when you get well, then I will stop cooking. Let me continue.” And he also told me, “I will get well only when I leave this body.” This statement of Srila Prabhupada came so intensely that I could not restrain my ears. And then, Srila Prabhupada, in a very compassionate and loving way, decided to tell me, “Is this what you learned from me all this while? Didn’t I teach you that we all are actually spirit souls and the spirit soul does not die?” And so, Srila Prabhupada kept saying that [Unintelligible 00:12:52]. And later, Srila Prabhupada told me that if I sincerely serve the spiritual master, the spiritual master always remains [Unintelligible 00:13:08].

Giriraj Swami: I thought of the first question, how is it that sometimes an advanced devotee falls into illusion? Once, when Srila Prabhupada came to Mauritius, one newspaper editor came to meet him—Mr. Ramalala. He was the editor of the weekly newspaper Mauritius Time. And at the end of Srila Prabhupada’s lecture, he asked the question, “If someone has good education and then he acts contrary to it, is it not ridiculous?”

So, Srila Prabhupada was actually the external manifestation of the Supersoul. He knew everything that was in everyone’s heart. So, he could detect the offensive mentality in the question. So, Srila Prabhupada replied, “Someone who has a good education cannot act contrary. If he acts contrary, he has no good education.” So, the question, “How can someone who has a good education act contrary? Isn’t it ridiculous?” Srila Prabhupada said, “Your question is ridiculous. Your question is contradictory. Your question is ridiculous.”

So, the man started to argue with Srila Prabhupada, and Srila Prabhupada was arguing back. And finally, Srila Prabhupada said, “If you are going to question me ridiculously, I cannot listen to you. I cannot listen to your ridiculous question.” And the man said, “If you just give me a few moments to explain my question, I can explain it.”

Then, Srila Prabhupada, well, he did not say anything, but he gave him a few moments to explain. So then, the man said, “Arjuna heard the Bhagavad-gītā directly from Lord Krishna. And not only did he hear it from Lord Krishna, but he told Lord Krishna that he had understood it. So, how can Arjuna, after hearing the Bhagavad-gītā directly from Lord Krishna and understanding it, start to weep and cry just like an ordinary person when he heard that his son had been killed?”

So, Srila Prabhupada said, “Arjuna, you are talking about Arjuna?” And the man said, “Yes.” Srila Prabhupada replied, “Why did Krishna speak Bhagavad-gītā to Arjuna? He spoke Bhagavad-gītā to Arjuna to convince him to fight. So, when Arjuna received the news that his son Abhimanyu was killed, he was temporarily affected. And that everyone becomes. That is natural. But although he was temporarily affected, he never gave up his determination, ‘I must follow the order of Krishna. I must fight.’ And that was Arjuna’s victory. That was Arjuna’s success, that although temporarily he was affected when he received the news that his son was killed, but he never gave up his decision to follow the instruction of Krishna. And that is his victory.”

So, we should be careful in regarding the activities of advanced devotees. Of course, not everyone is an advanced devotee. But certainly, Arjuna was an advanced devotee, and if we see, “When he heard that his son was killed, he started to weep and cry, he did not even want to fight,” and so on, we may be in illusion about Arjuna. The real thing is that Arjuna never gave up his determination to follow the instruction of Krishna to fight in the battle of Kurukshetra.

So, we also in our lives may feel loss that temporarily upsets us, but as long as we remain fixed in our determination to follow Krishna’s instructions or guru’s instructions, we are successful. And we should see other devotees, how successful they are in executing the order of Krishna, or the order of guru. And that should be the main consideration. And if someone is sincerely following the instructions of the spiritual master, he should be honored.

Bhakti Charu Swami: The question is, “Your desire to serve your guru lifetime after lifetime and at the time of your death, the Lord comes to take you back to Godhead. Explain.”

The spiritual master is a representative of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So, when one serves the spiritual master with all sincerity, that service is actually accepted by the Lord Himself. Just like when you do something to the representative, the action actually is transmitted to the person who is actually represented. So similarly, when one serves the spiritual master, the service is transmitted to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and when one serves the spiritual master with all sincerity, at the end of his life, the Supreme Personality of Godhead recognizes his service, and due to his sincere service, [Unintelligible 00:21:52].

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. Everyone repeat; Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

“Maharaja, Kali-yuga, only Krishna conscious devotees know about it. As we know, Kali is getting worse. How can we notify the rest of the world and overcome Kali?”

Yes, we are in the age of Kali. The age of Kali means the age of quarrel and hypocrisy. In Kali-yuga, very few people take interest in spiritual life, and the few who do, often are misled by false preachers, or false incarnations. So, Kali-yuga is very bad, and it is getting worse. So, how can we inform people about it?

Well, the symptoms of Kali-yuga are described vividly in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. There are so many predictions in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, made five thousand years ago, that are coming true even now. And so many others haven’t come true even yet, they will come true later. So, we can tell people what is going to come in Kali-yuga and what we have to do to overcome the influence of Kali. And of course, the best way to overcome the influence of Kali is to chant the holy names of Krishna.

harer nāma harer nāma
harer nāmaiva kevalam
kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva
nāsty eva gatir anyathā

One should chant the holy names, chant the holy names, chant the holy names. There is no other way, no other way, no other way for success in Kali-yuga. And there is another verse in Kali-santaraṇa Upaniṣad, that if one goes through the pages of the Vedas, he will not find any better method to counteract the influence of Kali than the chanting of Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

Now, one of our godbrothers, His Holiness Śrīdhara Swami Maharaja, made a very interesting point, that if one maintains material desires, or material enjoyment, or material opulence, and engages in Krishna consciousness as a sort of pious activity, he will be elevated to a heavenly planet. And Srila Prabhupada even commented that most of his devotees would take birth on heavenly planets, only the most serious would actually go back home, back to Godhead.

So, Śrīdhara Swami made the point that the duration of life on the heavenly planet is very long, because one day on the heavenly planet is six months here. And if one lives for a hundred years on a heavenly planet, he is actually living for many, many, many thousands of earth years. So, within Kali-yuga, there is a golden age of ten thousand years, where Lord Chaitanya’s saṅkīrtana movement will spread. And after the golden age of Kali-yuga is over, Kali-yuga will deteriorate very badly, and eventually, Kali-yuga will be so bad that devotees won’t even be able to preach. In fact, they will have to go into hiding, and there will be very few devotees, and the majority of the population will be demons.

So, we really only have ten thousand years of the golden age of the saṅkīrtana movement. And if at the end of this life you take birth in a heavenly planet, you will enjoy there for thousands of years, and by the time you come back to earth, the golden age of the saṅkīrtana movement would be over, and the earth planet will really be hellish. So, the conclusion is that we should be very serious about Krishna consciousness and go back home, back to Godhead, because if we happen to take birth on a heavenly planet, we may miss the golden opportunity. Hare Krishna.

Bhakti Charu Swami: What should be one’s mood and attitude while engaging in devotional service?

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu mentioned in the third verse of the Śikṣāṣṭakam that [Unintelligible 00:28:45]. He mentioned

TEXT 31

tṛṇād api su-nīcena
taror iva sahiṣṇunā
amāninā māna-dena
kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ

COMMENT

So, the mood of the devotee is that he should be more humble than a blade of grass, he should feel himself to be more humble than a blade of grass. He should be more tolerant than a tree, desiring no respect for himself, he should offer all respect to others. In this state of mind, or in this mood, he should chant the holy name of the Lord all the time. So, that is the mood, that is the attitude, a devotee should always try to cultivate. He should try to become very, very humble.

Who can be more humble than a blade of grass? Consider a blade of grass, it is lying on the street and everyone is walking over it, and the grass does not protest. But Mahaprabhu is saying, “Become more humble than a blade of grass.” Why? Because the grass, after it has been trampled, the [Unintelligible 00:30:24] and the grass becomes straight again. But a devotee, once [Unintelligible 00:30:32]. He should accept that position and remain in that position. So, that is why [Unintelligible 00:31:28] be more humble than a blade of grass.

And taror iva sahiṣṇunā. A tree, consider how tolerant it is. Somebody cuts the tree, but the tree what to speak of protest; the tree gives him the shade from the scorching sun. And if the person is hungry, the tree offers him fruit. Also, he is cutting the tree, but the tree is so concerned about his welfare. So, a devotee’s mood of tolerance should be like that, that even if someone is harming us, we should try to [Unintelligible 00:32:20]. A devotee considers that he is a humble servant of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

So, what respect does the servant demand? The servant only desires to serve his master, and the devotee sees that everyone else is devoted to his master, and that is why with that attitude, he offers all respect to others. And that is the mood that the devotee must try to cultivate if he really wants to make spiritual progress. Hare Krishna.

Giriraj Swami: “A lot of people worship demigods. What proof can we offer these people that Krishna is the Supreme Lord?”

Well, our knowledge of demigods and of the Supreme Lord comes from the Vedic literature. None of us have personally seen Krishna, Rama, Vishnu, Brahma, Shiva, Durga. Whatever we know about Them, we have heard. So, we should hear from the Vedas with the Supreme. And the Vedas tell us that Krishna is the Supreme. Actually, people have no capacity to study the Vedas in Kali-yuga, but the essence of the Vedas is contained in Bhagavad-gītā. And Bhagavad-gītā explains that Krishna [Unintelligible 00:34:44], that Krishna is the origin of the devas.

So, there are so many quotes in the Bhagavad-gītā, and if we study Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, we will find so many quotations from other scriptures; Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So, there is sufficient evidence that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But as Lord Krishna Himself says in the Bhagavad-gītā, evaṁ paramparā-prāptam, we should receive the knowledge of Bhagavad-gītā through disciplic succession. We should receive the knowledge of the Vedas through disciplic succession.

And Srila Prabhupada is coming in the disciplic succession from Lord Krishna Himself. He has explained the Bhagavad-gītā exactly as Lord Krishna spoke it and Arjuna understood it. So, by reading the Bhagavad-gītā, we can understand the essence, or the truth. And by repeating the same instructions of Lord Krishna in Bhagavad-gītā, we can convince others. But as Srila Prabhupada often said, purity is the force.

So, we have to follow the principles of purity. And how do we become pure? How do we remain pure? We have to chant the holy names, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, and follow the regulative principles. And that will make us pure, and then when we speak, our words will have potency, and we will be able to convince others. Hare Krishna.

So, we will end our satsaṅga here, and we will allow you fortunate souls to engage in the other wonderful aspects of Krishna consciousness available here tonight. Hare Krishna.