SB 2 – The Devotee’s Happiness Is Krishna’s Happiness

Giriraj Swami:

Reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Two, Chapter Two: “The Lord in the Heart.”

TEXT 1

śrī-śuka uvāca

evaṁ purā dhāraṇayātma-yonir

naṣṭāṁ smṛtiṁ pratyavarudhya tuṣṭāt

tathā sasarjedam amogha-dṛṣṭir

yathāpyayāt prāg vyavasāya-buddhiḥ

TRANSLATION

Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: Formerly, prior to the manifestation of the cosmos, Lord Brahmā, by meditating on the virāṭ-rūpa, regained his lost consciousness by appeasing the Lord. Thus he was able to rebuild the creation as it was before.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

The example cited herein of Śrī Brahmājī is one of forgetfulness. Brahmājī is the incarnation of one of the mundane attributes of the Lord. Being the incarnation of the passion mode of material nature, he is empowered by the Lord to generate the beautiful material manifestation. Yet, due to his being one of the numerous living entities, he is apt to forget the art of his creative energy. This forgetfulness of the living being — beginning from Brahmā down to the lowest insignificant ant — is a tendency which can be counteracted by meditation on the virāṭ-rūpa of the Lord. This chance is available in the human form of life, and if a human being follows the instruction of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and begins to meditate upon the virāṭ-rūpa, then revival of his pure consciousness and counteraction of the tendency to forget his eternal relationship with the Lord can follow simultaneously. And as soon as this forgetfulness is removed, the vyavasāya-buddhi, as mentioned here and in the Bhagavad-gītā (2.41), follows at once. This ascertained knowledge of the living being leads to loving service to the Lord, which the living being requires. The kingdom of God is unlimited; therefore the number of the assisting hands of the Lord is also unlimited. The Bhagavad-gītā (13.14) asserts that the Lord has His hands, legs, eyes and mouths in every nook and corner of His creation. This means that the expansions of differentiated parts and parcels, called jīvas or living entities, are assisting hands of the Lord, and all of them are meant for rendering a particular pattern of service to the Lord. The conditioned soul, even in the position of a Brahmā, forgets this by the influence of the illusory material energy generated out of false egoism. One can counteract such false egoism by invoking God consciousness. Liberation means getting out of the slumber of forgetfulness and becoming situated in the real loving service of the Lord, as exemplified in the case of Brahmā. The service of Brahmā is the sample of service in liberation distinguished from the so-called altruistic services full of mistakes and forgetfulness. Liberation is never inaction, but service without human mistakes.

COMMENT

Lord Brahma is a living entity as we are, and he is subject to forgetfulness as we are. So, the history of Lord Brahma, although unique in some details to him, is also universal in its lessons for us. We also forget our constitutional positions as eternal servants of Krishna. And we also need to revive our eternal relationship with Krishna. And what is the process? Here, the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam has recommended meditation on the universal form. When ISKCON press first came to Boston Srila Prabhupada engaged the press in printing the first chapters of the Second Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam one by one. And he gave each chapter a title which then became the title of the small book that the press produced. So, for the First Chapter, Srila Prabhupada gave the title: “The First Step in God Realization.” So, meditation on the universal form of the Lord is the first step in God realization.

But from meditation on the universal form one can progress to meditation on the personal form: Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ anādir ādir govindaḥ. He has no cause—anādi—anādir ādir govindaḥ. Lord Brahma himself eventually was successful in meditating on the Lord’s eternal spiritual form. And thus, he spoke the beautiful prayers in Śrī Brahma-saṁhitā: Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ—Krishna who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual form. He is the origin of all but He himself has no origin and He is the prime cause of all causes. So, Srila Prabhupada introduced direct meditation on the eternal blissful spiritual form of Govinda. Very early in the movement he introduced the worship of the Deities of Radha and Krishna and later of Jagannatha Baladeva and Subhadra, and Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai. And he also gave us the Hare Krishna maha-mantra to meditate on the sound form of the Lord.

And he also gave us the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to meditate on the sound form of the Lord, His qualities, His pastimes, and His paraphernalia. So, what Srila Prabhupada gave us is actually very high. There are very few people in the world who have a personal conception of God. The universal form is meant to help people appreciate the personal conception of God. And therefore, the different parts of the universe are envisioned as different parts of the Lord’s body. So, people get the idea that God is a person and He has a form. But because people are so engrossed in matter they cannot conceive of a spiritual form. And therefore Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam advises that they conceive of the material elements of the creation as parts of the universal form. But what Srila Prabhupada has given us in the Krishna consciousness movement is meditation on the eternal blissful, spiritual form of Govinda.

One other point that Srila Prabhupada makes in the purport is that the activities of Lord Brahma in the matter of creation are liberated. Srila Prabhupada’s use of words is so precise and so perfect that the same words can be read on different levels. Or the same words can be taken in different ways and all the understandings can be correct. So, when I was reading the purport about reviving one’s eternal relationship with Krishna, reviving one’s eternal service to Krishna, I thought of service in the spiritual world. Because pure devotees also have service in the spiritual world. And from there Srila Prabhupada came to the point that Lord Brahma’s service in the material world of creation is also liberated. He is also acting in his constitutional position of service to Krishna. Earlier in the morning while chanting here in the temple, I thought of the distinction between a bhajanānandī and a goṣṭhyānandī and sometimes the distinction can be quite subtle. But as Srila Prabhupada explained, the bhajanānandī takes pleasure in his own personal bhajana and the goṣṭhyānandī takes pleasure in bringing people to Krishna consciousness.

Now the difference can be subtle because sometimes a bhajanānandī can. . . of course this is just my own thought so, you all can correct me if I’m wrong, but my own thought was that someone who’s basically a bhajanānandī can still preach in such a way to make more people become bhajanānandī, but a goṣṭhyānandī, he takes pleasure in the actual act of preaching. Srila Prabhupada gave the example that a bhajanānandī is like someone who likes to eat sweet balls and a goṣṭhyānandī is like someone who wants to share the sweet balls with others. And the person who is in the mood of a bhajanānandī gets more pleasure out of distributing the sweet balls than out of eating the sweet balls himself. So, Srila Prabhupada was a goṣṭhyānandī and he got more pleasure out of preaching than out of anything else. Although we saw him go into ecstasy while singing “Jaya Radha-Madhava” and at other times. But still he got more pleasure out of preaching than out of anything else. And he also had faith that if we preached following in his footsteps, we would also be reminded of our eternal relationship with Krishna, by Krishna’s grace. Just as Lord Brahma was reminded of his original position when Krishna was pleased.

So, Srila Prabhupada’s only interest was to please Krishna. And he wanted to engage us in such a way that we would also please Krishna. And he had full faith that if Krishna was pleased, our lives would be successful and we would have nothing else to attain. So, to illustrate the principle, once Srila Prabhupada gave the name Bhavananda to one disciple and he explained that bhāva means the material world. And ānanda means bliss. So Bhavananda means the bliss of the material world. So, the devotee who received the name became concerned that, ”What kind of name has Srila Prabhupada given me?” And he thought, ”Srila Prabhupada is trying to tell me something.” So, he went to Srila Prabhupada after the ceremony and asked him, and Srila Prabhupada replied that the bliss of a devotee comes from the bliss of Krishna.

The devotee does not perceive happiness independent of Krishna. But Krishna’s happiness is his happiness. And one can give the greatest happiness to Krishna by preaching and bringing more souls to Him. And preaching is something that we can do only in the material world. So, the bliss of the material world is preaching. And because the pleasure that one can give to Krishna by preaching is the greatest, therefore the pleasure that the devotee can experience by preaching is also the greatest, because the devotee’s pleasure is Krishna’s pleasure. Of course, to preach we must also be Krishna conscious. But again, the method of becoming Krishna conscious is given by Srila Prabhupada, which is basically to follow the morning program, chant sixteen rounds, follow the regulative principles and discuss Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and other books that he has given, and that the other acharyas have given, especially the books he has given. And that will give us the inspiration and the potency to be able to preach. And Srila Prabhupada was very concerned that we maintain the balance between hearing and chanting in the association of devotees and going out and preaching and approaching others, who are not devotees.

So, if we spend enough time every day hearing and chanting, and again if we chant sixteen rounds, and if we discuss Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as Srila Prabhupada gave us in the morning program—maybe four hours, like 4:30 to 8:30, could even be less, that will give us sufficient strength to protect ourselves from the influence of maya and to approach others and bring them to the association of devotees. But when I saw mother Kancabala and Mother Mana-Mohini bathing and dressing the little deities, I also thought of Boston because they were like two of my mothers, when I was a new devotee in Boston. And the whole mood was just so beautiful. It reminded me of the mood in the Boston temple. And it reminded me of something that Baradraja Prabhu told me. I was interviewing some devotees in the area about the early days in Boston. And he described how, when he came down from Montreal and came into the room with Srila Prabhupada and some of the devotees for the first time, he had a realization. And the realization was that Krishna consciousness is just pure love masquerading as a philosophy. And what he said was so true, poetic as he is, and true. And that was how I felt here in the morning which reminded me of Boston—that out of his love, Srila Prabhupada came and taught us the practices of devotional service.

And out of our love for him we did what he [Unintelligible] and what I was seeing here was exactly what I saw and felt then. The same love exists and it is demonstrated in the same activities, very pure and simple activities. It is also so nice to see everyone cooperating—like in a family, like we always did. But then again, I thought of Srila Prabhupada as a goṣṭhyānandī. Well first, most people in the material world do not have any ānanda at all. They are morose as Srila Prabhupada said. So, for someone to have any ānanda is rare. And therefore, even a bhajanānandī is quite rare—people are attracted. But a goṣṭhyānandī is extraordinarily rare because the goṣṭhyānandī takes pains.

No one took the pains that Srila Prabhupada took to establish ISKCON, and that was his love. He was not just content to have a few centers and come and visit and spend time with the devotees in the centers. But he wanted to establish an institution that would support the devotees in their spiritual lives at the time and on into the future. And therefore, Srila Prabhupada did things that are extremely difficult. Pretty much he did things that we never saw anyone in the history of the world do and we have not really seen anyone do since. And that is to establish outside of India an entire society of devotees with temples, schools, farms, books, deities, and so many programs like hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana, prasāda distribution, and festivals like Ratha-yatra. No one in the history of the world ever did such a thing outside India and that is extraordinary, that is extraordinary. Because most people when they begin to come out of material existence must be careful about coming in contact with the material energy. Otherwise, they may become infected again. And we always do have to be careful when we deal with the material energy, not to become attracted or allured or attached.

In one class in London, I was not there, but I heard that Srila Prabhupada said something to the effect that he can never fall down. And after the class Srila Prabhupada went up to the deities and he was praying to the deities. And one disciple asked Srila Prabhupada what he was praying, what he was saying. Srila Prabhupada said that he was praying that he may never fall down. And other times also Srila Prabhupada said the same thing. That he was always praying to his guru Maharaja that he may never fall down. And then the devotee said, ”But Srila Prabhupada, in the class you said you can never fall down.” And Srila Prabhupada said, ”Yes, because I am always praying that I never fall down. That is why I can never fall down.” So, to do what Srila Prabhupada did. In India there is a tradition that a holy person should not leave India. Or he should not cross the ocean because the people outside India, especially across the ocean were considered to be barbaric or in a more technical language, contaminated. And therefore, the holy men were forbidden to cross the ocean for fear that they would become contaminated by association with the barbarians. But Srila Prabhupada did it, and he lived with us like our most intimate friend.

There is so many wonderful parts in Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta, but one of my favorite descriptions is when Srila Prabhupada went out with the devotees in San Francisco and they went to the seaside and had a bonfire. And they put potatoes in aluminum foil in the fire, and they had a picnic and chanted Hare Krishna. And Satsvarupa Maharaja comments that Srila Prabhupada did just what the devotees wanted him to do. He shared an experience of California fun and the devotees did what Srila Prabhupada wanted—they chanted Hare Krishna. So, he lived so intimately with us. No one could do that. You talk about the external manifestation of the Supersoul—he was really the external manifestation of the Supersoul. He was as intimate with us as the Supersoul. And although he was, well I guess that is what pure love is. He had so much love for us, so much affection. But in the material world usually if someone loves someone there is an element of some selfish gratification. And therefore if our personal gratification is disturbed then we become upset.

But Srila Prabhupada even though he was so intimate with us, he was so full of love for us, his love was completely pure. He really wanted only that we should be happy in Krishna consciousness. He really had no desire for anything personal. And even when he engaged us in service and sometimes he would ask us to do difficult things; but when he engaged us in service, we knew that he had our best interest in mind—that he was not trying to exploit us—but that by doing the difficult service for the sake of the mission, we would get the mercy of Krishna. We would please Krishna and get the mercy of Krishna which would mean we would become Krishna conscious. And Srila Prabhupada never asked us to do anything that he would not do.

I remember when we first came to India and went to the Arda Khumba-Mela in 1971, it was freezing cold. It was freezing cold and we were all living in tents and Prabhupada wanted us to get up for maṅgala-ārati. And it was so cold. I used to just hide in my sleeping bag because I did not want to come out into the cold. And it was really a common tendency among us to try to stay in the warmth of our sleeping bags as long as we could. But Srila Prabhupada became concerned that we were sleeping late. So, one morning, he was already seventy-four years old and he was in fragile health, but he came out of his tent early in the morning and took a bath just to show the example to us. And so, there were these pumps and the water that came out of the pumps was freezing cold. And that was it—one pumped the water into the bucket and poured the freezing cold water over the body with a lota. And Srila Prabhupada did that and nobody could bear to see Srila Prabhupada do that again. So, we just forced ourselves to get up, because we did not want to make him feel obliged to do the same thing again.

Srila Prabhupada would give class on the stage in the pandal in the morning, it was usually just for the devotees. And one morning it was so cold, I think every morning it was so cold, that the pujari’s hands became numb. And he could not do the ārati properly. So then one morning he kept trying to light the ghee lamp and he could not do it. He could not even light the match. And then I think eventually he did light it and then either, I guess the flame went out, or he dropped the bell, or he did something. He could not really get it together as we would say. And Srila Prabhupada was sitting on the vyāsāsana with the microphone in front of him, and he just said into the microphone, hare nama hare nama hare nama eva kevalamkalau nasty eva nasty eva nasty eva gatir anyatha—the only way in Kali-yuga is the holy name. And again, what he said could be taken on different levels and with different moods. But actually, he did believe that the only way for success in the present age of Kali was to chant the holy names. But he wanted everything including deity worship, but the main process of course is the holy name.

So, then I was seeing how we have devotees from all different backgrounds here, just working so cooperatively. As we saw in the morning—bathing the deities, dressing the deities, decorating the deities, making the flower vases, wiping clean the altar—all the different services, while cooperating. The devotees were from different backgrounds. And then there were more devotees from even other countries and other backgrounds chanting their rounds in the temple. And I thought how Srila Prabhupada said that we are the real United Nations. And it is true. If we follow the simple process, and do not have other motives, we can very easily be united in love for Srila Prabhupada and service to him. But of course, we must avoid offenses. Offenses are the worst thing that can disturb one’s consciousness. And when one’s consciousness is disturbed, everything becomes disturbed. But otherwise, just engaging in the simple activities of Krishna consciousness that Srila Prabhupada gave us without offense, is enough to help us develop love, pure love—transcendental love. Beginning with love for Srila Prabhupada and then love for all the devotees that were dear to him and all the activities that were dear to him.

Last Janmashtami I heard some wonderful stories about the old days in the London temple when Gurdasa Prabhu and mother Yamuna were senior devotees there and how sweet the mood was. And how pleased Srila Prabhupada was with the devotees. The devotees actually tried. Of course, sometimes we are fortunate, and we are in a situation where we have natural affection for the other devotees. But sometimes because of differences in past conditioning we might have some difficulty relating with some of the other devotees. But in the London temple they really made a concerted effort to cooperate because they knew how much Srila Prabhupada wanted them to cooperate. And therefore, to please Srila Prabhupada they just did whatever they had to do to cooperate, to work together, to have nice relationships amongst themselves.

Srila Prabhupada again was so concerned about the devotees. When he came to London, he had been very happy with Vishnu Jana in L.A. And he told the devotees in London that there should be a post called the “Vishnu Jana.” And the devotee who is in the post of the Vishnu Jana should do the same service that Vishnu Jana Prabhu or Maharaja did in Los Angeles, which was to see that all the devotees were nicely engaged; that they had enough service and not too much. And if they needed help with their service, he would be there to help them with their service. And if they needed help with their spiritual lives, meaning if they had philosophical questions, he was there to help them with their spiritual lives. Srila Prabhupada said that every temple should have a Vishnu Jana who saw that all the devotees were nicely situated in their spiritual practices and consciousness and nicely situated in their service.

We were in Boston, but we used to hear stories about Los Angeles and Vishnu Jana and we were amazed. We heard if a devotee in Los Angeles finished some service or was somehow free, he or she would go up to Vishnu Jana and ask, ”Can you give me more service, I finished my service, can you give me more service?” And we were amazed, because we were still in the mode where the temple commanders had to look around to get the devotees to do the services, although they pretty much did. They were cooperative, but we did not have that enthusiasm that devotees were coming up to the temple commander and saying, “What next? I finished the last job, give me more.” So, Srila Prabhupada, he wanted the life of the devotees in the temple to be very congenial and then our preaching based on very nice hearing and chanting and associating, would come naturally. It would come naturally. We would want to bring people to the temple. We would want them to see the deities. We would want them to experience the love that the devotees experienced for Srila Prabhupada and from Srila Prabhupada and based on Srila Prabhupada the friendships and loving relationships they had with each other.

So, I do not know what my physical body will allow but I have been drawn into this association. It took Advaita Chandra Prabhu and his wife about at least three years to get me to come. And on the way I was thinking it is probably going to be quite a while before I come again. I think even someone said it is probably going to be quite a while before you come back here again, and at the time I said, ”Well yes, probably.” But now being just drawn, and nobody is preaching to me to join, but just experiencing the atmosphere, the purity and simplicity and love, I feel drawn to come again. And as a punishment to Sarvatma Prabhu for waking me up, I am going to have him come too, if he likes it, or not. No, if he likes, no force. Hare Krishna.

Devotee: You said that the punishment of the twin towers. . . There was punishment with Krishna in order to remember Him.

Giriraj Swami: Well, I did not exactly say that.

Devotee: [Unintelligible] I will ask my question after that.

Giriraj Swami: Well, what I said was that sometimes the conditioned soul needs to be punished by the material nature to be shaken from the illusion that he can be happy in the material world. And so that he approaches the Lord. And I said that after the twin towers many people were asking how could this happen? Or how could God allow this to happen? And this could be one explanation. Because there could be other explanations and other ways of seeing it. And I even thought, in terms of the example from Rāmāyaṇa that Rama killed Rāvaṇa because he was a demon and he was causing pain to others. So, it is not that the rulers who are bound to give protection to the citizens do not punish. But yes, what you said was implicit in what I said. But right now, just in a practical way, people are very upset. And if we say things like, “Well it was their karma,” that does not touch their hearts. But anyway, I am sorry. You can continue with your question now.

Devotee: Well, some may say that the perpetrators did that in the name of God. In other words, it was a godly act in their eyes. And so, some may see, those who suffered has consequence and survived may see this to stay away from God. Because this is a godly act—I want nothing to do with it.

Giriraj Swami: Can we turn this up a little? Oh, yes, godly. Godly in the sense that the perpetrators thought it was godly.

Devotee: Correct.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, here we face the confusion between, if we could say, mundane religion and transcendental religion. Krishna consciousness is not sectarian.