SB 1.7.26 – Submissive Inquiry and Respect

Giriraj Swami:

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

Reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto One, Chapter Seven: “The Son of Droṇa Punished.”

TEXT 26

kim idaṁ svit kuto veti

deva-deva na vedmy aham

sarvato mukham āyāti

tejaḥ parama-dāruṇam

TRANSLATION

O Lord of lords, how is it that this dangerous effulgence is spreading all around? Where does it come from? I do not understand it.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada: 

Anything that is presented before the Personality of Godhead should be so done after due presentation of respectful prayers. That is the standard procedure, and Śrī Arjuna, although an intimate friend of the Lord, is observing this method for general information.

COMMENT

So in the previous verses, Arjuna offered prayers to Lord Krishna, and now he comes to the point of his questions. kim idaṁ svit kutah- what is this effulgence and where is it coming from? When one approaches the Lord or the Lord’s representative for knowledge, one should offer some prayers or service to please the superior authority, because the exchange of knowledge is not automatic. The exchange is based on personal reciprocation. 

In Bhagavad-gītā, Krishna says- tad viddhi praṇipātena, paripraśnena sevayā. Praṇipāt means one should offer obeisances or surrender. Obeisances are token of surrender, or an expression of surrender. When Śukadeva Gosvami entered the assembly that had gathered around Maharaja Parīkṣit, when the great king came to know that he had only seven days left to live, the king offered his obeisances to the sage. And Srila Prabhupada comments that when someone offers obeisances, sincere obeisances to some authority, then within his heart the authority feels obliged to the person, and wants to reciprocate, and give help to the person. So then praśnena, then one’s questions will be effective, and sevayā, one should also render service. 

Here I recall one incident, where someone did not follow the proper etiquette or procedure to say the least. Srila Prabhupada was speaking at the first Delhi pandal, which was held in downtown New Delhi, at Connaught Place. It was a very prestigious location, and very prestigious event. The Mayor of Delhi Ansraj Gupta had received Srila Prabhupada at the airport and had inaugurated the program, and different leaders from different walks of life came as special guests; every night a different leader from a different field of activity. But one evening in front of thousands of people, and there were about twenty thousand people every night. So one evening a wild, belligerent Australian or American young man came forward to the stage. He was very muscularly built, he had tattoos all over his body, he had just a vest on and bare chest, and pants, and big boots, and chains around his neck. So he came up to the stage, and he was shouting from in front of the stage. And immediately the devotees came forward to remove him but Srila Prabhupada indicated, let him come on the stage. Prabhupada actually invited him to the stage. Then he told the devotees to give him a cushion, a asana, and then he had the devotees put a microphone in front of him.

And then the man began to challenge Srila Prabhupada in a very sarcastic way. He said, “Have you realized yourself within “yourself”? And Srila Prabhupada very nonchalantly replied, “Yes.” Then the young man asked Srila Prabhupada, “According to you how old is the Bhagavad-gītā?” Srila Prabhupada said, “Five thousand years.” Then the man said, “According to my information, the Bhagavad-gītā cannot be more than twelve hundred years old.” Prabhupada shot back, “That is nonsense.” Then the man started quoting his authorities, I don’t know who they were. And then Prabhupada interrupted and said, “You tell me now, what is the process for receiving the knowledge of Bhagavad-gītā?” Meanwhile the man had asked some other challenging question and Prabhupada said, “No, you answer my question. What is the process for receiving the knowledge of Bhagavad-gītā?” And the man said, “No, I asked you first; you answer my question.” And Prabhupada said, “I am not your servant. I am not obliged to answer your question. You answer my question.” So they were going back and forth, and the man became more and more agitated and was raising his voice, and Prabhupada was very firm and he was answering in kind, and eventually they started, more or less, having a shouting match. And then Prabhupada indicated, “Okay, take him away.” The disciples came up and escorted him off the stage.

Now I happened to be in the audience, distributing book, and this event caused complete pandemonium in the audience, and immediately the audience became polarized. Some who were sympathetic to Srila Prabhupada, and some who were sympathetic to the man. And the ones who were sympathetic to the man, surrounded us. There were about maybe three or four of us in the audience distributing literature, and they surrounded us. And they were very agitated and they were saying, “Why didn’t he answer the young man’s question? He should have answered the young man’s question.” And then the other time, “Your guru Maharaja lost his temper. He should not have lost his temper.” And they were criticizing Srila Prabhupada. And there were so many of them, and they were so heated up that we really did not want to be caught surrounded by them. So we all tried to make way to the side of the stage, to get shelter from each other, and from the other devotee. And not the organizers, but the promoters, there were many politicians, the mayor was the leader, but there were many politicians from the Johnsung Party, who were promoting the event, and coming, and helping, and giving introductory speeches. And they probably had their own political motivations as well, because there was a good audience of twenty thousand people, and they were all pious Hindus, presumably they were pious Hindus, and the Johnsung Political Party was meant to appeal to them.

So one of the political leaders or aspirants was very upset, and he said to Mother Malati that, “Now your guru Maharaja has spoiled everything.” And Mother Malati said, “My guru Maharaja hasn’t spoiled anything,” and gave him a slap. So it was like a riot, in some quarter it was like a riot. But from the stage, Srila Prabhupada proceeded to answer the question—what is the process of receiving the knowledge from the Bhagavad-gītā. And he referred to the verse tad viddhi praṇipātena, paripraśnena sevayā. That you have to offer obeisances, you have to become submissive, you have to render service, you can’t just come and challenge.

So here Arjuna, although he was the friend of Krishna, in an intimate relationship with Him, but still he offered prayer to Krishna. He did not abruptly ask his question, as if he could take for granted that Krishna would give the answer. Once in Bombay actually maybe we did take Srila Prabhupada for granted a little, because there were so many problems. The management was so complicated in Bombay then. On the one hand we were struggling with the municipality to get permission. We had permission to build the residences, but not the temple, and then we were struggling with the construction. Then there were devotees from America and Europe who were struggling with living in India, and we were struggling with them, to keep them engaged. And there were just so many questions.

So one morning, late morning, a few of us went to Srila Prabhupada and we were just asking him a lot of questions, and he was answering very patiently; not just answering, he would listen, he would consider, he would discuss, and then he would answer. And then we left to discuss what Srila Prabhupada had said and how to proceed. And then we realized that we had another question which was an important question that we needed to clarify. So one of the devotee went back, I forget who went and Srila Prabhupada became upset. He said, “I am not a question answering machine,” and then he said whatever. I think he wanted [Unintelligible 00:35:38] Swami to become the vice president. He said whatever it is that is final and no more question.

So the process of acquiring knowledge from the spiritual authority is based on reciprocation, and one cannot assume that the superior will answer one’s questions. And therefore Arjuna prays to Lord Krishna, glorifies Lord Krishna first to please Him, to show the example, but to appeal to Lord Krishna to show His favor to him by answering his question. So this is the process. We have all heard about the ascending process, and the descending process of knowledge. So Arjuna set the right example in two ways. First way which is the most obvious is when he was confused and bewildered, he didn’t try to speculate to find out the answer by his own insufficient intelligence, but he took the right approach, and enquired of the superior authority, here, of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna. But not only did he make the right decision to approach the superior authority for the answer to his question. But he took the right approach, and that is the way of transcendental knowledge.

In tomorrow’s verse, Srila Prabhupada indicates how modern science is insufficient in terms of its knowledge, and its technology, all subtle sciences. So we may save the critique of the modern scientific method, which attempts to acquire knowledge by empirical observation and speculation, for tomorrow or some other suitable occasion. We will end now.

Hare Krishna.

Are there any question or comments? You don’t have to praise me or offer prayers, so don’t worry.

Devotee: Maharaja, [Unintelligible 00:39:27] teacher’s responsibility to train the next student, [Unintelligible 00:39:39] Would you like to comment on [Unintelligible 00:39:52]

Giriraj Swami: Mukunda Datta Prabhu says that, in modern education the idea is that the teacher is responsible to create interest in the subject, in the student, whereas in the Vedic conception, the student is the one who should be interested in the subject, and then approach the teacher for knowledge.

What you say is true, in the pragmatic sense but if we take the example of Srila Prabhupada, when he came to America, no one really was interested in the subject. He had to create the interest. On one morning walk in New York city, Srila Prabhupada was noticing all the garbage in the streets, in the parks, and he commented that there are so many unemployed men, and there is so much garbage that needs to be collected, why don’t they engage the unemployed men in collecting the garbage? Then the unemployment will go away, and the garbage will go away. And one of the disciples replied that the unemployed, they are unemployed but they don’t want to just accept any job. They only want to accept the type of work that they want to do, and they have no interest in collecting the garbage. So Srila Prabhupada replied that it is the duty of the management to create the interest. And then he gave the example, “Just like when I came to America, none of you had any interest in Krishna consciousness, but I created the interest.”

So in the traditional situation, where the children are raised from the very beginning according to religious principles, they should be eager. We have heard the story of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, how eager he was to accept the spiritual master, Srila Gaurakisora dasa Babaji Maharaja. And how when Gaurakisora dasa Babaji Maharaja refused him, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura was ready to kill himself, throw himself in the Ganges. So that is the ideal situation, where the disciple, or the aspiring disciple is so eager. But in the modern context, even in India so what to speak of other places, people are so contaminated by the material modes of nature, and the material atmosphere that we have to tax our brain, as Srila Prabhupada said, to think of how to attract people to Krishna consciousness. But even then when it comes to actually accepting spiritual master, the candidate has to be in the proper mood. So yes we interest them, we have festival, we have prasāda distribution, we have music, we have book distribution, we have cultural presentation, we have so many methods that we use to try to attract people who have no interest. But when it comes to actually accepting a spiritual master, they should be advanced enough by the process of purification of Krishna consciousness, that they are actually eager, and they are actually ready to submit themselves. And then the relationship will be affected. Otherwise they can just continue in a general way to hear, and chant, and attend the programs, and associate with the devotees, and take prasāda, and so on. 

But I don’t know what to say. You may know there is one professor at USB named Barbara Oldridge, who met Tamal Krishna Goswami and was very inspired by him, and impressed by him. And now she is doing a major project about Vraja, and related to it, but distinct from it, a book about Krishna. And so she invited me to attend some of her talks, especially when she was talking about Krishna, and once she invited me to speak as a guest lecturer. But at the end of the term, I was shocked because she handed out a questionnaire to the student where the students judged the teacher. And that struck me, that didn’t appeal to me. It didn’t appeal to me that the instructor should have to worry, “Am I saying the politically right thing? Is this one going to be offended? Is this one going to comment against me?” But I guess that is the whole principle of democracy. 

Democracy is the reaction against authority, so that people seems actually quite pathetic. Here we are, just come from California, a movie star who has had no experience with government has been elected the governor and people are saying that he is going to become the president. So you have democracy to protect yourself against abuse or exploitation or tyranny. But then, what is the qualification of the voters, to discriminate? And what is the qualification of the leaders, they elect? So Prabhupada would always say that monarchy is better. And of course the monarchs were guided by qualified brahmans. So that is the ideal system. But if you say that monarchy is better than democracy, people will say, “What if the monarch exploits us, what if the monarch is corrupt? How will we protect ourselves? Now we have the power of the vote, to protect ourselves.” But then the qualification for leading the government, is one’s ability to get votes. That is the only criteria for occupying the highest post in the land, and that is the ability to get votes. And one can get votes by good looks. So it is probably the same thing in the university. Now they think, What if the teacher is abusive. The students also have their rights, and so the students, they should be able to say what they think of how the teacher conducted the class. 

But the actual relationship between student and teacher is different. It is based on submission, submissive enquiry. So when you think about the whole thing, the conclusion is that the system will only work if the people are God conscious. It sounds like a cliché- the only solution is Krishna consciousness. But it actually is the only solution. Otherwise there will be abuse, and exploitation. And then there will be reaction to the exploitation, in a subtle, or gross type of rebellion, and you are left with a mess. So then what to do?

harer nāma harer nāma

harer nāmaiva kevalam

kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva

nāsty eva gatir anyathā

So we do come back to the same conclusion all the time. But it is not just a stereotype reply, if you actually think about it and analyze the situation, you have to come to the same conclusion, in my humble opinion. 

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:51:26]

Giriraj Swami: Yes, the general rule as we always heard was that the candidate should ask for first initiation but the guru should offer the second initiation. But yes, sometimes the guru will extend himself and encourage the reluctant disciple, or hesitant disciple. Because Kali-yuga is so hard, devotees can become discouraged very easily, and feel, “I am not worthy, I am not up to the standard.” They may actually want to be initiated, but for any number of reason, they may feel that they don’t want to, they are not qualified or they don’t want to burden the spiritual master. So then the spiritual master, knowing the heart of disciple, that the disciple really does want to be initiated, but also knowing the mind of the disciple that could create so many complicated reasons not to be initiated, he may assert himself to penetrate the mental reservation, artificial reservations, and do what he knows the disciple at heart realty wants anyway.

Devotee: Maharaja, you have any suggestion. [Unintelligible 00:54:38]

Giriraj Swami: This is a whole other topic and all I will say right now is that we have a devotee at UCSB name Triparari dasa, and he happened to mention, because there is need to think of how we can attract more people to the movement. And Gopal Bhatta Prabhu has inspired this spiritual, strategic planning team and so on, but Triparari dasa’s idea is that, we should learn from the Buddhist. He feels that the Buddhist has been successful in creating interest in Buddhism. And of course one can say it is easier because Buddhism is just actually atheism, or some type of Buddhism is actually atheism so it is easy to attract people to atheism. And then of course to battle Buddhism, there is a political cause that China invaded Tibet, and now Tibet and Buddhist are in exile. Dalai Rama, himself is in exile. But he feels, and I haven’t really studied the situation well enough to comment, but he feels the Buddhists have done well. He said if you go to bookstore and look in eastern religion, or oriental philosophy it is 90 percent Buddhism. So he feels we can learn from them, but as far as details about what they have done, and what we could do, maybe you could ask him. 

But I know that they have infiltrated, if you will, the academic world. Triparari mentioned that twenty years ago, they had people getting PHDs, and they now are professors in the universities, and he said only now we are doing what they did so many years ago. But there may be much, I am sure there is much more to it. But that is just one thing he mentioned. 

But what I said was that sometimes I get sick of thinking all the time, what we can do to get the movement more attractive. And I said that people are so covered by the modes of nature, that it is hard to interest them. Sometimes I think we should just be Krishna conscious, and just hear, and chant, and just be Krishna conscious, and not tax our brain so much about adjusting this, and adjusting that. Because we could do backward summersaults and still not make people devotees. So then he said that, “I am so glad to hear you say that; I feel the same way.” And then he said that the Buddhist actually have had the same attitude. He said that the Buddhists, of course now they are so many lay buddhas or whatever, but the original Buddhas who came to America, very strict practitioners, and they considered their practices, and their disciplines to be of the highest importance. And they weren’t thinking, How can we present this like this, or that like that so people will be attracted. So the conclusion was that if we are sincere in Krishna consciousness, enlivened in Krishna consciousness, that will be the best for us, whether other people like it or not. But there is a good chance they will like it. Whereas if we dissipate our energy in thinking how appeal to them and attract them, and we are not able just to absorb ourselves in Krishna consciousness, then we become weak and dry. So that was that little discussion we had the other night. 

I remember once someone was saying that we shouldn’t wear dhotis and kurtas, and so many things like that because the Indian cultural part of Krishna consciousness, according to that theory, it is not even part of Krishna consciousness. It is something that has been appended to Krishna consciousness and that we should think of some different approaches. So I mentioned the idea to His Holiness Indradyumna Swami. He said, “We don’t really need to change the process, Lord Chaitanya has already given the process. But we have to do it nicely. When he does hari-nāma down the street, they are wearing dhotis, and kurtas, and saree. But they play the instruments well, they sing beautifully, and there is a wonderful festive atmosphere. So he said if we have five devotees on the street, like the new bhaktas, who don’t how to dress properly, play the instruments properly, or sing properly, of course people are not going to be inspired. But it is not that we need to develop a new process, we just have to do the same thing well. 

But in any way this type of debate can go on and on. And it is good to think about it, but not the point that we neglect the real essence of Krishna consciousness, which is hearing, and chanting about Krishna and becoming Krishna conscious.

All right. Thank you very much. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Hare Krishna.

His holiness Giriraj Swami Maharaja ki jaya!

Gaura bhakta Vrinda ki jaya!

Hare Krishna