SB 9.10.28 – The Lord’s Energy in the Lord’s Service

Giriraj Swami: 

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

Reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Nine, Chapter Ten, “The Pastimes of Lord Rāmacandra.”

TEXT 28

kṛtaiṣā vidhavā laṅkā
vayaṁ ca kula-nandana
dehaḥ kṛto ‘nnaṁ gṛdhrāṇām
ātmā naraka-hetave

TRANSLATION

O pleasure of the Rākṣasa dynasty, because of you the state of Laṅkā and also we ourselves now have no protector. By your deeds you have made your body fit to be eaten by vultures and your soul fit to go to hell.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

One who follows the path of Rāvaṇa is condemned in two ways: his body is fit to be eaten by dogs and vultures, and the soul goes to hell. As stated by the Lord Himself in Bhagavad-gītā (16.19):

tān ahaṁ dviṣataḥ krūrān
saṁsāreṣu narādhamān
kṣipāmy ajasram aśubhān
āsurīṣv eva yoniṣu

“Those who are envious and mischievous, who are the lowest among men, are cast by Me into the ocean of material existence, into various demoniac species of life.” Thus the destination of godless atheists such as Rāvaṇa, Hiraṇyakaśipu, Kaṁsa and Dantavakra is a hellish condition of life. Mandodarī, the wife of Rāvaṇa, could understand all this because she was a chaste woman. Although lamenting for the death of her husband, she knew what would happen to his body and soul, for although one cannot see directly with one’s material eyes, one can see with eyes of knowledge (paśyanti jñāna-cakṣuṣaḥ). In Vedic history there are many instances of how one becomes godless and is condemned by the laws of nature.

COMMENT

So, Rāvaṇa has been killed by Ramachandra, and his widow Mandodari is addressing him or addressing his dead body. She is noting the results of Rāvaṇa’s activities on his body and on his soul, as well as on his kingdom and on his family. The king is meant to protect the citizens, but because Rāvaṇa was killed by the Lord, because of his sinful activities in kidnapping Sita devi from the Lord, Rāvaṇa was killed, and therefore the state of Lanka was without its protector. Similarly, the husband is supposed to protect the wife, but because of Rāvaṇa’s misbehavior, he was killed by Ramachandra, and thus Mandodari was without her protector. So, Rāvaṇa’s activities were disastrous for his subjects and for his family. Similarly, his activities were disastrous for himself. Generally, in Vedic civilization, the body is burned, but here Mandodari says to Rāvaṇa that your body is fit to be eaten by vultures. In other words, you are so uncivilized that your body is not fit to be burned, that it is fit to be neglected and left to the vultures to eat. Similarly, she says that “Your soul is fit to go to hell.” Actually, the first instruction of Bhagavad-gītā is that the living entity is different from the material body. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre. When the body is killed, the soul is not killed, but the soul continues to live. So, what happens to the soul when it leaves the body? According to one’s activities, the soul achieves its destination. It achieves its next body.

So, if the soul is pious, if the soul has acted in the mode of goodness, it goes to higher planets. If the soul is mixed pious and sinful, and is in the mode of passion, it will take birth on the earth again. And if the soul is sinful and covered by the mode of ignorance, it will be degraded into a hellish condition. Now, Rāvaṇa was a brahman, and he was very learned in the scriptures. He was very accomplished in many ways. So, how could someone as apparently exalted as Rāvaṇa become fit to go to hell? Not only was he a brahman, not only was he knowledgeable in the scriptures, but he was also a great devotee of Lord Shiva. So, how did he become fit to go to hell? We find earlier the explanation is given just one or two verses before. The explanation is given by Mandodari, the chaste wife of Rāvaṇa, that because he had kidnapped Mother Sita, he was cursed to die. Sita devi is the energy of Lord Ramachandra. She is the property of Lord Ramachandra. But Rāvaṇa, with his uncontrolled mind and his uncontrolled senses, wanted to take her for his own enjoyment. And actually, he attempted to kidnap her.

So, because of his offense, both against Lord Ramachandra and against Sita devi, he was bound to die. Srila Prabhupada comments that because Mandodari was a chaste lady, she knew the power of another chaste lady. She knew that Rāvaṇa and his entire dynasty would be ruined just because of his offense against a chaste lady. So, in a broader sense, just as Sita devi is the energy of the Lord, everything we see is the energy of the Lord, and it is meant to be engaged in the service of the Lord. But if we are lustful and want to enjoy the Lord’s energy or the Lord’s property for our sense gratification, then we will be condemned like Rāvaṇa. What is the difference between spiritual and material? We can also get some instruction from the history of Rāmāyaṇa.

When Lord Chaitanya was traveling in South India, He met one brahman who was a devotee of Lord Rama. In fact, he was called Ramadas Vipra. So, Ramadas Vipra invited Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who was a sannyasi, to stay and take prasāda. So, ordinarily, prasāda would be offered at noon, but Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was waiting and waiting. So much time passed. Three o’clock in the afternoon came, and still no prasāda. So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu inquired, “What is the matter?” Ramadas Vipra replied that, “We are living in exile in the forest, and I have not been able to find any food from the jungle, but hopefully, I will find some.” So eventually, Ramadas brought some simple food from the forest and prepared prasāda for Lord Chaitanya. So, Lord Chaitanya understood that Ramadas Vipra was in the mood of vanvas, the period when Sita and Rama were living in the forest. And he saw that Ramadas Vipra seemed to be very upset or very unhappy. So, Lord Chaitanya asked him, and he replied that, “The demon Rāvaṇa has kidnapped the universal mother Sita devi, and therefore, we are very distressed.”

So, Lord Chaitanya explained that actually, Rāvaṇa had no capacity to touch Sita devi. In fact, later when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was traveling in South India, he discovered the Kurma-Purana in one temple. And the Kurma-Purana tells the story of Sita devi and Lord Ramachandra. So, when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu returned to the same place, He was very pleased to present the findings of the Kurma-Purana to the brahman Ramadas. So, Lord Chaitanya explained that Rāvaṇa had no capacity even to see Sita devi, who is the spiritual energy of the Lord, what to speak of touch her. So, when Rāvaṇa attempted to kidnap Sita devi, the original Sita devi, who was the spiritual energy, entered into the earth in the care of the god of fire or Agnideva. And what Rāvaṇa took away was not the original Sita or the spiritual energy of Lord Ramachandra, but he took away the illusory Sita or maya Sita, not the original Sita. Similarly, when Sita was put into the fire, the original Sita came out. And thus, the original Sita was never at any time touched by Rāvaṇa.

So, what is the difference between the original Sita and the maya Sita? The original Sita is meant to engage in the service of the Lord, and maya Sita is what demons get when they try to exploit the energy of the Lord. Srila Prabhupada gives the example that the same energy can act either spiritually or materially. When the energy is used in the service of the Lord, it acts spiritually. And when it is used for sense gratification, it acts materially. Just like prasāda. Prasāda is made of ordinary material ingredients, but when it is offered to the Lord with love and devotion for the pleasure of the deity, it becomes prasāda. It becomes spiritual. So, the same thing engaged in the service of the Lord becomes spiritual, and the same thing used for sense gratification becomes material. Therefore, Srila Krishnadasa Kaviraj Gosvami states that nothing is good and nothing is bad. We may think that something is good and something is bad, but such thoughts are simply mental concoction, mano-dharma. Nothing is good and nothing is bad. But if something is used in the service of the Lord, it becomes good. And if it is used outside the service of the Lord, it becomes bad. Or we could say that everything in the material world is bad, but when it is used in the service of the Lord, it becomes good.

So Rāvaṇa had the perverted mentality of wanting to enjoy the energy of the Lord, and the end result was that he was destroyed. And because he was in such a responsible position as king, his citizens were without their protector. And because he was in the position of husband, his wife was also without her protector. So because of his misbehavior, all the persons who were connected with him also had to suffer. Not just himself personally, but he also had to suffer. And therefore, his good wife says that because of your misdeeds, now your body is fit to be eaten by vultures and your soul is fit to go to hell.

So in modern society, people do not accept the existence of the soul and the transmigration of the soul. They think that whatever they see with their naked eyes is reality, and anything beyond what they can see with their naked eyes is mythology or unreal. So many times, people say about the next life, “Who has seen it? Who has ever gone and come back to tell us?” So they just see gross things: earth, water, fire, air. They just see the body, and they try to enjoy the senses of the body. But Mandodari was very intelligent. She was jñāna-cakṣusā. She saw through the eyes of knowledge, not through gross material senses. And through the eyes of knowledge, she could understand that the soul is different from the body. And when the soul leaves the body at the time of death, it goes somewhere. And according to our activities, the soul can either be elevated or degraded. It can be rewarded or punished. And as stated in the verse quoted from the Sixteenth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā, where we go does not depend on us. We are placed, in fact, Krishna says that the sinful living entities, or those who are envious and mischievous, they are cast by Me, by Krishna, into various demonic species of life. So we cannot decide, “Oh, I will go here, I will go there, I will take this birth, I will take that birth.” No, you are placed by superior arrangement. The Third Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam explains daiva-netreṇa, that we are placed by superior authority in a particular situation, in a particular body. So if you have engaged in sinful activities, you will be punished. You cannot decide that, “I will escape the laws of nature.” You cannot escape.

In the material world someone may commit a crime, and he may think he can escape the police or he can escape punishment. And now, especially in Kali-yuga, when the government officers are so degraded, people can escape. They can bribe the police, even bribe the judge. They can escape, apparently. But although they may escape punishment under the laws of man, but they cannot escape punishment under the laws of God. And therefore, they are imagining that by their cleverness, by their cheating, by their bribing, they are able to escape the reaction. They cannot escape the reaction under God’s laws and God’s administration.

So we should be sober, hearing the fate of Rāvaṇa, we shouldn’t think, “Oh, he was a demon. He had ten heads. I only have one head. I am not a demon.” Demon is not a matter of having ten heads. Demon is a matter of not being surrendered to Krishna. In Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Krishna says, na mā duktino mûhā prapadyante narādhamā, that if someone is not a devotee of Krishna, if someone has not surrendered to Krishna, he is a miscreant. And there are different categories of miscreants. But ultimately, āsuraṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ, they are demons. So Srila Prabhupada said we have a very simple test, who is a demon? It is not difficult to determine. If someone is surrendered to Krishna, he is not a demon. If someone has not surrendered to Krishna, he is a demon. Srila Prabhupada said even a three-year-old child can judge. He gave the example of little Sarasvati. When she was three years old, she used to ask the gentleman who used to come to the temple in Bombay, “Do you know who is Krishna?” Then she would say, “Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” So Srila Prabhupada said if someone doesn’t know who is God, who is Krishna, then he is a demon. Even a three-year-old can determine that he is a demon. He doesn’t know who is Krishna, he doesn’t know who is God. He is a demon.

So we can judge very easily who is a demon. If someone doesn’t know God, if someone is not surrendered to God, he is a demon. And he is fit to be punished. So we should not allow ourselves to face the same fate as Rāvaṇa. We should not try to enjoy the Lord’s energy for personal sense gratification. But we should engage the Lord’s energy in the Lord’s service. And if we take even one paisa of the Lord’s energy for personal sense gratification, we are punishable. People give money to the Krishna consciousness movement to be engaged in the service of the Lord. But if we use any of the money for sense gratification, not for Krishna’s service, we become punishable. And Srila Prabhupada said that we actually become debtors to the donors, the people who give money to the temple to be engaged in Krishna’s service. If we use any of the money for sense gratification, we become debtors to the people who gave the money. And in our next life, we have to slave to pay our debts. So we have to be very careful. We should be like Hanuman. Hanuman had no interest in enjoying Sita devi. He just wanted to bring Sita devi back to the lotus feet of Lord Ramacandra. So we should not be like Rāvaṇas. We should be like Hanumans and bring the Lord’s energy to be engaged in the Lord’s service without any thought of personal gain or material pleasure. Then we will become glorious like Hanuman. Otherwise, like Rāvaṇa.

So today, we are completing Kartik vrata or Vraja vrata. Even small amounts of devotional service bring big results. So generally, in the month of Damodara, the devotees do some extra service, some extra chanting, some extra reading, some extra service. And they may also do some extra austerity, only eating once a day or not taking sweets or something extra. And the value of the service offered in the month of Damodara is magnified. Damodara, Lord Damodara’s main characteristic or main quality is bhakta-vātsalyata, His affection for His devotees. So any little service offered in the month of Kartik, in the month of Damodara, is magnified by Lord Damodara because of His affection for His devotees. So if we have been observing Kartik Vrata very nicely, and especially it is recommended to be performed in Vrindavan, although every temple of the Lord can be as good as Vrindavan, one would have gotten so many realizations. So we should carefully guard our realizations. Whatever we realize that we have to do, we should do. Whatever we realize we should not do, we should not do. And maintain the same spirit throughout the entire year. Then our observance of Kartik Vrata will be fruitful.

So today is Purnima, end of Kartik. So we should try our best to accelerate our spiritual progress. Just as we tried during the month of Damodara, we should continue throughout the year and not slack in our efforts or become bewildered by the modes of nature and get into the mood of enjoying and so on, which is always the danger in the material world. Hare Krishna.

Are there any questions or comments?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:34:07]

Giriraj Swami: Yes. Mandodari said that his soul should go to hell. Actually, by his activities, his soul is fit to go to hell. But by the Lord’s mercy, he may be delivered from the hellish condition. But her statement is correct, that his activities make his soul fit to go to hell. And we will read in the next verse that Rama asked Vibhīṣaṇa, the brother of Rāvaṇa, from [Unintelligible], to perform the funeral rites for Rāvaṇa. Although his body was fit to be eaten by vultures, but still, out of the mercy of Lord Ramachandra, Lord Ramachandra asked the brother of Rāvaṇa to perform the funeral so he would be saved from hell.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:35:25]

Giriraj Swami: He said that today is Tulasi-Shaligram-vivaha. The marriage Tulasi and Shaligram.

Well, Tulasi in the material world is the expansion of Vrinda devi in the spiritual world, and Shaligram in the material world is the manifestation of Lord Vishnu or Lord Krishna in the spiritual world. So the same principle that Krishna or Vishnu has His spiritual energy and Vrinda devi is the Lord’s spiritual energy. So as a pastime, the Lord and His spiritual energy are married, just like Rama married Sita. So similarly, Krishna or Vishnu marries Vrinda devi, but they are manifest in the material world. Vishnu is manifest as a stone as Shaligram, and Vrinda devi is manifest as a tree as Tulasi-devi. So Tulasi and Shaligram are united in marriage. Yes.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:37:03]

Giriraj Swami: He is saying that if someone performs pious activities in the beginning of his life, but by the end of his life, he engages in sinful activities. So what happens to him?

Well, he will suffer the results of the pious activities and the results of the sinful activities. He will get both. It is not that a pious activity neutralizes a sinful activity, and it is not that a sinful activity neutralizes a pious activity. Whatever pious activities you do, you get the reward, and whatever sinful activities you do, you get the punishment. So the fact that he engaged in sinful activities at the end of life does not mean he will not get the reward for the pious activities he performed at the beginning of life. He will get both results. But apart from pious activities and sinful activities is the consideration of one’s thoughts at the time of death. So unfortunately, if he becomes sinful at the end of life, most likely his consciousness will be degraded, and therefore he may not think of something very auspicious at the time of death. So he may get a low birth. But even though he gets a low birth, he still enjoys and suffers the resultant reactions.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:38:46]

Giriraj Swami: If someone makes a contribution for Krishna’s service and we use the contribution for sense gratification, we become debtors to the person who made the contribution. So you are saying, what happens if someone makes a contribution and we actually use it in Krishna’s service?

Well, then you are free from any contamination. Of course, in a broader sense, you are asking what is the result of devotional service? The best result of devotional service is we develop pure love of Godhead. We do not engage in devotional service for any material result. Not that if we use the money for sense gratification, we go to hell, and if we give the money for Krishna’s service, we go to heaven. Well, you might go to heaven, but that is not the goal of pure devotees. They don’t want to take birth in the material world at all. They just want to serve Krishna. Even if you use the money in Krishna’s service, thinking of it as a pious activity, then in the end, you may go to heaven. But from the point of view of a pure devotee, going to heaven is a phantasmagoria. There is no interest in heaven. It is just another dream. You might dream at night, you are enjoying some wonderful experience, but then you wake up and you find the dream is over.

So even if you go to a heavenly planet to enjoy a higher level of sense gratification, it is just another dream. Within a short time, it will be over. But it is a fact that if one avoids sinful activities and if he engages in devotional activities, he doesn’t cheat or steal, he is an honest devotee, but he still wants to enjoy the material world, then he can be elevated to a heavenly planet. But a pure devotee does not want to be elevated to heavenly planet, he wants to serve Krishna without any material motive and His Holiness Sridhra Swami Maharaja gave his own commentary that if you go to a heavenly planet, you will live for thousands of years by earthly calculation, and by the time you come back to earth, the golden age of Kali-yuga will be over, and the situation on earth will be very horrible, and you won’t have the chance to participate in Krishna consciousness like now. So he says it is extremely risky to go to a heavenly planet because by the time you finish your enjoyment and come back to earth, the saṅkīrtana movement will be finished. That means it will just be conducted by a very few devotees in a very secret way with great difficulty.

So he is saying it is the worst thing you could do is go to heaven because by the time you come back, the whole saṅkīrtana movement will be finished. It is better to take birth on earth again, if you have to take birth again, it is better to take birth on earth again, even as an animal because again you will come to the human form and get the chance to join in the saṅkīrtana movement. But if you go to the heavenly planet, you may miss the chance. Yes.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:43:27]

Giriraj Swami: You say your teacher told you that by worshiping demigods, you can go to Krishna.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:43:50]

Giriraj Swami: Bhagavad-gītā says that those who worship the demigods go to the planets of the demigods, and those who worship Krishna go to Krishna. Srila Prabhupada gives the example that if you buy a ticket to Calcutta, you will not go to Delhi. Similarly, if you worship a demigod, you will not go to Krishna. You will go to the place of the demigod.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:44:30]

Giriraj Swami: He says that the original Sita devi was in the custody of Agni. So these feelings of separation of Lord Ramachandra, were they real or were they a show?

They were real. She might have been with Agni. He didn’t know where she was. I mean, apparently, he did not know where she was. She might have been anywhere, but what he knew was that they were separated, and he wanted to find her. But still, in the pastimes of Krishna, Krishna completely forgets His godhood in His dealings with His devotees in Vrindavan, He completely forgets His godhood. But Lord Ramachandra does not completely forget. To some extent, He forgets, but to some extent, He remembers. So although He was actually feeling separation, but there was another element that He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and He knew everything. So there were real feelings of separation, but they were somewhat diluted by His awareness of His godhood. But in Krishna’s separation, He completely forgets His godhood, and He really feels separation without any reservation.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:46:35]

Giriraj Swami: Krishna is a supercomputer. How can he forget?

Well, just like sometimes, a big man likes to forget he is a big man. Srila Prabhupada told the story of Prime Minister Gladstone of the British Empire that once, a gentleman went to meet the Prime Minister, and the Prime Minister sent the message that he has to wait. So he waited for some time, but after some time, there was no message. So he opened the door to the Prime Minister’s chamber, and there he saw the Prime Minister on his hands and knees on the floor, and the Prime Minister’s grandson was riding on his back as if he had become a horse to be controlled by his grandson. So he actually took pleasure in being controlled by his grandson and forgetting that he is the great Prime Minister of the British Empire.

So Krishna also, He is always worshipped with great prayers and awe and reverence, but He also, likes to forget. He also wants a change. He doesn’t always want to be worshiped with great prayers and flowers and fruits. Sometimes, for a change, He also likes to be chastised. So who will chastise Krishna? Only His most intimate devotees. So Mother Yasoda picks up the stick and Krishna becomes frightened. Everyone is afraid of Krishna, but Krishna also wants to be frightened sometimes. So who will Krishna be afraid of? Not of Yamaraja, only of His mother, Yasoda. So that is Krishna’s pleasure. Krishna was bound by ropes to the mortar, but if you see the picture of Krishna bound by the ropes, actually He is enjoying, He is enjoying. So all of Krishna’s pastimes are full of pleasure, although superficially they may appear different. And actually, He enjoys being chastised. He enjoys being bound by ropes of love. He enjoys more than being worshipped by Vedic hymns and great sacrifices.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:49:45]

Giriraj Swami: He is saying that cunning men can escape the laws of man by their intelligence, but they can’t escape the laws of God. But their intelligence is also coming from Krishna. So what is the question?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:50:30]

Giriraj Swami: Yes, Krishna gives intelligence according to the desire of the person. Just like Krishna and Arjuna were sitting on the same chariot. So similarly, the individual soul and the Supersoul are sitting together in the same chariot, in the same body. And just as Arjuna was telling Krishna, bring my chariot between the two armies. So the individual soul has a desire, and the Supersoul fulfills it, mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca. So according to one’s desire, Krishna gives knowledge, remembrance, and forgetfulness. So if someone wants to remember Krishna, Krishna gives him the intelligence to remember Krishna and forget maya. But Srila Prabhupada says if someone wants to steal, Krishna will also remind him that, “Oh, here is some money.” So Krishna within the heart knows the desire of the person. So He will remind him, “Remember, you wanted to steal? Well, here is the chance.” So Krishna gives intelligence according to the desire of the living entity, but He is not responsible for the desires of the living entity. He doesn’t enjoy or suffer the reactions, the living entity does.

Okay, last question.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:52:25]

Giriraj Swami: When Krishna knows that the person will be punished, why does He give intelligence to the person to steal?

The Supersoul is neutral. He fulfills the desires of the living entity whatever the desires may be. And even if we say He gives him the intelligence to steal, knowing that in the end he will be punished, but He may also know that unless he has the experience of stealing and being punished, he won’t learn. So He may let him experience it. Like the story of Chitraketu. He wanted a son. So one sage came and gave him the benediction to have a son. But he said the son would become a source of suffering. So in the end, he had a son, but the envious co-wives of the son’s mother poisoned the son and the son died. And when Chitraketu lost his son, he suffered more than before he had the son.

So later, the sage came back to him and began to preach to him. And Chitraketu said, “Well, if you knew what was going to happen, and if you had so much transcendental knowledge to give me, why did you not give me earlier?” And the sage replied that at the time, you were too obsessed with the desire for the son. You would not have listened to me then. But now that you have had the son and suffered, now you are ready to listen to me. So sometimes, even a father has to allow a child to suffer. He doesn’t want the child to suffer, but he has to allow the child to suffer so that he can educate the child.

Srila Prabhupada told the story of his son that his son was very fascinated by the fan. He kept wanting to touch the fan, and Srila Prabhupada kept telling him, “No.” But the son was getting frustrated because he really wanted to touch the fan. So one friend suggested to the Prabhupada, “Put the fan on very low speed, and then let your son touch it.” So his son touched it, and it was going very slowly, but it was still going fast enough that it made little cut or hurt the son’s finger. But it wasn’t fast enough that it really harmed him. So then the son gave up the desire to put his finger in the fan. So sometimes, of course, Srila Prabhupada said that the first-class person learns by hearing. But some people aren’t satisfied by hearing. They want to experience first. So Krishna allows them to experience whatever they want. And then, either by the suffering or transcendental knowledge, or the combination of transcendental knowledge with the suffering, he gives up the false desire, and he can actually fully take to Krishna consciousness.

Sri Sri Radha-Damodara ki jaya!

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Nitai-Gaura premānande Hari Haribol!