Sri Janmashtami

Giriraj Swami: . . . They don’t like the way he is doing his job they can elect someone else the next time. So on a cosmic scale there are controllers of different universal affairs. We may not be aware of it. But there are controllers for different departments within the universe. Just like there are controllers for different departments within the state. And the controllers are known as Isvaras or Devatas; for example, Brahma is in charge of creation, Shiva is in charge of destruction, Indra is in charge of rainfall, Vayu is in charge of the air, Varuna is in charge of waters and even in more subtle ways, Sarasvati is in charge of music and culture and knowledge. So these are all Isvara, but: īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ. “Krishna is the supreme controller.” Everyone is under the control of Krishna directly or indirectly, but Krishna is not under the control of anyone. 

Someone may question. I am talking about different controllers, different demigods. How do we know they exist? Is it some mythology? Or how can we believe that they exist? Well the Vedic literatures explain that there are different methods for acquiring knowledge. One method is direct perception. What we see through our bare senses. But direct perception is not reliable. For example, we can look in the sky and see the moon at night. It will just be a small disc but actually the moon is a huge body or the sun. So what we perceive through our senses directly is not reliable and then again our senses are limited in their range of perception, for example there are pitches that are too hard for us to hear. This is the principle of dog whistles. The dog can use the whistle because his senses are attuned to that frequency but we cannot hear it. So in the same way there are so many vibrations of sound, light, and so on that are just beyond the range of our senses to experience and then there is the difficulty of something too far we can’t see it even if something is too near we can’t see it, like our own eyelashes-we can’t or our eyes lid we can’t see. So direct perception is defective. 

Then another process is called anuman like inference. For example, we hear the sound of a motor in the background. We can infer that it was a car that a car was passing but actually we don’t know. It could have been that the neighbors turned on a machine that made a blowing sound that resembled the sound of a car. Once I went on a walk probably many of you had the same experience I went out on a walk with a friend. He was studying at the Cambridge University and then in the background there was a sound and he said that it was the sound of the ocean and it sounded like the sound of the ocean but actually it was the sound of traffic in a distance. And sometimes when we walk on the beach in Santa Barbara and we hear the traffic but we try to imagine that it is the sound of the ocean and it could just as well be. So we perceive something, a sound, as we have been discussing for example, and we infer that it is a car passing by but it is the sound of the ocean, but actually it could be something else. 

So the best evidence or the best process for receiving knowledge according to the Vedic analysis is śabda. Śabda means transcendental sound vibration, or in other words, Vedic sounds that emanate from a higher realm that is beyond the deficiencies of human intellect and human senses and the Vedic sounds convey eternal truth and such eternal truths are beyond our ability to know through our senses, through direct perception or through our minds or intelligence, through inference or logic and reason. And the information that we receive by śabda, transcendental sound vibration is considered the best way to receive knowledge or you could even say perfect knowledge because it originates in a realm that is beyond human imperfection. 

So the Bhagavad-gītā and other Vedic literatures present knowledge that is beyond our sense perception and beyond our logic and reason and inference. But it is not beyond the perception or cognition of realized souls and therefore in the Vedic system although the central point is śabda which is recorded in Vedic literatures we also have the authority of self realized souls or acharyas and they, because of their purified senses and purified intelligence, are able to perceive directly the truths mentioned in the Vedas and therefore their words are considered as authoritative as the Vedas and their words serve to confirm the Vedic conclusions. 

So, here may be we could give the example of a radio. Right now there are radio waves in the atmosphere but we cannot perceive them unless we have an instrument that can transform them into a form that we can perceive namely the radio. So in the same way, there are realities that exist beyond our ability to perceive with our present instruments with these limited eyes, ears, and nose, and mouth and skin and so on. But the soul has within it the inherent capacity to directly perceive and realize eternal truths but to realize that capacity one has to undergo a process and the process again there could be a whole discussion but the conclusion from the Vedic literatures is that the process, the ultimate process is bhakti-yoga. 

In bhakti-yoga one engages the senses in the service of Krishna who is the proprietor of the senses: hṛṣīkena hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate. We have the senses but they don’t belong to us. They have been given to us and they can be taken away. Our ability to see can be taken away. Our ability to hear can be taken away. So who do the senses belong to? Ultimately the senses belong to Krishna because He is the origin of everything: sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam, He is the cause of all causes. You may say,” Well I got my body from my mother or from the combination of my mother and father.” But my parents also have their parents and their parents have their parents. Who is their cause? So when we go back further and further to the original cause: anādir ādir govindaḥ, He is the origin of everything but He Himself has no origin, sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam. He is the prime cause of all causes. Because He is the prime cause of all causes, He is the cause of our senses. He is the origin of our senses and therefore He is the proprietor of our senses and therefore our senses are meant to be used as He ordains and He wishes that our senses be engaged in His service. Not that He needs our service for Himself. There is nothing we can offer Him that He does not already have. We are offering Him some flowers or we are offering Him some fruits but by His will He can create innumerable flowers and innumerable fruits, innumerable planets with innumerable flowering bushes and fruit bearing trees. So He does not need our fruits and flowers but we need to engage our senses in the service of Krishna and therefore we grow flowers to offer to Him or we go to the market and buy flowers to offer Him but we are engaging our senses in His service and by such service, devotional service or bhakti-yoga, our senses become purified. It is a gradual process but when our senses are fully purified we can see Krishna face to face. We can perceive Krishna just as He is described in the Vedic literature but until then we hear about Krishna from the Vedic literatures and hearing about Krishna is also part of bhakti-yoga. In fact hearing about Krishna means engaging our sense of hearing in Krishna’s service and the waves enter in our ears, the vibrations enter our ears but ultimately they go to our mind and thus our minds become purified. Our spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada has given the example that when we hear the chanting of Hare Krishna or hear the discussions of Krishna from Bhagavad-gītā or other Vedic literatures, our ears are acting like an antenna, like a television antenna and our mind is acting like a screen on which the image is seen and we, the soul who is living within the body that is made of the mind and senses we are the audience. 

So the transcendental sound that enters the ear is sort of manifest within the mind and then the soul perceives it. And gradually as the mind and the senses become purified we come to realize that the holy name of Krishna or the topics of Krishna are the same as Krishna: nāma cintāmaṇiḥ kṛṣṇaś caitanya-rasa-vigrahaḥ. “The holy name of Krishna and Krishna Himself are the same.” I often give the example that Srila Prabhupada gave to us that in the material world or the relative world the name of an object and the object are different. For example, if I am thirsty, if I am in a desert and I am thirsty and I chant water, water, water, water. Just chanting, “water, water, water.” will not quench my thirst because the word water and the substance water are different. But in the spiritual realm or the absolute realm the name of the thing and the thing are the same. So when I chant Krishna Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna is personally present dancing on my tongue. Therefore, by chanting Hare Krishna we are getting the association of Krishna and because Krishna is supremely pure, Bhagavad-gītā says: paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān. “He is supremely pure.” So by associating with Him we become purified. 

Krishna is also supremely joyful and by associating with Him we also become joyful. Here the example is given of an iron rod in fire. The iron rod by nature is cold and hard but when you put the iron rod in fire by association with the fire it becomes hotter and hotter until finally it becomes red hot and then it no longer acts as iron; it acts as fire. If something touches it, it will burn. So in the same way by placing ourselves in the fire of Krishna consciousness, by constantly chanting Hare Krishna, hearing about Krishna and thinking of Krishna in different ways, by placing ourselves in the fire of Krishna consciousness, we gradually become spiritualized or Krishnaized until we are red hot so to speak. We have the same qualities as Krishna just as the red hot iron has the same qualities as fire. Similarly, we manifest the same qualities as Krishna. So, 

īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ
sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ

Sat means eternal, cit means knowledge, ānanda means bliss and Vigraha means form. He is the form you could say the personification of eternal existence, perfect knowledge and supreme bliss and by associating with Krishna we develop the same qualities: sac-cid-ānanda. We also become eternal. Of course the body is perishable but the soul within the body is eternal and when we become completely purified the soul manifests a spiritual body just like Krishna’s and we can actually realize our spiritual bodies even while we are in the physical body and there the example is given of a coconut. That when the coconut is young the flesh of the coconut is attached to the shell but when the coconut becomes more mature the flesh become harder and then it separates from the shell of the coconut. You can shake the coconut and hear the inside. So in the same way the spiritual body develops within the physical body and it can actually exist within the physical body and therefore the self-realized soul although outwardly he appears like anyone else in a physical body but he has actually developed his spiritual body and he can perceive Krishna through spiritual senses and all the eternal truths of the Vedas and then at the time of death the soul leaves the body. That is true for anyone but with the realized soul the soul leaves the body and goes to the supreme abode of Krishna and there the self-realized soul manifest his spiritual body which is suitable for serving Krishna because Krishna also exist there in His spiritual body but it doesn’t mean that we become equal to Krishna. We are equal in quality. He is sac-cid-ānanda and we are also sac-cid-ānanda, but the difference is He is great and we are small. He is infinite and in comparison we are infinitesimal. So there the example is given of say a particle of gold with the gold in the mine. The particle of gold is of the same quality as the reservoir of gold in the mine but the quantity is different. Or another example is the sparks of a fire. The spark has the same quality as the fire but the spark is small and the fire is big. A spark can fall out of fire, and then its fiery quality is lost. But the same cinder if we put it back into the fire, it becomes re-ignited and then it dances in the fire. So in the same way we have somehow fallen away from God and our fiery quality or our eternal blissful spiritual nature has been lost temporarily but if we go back into the fire we will again manifest the same qualities as the fire although we will always remain a tiny cinder. We will never be equal to the whole fire. 

So we have all had a little taste of chanting here tonight. It is very pleasant, as you have all experienced. At the end of the singing I heard one of the people behind me just sort of exclaimed, “That was beautiful!” And probably she is not the only one who felt the same way. So that is one difference between bhakti-yoga and other types of self-realization that the process itself is pleasant, very pleasant, kevala ānanda-kanda. It is simply joyful, chanting, discussing philosophy, taking prasāda, vegetarian food that has been offered to Krishna and by the transcendental process it becomes Krishnaized also and therefore eating the prasāda is part of bhakti-yoga. It purifies the senses. It purifies the tongue. So we can spiritualize or Krishnaize all of our activities in a very pleasant way and in the end we will achieve the supreme perfection. Someone may say it sounds too easy and of course in the modern age everything, well not everything but almost everything is complicated. So it sounds too easy but that is the way it is. Although there is a little austerity required, not much but a little austerity. No eating meat and again we could go into the reasons why these austerities are required but just in brief, no eating meat, fish, or eggs, no gambling, no intoxication and no illicit sex. But even then if you just chant and hear about Krishna and engage in the other activities which are so pleasant even just remaining the way you are. If you just add the process of Krishna consciousness, gradually you will lose the taste for such things and you will give them up yourself. Nobody will have to tell you. So you don’t need to be frightened, “Oh! I can’t live without these things, I can chant but I cannot live without these things.” Well don’t worry. You can chant and do those things and if you don’t give them up that is ok. In your next life you will get another chance but if you do give them up and chant purely you may not even have a next life in the material world. You will go back home, back to Godhead, back to Krishna. 

Hare Krishna!

So are there any questions or comments?

Question: Is it possible, I mean, I know it is not easy but is there some way that could be speeded it up not to come back here again? I don’t really mean speed it up but I mean enough awareness to not have to come back so many times.

Giriraj Swami: Well the process of liberation is bhakti-yoga, or Krishna consciousness. There is a very important verse and relevant verse in Bhagavad-gītā: 

janma karma ca me divyam
evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ
tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma
naiti mām eti so ‘rjuna

One who understands the transcendental nature of Lord Krishna’s birth and activities never has to take birth again but he goes to Krishna. So I have spoken on Janmashtami in the past and in a way I have spoken more directly about Krishna’s appearance in the material world and Krishna’s activities in the material world and if we understand them we are liberated. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma—punar janma means repeated birth. Tyaktvā deha—deha means body, tyaktvā means upon leaving. Upon leaving the body, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar jamna naiti, you have no more to take birth again. Mam eti but he comes to Me. Krishna is the speaker of Bhagavad-gītā. So He comes to Krishna. But in order to understand Krishna in truth one has to engage in devotional service. It is not an intellectual process that one can read a book and understand Krishna’s birth and activities: tattvah, in truth and in Bhagavad-gītā Krishna says: bhaktyā mām abhijānāti, that He can actually be understood by bhakti-yoga. So again we come back to the same process, hearing about Krishna, hearing means also reading about Krishna, chanting Hare Krishna and serving Krishna in different ways and that is the process. Again it may seem simple and it is simple. It is actually very powerful. One can become liberated almost unconsciously. Srila Prabhupada gave the example that a passenger may get on an airplane and he is sitting down, you know may be he is reading the newspaper, talking to his friend next to him or now looking at his computer and he thinks nothing is happening. Then after a while he looks out the window and he sees he is way above where he was. So Krishna consciousness can be like that. You are doing the same thing. You are talking about Krishna, you are reading about Krishna, you are eating Krishna prasāda. Everything seems the same and you may not even notice how you are changing but when you look out the window and you see what you were before and what you are now. You say, “Wow! I have come a long way.” So it works on a subtle platform and it is powerful. It is like taking a medicine. You are not conscious how it works but it works and other processes the complicated ones, the difficult ones they are like, you know whatever, physical therapy or surgery or you know there are all sorts of procedures now. This is just like taking the medicine and it works.

Any other questions or comments?

Question: Have you ever seen Krishna as a person?

Giriraj Swami: Have I ever seen Krishna as a person? Well, I mean, yes there are indirect ways and direct ways. Now here we have the deity of Krishna and according to one’s consciousness one can either see the deity as a statue made of stone or one can see the deity as Krishna. So the more we become Krishna conscious, the more we see the deity as Krishna and the less we see the deity as a stone statue. Sometimes people will ask Srila Prabhupada, “Have you seen Krishna?” And sometimes he would answer that if I tell you that I have seen Krishna, how will you know if I am telling the truth? If I say falsely that yes I have seen Krishna, will you believe me? Usually the answer is no and then Srila Prabhupada will say then what is the use of the question? I mean I would say—There is a big festival in India called the Khumba-mela. You might have heard of it. May be some of you have attended there or have seen pictures of it. But anyway we were at Khumba-mela with Srila Prabhupada and we were very new in India. We were quite naïve and one holy man came to our camp and he spoke the philosophy of Bhagavad-gītā quite similar to the Bhagavad-gītā As It Is and he followed the same principles and he said that he had seen Krishna. So we were, as I said, young, new in India and we went to Srila Prabhupada and told him about the man who had come to our camp and we said what the philosophies that he presented. Prabhupada said, “Very good” and we told Prabhupada about the principles that he followed. Prabhupada said, “Very good.” But when we told Prabhupada that he said that he has seen Krishna. Then Prabhupada said, he may be bogus because in our line we don’t say I have seen Krishna because anyone can say I have seen Krishna falsely and how would you know? So that is an answer. But the scriptures do give descriptions of the qualifications of seeing Krishna and the qualification is having love for Krishna. So I cannot say I have love for Krishna but I do believe that Srila Prabhupada had love for Krishna and consequently I believe that he could see Krishna directly, face to face.

Devotee: Can I just make a comment to further what you are saying? About our line the direct disciples of Lord Chaitanya, the six Gosvamis were completely pure, completely renounced and there is one verse about them that says: he rādhe vraja-devike ca lalite he nanda-sūno kutaḥ and that means Srimati Radharani where are You? Are You on the bank of the Yamuna or Govardhana Hill? Where are you? So Srila Prabhupada comments that this is our line: vipralambha, in feeling separation from God wondering, experiencing separation and therefore it is not that now I found Krishna my work is finished. It is a constant searching for as Giriraj Swami was saying for the service of Radha and Krishna.

Giriraj Swami: Very good. Bhargava Prabhu?

Bhargava Prabhu: Inaudible.

Giriraj Swami: First Bhargava Prabhu quoted our spiritual master that we should not be anxious to see Krishna but we should act in such a way that Krishna wants to see us. Just like if you want to see, say in an idealized situation you want to see the president of United States. It is not so easy to meet the president of the United States but if you distinguish yourself by your service to the nation, then the president himself will invite you and He will want to see you. So that is the idea. We cannot force God to appear before us no matter how pure we are but if we serve God in such a way that He wants to see us then who can stop Him from coming to see us. But Bhargava Prabhu asked for me to give an example of a pastime of Krishna where a devotee was able to directly see Krishna and I will tell one briefly in relation to the deity of Krishna and how the deity of Krishna is Krishna Himself.

In brief, an elderly brahman (brahman means like a priest or a spiritual teacher, say teacher. brahman means teacher). So an older brahman went out on pilgrimage to Vrindavan which is Lord Krishna’s birthplace and a younger brahman accompanied him and served him and the older brahman was so pleased with his service that he offered him his daughter in marriage. Of course there is a whole cultural context to the idea of an arranged marriage which we won’t discuss now but it was current at the time and in general it worked well and I think better than what’s going on now. So the difficulty was that the brahman came from a very wealthy and aristocratic family. And the younger one came from a more humble family. So the brahman’s wife was incensed that he offered their daughter in marriage to such a poor person and then the brother of the girl, the son, he was very aggressive and saying, “No we cannot let our sister marry such a poor fellow.” So the younger brahman felt bad, not because he particularly wanted to marry the girl as such but because the older brahman had promised in front of the deity. I forgot this that they came in front of the deity of Krishna in Vrindavan and in front of the deity the older brahman was so pleased with the service of the younger brahman offered the daughter. So there was a big commotion and finally the older brahman to pacify the family, yes, yes, yes.

So the brother was saying where is the witness? The young man is making up the whole story. He wants to marry into a rich family. He wants to marry my sister. He is making up the whole story. Where is the witness? So the young brahman said, “The witness was the deity of Krishna in Vrindavan. So if the deity of Krishna comes to testify that yes your father offered his daughter to me in marriage. Will you accept it? So you know the son was delighted with this proposal because he was basically an atheist. He was a materialist. So he thought how can a deity of Krishna give testimony? How can He bear witness? So he said, “Yes! That is fine.” So they*(I thought the younger brahman went alone) went back to Vrindavan to the deity of Krishna. They were like very pure. They approached Krishna and they said,” You remember when the older brahman promised his daughter to me in marriage? The deity said, “Yes.” So now his family doesn’t believe us so you have to come and bear witness. So the deity said, “Well I am just a deity how can I walk all the way to Orissa. The family was from Orissa. So then the brahman said, “Well if you can talk, you can walk also.” So the deity said, “Yes you are right.” So the deity said, “I will follow behind you on the condition that you don’t look back.” He sort of like testing his faith. But you will know that I am walking behind you from the sound of my ankle bells. So they started to walk back to Orissa and when they got to the border of the town, the brahman could not hear the sound of the ankle bells anymore, he sort of started wondering whether the whole thing was just in his mind. So he stopped and he turned around and there was the deity of Krishna. So the news spread that the deity had walked all the way from Vrindavan and the family and all the townspeople came and the deity bore witness to the old brahman’s promise and the deity is still there. The deity is called Saakshi Gopal. Gopal means Krishna and Saakshi means witness. They built a simple temple for the deity and later a king built a nice temple for the deity and the deity is still there. So this is one of many stories and it also illustrates that the deity is Krishna if you have eyes to see or the ears to hear. 

Any other questions or comments?

Question: I went to the? Museum the other day and I saw a hundred images so many different images. How would one even know if one has some spiritual vision or dream and some is Krishna How will one even know? We should verify that because there are so many projections, so many images, images of deities, figures and statues and each one is unique?

Giriraj Swami: You are asking how one would identify Krishna? Well no there are basic features of Krishna described in the scriptures. Now the fact that one artist’s rendition will be a little different from another artist’s rendition is of no consequence. If you went to a gallery of paintings of the president for example, no two paintings would be the same because each artist will have his own style but still there would be features. Even in the cartoons, you know the caricatures are different but there is no doubt about the person being referred to in the cartoon and when you see him you know he is the one.

Last question.

Question: Was Madhavendra Puri—Was Lord Chaitanya alive when he was alive when he was chanting under a tree and Krishna came and asked him what kind of meditation you are undergoing? Was he taking milk? Was he eating what kind of food? And he went on and on and on telling him about the people in the village. Some fast on milk, some fast on nothing. I read the book and I can’t remember if Lord Chaitanya was alive when he was going through these things when he saw Krishna, when he was told that you take him out of the jungle. He was burning out of fire. It was so hot there and to wash it ten thousand times something like to make it nice and cool and worship it. Was Lord Chaitanya alive then?

Giriraj Swami: He is referring to Madhavendra Puri who was the spiritual master of the spiritual master of Lord Chaitanya. And again Lord Chaitanya is actually Krishna but in the guise of a devotee to show us by practical example how to worship Krishna in the modern age. So considering when Madhavendra Puri was present and then his disciple was Isvara Puri and Lord Chaitanya accepted Isvara Puri as His spiritual master. I don’t really know the dates but it is—-do you know?

Devotee: Yes pretty almost positive. Didn’t Lord Nityananda take initiation from Madhavendra Puri? So then Lord Chaitanya was alive because Lord Chaitanya took initiation from Isvara Puri and Lord Nityananda took initiation form Madhavendra Puri. 

Giriraj Swami: But He was older but we’ll tentatively accept your statement. Madhavendra Puri was filled with love of Godhead. He is another example of a rare soul to whom Krishna appeared and he was the one who manifest the intense mood of separation from Krishna and from then on of course, through Lord Chaitanya and then the followers of Lord Chaitanya the mood of separation has continued. 

Well thank you. I think we have a very learned and elevated audience here and it has been an honor and pleasure to be able to discuss Krishna with all of you. Hare Krishna!