SB 7.10.52 – Krishna Gives Us the Intelligence We Need

Giriraj Swami: Reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Seven, Chapter Ten, Prahlāda, the Best Among Exalted Devotees, Text Fifty-Two.

TEXT 52

rājovāca
kasmin karmaṇi devasya
mayo ’hañ jagad-īśituḥ
yathā copacitā kīrtiḥ
kṛṣṇenānena kathyatām

TRANSLATION

Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira said: For what reason did the demon Maya Dānava vanquish Lord Śiva’s reputation? How did Lord Kṛṣṇa save Lord Śiva and expand his reputation again? Kindly describe these incidents.

COMMENT

There is no purport, so we will continue reading the next verses.

TEXT 53

śrī-nārada uvāca
nirjitā asurā devair
yudhy anenopabṛṁhitaiḥ
māyināṁ paramācāryaṁ
mayaṁ śaraṇam āyayuḥ

TRANSLATION

Nārada Muni said: When the demigods, who are always powerful by the mercy of Lord Kṛṣṇa, fought with the asuras, the asuras were defeated, and therefore they took shelter of Maya Dānava, the greatest of the demons.

TEXT 54–55

sa nirmāya puras tisro
haimī-raupyāyasīr vibhuḥ
durlakṣyāpāya-saṁyogā
durvitarkya-paricchadāḥ

tābhis te ’sura-senānyo
lokāṁs trīn seśvarān nṛpa
smaranto nāśayāṁ cakruḥ
pūrva-vairam alakṣitāḥ

TRANSLATION

Maya Dānava, the great leader of the demons, prepared three invisible residences and gave them to the demons. These dwellings resembled airplanes made of gold, silver and iron, and they contained uncommon paraphernalia. My dear King Yudhiṣṭhira, because of these three dwellings the commanders of the demons remained invisible to the demigods. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the demons, remembering their former enmity, began to vanquish the three worlds — the upper, middle and lower planetary systems.

TEXT 56

tatas te seśvarā lokā
upāsādyeśvaraṁ natāḥ
trāhi nas tāvakān deva
vinaṣṭāṁs tripurālayaiḥ

TRANSLATION

Thereafter, when the demons had begun to destroy the higher planetary systems, the rulers of those planets went to Lord Śiva, fully surrendered unto him and said: Dear Lord, we demigods living in the three worlds are about to be vanquished. We are your followers. Kindly save us.

TEXT 57

athānugṛhya bhagavān
mā bhaiṣṭeti surān vibhuḥ
śaraṁ dhanuṣi sandhāya
pureṣv astraṁ vyamuñcata

TRANSLATION

The most powerful and able Lord Śiva reassured them and said, “Do not be afraid.” He then fixed his arrows to his bow and released them toward the three residences occupied by the demons.

TEXT 58

tato ’gni-varṇā iṣava
utpetuḥ sūrya-maṇḍalāt
yathā mayūkha-sandohā
nādṛśyanta puro yataḥ

TRANSLATION

The arrows released by Lord Śiva appeared like fiery beams emanating from the sun globe and covered the three residential airplanes, which could then no longer be seen.

TEXT 59

taiḥ spṛṣṭā vyasavaḥ sarve
nipetuḥ sma puraukasaḥ
tān ānīya mahā-yogī
mayaḥ kūpa-rase ’kṣipat

TRANSLATION

Attacked by Lord Śiva’s golden arrows, all the demoniac inhabitants of those three dwellings lost their lives and fell down. Then the great mystic Maya Dānava dropped the demons into a nectarean well that he had created.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

The asuras are generally extremely powerful because of their mystic yogic power. However, as Lord Kṛṣṇa says in Bhagavad-gītā (6.47):

yoginām api sarveṣāṁ
mad-gatenāntarātmanā
śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ
sa me yuktatamo mataḥ

“Of all yogīs, he who always abides in Me with great faith, worshiping Me in transcendental loving service, is most intimately united with Me in yoga and is the highest of all.” The actual purpose of mystic yoga is to concentrate one’s attention fully on the Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, and always think of Him (mad-gatenāntarātmanā). To attain such perfection, one must undergo a certain process — haṭha-yoga — and through this yoga system the practitioner achieves some uncommon mystic power. The asuras, however, instead of becoming devotees of Kṛṣṇa, utilize this mystic power for their personal sense gratification. Maya Dānava, for example, is mentioned here as mahā-yogī, a great mystic, but his business was to help the asuras. Nowadays we are actually seeing that there are some yogīs who cater to the senses of materialists, and there are imposters who advertise themselves as God. Maya Dānava was such a person, a god among the demons, and he could perform some wonderful feats, one of which is described here: he made a well filled with nectar and dipped the asuras into that nectarean well. This nectar was known as mṛta-sanjīvayitari, for it could bring a dead body to life. Mṛta-sanjīvayitari is also an Āyurvedic preparation. It is a kind of liquor that invigorates even a person on the verge of death.

COMMENT

In this verse, the demon Maya Danava is described as maha-yogi. Srila Prabhupada explains that the word yoga means to link or connect, and the real purpose of yoga is to become connected with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yogino.

The yogis meditate upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but here, Maya Danava is not favorable to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Actually, he is inimical. But although he is inimical, still, he is called maha-yogi, because he had achieved mystic powers by dint of yoga practice. Unfortunately, he chose to use the powers against the Lord. And as Srila Prabhupada mentions in the purport, there are many such persons in the modern age who may have some mystic power but who use it against the Supreme Personality of Godhead and may actually claim falsely to be themselves the Lord.

When I was in Calcutta in 1971, raising funds for the first pandal there, I was meeting various important persons of the city. And one of the persons was one of the ten richest men in India, or from one of the ten richest families in India. And he happened to be a very prominent devotee of Satya Sai Baba, which I discovered when I visited his home. He had a temple room, and in the temple room, he had a large photo of Satya Sai Baba. He described his activities to me, and his activity sounded just like the best congregational devotee in ISKCON, except that the worshipable Deity was Satya Sai Baba instead of Lord Krishna.

So, he would rise early in the morning, worship the picture, and before eating, he would offer all of his food to the picture. He would sing bhajans in front of the picture. He would tell people about his worshipable Deity. He would attend the regular satsaṅga programs for his worshipable Deity and try to bring others to the satsaṅga programs. He was vegetarian. He was more or less following the four principles.

So, I was actually quite bewildered because he seemed so sincere in his service, and he seemed to be more or less following the same process that we do. So, I approached Srila Prabhupada and asked him, “What is the position of the man?” And Srila Prabhupada replied that if he is actually a devotee of Satya Sai Baba and he actually thinks of Satya Sai Baba at the time of death, he will go to Satya Sai Baba. And if Satya Sai Baba has gone to hell, he will also follow him.

So, in Krishna consciousness, the main consideration is not the person’s material qualifications or even apparently spiritual practices, but the main consideration is whether the activities are being done for Krishna or not. Sometimes we may be impressed with materialistic persons’ apparent good qualities or apparent expertise or apparent powers, but Srila Prabhupada was not impressed. He wanted to see one thing: Is the person favorable to Krishna consciousness or not? And again and again, Srila Prabhupada would repeat the verse from Bhagavad-gītā [15.7]

na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ
prapadyante narādhamāḥ
māyayāpahṛta-jñānā
āsuraṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ

Anyone who has not surrendered to Krishna falls in one of four categories of miscreants; either mūḍhāḥ, fool or rascal; narādhamāḥ, the lowest of mankind; māyayāpahṛta-jñānā, someone who appears to be very knowledgeable but whose knowledge has been stolen by illusion; and āsuraṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ, someone who has taken shelter of the demonic mentality. Why did Srila Prabhupada make such a point of saying that anyone who seems to have good qualities in the material sense, if he is not surrendered to Krishna, is actually one of the four categories of miscreants? Because he did not want us to be allured by or captivated by the apparent material qualifications of persons averse to Krishna. And neophyte devotees are more or less on the material platform, and therefore, they can be easily influenced by or attracted by superior material qualifications.

Of course, once in particular, Srila Prabhupada responded in the other way. Someone in Nairobi was glorifying some materialistic person to Srila Prabhupada, and one disciple said the materialistic person was a demon. Of course, Srila Prabhupada may have also been wanting to pacify the man who was praising the materialists, but still, Srila Prabhupada said to the disciple, “Maybe he is a demon, but still, we must give credit where credit is due. Otherwise, we will become envious.” So sometimes, the demons have good qualities, and we can acknowledge the fact that they have good qualities. But if they don’t use their material qualifications and their material assets in Krishna’s service, they are demons.

So, Srila Prabhupada was more concerned that we become devotees than that we become qualified in material ways. In fact, Srila Prabhupada had so much faith in the process of devotional service. He was confident that if we just became sincere devotees of Krishna, Krishna would give us the necessary intelligence to serve Him. In the beginning, some of the artists wanted to take art lessons, but Srila Prabhupada said, “No, you just paint for Krishna, and Krishna will give you the intelligence on how to proceed.”

So, if one actually becomes a devotee, then all good qualifications manifest by the mercy of Krishna. And if one is not a devotee, even if he has many so-called good qualifications, but still, if he is not a devotee of Krishna, what are his good qualifications? Because at any moment, he can fall down being driven by the external energy of Lord Krishna. One good example is the Mayavadis, because some of the Mayavadis appear to be very qualified, not only materially, but even spiritually. But Srila Prabhupada has compared the Mayavadis to vultures. Vultures soar very high in the sky, but as soon as they see some rotting flesh on the ground, immediately, they come down and peck at the rotting flesh. Similarly, the Mayavadis, they go soar very high with their mental speculations, but as soon as they see some opportunity for sense gratification, immediately, they come down, patanti adhaḥ.

So, the main consideration is to become a devotee, and if we actually become devotees, Krishna will endow us with whatever qualifications we need, or He will send persons with material qualifications to help us. Even Lord Shiva, as qualified as he is, even he needed help from the Supreme Personality of Godhead to defeat the powers of Maya Danava and the demons. And towards the end of the Chapter, Srila Prabhupada remarks in the purport that just as Lord Krishna equipped Lord Shiva with all of the weapons and other ingredients needed for success in the fight against Maya Danava and the demons, similarly, any preacher of Krishna consciousness will similarly be endowed by Lord Krishna with whatever he needs to become successful.

So, we should place our faith in Krishna and in the service of the Lord and not depend on material strength. Although the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam explains that pure devotees are automatically endowed with the mystic perfections, they do not use them. They do not choose to use them because they prefer to depend on the mercy of the Lord.

We have one godbrother who actually appears to have studied yoga in the bona fide system before he met Srila Prabhupada and came to Krishna consciousness. And he said that Srila Prabhupada’s descriptions of the yoga process, especially as given in the purports to the Sixth Chapter of the Gītā, are perfectly accurate because he himself studied the bona fide yoga system, and he could understand that Srila Prabhupada perfectly understood the yoga system.

And he also mentioned that the yogis who study from a proper instructor know that the siddhis or powers that one gets from the practice of yoga are not meant to be [audio cut] if he is working in the right way. So, the devotee said that the Lord gives the yogi mystic powers as he progresses step by step so that he can know that yes, he is on the right track, he is making progress. But the yogis are not meant to use or enjoy such powers. They are simply meant to be indications to the yogi that he is making progress. And the devotee mentioned that if any yogi uses the powers for personal enjoyment, he is considered to have fallen down.

So, in Kali-yuga, there are very few real practitioners of any process. And even if one does make some advancement in the mystic process, either from the present life or in continuation of the past life, he is very likely to fall prey to the temptation to enjoy such powers. And because people in Kali-yuga are so easily misled, such yogis can very easily exploit people in Kali-yuga and enjoy like demons. And there are so many examples. But Srila Prabhupada was not so concerned about bhogī yogis. He was more concerned about the fact that intelligent persons or persons who are supposed to be intelligent would follow such a person.

Once, the newspaper in America asked Srila Prabhupada about some bhogī yogi, and of course, Srila Prabhupada replied quite frankly that the person is bluffing the people. But Srila Prabhupada was not astonished by the bhogī yogi, but he told the reporter that he was astonished that the intelligent people of America could be bluffed by such a cheater. That was astonishing. So, we have to expect that there will be cheaters because we are in the material world, and the material world consists of cheaters and cheated. But we should not become cheaters, neither should we be cheated.

Srila Prabhupada was very concerned about how the money in India was spent, so once, I asked Srila Prabhupada, “How can we save money?” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “The problem is that when you give money to the Indian boys to shop, they cheat you. And when you give money to the American girls to shop, they get cheated. So, the cheaters and the cheated. So, you cannot save money.” Anyway, we should neither be cheaters nor cheated, especially spiritually. But we shouldn’t be cheated in any respect in regards to Krishna’s service. But we should be intelligent. And if we are actually surrendered to Krishna and follow Srila Prabhupada’s instructions to consult, then even if we are not so intelligent individually, Krishna will give us the intelligence we need.

teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ
bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam
dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ
yena mām upayānti te        [Gītā 15.7]

COMMENT

He may give us the intelligence within the heart. Or if we are not able to get dictation from Krishna within the heart, He can speak to us through others; through our godbrothers, through our godsisters, through our authorities. And thus, He can guide us on the right path.

I’ll just conclude with one story from Vrindavan. There was once a lady staying in the guest house, and the lady was a devotee of Satya Sai Baba. But not only was she a devotee of Satya Sai Baba, she also had many other ideas. And she was very talkative or very anxious to share her ideas with others. So, one of her ideas was that you do not need a spiritual master. So, one disciple who had come in contact with the lady told Srila Prabhupada about the lady. And when Srila Prabhupada heard that she said that you don’t need a spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada said, “We should ask her to leave the guest house immediately.” He would not tolerate her.

Then the disciple told Srila Prabhupada about the lady’s attachment to Satya Sai Baba and about his discussion with her. So, of course, Srila Prabhupada used the argument that if he is actually God, if he is actually Krishna, he should show us his universal form, let us see his universal form. So, the disciple had already used the argument with the lady, and the lady said that we do not have the eyes to see the universal form of Satya Sai Baba.

So, Srila Prabhupada gave the reply that we should ask her how many persons do have the eyes to see the universal form of Satya Sai Baba. And if the answer is no one, because we know that no one has seen the universal form of Satya Sai Baba, if the answer is no, then we should say that Satya Sai Baba’s mission is a failure. Because he has come into the world to preach, and he could not even create one person who is qualified to see his universal form. So, his whole mission is a failure.

So, sometimes I think that people glorify Srila Prabhupada, but if they think that Srila Prabhupada was not able to create one pure devotee who is able to continue the disciplic succession, then what are they saying? They are actually saying that Srila Prabhupada’s preaching mission is a failure. He could not create one pure devotee to continue the disciplic succession. Anyway, at least we have Srila Prabhupada. He has given us the perfect explanation of the Vedic literature. He has given us so many, not only books, conversations, letters, so much instruction. Not only how we can practice Krishna consciousness, but how we can preach. Because basically, Srila Prabhupada wanted us to preach.

And I was just listening to one tape where Srila Prabhupada was saying that in order to preach, we have to become pure devotees. But the focus was preaching, that we have to preach. But in order to preach properly, we have to become pure devotees. And pure devotee means surrender to the instructions of Srila Prabhupada, chanting sixteen rounds, following the regulative principles, and working with no other motive except to serve guru and Krishna. And that is sufficient to preach Krishna consciousness.

Hare Krishna. Are there any questions or comments? Yes?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:38:34].

Giriraj Swami: Well, there are two processes which may operate side by side. One is pure devotional service, and the other is varnashrama-dharma. Srila Prabhupada wanted to emphasize that in pure devotional service, one need not do anything else except engage in the service of the Lord, and the Lord will give us the intelligence on how to proceed, or He will send people to help us. Srila Prabhupada said we don’t have to become doctors, but by preaching, we can get doctors to offer voluntary service. We don’t need to become lawyers, but by preaching, we can get lawyers to offer voluntary service. We don’t need to become the ruler, but by preaching, we can inspire the ruler to follow our guidance.

So, that’s the principle. But then again, there are emergencies, and in an emergency, even someone who’s supposed to act as a brahman may have to act as a kshatriya or a vaishya. But we should try to establish the varnashrama system where the brahmans act as brahmans, the kshatriyas act as kshatriyas, the vaishyas act as vaishyas, and the sudras act as sudras. And if we are being trained to act as brahmans, we should avoid being put in a situation where we have to act as something else.

And then again, even if we have to act as something else, do we have to take instruction from experts in that particular field in order to do the emergency service? So then, we are learning the material skill to be engaged in the emergency service, but then, are there enough devotees to do the most important service, which is to study the scriptures and teach the scriptures, to worship the Deity, and engage others in Deity worship, to accept charity and to give charity?

But as a direct answer to your question, I would say that yes, it was a specific instruction. And that we cannot necessarily make an absolute statement that we must not learn any material skills to become expert in our service.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:42:30].

Giriraj Swami: He says that someone may be a sincere devotee and at the same time materially qualified. And we may be attracted to him. So, is it harmful? Well, no, it’s not harmful to be attracted to a materially qualified devotee. But if we minimize the value of other devotees who are not materially qualified and compare them to the materially qualified devotee in an offensive way, that offensive mentality is harmful.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:43:56].

Giriraj Swami: He says that if a cheater may be cunning and the cheated person may simply be foolish, so does the foolish person have to suffer as much as the cunning person?

In one sense, as you said, if the cheated follows the cheater to the end, they’ll come to the same end. But the difference between a foolish person and a cunning person is that the foolish person can be awakened. It’s like someone who’s actually asleep and someone who’s pretending to be asleep. You can wake a person who’s actually sleeping, but you can never wake someone who’s pretending to be asleep. So, the cheater may be pretending, but the cheated may actually be ignorant, and therefore, he can be awakened, whereas the cheater cannot be.

Once, there was a very cunning person who was the editor of the Illustrated Weekly of India. It was a weekly magazine. And there was a devotee of Lord Shiva named Aganda Bharati. So, I forget the exact sequence, but basically, I think we had written something about Krishna consciousness, and Aganda Bharati took objection, “Why only Hare Krishna, why not Shiva Shiva?” And then, the editor of the magazine took the opportunity, and he published a big article, “Hare Krishna versus Shiva Shiva,” really wanting to make both sides look foolish.

And again, I wrote a letter to the editor. I also wrote a letter to Srila Prabhupada, saying that I thought that Aganda Bharati, he just thought that there was no difference between Shiva and Krishna, and why only Krishna and why not Shiva? But the editor of the magazine, he was trying to portray both sides to make them both look foolish, just fighting for nothing. And when Srila Prabhupada read the letter, he said, “Yes, Aganda Bharati is a fool, but the editor is a demon.”

Last, oh boy.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:48:33]. Neophyte devotee or materialistic persons who come into the association of devotees have a tendency to see the material qualifications of a devotee as an indication of spiritual advancement, although everyone who doesn’t know something about philosophy of Krishna consciousness can’t understand the spiritual advancement is more internal than an external show of any non-cultural qualifications. But sometimes we see that devotees want to put forth the utilization of various qualities or facilities of this material world in order to captivate the mind of neophyte devotees or materialistic persons under the banner of yukta-vairāgya.

And so, therefore, they may think that in order to put forth, push forward the preaching mission, because after all, our preaching will be directed toward persons who have less spiritual intelligence and who will have an attraction to such material complications. Thus, we should also make ourselves look to be materially qualified in one way or another. For example, I’ve been in India for eleven years, in Vrindavan dhāma, but I haven’t learnt Hindi. I have been applying myself specifically to the principles of

teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ
bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam

Devotee: But the intelligence has not risen in my heart as to how to distract my attention from my bhajana to the principle of learning Hindi so that I can appear to be more, let’s say, qualified that I understood one would expect of a preacher in India to know Hindi. So similarly, Sanskrit language or any other qualification that one thinks would be necessary for presenting oneself as a qualified representative of this sampradāya, so what should be the conclusion? Is it legitimate, actually, for us to think in terms of presenting a material facade of some qualification which will be attractive to others? Or should we simply depend on the spiritual potency based on our surrender to the movement, Guru and Krishna? 

Giriraj Swami: As usual, Aindra Prabhu has asked a very deep question. I think that I will not reply point by point, but I’ll reply in a general way, which I believe will answer all the points. But basically, there are two moods in devotional service. One is the mood of a bhajanānandī, and one is the mood of goṣṭhyānandī. And a bhajanānandī by definition is more concerned with relishing bhajana and with internal development, and a goṣṭhyānandī by definition is more concerned with bringing others to Krishna, and he takes pleasure in bringing others to Krishna.

When Srila Prabhupada was presenting Krishna consciousness, he emphasized the mood of goṣṭhyānandī, and he introduced criteria for judging a preacher—how many devotees has he made, how many temples has he opened, how many books has he distributed—and he would give encouragement and show appreciation for persons who engage in such activities. He also gave encouragement and showed appreciation for persons who offered very small acts, which showed devotion also.

Now, as you yourself said and as I also said, materialistic persons are attracted by material things. But learning a language like Hindi doesn’t necessarily mean that we want to impress people by our material qualifications. It may mean that we want to communicate Krishna consciousness to them, we want to help them in their spiritual life. And Srila Prabhupada did not absolutely order us to learn Hindi, but he definitely encouraged us. And he gave the example that what if he had come to America and he didn’t know English? So, I think if someone is in the mood of preaching, and in the mood of preaching, he learns the language of the people where he is preaching so that he can communicate with them and also so that he can attract them, because people’s hearts are generally quite touched when a foreigner speaks their language.

But I don’t think that someone who’s learning Hindi for the sake of preaching can be said to be a person who wants to impress people with his material qualifications. I don’t know how we would be able to judge a person’s inner development of Krishna consciousness because someone could be chanting sixty-four rounds and thinking of sex, someone could also be preaching to thousands of people and thinking of sex. So, how can we know?

There have been people who made a lot of devotees, opened a lot of temples, and distributed a lot of books who fell down, but there have also been people who tried to live in a very renounced way and just concentrate on chanting and hearing who also fell down. So, we can’t really judge by the externals, and I think unless we ourselves are very advanced spiritually, we won’t be able to judge.

But we should follow in the footsteps of Srila Prabhupada, and if someone is preaching nicely, we should encourage him. If someone is rising early and chanting before maṅgala-ārati, we should also encourage him because real goṣṭhyānandī includes bhajanānandī. It’s not that Srila Prabhupada was not able to relish Krishna consciousness, he was able to relish Krishna consciousness, but at the same time, he was more eager to preach, and he got more pleasure from seeing others come to Krishna consciousness.

So, we may not really be bhajanānandī or goṣṭhyānandī, we may not be able to experience much ānanda yet, but we are trying to follow the footsteps, and in ISKCON, we are trying to follow the footsteps of Srila Prabhupada, who’s goṣṭhyānandī, and in our preaching work, we may use our material abilities and get some success, and people may think that our success is due to spiritual advancement, but it may be related to our material abilities as well. And then when the person has some spiritual difficulty, then the devotees may become bewildered.

I’ll mention two little incidents, but they are actually very relevant. In the beginning, Srila Prabhupada named the GBC, and we thought that the twelve persons who were named the GBC were really in a special category. We thought they were different from the rest of us, they were very special. So, after some time, one of them fell down, but we sort of thought, at least I thought, it was a fluke. I didn’t even think about it, I didn’t want to think about it, but I still thought that the other eleven were somehow special. But then, after some time, a second one fell down, and then I was definitely confused.

So, I approached Srila Prabhupada and asked him, “You know us better than we know ourselves, you know everything about us, but still, sometimes you put someone in a very exalted position, and then he falls down.”