SB 1.2.16 – Home Program

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

Devotees: Hare Krishna.

Giriraj Swami: So, we shall be reading some verses from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam over the next days, in the evening, and we shall begin with Text Sixteen. We’ll be reading from the First Canto, Second Chapter: “Divinity and Divine Service.” Please repeat after me.

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya.

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

Please repeat.

TEXT 16

śuśrūṣoḥ śraddadhānasya

vāsudeva-kathā-ruciḥ

syān mahat-sevayā viprāḥ

puṇya-tīrtha-niṣevaṇāt

TRANSLATION

O twice-born sages, by serving those devotees who are completely freed from all vice, great service is done. By such service, one gains affinity for hearing the messages of Vāsudeva.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

The conditioned life of a living being is caused by his revolting against the Lord.

COMMENT

So, there are two stages of life; conditioned and liberated. The conditioned stage means that we are under the grips of material nature in the material world, and we are forced to suffer the threefold miseries of material existence; miseries caused by other living entities, miseries caused by our own minds and bodies, and miseries caused by acts of nature. If we think carefully or soberly about our condition, we’ll find that we’re always suffering from one or the other of these miseries, and often all three at one time. So, that is conditioned life.

And an intelligent person will think, How can I become free from the miseries of material existence? How can I make a final solution? Of course, everyone wants to counteract the miseries, but by material means, we cannot overcome them.

In the Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Krishna says, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam, to be aware of the miseries of birth, death, old age, and disease is part of the process of knowledge. If we’re not conscious of the miseries, we’re in ignorance. And these miseries are ever present; birth, death, old age, and disease. We cannot eliminate them. People have been trying for millions of years, from the beginning of conditional life, to combat the miseries, but they cannot overcome them.

Birth, there’s no question. Death, there’s no question, as sure as death. Of course, they try but they cannot succeed. They give false promises for the future, which Srila Prabhupada compared to a post-dated check. A post-dated check has no value. Anyway, you know what it means. And especially if the post-dated check comes from a person who has no money, it says, “Well, I have no money now but, in the future, I’ll become rich and then the check will be good.” “Well, first become rich and then give me a good check. Until then, I’m not giving you anything.”

Srila Prabhupada told a story to illustrate how clever people give false hopes for the future, even though they can do nothing for you. Srila Prabhupada himself in grihastha ashram, lived in Allahabad, the holy city of Allahabad, and he once had a matter pending in the high court. And while he was in the high court, he observed a clever British barrister give false hopes to a client who was condemned to death. He was going to die; he was already sentenced to death. And the barrister said, “Don’t worry, we will get you out on appeal.” He’s already sentenced to death, he’s going to be dead, but the barrister was saying, “Don’t worry, we will get you out on appeal.”

And Prabhupada told a story, the condemned man was actually a medical doctor, and his wife had an affair with one of the servants. So, when the husband found out that the wife had an affair with one of the servants, he decided to kill the servant. So, he very cunningly had the servant come into the operation theater, he was a surgeon, he had the servant come into the operation theater and he very mercilessly killed him. He stabbed him to death with his surgical knives. Then he packed up the body in a wooden box, nailed it completely shut, and he was planning to, I guess, take the box and throw it in the river. So, as he was carrying the box, a police constable came by, and he saw drops of blood trickling out of the box. Quite a ghastly story. [laughter] That’s also one of the twelve rasas, ghastliness.

So, the police constable saw the drops of blood trickling out of the box, so he immediately stopped and arrested the doctor. And he had the box, the body, it was all there. It was obvious, it was obvious. So, he was brought to trial, he was convicted, and he was sentenced to death. And the barrister was saying, “Don’t worry, we’ll get you out on appeal.” So, that’s a post-dated check, it has no value, it’s a bluff.

So, Prabhupada compared the false promises of the scientists and other leaders to solve the problems of life, specifically birth, disease, old age, and death, in the future. “What have you done? You haven’t done anything, but you’re promising in the future.” Of course, one may say, “Well, they’ve made so much progress, they’ve developed cures for. . .” Well, I was going to say tuberculosis although tuberculosis is still around. But still, some of the diseases that were more prevalent in the past have been significantly reduced. But there are new diseases; cancer, AIDS. If they were actually curing disease, overcoming disease, then the hospital should become empty, people should go home, the doctors should look for other work. But disease is increasing, it’s not decreasing. It’s just different kinds of disease; cancer, AIDS, depression, a different category but so many people suffer from depression, which can lead to other maladies.

So, disease hasn’t been overcome and it’s increasing, and there’s always demand for more hospital beds, more nurses, more doctors, ultimately. And the others, old age, they might perform some cosmetic surgery to cover the effects of old age but they can’t stop the deterioration of the body in old age. Death, you can’t stop that.

So, these are real problems and an intelligent person, sober person, should think, How can I make a solution? Because if I don’t make a solution, I’m going to take birth again in my next life and suffer the same miseries, all over again in a different form, that’s all. The same miseries and even the same happiness, if you want to call it happiness; eating, sleeping, mating, and defending. I’ve been enjoying that so-called happiness in so many species of life, and when I take birth again, it’s going to be the same thing; eating, sleeping, mating, and defending, the animal propensities.

Recently, we were in San Diego with HH Indradyumna Swami. And in the Sunday feast lecture, HH said that of all the places he visited in his North American tour, San Diego was the best; it had the best climate, the best terrain. He said, “I hope there’s no one from any other place in the audience.” But he said, “San Diego’s the best.” Actually, Santa Barbara is the best, but he didn’t count Santa Barbara. So, San Diego’s the best. But he said that if someone performs pious activities, he can be elevated to a better San Diego, in a heavenly planet, a better San Diego. But it still comes to the same thing: eating, sleeping, mating, and defending, just the same old, same old, same old.

So, that’s not our goal, although generally, people, karmis, technically they’re called karmis, they want material happiness, and they engage in pious activities, religious activities, so that they can enjoy a better standard of material happiness, a better standard of eating, sleeping, mating, and defending. But there actually is no better standard, it’s all the same, it’s only an illusion that there’s a better standard. But they think Okay, we’re enjoying in Richardson. Is that where we are now? We’re already enjoying in Richardson, and if we perform pious activities, religious activities, we’ll enjoy in a better Richardson. We’ll have a bigger house and more servants and more enjoyment. But actually, this eating, sleeping, mating, and defending, you cannot improve the quality of it.

Srila Prabhupada would give the example that a man is sleeping on a nice bedstead and an animal is sleeping on the floor of the jungle. But when the man is sleeping on the nice bedstead in the nice house, he doesn’t know he’s sleeping on a nice bedstead. And when the animal is sleeping on the floor of the jungle, he doesn’t know he’s sleeping on the floor of the jungle. Sleeping is sleeping. Same thing with eating. The man may be eating out of a nice silver thali, with silver utensils. And again, the animal may be eating with his teeth and claws, but the animal enjoys his eating as much as the man.

There’s a famous story of a man. He was married, he had his wife, but he thought he could enjoy better with another woman. So, there was a very famous prostitute at the time, very beautiful and cultured and qualified. So, he wanted to have one night with that prostitute, but he couldn’t afford her, she was very expensive. So, his wife, of course, one might say she was foolish, but she was so faithful and devoted and chaste to her husband that she began to serve the prostitute. And the prostitute eventually asked, “Why are you serving me? What is your intention?” And she said, “Well, my husband wants to have a night with you and he can’t afford it.” She said, “I’m very expensive. For you to be able to afford a night for him with me, you’ll have to work for a long time.” She said, “I’m prepared.”

So, eventually, she earned enough to enable her husband to have a night with the prostitute. Actually, prostitutes are part of Vedic culture. So, it was an evening, you would come and the place would be decorated very attractively and there would be a nice meal, nice talk, it would be a whole event. So, the prostitute served the meal in two sets of plates and bowls and utensils. One was made of iron, and the other was made of gold. And so, she served the same food to the man in the two sets of utensils, and then she asked the man, “Which tastes better?” And the man said, “They both taste the same.” So, the prostitute said, “This pleasure of sex, it’s the same, it doesn’t matter what the body is. You might think that your wife’s body is like an iron pot and my body’s like a golden pot, but the taste is the same, you should just go back to your wife.”

So, these things; eating, sleeping, mating, and defending, it’s the same. Whatever species, whatever planet, whatever neighborhood, it’s the same, you can’t really change the quality of eating, sleeping, mating, and defending. You can only change the dress, you can’t change the quality. So, instead of wasting time and energy trying to improve the quality or the standard of eating, sleeping, mating, and defending, one should rather use one’s time and energy to make a solution to the problems of life. Those are real problems. They cannot be solved by material needs but they can be solved by surrender to Krishna. Daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā, this material nature consisting of the three modes is very difficult to overcome, mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te, but one who surrenders to Krishna, he can easily cross over maya.

So, this is what an intelligent person will do, he’ll try to really get out of the miseries of material existence and go to Krishna and enjoy an eternal life full of bliss and happiness with Krishna. That is an intelligent course of action. Now, how do we do this? I’ll continue the purport. The first sentence. I discussed half of the first sentence. [laughter] The first sentence of the purport is. . .

PURPORT (continued)

The conditioned life of a living being.

COMMENT

So, that’s what we discussed, the conditioned life of a living being.

PURPORT (continued)

Is caused by his revolting against the Lord.

COMMENT

Now, that is the beginning of our conditional life, that is why we fall into the material world, we revolt against the Lord, we become envious of His position, we want to take His place. And therefore, we come into the material world. Just like a child wants to cook. She’s just a small child, she doesn’t know how to cook. If she were to really try to cook, she would just burn herself and might burn down the whole house. But she sees the mother cooking and she also wants to cook. And unless she’s cooking, she won’t leave the mother alone, she won’t let the mother cook in peace. So, the mother decides, “Okay, you want to cook?” Then she gives her a toy set of a stove and pots and pans and plates and knives and forks and spoons, everything she needs to cook. So, the mother’s cooking in the real kitchen, and the girl is cooking with the toys.

So, in the same way, we want to be God but we can’t be. So, Krishna gives us this toy world where we can play at being God but nothing comes of it, there’s no real fire, there’s no real food, nothing comes of it, it’s just an imitation of the real world. So, to go back home, back to Godhead, we have to rectify this rebellious mentality, this envious mentality that we want to be God, we want to enjoy independent of God.

PURPORT (continued)

There are men called devas, or godly living beings, and there are men called asuras, or demons, who are against the authority of the Supreme Lord. In the Bhagavad-gītā (Sixteenth Chapter) a vivid description of the asuras is given in which it is said that the asuras are put into lower and lower states of ignorance life after life and so sink to the lower animal forms and have no information of the Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead.

COMMENT

So, that happens. They engage in sinful activities and they’re punished by taking birth in lower species. One famous president of the United States, from the great state of Texas, had a cattle ranch. And apart from the cattle ranch, he sent a lot of young people to war to be killed. Srila Prabhupada said he would take birth as a germ, take birth as a germ. Hare Krishna. [laughter] So, we don’t want to take that course.

PURPORT (continued)

These asuras are gradually rectified to God consciousness by the mercy of the Lord’s liberated servitors in different countries according to the supreme will.

COMMENT

This is before they take birth as germs. [laughter] Anyway, that’s another thing, but even the germs can be liberated from their lower form of life by devotees. Anyway, that’s a whole other topic, we have to keep moving along here.

PURPORT (continued)

These asuras are gradually rectified to God consciousness by the mercy of the Lord’s liberated servitors in different countries according to the supreme will. Such devotees of God are very confidential associates of the Lord, and when they come to save human society from the dangers of godlessness, they are known as the powerful incarnations of the Lord, as sons of the Lord, as servants of the Lord or as associates of the Lord. But none of them falsely claim to be God themselves. This is a blasphemy declared by the asuras, and the demoniac followers of such asuras also accept pretenders as God or His incarnation. In the revealed scriptures there is definite information of the incarnation of God. No one should be accepted as God or an incarnation of God unless he is confirmed by the revealed scriptures.

COMMENT

So, here we have liberated souls who preach the message of Godhead to reclaim the fallen souls, to rectify the demonic people. And we all, to some extent, are demonic, otherwise we wouldn’t be here. And if we’re sober and observe our motives and our desires and our mentalities and our behavior, we’ll know that we do have that in us, that demonic side. But such a preacher never falsely claims to be God, and he doesn’t accept being called God by his so-called followers.

Once, it actually happened in the history of ISKCON that some devotees started to say that Srila Prabhupada was God, and Srila Prabhupada was so upset that he actually expelled them from the society, the only time he actually expelled someone from the society, because of that offense of calling him God. And that’s a whole other topic about impersonal philosophy, Mayavada philosophy, but it cuts at the very root of bhakti. If you think you’re God, then where’s the question of bhakti? Where’s the question of service? If you think you’re God, it’s the same reason why you’re here. You came here to be God. So, you think now you’re not God, but you’ll become God, that you’ll merge and become one with God. So, it’s completely antithetical to Krishna consciousness, to bhakti. But these asuras, they like to follow false Gods, they don’t want the real God.

Srila Prabhupada gave the example, it’s true, he said there was a man in Calcutta who used to be able to imitate the barking of different types of dogs. And he would perform, people would buy tickets, go into the hall, and they would hear him imitate the barking of different types of dogs. And Prabhupada said, “The real dog is on the street barking but no one cares for the real dog, they want the imitation dog.” [laughter] So, it’s like that. Krishna is available, the real God, Krishna is easily available to anyone. They don’t want the real God, they want the imitation God.

PURPORT (continued)

The servants of God are to be respected as God by the devotees who actually want to go back to Godhead. Such servants of God are called mahātmās, or tīrthas, and they preach according to particular time and place. The servants of God urge people to become devotees of the Lord. They never tolerate being called God.

COMMENT

Actually, Srila Prabhupada, many people noted about him, in contrast to other famous spiritualists who were prominent in America at the same time, that he was the only one who didn’t say he was God or didn’t accept others calling him God. He always said, “I’m not God, Krishna is God. You shouldn’t surrender to me, you should surrender to Krishna.” Many people, even George Harrison, remarked that Srila Prabhupada was the only one who was very clear, “I am not God, Krishna is God. You should surrender to Krishna.” It’s very easy to preach, you just repeat the plain truth, very simple. Anyone can do it, and we’re meant to, just repeat the message of Krishna as it is, surrender to Krishna, become Krishna’s devotee.

PURPORT (continued)

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was God Himself according to the indication of the revealed scriptures, but He played the part of a devotee. People who knew Him to be God addressed Him as God, but He used to block His ears with His hands and chant the name of Lord Viṣṇu. He strongly protested against being called God, although undoubtedly He was God Himself. The Lord behaves so to warn us against unscrupulous men who take pleasure in being addressed as God.

COMMENT

Actually, many people don’t even know that Lord Chaitanya is God, He is a channa-avatāra, covered incarnation, and the reason He came in it is disguised form as a devotee is because in Kali-yuga, people are so fallen that if the scriptures openly described the incarnation of Godhead for Kali-yuga, there would be so many imitations of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. But He is a channa-avatāra, He’s a hidden incarnation or disguised incarnation. So, only confidential devotees who are connected to the disciplic succession coming from Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, they know that He’s God. And it is a good strategy. Well, we got one in Texas but otherwise, there aren’t that many imitations of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. It was a good strategy in general. Hare Krishna.

PURPORT (continued)

The servants of God come to propagate God consciousness, and intelligent people.

COMMENT

Like all of you, you’re intelligent.

PURPORT (continued)

Intelligent people should cooperate with them in every respect. By serving the servant of God, one can please God more than by directly serving the Lord. The Lord is more pleased when He sees that His servants are properly respected because such servants risk everything for the service of the Lord and so are very dear to the Lord. The Lord declares in the Bhagavad-gītā (18.69) that no one is dearer to Him than one who risks everything to preach His glory.

COMMENT

This is the description of Srila Prabhupada, and we should cooperate to serve his mission, a very clear indication.

PURPORT (continued)

By serving the servants of the Lord, one gradually gets the quality of such servants, and thus one becomes qualified to hear the glories of God. The eagerness to hear about God is the first qualification of a devotee eligible for entering the kingdom of God.

COMMENT

So, we very quickly come to the conclusion, which leads into the next verse. Our heart is full of so many dirty things. The first dirty thing is misidentification with the body, that’s the basis, “I’m this body, everything related to this body is mine, it’s meant for me to enjoy and to control.” So, we need to cleanse the heart, just theoretical knowledge that, “I’m the servant of Krishna” is good, that’s the beginning, sambandha-jñāna.

But once we have the theoretical knowledge, we need some practice or discipline that will give us entry into the service of the Lord, “Okay, I’m this jīvera svarūpa haya — kṛṣṇera nitya-dāsa, I’m the eternal servant of Krishna, that’s my real identity. But how do I act in service for Krishna? How do I reestablish my relationship with Krishna, having revolted against Him, and come into the material world?” So, that is by hearing about Him, chanting and hearing. When one is serious about reviving his relationship with Krishna, he will seriously chant and hear about Krishna.

But in the beginning, we might not have that much taste for it, then how do we develop taste? Syān mahat-sevayā viprāḥ, by serving the servants of the Lord, by serving great souls who are engaged in the mission of Krishna consciousness. Vāsudeva-kathā-ruciḥ, one develops ruci, taste for the messages of Vasudeva. So, anyone can do that, you don’t have to be advanced. Yes, to chant with taste, to have taste for hearing and chanting may require a little more qualification, but to render service, anyone can render service. And by rendering service, one will develop taste and affinity for the message of Vasudeva.

Because you develop the qualities of the people you serve. So, if you serve someone who has taste for the holy name, you develop taste for the holy name. If you serve someone who has taste for kṛṣṇa-kathā, you develop taste for kṛṣṇa-kathā. That’s the process, and anyone can do it.

When Srila Prabhupada was first preaching in New York City in Manhattan, at 26 2nd Avenue, there was one man, he was mentally deranged, but he would sit and listen to the talks, and he would hear Srila Prabhupada’s talk about devotional service. The man didn’t seem to have much money. Anyway, somehow, one evening, he came in with some rolls of toilet paper, and he came up to Srila Prabhupada’s asana and presented him the rolls of toilet paper, and he walked out onto the street. And Srila Prabhupada said, “Just see. Even though his mind is not in proper order, he has begun his service.” And the expert devotee, he can take your offering and transform it in a way that is acceptable to Krishna.

There was another time where someone came and delivered some Mayavadi leaflets, and you know where we stand on Mayavada. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says māyāvādī kṛṣṇe aparādhī, that the Mayavadis are the worst offenders to Krishna. They say, “You can become Krishna, you can become God.” And the idea is if you, a conditioned soul with a material body made of blood and stool and urine, if you can become God, then the idea is that when Krishna comes, He also has a material body like you. He became God, so you can also become God. So therefore, they’re called Mayavadis, they think Krishna’s body is maya, they think Krishna’s name is maya, they think Krishna’s service is maya, they think everything is maya, and the only truth is to merge and become one with Brahman. And there’s no varieties.

So, some follower, a Mayavadi, came with these leaflets, Mayavadi leaflets, and delivered them to the store front. And Srila Prabhupada accepted them, he didn’t want to offend the person, to get into an argument, he just accepted the leaflets and the person left. Then, at the end of the program, Srila Prabhupada was going to distribute prasāda, I think it was halava then. So, he asked for the leaflets, and he served the halava on the leaflets. [laughter] Because somehow or other, the Mayavadi also got a chance to get the credit for some service.

So, anyone can do it knowingly or unknowingly. Of course, knowingly is better, and you’re intelligent, you can understand the value, you can do it knowingly. But knowingly or unknowingly, if you just somehow or other serve a great devotee like Srila Prabhupada or his servants in disciplic succession, you will get that benefit of vāsudeva-kathā-ruciḥ. Of course, this is a cleansing process, serving the devotees, and then beyond that, when you engage in hearing and chanting about Krishna, then the cleansing process is accelerated. And then, when the heart is completely cleansed, then that natural love for Krishna comes out and you’re eligible to go back home, back to Godhead. Then no more birth, death, disease, or old age. You live an eternal life full of bliss and knowledge with Sri Sri Radha-Kalachandji. And of all of the chanting and hearing, the chanting and hearing of the holy name, and especially the maha-mantra is the easiest and most effective, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

Hare Krishna, thank you very much. So, are there any questions or comments? Yes, Prem Charu Prabhu?

Prem Charu Prabhu: [Unintelligible 00:52:28].

Giriraj Swami: That’s a good question, that’s a good question. The basic qualification is to surrender to Krishna, that’s the basic qualification:

bahūnāṁ janmanām ante

jñānavān māṁ prapadyate

vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti

sa mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ

COMMENT

And especially in Kali-yuga, surrendering to Krishna means taking exclusive shelter of Krishna and not of any demigod. There are twenty-six qualifications of devotees mentioned in the scripture, and one of them is Krishna ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ, having taken exclusive shelter of Krishna. So, it is said if one has the one qualification of having taken exclusive shelter of Krishna, he is considered a devotee, even if he doesn’t manifest all the other twenty-five qualities. But if someone manifests the other twenty-five qualities but not the one quality of Krishna ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ, he’s not considered a devotee. So, that’s what we have to look for.

The verse mentioned, puṇya-tīrtha, that means cleanse of vice. We have the four principles: no eating meat, fish, or eggs, no intoxication, no illicit sex, and no gambling. I would say that in the initial stage, as long as you’re serving a servant of Srila Prabhupada, I don’t think it’s. . . This is another topic. Because we’re discussing here, in a general way, to render service to Prabhupada’s mission, Prabhupada’s devotees. But there are degrees of surrender to an individual. And to surrender to an individual servant, more than just serving the mission in a general way, will require discrimination or good fortune.

But basically, if one is sincere, that’s the main thing, if one is sincere, then Krishna in the heart will guide one, Krishna will inspire one. But the principle of serving devotees is basic, and we shouldn’t try to discriminate too much.

Once, one of Srila Prabhupada’s followers believed that one of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples in particular was a pure devotee, and that people should serve him and not others. And Srila Prabhupada was very upset with that idea, and he wrote back to that devotee, “Siddha Svarupa is a good soul, he should be served, but others are also good souls.” And this idea that only Siddha Svarupa is a pure devotee and he should be served and no one else is a pure devotee, Prabhupada said that’s not the idea. He said, “Anyone who’s sincerely serving the spiritual master, anyone who’s sincerely following the instructions of the spiritual master, he is a pure devotee and he should be served.”

And then he said, “Why do you want to be in the spiritual world only with Siddha Svarupa? All will go.” This boy who wrote the letter, his name was Tusta Krishna Prabhu, he was actually the first devotee who met Mr. Nair, who owned the land of Juhu. He had been the owner of the free press journal, an English daily newspaper in Bombay. And I think the GBC. Anyway, I’m not quite sure why Prabhupada mentioned Shyamasundara, he must have been the GBC or temple president or something. So, Prabhupada wrote, “Why do you want to be in the spiritual world only with Siddha Svarupa? Siddha Svarupa will go, you will go, Shyamasundara will go, everyone will go. Only Mr. Nair will stay behind.” [laughter]

And then, Prabhupada said, “We’ll have another ISKCON in the spiritual world.” So, he said, “This idea that only Siddha Svarupa is a pure devotee, he should be served, others are not pure devotees, this will cause factions, we don’t want that.” You get the sense.