SB 1.3.13 – Distinguishing the Weed from the Original Creeper

Giriraj Swami:

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

Reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto One, Chapter Three, “Kṛṣṇa Is the Source of All Incarnations,”

TEXT 12

tataḥ saptama ākūtyāṁ
rucer yajño ‘bhyajāyata
sa yāmādyaiḥ sura-gaṇair
apāt svāyambhuvāntaram

TRANSLATION

The seventh incarnation was Yajña, the son of Prajāpati Ruci and his wife Ākūti. He controlled the period during the change of the Svāyambhuva Manu and was assisted by demigods such as His son Yāma.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

The administrative posts occupied by the demigods for maintaining the regulations of the material world are offered to the highly elevated pious living beings. When there is a scarcity of such pious living beings, the Lord incarnates Himself as Brahmā, Prajāpati, Indra, etc., and takes up the charge. During the period of Svāyambhuva Manu (the present period is of Vaivasvata Manu) there was no suitable living being who could occupy the post of Indra, the King of the Indraloka (heaven) planet. The Lord Himself at that time became Indra. Assisted by His own sons like Yāma and other demigods, Lord Yajña ruled the administration of the universal affairs.

COMMENT

Reading the list of incarnations of the Lord, the seventh incarnation is mentioned, yajño vai viṣṇuḥ. Yajña also means sacrifice, and sacrifice is meant to be performed for the satisfaction of Vishnu, who is also called yajña.

Why would the Lord personally descend to take the post of King Indra? Generally, we think of King Indra as one of the materialistic person attached to heavenly pleasures. So why would the Lord Himself come and take the post of Indra, or the king of heaven? The answer is that the king is responsible for the welfare of the citizens. Specifically, the king is meant to engage the citizens in sacrifice or yajña, so the citizens can live peacefully and happily in the present life and ultimately attain liberation. The position of the king is very responsible, and when a living entity occupies the post of king, he is considered the representative of God. He is meant to implement the laws of God or the orders of God within the state before he is a representative of God. Those citizens or living entity is available to fill the post of Indra, the Lord Himself may [Unintelligible 00:12: 17] Himself. At the end of the period of Svayambhuva Manu, the Lord did come personally to occupy the post of Indra. But now we are in Kali-yuga, and in Kali-yuga also, the Lord has appeared.

We know from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, there are four ages: Satya-yuga, Treta-yuga, Dvapara-yuga, and Kali-yuga. They repeat in cycles like the four seasons, and in each age, an incarnation of the Lord descends to propagate the specific method of God realization recommended for the particular age. At the end of the last Dvapara-yuga, Lord Krishna Himself appeared, the original personality of Godhead. And Lord Krishna Himself appeared only once in a day of Brahma. That means in one thousand yuga cycles, the original Personality of Godhead, Krishna, appears only once. Similarly, in the Kali-yuga, which immediately follows the Dvapara-yuga, where Lord Krishna personally descends, Lord Chaitanya, who is Krishna Himself in the mood of Srimati Radharani, also descends. Not that Lord Chaitanya descends in every Kali-yuga. Lord Chaitanya only descends in the Kali-yuga after the Dvapara-yuga in which Lord Krishna descends. That means once in one thousand yoga cycles does Lord Chaitanya descend, and He plays the part of the yugāvatāra. Although He is much more than the yugāvatāra, but He plays the part of the yugāvatāra although He is Krishna Himself. He also comes to engage human beings in yajña. yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ, specifically saṅkīrtana-yajña.

kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣākṛṣṇaṁ
sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam
yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair
yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ

kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ 

[Break in audio] 

. . . temple to come every day, then he should make his house into a temple and follow the same programs in his house like a temple. Then at least once a week or twice a week, one should come to the temple to associate with the devotees for constant Krishna consciousness. Association with more advanced devotees is necessary. Understanding these principles and following these principles, we will be safe in any position or any condition. But if we lose sight of Srila Prabhupada’s instructions, then we will try to invent so many ways of becoming happy in the material world. And maya is always there to present so many wonderful ideas of how one can be happy outside of Srila Prabhupada’s instruction. Such fantastic ideas are maya, they are illusory. They don’t really give us what we want. Even if temporarily they give us something, but whatever they give us is temporary. It is not to say that there is no happiness in the material world. There is some sort of happiness, but it is temporary.

Once Srila Prabhupada was watching someone surfing and a wave came and completely turned him up, and he got pushed under the water. Ananda is there. [Unintelligible 00:19: 13] We may enjoy for some time, but the standard of material happiness cannot be compared to the standard of spiritual happiness. There is material happiness. We don’t deny it. There is material happiness. It doesn’t last because it is based on the body or the mind, and the body is temporary. Whatever relationships we develop on the basis of the body are temporary. Whatever happiness we get from such relationships is temporary. The body changes, the mind changes. We have to leave the body, and therefore, the relationships based on the body are temporary.

Queen Kunti prayed to Lord Krishna said that, “My dear Lord Krishna, kindly sever ties of affection for my family members.” In the purport Srila Prabhupada raises the question that Queen Kunti’s families both were devotees. Bhoja dynasty were devotees and Kuru dynasty were devotees. Affection for devotees is not outside the range of devotional service. Then why is Kunti praying to Lord Krishna to sever her ties of affection for her family members who are devotees? Prabhupada explains that when Queen Kunti asks Lord Krishna to sever the ties of affection, she refers to the affection based on the body, some bodily relation. There are two types of relationships. One based on the body and one based on the soul. So because Kunti was the mother of the Pandavas, she was the sister of Vasudeva and so on. There was some bodily relationship. So she was actually praying to Krishna to sever the affection based on the body and just retain the affection based on the soul. Affection based on the soul means that two souls or any number of souls come together to serve the Supreme Soul. That is the relation of the soul, [Unintelligible 00:22: 09] via medium to the Supreme Soul or service to the Supreme Soul. In our relationships also, there may be a spiritual feature and a material feature. So we just want to preserve the spiritual feature, which is based on loving service to Krishna, and we want to purify the material aspect, which is based on. . . In The Nectar of Devotion, Rupa Gosvami quotes a verse from the Bhāgavatam. 

akāmaḥ sarva-kāmo vā
mokṣa-kāma udāra-dhīḥ
tīvreṇa bhakti-yogena
yajeta paramaṁ puruṣa

Akāmaḥ, means if one has no desires, that means devotee; only a devotee has no desire. Akāmaḥ sarva-kāmo vā, or if one is full of material desires, mokṣa-kāma or if one had the desire for liberation, akāmaḥ sarva-kāmo vā mokṣa-kāma udāra-dhīḥ, if one is very broad-minded and intelligent, he should by all means worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So tīvreṇa bhakti-yogena means with great intensity, serve the Lord with great intensity. And whether one has material desires for enjoyment or desires for personal liberation, by intense practice of bhakti-yoga, one will be purified, and one’s heart’s true desires will be fulfilled. If we engage in devotional service, but not intensely, then the material desires can linger. There is another verse quoted in The Nectar of Devotion that just as fire can burn to ashes any amount of fuel put in it, similarly, devotional service can burn to ashes all sinful reactions. Material desires are a type or a phase of sinful reaction. Again, the capacity of the fire to burn to ashes the fuel put into it depends on the intensity with which the fire is burning. If the fire is blazing, and we can put any amount of fuel in it, and the fire will consume it immediately. But if the fire is very weak, and then we put some big logs in the fire, the fire will get disturbed, the fire logs won’t be consumed very quickly but the fire will be disturbed. We have to maintain our spiritual practices very intensely then all material desires will be burned without [Unintelligible 00:25: 45] success is assured with a rigid practitioner. We become lazy. We don’t bother getting up for the maṅgala-ārati. We don’t bother chanting all of our rounds together in the temple or morning, we don’t bother going to class all the time, we just don’t bother. But if we don’t bother to follow the principles of Krishna consciousness, then we are going to be bothered by material desires. Other is there, either we voluntarily, the botheration to strictly follow Srila Prabhupada’s instructions or, we have to take the botheration of being harassed by maya.

Prabhupada gave a lecture once, and in the lecture, he was talking about surrender. After the lecture, one young man ask the questions that, “You talk about surrender, but I don’t feel that I should have to surrender to anyone. You feel that there is anyone superior to me to whom I should surrender?” Srila Prabhupada replied, “Diagnosed your own disease. [laughter] This is the disease of the conditioned soul. He doesn’t want to surrender. He doesn’t want to accept any superior authority.” And the boy was saying that he doesn’t want to have to bow down to anyone. And Srila Prabhupada saying, “Well, either you bow down to Krishna and Krishna’s representative or you will be forced to bow down to birth, death, old age, and disease. But your constitutional position is to bow down.” You can bow down to Krishna or Krishna’s representative, or you bow down to material nature and repeated birth, death, old age, and disease. So you have to choose to whom to bow down in order to be happy. But bow down you must do.

Some of you may know that Boy George, the popular singer, visited to Vrindavan. He was actually staying at our temple in Vrindavan. And based on seeing the devotees in our temples in the West, he assumed that when people come to the temple, they will bow down. And he was very surprised to see in the temple in Vrindavan, so many visitors to the temple were not bowing down. He became very disturbed. Therefore, he wrote the song “Bow Down Mister. Why are you so proud? You are coming before the Lord and you are not following down. Bow down, Mr. Don’t remain erect.” So that is our position, to bow down. And if we bow down to Krishna, we save ourselves having to bow down to maya and the repetition of birth and death.

Srila Prabhupada explains that actually our business and maya’s business are the same, but our approach is different. “Okay, I will keep beating the conditioned soul until finally the conditioned soul surrenders.” We also want the conditioned souls to surrender, but we try to encourage them to surrender by humble persuasion. Srila Prabhupada said that actually maya’s business and our business is the same, but our techniques are different. Our technique is humble persuasion, and maya’s technique is beating. Again, ultimately we have to come to the conclusion of surrender to Krishna. Whether we submit ourselves voluntarily to the good instructions of devotees and surrender, or we will submit ourselves to the beatings of maya and see when we get sick of being beaten by maya. We will have to surrender to Krishna because surrendering to Krishna is the only way to escape the punishment.

So we all have that tendency not to want to surrender, to make our own plans. Years ago, from the hippies came the yippies, and they used to have big gatherings. And as part of the festivities, they used to worship a pig. I am exactly sure why, maybe because they used to call the police pig, I don’t know why. But anyway, they used to keep a pig, and then they would all make a circle around the pig, and they would dance in a circle around the pig. So when the devotees mentioned to Srila Prabhupada about how the hippies were worshipping the pig, Srila Prabhupada commented, “Anything but Krishna.” So that is sort of our tendency, we will do anything first but not surrender to Krishna. We will go anywhere and try anything except surrender to Krishna, except surrender to Krishna’s representative, Srila Prabhupada.

So, again people learn by different methods. Srila Prabhupada said that, the first-class man learns by hearing, the second-class man learns by seeing, the third-class man learns by experiencing, and the fourth class never learns. Srila Prabhupada has given us good instructions and if we hear his instructions and follow, we will be successful. We might think, Well, maybe we can add something or subtract something and improve on what Srila Prabhupada gave us. And by seeing people who have done that and how they have suffered, fallen and suffered, then we may think, No, I should just do what Srila Prabhupada says. Some will actually have to experience something or subtracting something, not exactly following, they will also come to the same conclusion as you just follow. There is some who will never learn, they will never know, they fall down. Okay

[Unintelligible 00:33: 55] There are so many pure devotees of Srila Prabhupada here and how much the enthusiasm in the temple has increased over the years. One disciple asked Srila Prabhupada, “How could we be enthusiastic?” Srila Prabhupada replied that, “Enthusiasm comes from Krishna consciousness, and Krishna consciousness comes from following the regulated principles.” So I see there is a very strong mood here, attend maṅgala-ārati, chant sixteen rounds, attend class, distribute books, or engage in some other service. Therefore, the devotees are enthusiastic, very enthusiastic. One devotee who had been staying here in Dvaraka visited Bombay and how enthusiastic the brahmacharis are here. [Unintelligible 00:35:05] shares in the same spirit. We should try, if we are not fully in same spirit, we should try to get in. We can say that there is no good association here, there is no nice experience here. It is just a matter of how much we are ready to get into the programs. Last night, I came to offer obeisances around 6:30. A devotee, I don’t even know who he is, but anyway, one devotee just started to play the harmonium and sing, and it was so sweet, the way he was playing the harmonium. And I fortunately or unfortunately, I had an appointment, so I couldn’t really stay back. But I felt like just sitting down and listening to that devotee, he sings so beautiful, the standard of worship is so high. All we have to do is just hearing. Everything is already here, we just have to come in.

Devotee: Giriraj Maharaja ki jaya!

Giriraj Swami: Actually, Sahavas Prabhu, one of the main instrumental force for the revival of New-Dvaraka and Krishna consciousness. Are there any questions or comments? Thank you.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Nitai-Gaura premānande Hari Haribol!