SB 3.9.39 – Desire Emanates from Krishna

Giriraj Swami: 

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

Reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Three, Chapter Nine, “Brahmā’s Prayers for Creative Energy.”

TEXT 39

prīto ‘ham astu bhadraṁ te
lokānāṁ vijayecchayā
yad astauṣīr guṇamayaṁ
nirguṇaṁ mānuvarṇayan

TRANSLATION

I am very much pleased by your description of Me interms of My transcendental qualities, which appear mundane to the mundaners. I grant you all benedictions in your desire to glorify all the planets by your activities.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

A pure devotee of the Lord like Brahmā and those in his line of disciplic succession always desire that the Lord be known all over the universe by each and every one of the living entities. That desire of the devotee is always blessed by the Lord. The impersonalist sometimes prays for the mercy of the Personality of Godhead Nārāyaṇa as the embodiment of material goodness, but such prayers do not satisfy the Lord because He is not thereby glorified in terms of His actual transcendental qualities. The pure devotees of the Lord are always most dear to Him, although He is always kind and merciful to all living entities. Here the word guṇamayam is significant because it indicates the Lord’s possessing transcendental qualities.

COMMENT

So there is always a difference of opinion between the personalists and the impersonalists, and here we find two words that are often used in the controversy. One is guṇamayam, which means full of qualities, and the other is nirguṇaṁ, which means without qualities. The two words appear to be mutually exclusive, but the Lord is both guṇamayam and nirguṇaṁ. He is full of transcendental qualities, but He is without material qualities. The impersonalists do not understand that the Lord is full of transcendental qualities. They think that form implies material qualities. They do not understand that form may be made of spiritual substance, and therefore they conclude that the Lord is formless, nirguṇaṁ, without any qualities. And they think that the devotees who worship the Lord with form or with qualities are actually worshiping something material, Saguna. They think that the devotees are worshiping something material and that eventually they will have to go beyond Saguna worship to Nirguna. But Srila Prabhupada has very kindly explained how the apparent contradictions can be reconciled, that the Lord is Nirguna, yes, He is without material qualities, but He is Saguna or guṇamayam, full of transcendental qualities. Here another important word is ecchayā, which means desire. The impersonalists consider desire also to be material, and therefore they try to become free from desire, and they think that if they become free from desire, they can become liberated, and that as long as one has desire, which they think necessarily is material, one will be conditioned or bound to the material world. But again, Srila Prabhupada has showed us that desire need not necessarily be material. Desire may also be spiritual, and therefore devotees do not reject desire, but they try to purify material desires or transform material desires into spiritual desires for the service of the Lord.

The last chapter of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that Srila Prabhupada translated was Chapter Thirteen of the Tenth Canto. And there, after Lord Brahma stole the cowherd boys and calves from Sri Krishna, when Lord Brahma returned to the scene, Lord Krishna manifested all the cowherd boys and calves as four-handed Vishnu forms, and He showed, coming out of the four-handed Vishnu forms, so many things, past, present, future, time. And one of the things that was emanating from the Vishnu murtis was desire. And Srila Prabhupada explains that desire emanates from the Lord, and that desire is not necessarily material. There are also spiritual desires. And Srila Prabhupada gave his own example that a devotee came to Vrindavan, and he desired, “Let there be a temple and sevā, service to Lord Krishna.” And because of the desire of the devotee, what had once been a vacant plot of land, where there had once been a vacant plot of land, there came a temple and service to the deities of Krishna. So such are the desires of the devotee. The devotee has no other desire, anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ. He has no other desire except the desire to serve and satisfy the Lord. And the Lord is always pleased to fulfill the desire of the devotee who wants to serve Him and preach His glories throughout the world and throughout the universe.

Before Srila Prabhupada left India to come to the West, he came to Bombay to try to arrange his passage to America. And as you know he met Srimati Sumati Morarjee in Bombay, and ultimately she agreed to arrange for his passage to America. So Srila Prabhupada had nothing, no money, no place of residence, no support. But Mrs. Morarjee kindly arranged for him to stay at the Scindia Workers Colony in Andheri, and she used to send her car for Srila Prabhupada every day to bring him to her residence so that he could read to her from his Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So when Srila Prabhupada would pass on the way to Sumati Morarjee’s bungalow, he would see an empty plot of land, and he thought that what a nice place for a temple for Krishna. Anyway, as you know, in 1965, Srila Prabhupada did leave India for America, and he only returned to India some five years later in 1970. When he returned to India, Sumati Morarjee arranged a grand function on the top of the Scindia Office Building in downtown, Bombay. And Srila Prabhupada and the Western devotees who had come to India with him performed saṅkīrtana and explained about the movement of Krishna consciousness. After the function was over, Srila Prabhupada wanted the devotees to begin to make life members. So the devotees asked Mrs. Morarjee for the list of invitees to the program because they were the elite of Bombay, and they had the opportunity to hear Srila Prabhupada directly, to see the devotees directly, and see the slideshow of the ISKCON activities. So one of the names on the list of invitees was Mr. A.B. Nyer, who was the editor of the English daily newspaper in Bombay called The Free Press Journal. And he was a very prominent person.

So eventually, when the devotees met him, he told the devotees that he had a plot of land in Juhu that he would like to make available for some great purpose like Srila Prabhupada’s. And eventually, Srila Prabhupada saw the land and he liked it and he agreed to purchase it. And the land was the exact same land that he had seen so many years before on the way to Sumati Morarjee’s bungalow, and he just had an idea that what a nice place for a temple. And Krishna fulfilled his desire. So such are the desires of the devotee. They desire nothing for personal sense gratification. They desire only that the Lord should be glorified and that the Lord should be worshipped and that all conditioned souls should be engaged in serving and glorifying Lord Krishna. And when Krishna sees the sincere desire of the pure devotee in the disciplic succession, He fulfills it. He fulfills it, and therefore things which are humanly impossible become possible by Krishna’s mercy. Otherwise, Srila Prabhupada commented, how could an old man, past the age of 70 years, go to America without any friends or support or money and even survive? Srila Prabhupada went to America with seven dollars. For seven dollars, which is hardly enough to last for one day in New York.

So how is it possible that such an old man who is a complete stranger could even survive, what to speak of start a God-conscious movement to completely revolutionize and spiritualize the whole human society, it is not possible. It is only by the mercy of Krishna that such a phenomenon could take place. But still, what was Srila Prabhupada’s credit? Yes, Srila Prabhupada always gave the credit to his guru Maharaja and to Krishna. In fact, after the function at Scindia House, the event was covered in some newspapers. So, I happened to be walking on the sidewalk and although I usually don’t look at the newspaper, somehow, I came to one intersection and the vendor was sitting on the sidewalk with some newspapers. I somehow picked up a newspaper and began to look at it, and the full back page of the newspaper described the program at Scindia House. 

And at the end of the article, the author or the interviewer asked Srila Prabhupada, “To what do you attribute your great success?” And you know what Srila Prabhupada replied? He said, “I contribute my success simply to the mercy of my guru Maharaja.” And that is how he felt. He didn’t feel that he had done anything wonderful. He simply felt that he had tried to execute the order of his guru Maharaja, and by the mercy of his guru Maharaja, so many things had happened. Even when young people came forward, devotees came forward to join him, he thought they were sent by his guru Maharaja. So, he gave all credit to his guru Maharaja and Krishna. But why did Srila Prabhupada get so much mercy from his guru Maharaja and Krishna? Because he had no other desire, anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ. He had no other desire except to preach the message of Krishna and engage everyone in the universe in Krishna’s service. And when someone has such a pure spiritual desire, Krishna gives him all benediction, all facility, all strength, all intelligence to fulfill such a pure spiritual desire. 

So, everything that exists in the material world; form, qualities, activities, they exist in the spiritual world, they exist in Krishna and in the pure devotees of Krishna. So, nothing is necessarily maya. It may be spiritual. Srila Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami explains in Sri Caitanya-caritāmṛta that nothing is good and nothing is bad. Good and bad are simply mental concoctions. But if something is used in Krishna’s service, it becomes good. And if something is used outside of Krishna’s service for sense gratification, it is bad. So, we could say that everything is bad. In the material world everything is bad. Nothing is good. The only good thing is Krishna consciousness and material things engaged in Krishna’s service. So, we could say that everything is bad in the material world, everything is bad. Nothing is good. The only good thing is Krishna consciousness and material things engaged in Krishna’s service become good, become spiritual. So, just as there is material form, there is also spiritual form. And just as there is material mind, there is also spiritual mind.

Now, what are the functions of the mind? Srila Prabhupada explains that the mind has three businesses: thinking, feeling, and willing. So, the impersonalists have no conception of spiritual thinking, spiritual feeling,

spiritual desiring. So, they think we have to make the mind empty, no thoughts, no emotion, no desire, which of course is not possible. The impersonal idea is not practical. But the Vaishnavas say that you convert material thinking, feeling, and willing to spiritual, thinking about Krishna, thinking about how to spread Krishna consciousness, feeling affection for Krishna and Krishna’s devotees, and desiring to serve Krishna and spread Krishna consciousness. Even what are ordinarily considered bad emotions or negative emotions are good when they are engaged in Krishna’s service in Krishna consciousness.

When Srila Prabhupada returned to India from America, he had huge pandal programs in all the major cities of India—Bombay, Calcutta, and Delhi. And after the pandal program in Delhi, one foreigner who was visiting India came to meet Srila Prabhupada. And he was very enthusiastic about the exhibition of Krishna consciousness at the pandal. So, he said to Srila Prabhupada, “If people just become Krishna conscious, if they just take to this movement, then all of the problems of the world will be solved, and there will be no more anger, that people will just love each other. There will only be love.” Srila Prabhupada replied, “Oh, there is something wrong with anger. What is wrong with anger? Someone has told you there is something wrong with anger.” And Srila Prabhupada then explained that Krishna spoke the whole Bhagavad-gītā to Arjuna just to make him angry. He wanted Arjuna to fight and kill. So, how can you fight with someone to the point of killing the person unless you are angry? So, Srila Prabhupada said that Krishna spoke the whole Bhagavad-gītā to Arjuna just to make him angry.

And then Srila Prabhupada explained that nothing in and of itself is good or bad. But it becomes good if it is used in Krishna’s service and it is bad if it is contrary to Krishna’s desire. So, when anger is engaged in the service of the Lord, it becomes spiritual. And actually, although devotees tolerate for their own sake, but when there is some offense against Krishna or Krishna’s pure devotee, then devotees are not supposed to tolerate. But they are supposed to become angry. They are supposed to become angry. And if they don’t become angry, they fall down. They fall down by listening to offenses and becoming implicated. So everything is there in spiritual life. Everything is there. But the difference between material and spiritual is that spiritual is for Krishna and material is for me. In the material sense, my body, my wife, my children, my relatives, my friends, my community, my nation, my species. Even if one comes to the point of desiring good for all of humanity, what about the animals? What about the trees? They are also living entities. They are also part and parcel of Krishna. 

So, one who desires to render service to Krishna, he actually renders service to all living entities. He does the best welfare work for all living entities. And that is the desire of Lord Brahma expressed to Lord Krishna. He desired the welfare of every living entity in the universe. And pure devotees in the disciplic succession of Lord Brahma also have the same desire, that everyone in the universe should become peaceful and happy in Krishna consciousness. Prahlada Maharaja prays to Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva that let there be auspiciousness throughout the whole universe and let all envious persons become peaceful so that they can think of the welfare of others. 

Generally, envious persons think of their own welfare. They don’t desire good for others. They actually desire bad for others. So, Prahlada prays even for the envious. As preachers, we don’t go to the envious to preach, but we can pray for them like Prahlada Maharaja. He prayed to Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva, “Please be merciful to the envious. Let the envious also think of You. Let the envious also become Krishna conscious.” And when they become Krishna conscious, automatically they will give up their envy, and they will think of the welfare of others, and they will become peaceful. Prahlada Maharaja’s father was most envious, Hiraṇyakaśipu. But still Prahlada prayed to Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva for Hiraṇyakaśipu that please purify him also. 

So, pure devotees, they don’t distinguish between friend and enemy, between insider and outsider, but they want everyone to become Krishna conscious. And Srila Prabhupada was the same. He didn’t distinguish that only Indians can be Krishna conscious or only Hindus can become Krishna conscious. No, he made Krishna consciousness open to everyone. When Srila Prabhupada was in Indore in Madhya Pradesh in India, many people used to come and meet him in the afternoon. But almost all of them had their own ideas, and Srila Prabhupada became very frustrated because they didn’t really come to hear submissively from Srila Prabhupada, but Srial Prabhupada said they came with their own ideas, and they wanted to see how far Srila Prabhupada agreed with their ideas. And if he agreed with their ideas, then he was very good, very good swami. Anyway, one man came, and he was attached to some impersonal philosophers of India, which Srila Prabhupada was criticizing very strongly. So, the man got upset, and he told Srila Prabhupada that, “You are supposed to be sama-darśinaḥ, as Bhagavad-gītā says, paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ someone who is pandit, learned, wise, he will see everyone equally. So why are you criticizing Swami so and so? “You should see equally.” Then Srila Prabhupada replied with a reference to the same verse from Bhagavad-gītā that, “Yes, the learned person sees everyone equally. He sees a brahman, a cow, a dog, an elephant, and a dog eater all the same.” But Srila Prabhupada said, “I am not on that level.” That is the highest level, but I am not on that level. How is it that someone sees a brahman and a dog equally? How is it that someone takes birth as a brahman because of his pious activities? He takes birth as a brahman. And how is it that someone takes birth as a dog? Because of his sinful activities, he takes birth as a dog. So someone on the highest platform, he doesn’t distinguish between pious activities and sinful activities. He sees everyone as serving Krishna. But I am not on that platform. I see that you are doing nonsense, and I tell you to stop it.

So anyway, Srila Prabhupada kept criticizing, and the man kept arguing, and Srila Prabhupada said that, “I am not saying, Krishna is saying, na mā duktino mûhā prapadyante narādhamā, anyone who doesn’t surrender to Krishna is a fool and a rascal.” So Srila Prabhupada said that, “I am not saying, Krishna is saying.” And Srila Prabhupada would say, we have our acharyas. We follow our acharyas. So then the man said, “Well, you must make some contribution beyond just repeating what the previous acharyas have said and doing what the previous acharyas have done.” Srila Prabhupada especially said, “No, I have not added anything. I just repeat.” He said, “No, what is your contribution?” “No contribution. I just repeat what my predecessors have said.”

Anyway, in the course of the discussion, it came out that Srila Prabhupada had spread Krishna consciousness all over the world, and the man actually started to become a little impressed. Then in the end, Srila Prabhupada said that, “Yes, I am the first one who has made Krishna consciousness available to all classes of people in all parts of the world, and that is my contribution. And that is my sama-darśinaḥ, that is my equal vision, that for the first time, I am making Krishna consciousness available to everyone.” So that is the mercy of Srila Prabhupada, who was benedicted by his guru Maharaja and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to actually reclaim fallen souls from all different backgrounds and all different places. And therefore, he is the dear most servant to Lord Krishna, and he is the greatest benefactor of all living entities. 

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya! Yes.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:45:55]

Giriraj Swami: Yes. The original deities that Srila Prabhupada installed in Bombay were Radha and Krishna. But when Srila Prabhupada was planning the big temple, he raised the question of what deities we should have in the big temple. And maybe someone suggested Sita-Rama. And Srila Prabhupada said, “Yes, that Bombay is full of devotees of Lord Rama, so we should have Sita-Rama.”

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:46:45]

Giriraj Swami: On Rama-Navami in 1974, sometime when we just had the deities of Radha-Krishna. One of the devotees announced after Srila Prabhupada’s guru-puja in the morning that today is Ram Navami, and in the evening, we will be having Rama Dhun and Srila Prabhupada would speak. And then Srila Prabhupada became very upset. “Why did you say we are going to have Rama Dhun? We worship Krishna, we chant Krishna’s name.” 

So then in the evening, at the beginning of the lecture, Srila Prabhupada gave a whole explanation of how Krishna is the original personality of Godhead, He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and we only worship Him and we only sing songs about Him. And I mean, Srila Prabhupada became so strong. He said, “We understand Rama better than anyone. We love Rama more than anyone. But still, our devotion, our service, our songs are for Krishna.” And after about fifteen minutes of explaining the position of Rama in relation to Krishna, that Krishna is the original, then he gave regular Bhagavad-gītā class.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:48:40]

Giriraj Swami: Oh, Lakshmi-Narayana in Vaikuntha are worshiped in awe and reverence, and we are also meant to worship in awe and reverence according to rules and regulations. But all the incarnations are included in Krishna. All the incarnations of Vishnu are included in Krishna, and all the incarnations of Lakshmi are included in Radha. So when we worship in awe and reverence according to rules and regulations, Lakshmi-Narayana within Radha and Krishna, accept the service. But because we are worshiping Radha and Krishna. . .

Sri Sri Radha Gokula Nanda ki jaya!

Sri Sri Sita-Rama, Lakshman, Hanuman ki jaya!

Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai ki jaya!

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

. . .and following the movement of Lord Chaitanya, so eventually, we should develop love for Radha and Krishna. There is one verse by Sri Prabodhananda Sarasvati in Śrī- Caitanya-candrāmṛta, yathā yathā gaura-padāravinde vindeta bhaktiṁ kṛta-puṇya-rāśiḥ, that when one who has performed heaps of pious activities becomes attached to the lotus feet of Lord Chaitanya, at a certain stage, all of a sudden, his heart will be flooded with the nectar from the lotus feet of Srimati Radharani. So by serving Lord Chaitanya, by becoming attached to Lord Chaitanya, by working to spread Krishna consciousness, we are preparing ourselves to get the nectar from the lotus feet of Radha and Krishna. Deity worship is very important to become purified. It is very important.

Once, when Srila Prabhupada was in Mayapur, some devotees came from Los Angeles and they showed him some pictures of a dance performance that had taken place in the Los Angeles temple. So when Srila Prabhupada saw the pictures, he became concerned. He said, “There is some defect here. The dancers have their backs to the deities. We are not supposed to have our backs to the deities. No one is supposed to have his back to the deities.” So then the devotee said, “Well, Jaya Tirtha said that it was all right.” Srila Prabhupada replied, “Oh. Jaya Tirtha said it is right, Rupa Gosvami said it

is not all right, but Jaya Tirtha said it is all right. Call the GBC.” So his servant went out and got all the GBC men who were available there in Mayapur and brought them into Srila Prabhupada’s room. And Srila Prabhupada showed them the picture and pointed out the defect that the dancers have their backs towards the deities. And The Nectar of Devotion says we should not keep our backs towards the deities. So he really made a very big issue of it. He took it very seriously. So the regulative principles of deity worship are very important, very necessary for us to observe carefully. That will help us to progress solidly. You should not try to jump over the process of deity worship in the process of regulated devotional service.

Devotee: Guru Maharaja, what do you say [Unintelligible 00:54:30]

Giriraj Swami: Maybe we could get some information from the temple in Potomac, Maryland because I believe Srila Prabhupada installed the deities of Sita-Rama-Lakshaman-Hanuman there when he was present, although he authorized the installation of Sita-Rama-Lakshman-Hanuman in Bombay. But actually, They were installed after he left. But generally, except on Rama-Navami, we don’t. And another thing I heard, not directly, but I heard that Srila Prabhupada said that the famous bhajana, ‘Jay Rama Sri Rama Jay Jay Rama’ is not approved. But Srila Prabhupada wanted people to chant Hare Krishna, to worship Lord Krishna. But I would say on Rama-Navami or Rama-vijaya-dasami with the deities of Sita-Rama, we can to some extent, is my humble opinion.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:56:20]

Giriraj Swami: Sorry.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:56:40]

Giriraj Swami: Oh yes, one can render pure devotional service to Sita-Rama, to Lakshmi-Narayana. But Srila Prabhupada established ISKCON for the worship of Radha and Krishna. Certainly, one can be a pure devotee of Sita-Rama, and Lakshmi-Narayana, or Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva. But in ISKCON, we are being guided to become pure devotees of Radha and Krishna. And because Radha and Krishna are the source of all Vishnu murtis and Lakshmis, all of the other forms are automatically served. You don’t have to serve Them separately.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:57:45]

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda śrī-advaita
gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

[Unintelligible 00:57:58]

Giriraj Swami: Well, there are ashrams in Vrindavan where people begin with bhaja, and some devotees who had heard them, they also started to add bhaja. Even they would say ‘Bhaja Hare Krishna Hare Krishna’ before maha-mantra they say bhaja. But although, bhaja śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda is not absolutely wrong, but Srila Prabhupada stopped it because he was very concerned about devotees putting bhaja before anything and everything. So that is why at a certain stage, he stopped it. He said, “No bhaja, just śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda.” And there are so many concocted mantras, so many concocted kirtans like ‘Bhaja Nitai-Gaura Radhe Shyam, Hare Krishna Hare Rama.’ But the bhaja is there, the bhaja is there. So Srila Prabhupada didn’t want bhaja to be introduced in all different places, so he stopped.

But as far as the names of the deities, she asked about the names of the deities, Srila Prabhupada said that we could chant the names of the deities and that would be like our answer to their concocted kirtan. He said we could sing ‘Jaya Nitai-Gaura Radhe Shyam, jaya Krishna-Balarama.’ So it has, it has the same meter and the same rhyme as the concocted one. So nothing is lacking in pure Krishna consciousness.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Nitai-Gaura premānande…Hari Haribol!