SB 5.5.2 – Becoming Great by Serving the Great

Giriraj Swami: 

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

So in the mood of the Prabhupada Festival, we shall read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Canto Five, Chapter Five, Text Two, especially keeping in mind Srila Prabhupada. We have already discussed, to some degree, tamo-dvāraṁ yoṣitāṁ saṅgi-saṅgam. So we will not discuss that today and we have also discussed about two types of transcendentalists; personalists and impersonalists. and two categories of impersonalists—Brahmavadis and Mayavadis. So we won’t discuss that so much either, but we will, as they say, chew on the remnants that have been left for us by Gopiparanadhana Prabhu.

TEXT 2

mahat-sevāṁ dvāram āhur vimuktes

tamo-dvāraṁ yoṣitāṁ saṅgi-saṅgam

mahāntas te sama-cittāḥ praśāntā

vimanyavaḥ suhṛdaḥ sādhavo ye

TRANSLATION

One can attain the path of liberation from material bondage only by rendering service to highly advanced spiritual personalities. These personalities are impersonalists and devotees. Whether one wants to merge into the Lord’s existence or wants to associate with the Personality of Godhead, one should render service to the mahātmās. For those who are not interested in such activities, who associate with people fond of women and sex, the path to hell is wide open. The mahātmās are equipoised. They do not see any difference between one living entity and another. They are very peaceful and are fully engaged in devotional service. They are devoid of anger, and they work for the benefit of everyone. They do not behave in any abominable way. Such people are known as mahātmās.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

The human body is like a junction. One may either take the path of liberation or the path leading to a hellish condition. How one can take these paths is described herein. On the path of liberation, one associates with mahātmās, and on the path of bondage one associates with those attached to sense gratification and women. There are two types of mahātmās — the impersonalist and the devotee. Although their ultimate goal is different, the process of emancipation is almost the same. Both want eternal happiness. One seeks happiness in impersonal Brahman, and the other seeks happiness in the association of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As described in the first verse: brahma-saukhyam. Brahman means spiritual or eternal; both the impersonalist and the devotee seek eternal blissful life. In any case, it is advised that one become perfect. In the words of Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Madhya 22.87):

asat-saṅga-tyāga, — ei vaiṣṇava-ācāra

‘strī-saṅgī’ — eka asādhu, ‘kṛṣṇābhakta’ āra

To remain unattached to the modes of material nature, one should avoid associating with those who are asat, materialistic. There are two kinds of materialists. One is attached to women and sense gratification, and the other is simply a nondevotee. On the positive side is association with mahātmās, and on the negative side is the avoidance of nondevotees and women-hunters.

COMMENT

Hare Krishna.

So these instructions from King Ṛṣabhadeva to his one hundred sons are very important. The first verse mentions tapo divyaṁ—that one should perform austerity; brahma-saukhyaṁ—to achieve transcendental bliss. As spirit souls we are by nature blissful. Krishna is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha, and we are parts and parcels of Krishna, so by nature we are also blissful, ānandamayo ‘bhyāsāt. According to the Vedānta-sūtra or brahma-sūtra, the absolute truth is by nature blissful. And because we are parts and parcels of the absolute truth as spiritual souls, we are by nature blissful as well. And so we are always looking for happiness, but we cannot find happiness in matter, because by nature we are spiritual, we are superior to matter and we can be happy only in the spiritual atmosphere. And Srila Prabhupada established the International Society for Krishna Consciousness to give people the chance to associate with mahatmas, and by their association to learn the process of devotional service tapo divyaṁ and achieve unlimited spiritual bliss.

The Bhagavad-gītā says,

bahūnāṁ janmanām ante
jñānavān māṁ prapadyate
vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti
sa mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ

After many births and deaths, one who is actually wise will surrender to Krishna knowing Him to be the source of everything, and such a mahatma, such a great soul is very rare.

And Srila Prabhupada has commented that all of his disciples and followers who have surrendered to Krishna, are mahatmas, and not just ordinary mahatmas. As we read by a certain definition, even an impersonalist can be called a mahatma; but very rare mahatmas, those who have surrendered to Krishna. So in order to fulfill Srila Prabhupada’s desire and mission, we should actually be mahatmas and then people will benefit from our association. As Srila Prabhupada said, one cannot become a mahatma by rubber stamp; okay this one is a mahatma, this one isn’t. We should have the qualification, and the basic qualification is surrender to Krishna. Here other qualities are mentioned sama-cittāḥ, praśāntā, vimanyavaḥ, suhṛdaḥ, but the basic qualification is surrender to Krishna.

In the list of twenty-six qualities of a devotee these are included one way or another. But the shastra says that of all of the qualities one is essential and that is kṛṣṇa-eka-śaraṇam, one should be exclusively devoted or dedicated to Krishna. If one has that one qualification, even if he lacks in the others, he is still considered a mahatma or a sadhu. And even if one has the other twenty-five but lacks in the one qualification of kṛṣṇa-eka-śaraṇam, having taken exclusive shelter of Krishna, one is not considered a mahatma. So at least in principle, all of the devotees who have surrendered to Krishna through Srila Prabhupada and paramparā are mahatmas, they are sadhus, their association should be sought, we should engage in their service, and by doing so we will progress on the path of liberation. Now how does one develop the qualities of the mahatma, or one could even say how does one become a mahatma. The answer is by serving another mahatma; mahat sevā. This is the process of devotional service; this is the process of paramparā. One serves his or her spiritual master who is a mahatma, who in turn has served his spiritual master who was a mahatma, who in turn served his spiritual master who was a mahatma, and all the way back to Krishna. In this way we can become mahatmas, we can become qualified as mahatmas.

This verse resembles a verse that Srila Prabhupada spoke on in Juhu, and he spoke on that verse in a very personal way. The verse is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.25.20. Many of you know it.

prasaṅgam ajaraṁ pāśam

ātmanaḥ kavayo viduḥ

sa eva sādhuṣu kṛto

mokṣa-dvāram apāvṛtam

“Every learned man knows very well that attachment for the material is the greatest entanglement of the spirit soul. But that same attachment, when applied to the self-realized devotees, opens the door of liberation.”

Mokṣa-dvāram apāvṛtam; and what are the qualities of such a devotee? Some of them are mentioned in the next verse.
 

titikṣavaḥ kāruṇikāḥ

suhṛdaḥ sarva-dehinām

ajāta-śatravaḥ śāntāḥ

sādhavaḥ sādhu-bhūṣaṇāḥ

“The symptoms of a sādhu are that he is tolerant, merciful, and friendly to all living entities. He has no enemies, he is peaceful, he abides by the scriptures, and all his characteristics are sublime.”

Srila Prabhupada was lecturing on Lord Kapila’s instructions on devotional service to Devahuti every evening in the midst of the great struggle to get the Juhu land. And when he came to these verses, he related them very personally to his own struggle. As Srila Prabhupada notes in the synonyms to today’s verse—one must distribute consciousness to persons who are hostile without becoming angry at them. We are bound to meet people who are hostile in the course of preaching and in Juhu there was a whole clique, as Prabhupada said, of people who were envious, greedy, they wanted the land, and hostile. So Srila Prabhupada expressed his thoughts. He had come there to help the people of Bombay, in particular, because people are absorbed in the animal propensities of eating, sleeping, mating, and defending, with no sense of God-consciousness and they are suffering. And so para-duhkha-dukhi, a Vaishnava feels sorry for the sorrow of others, and therefore he tries to relieve them by preaching Krishna consciousness. But some people are such, they don’t like to hear the words of sadhus; they are envious.

And Srila Prabhupada said there are two types of envious creatures; the envious person and the envious snake. And of the two, the envious person is more dangerous. An envious snake can be pacified by mantras or medicinal herbs, but an envious human being cannot be pacified by any means. So the sadhu is ajātaśatru, he has no enemies. But Srila Prabhupada said sometimes people become inimical to a sadhu not due to any fault of the sadhu but just due to their envious nature. And he addressed the audience; he said we have had so many difficulties here at this Hare Krishna land, we have so many enemies, they are saying that they, referring to the devotees, they are Americans, they are CIA, they are this, they are that. And Prabhupada said, but they are not thinking they are Americans, or Russians, or Chinese. They are just thinking that they are servants of Krishna, and they have no other business than to serve Krishna. From 4:00 in the morning until 10:00 at night their only businesses to serve Radha and Krishna, but still, we have so many enemies calling them foreigners, CIA agents. So what to do? Titikṣava; what else can you do; tolerate. Tolerate all their nonsense and go on with our mission. He said, “I have got a hundred centers all over the world. If the people of Bombay don’t like us we will go away. We don’t have to stay here; we have many other centers. But no, we will not go.” Kāruṇika; because the sadhu is merciful and titikṣava, tolerate all this nonsense out of mercy for the fallen souls, bereft of Krishna consciousness. And Prabhupada spoke more, I can’t repeat the whole talk, but at the end Srila Prabhupada gave a blessing to his disciples who were serving him there under such difficult circumstances; that by serving such a mahatma, one is blessed to develop the same qualities as the mahatma, and that is our process. And I would dare to say our only hope; to serve Srila Prabhupada and his line and to develop his qualities.

There is another important verse in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.2.16) which I am sure many of you know,

śuśrūṣoḥ śraddadhānasya
vāsudeva-kathā-ruciḥ
syān mahat-sevayā viprāḥ
puṇya-tīrtha-niṣevaṇāt

“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 Vasudeva, Krishna.”

So you can see the similarity in the different qualities mentioned here. The result of serving a mahatma, is that one develops the qualities of the mahatma. And in this particular verse from the Second Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it is mentioned that by serving a mahat, one develops attraction or taste for the messages of Krishna, Vasudeva; vāsudeva-kathā-ruciḥ. And in the purport Srila Prabhupada explains that this taste, this ruci, is the first qualification for one who is interested in gaining admittance into the transcendental service of the Lord in the spiritual world. Srila Prabhupada says that the Lord is more eager to get us back home back to Godhead than we can imagine. Most people are not even interested in going back to Godhead, but if one makes a little effort in the direction of going back to Godhead by serving a devotee, the Lord will help the person. And that is something that we have all experienced. We would not be here right now, if we had not served Srila Prabhupada directly, and by serving his servants; we wouldn’t be here. What is our qualification? We have no qualification. We were pretty much in that other category of materialist people like animals engaged in the animal propensities. So how could an animal become, not even just a human being, but a devotee or an aspirant to become a devotee? How is it possible that people, well I can’t speak for all of you but I am just using the plural, but how is it possible that people who were as lowly and fallen as us, could be picked up and established in a position that is considered to be durlabham, very rarely achieved. It is very rarely achieved.

I remember when I first joined the Boston temple, I asked Satsvarupa dasa, who was the temple president, I had been there for a couple of weeks, maybe, and I had heard all these different terms – jnanis, karmis, yogis, and all these different categories and rankings of different categories. And I was trying to learn, still not very clear on many points, but I was trying to learn. So I asked Satsvarupa Maharaja, “In these different categories where do devotees fit?” And he became very humble and shy; he looked down and said, “Well, devotees are at the top.” It is a miracle. People like us who are in the gutter like pigs, we recently heard about pigs the other day; people like pigs in the gutter wallowing in the filth and enjoying the stool of material existence, how is it possible that we could become mahatma sudurlabhā? It is only by the mercy of Srila Prabhupada, through mahat.

So much to say, so little time to say it in. I will speak on this word praśānta. This word praśānta means peaceful. That word was quoted in another verse by Srila Prabhupada in Juhu in a way that was personal, but in regards to my lowly self,

bhavantam evānucaran nirantaraḥ

praśānta-niḥśeṣa-mano-rathāntaraḥ

kadāham aikāntika-nitya-kiṅkaraḥ

praharṣayiṣyāmi sa-nātha-jīvitam

At the time that Srila Prabhupada quoted that verse on Juhu Beach, I was feeling especially miserable. I can’t even explain why but the verse explains. I was feeling especially wretched and miserable and somehow on the walk, Srila Prabhupada quoted the verse. I had never heard it before; it does appear in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta twice but Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta hadn’t been published yet, they didn’t have the marathon yet so we didn’t have that mercy yet in that form, but we got it through Srila Prabhupada. And basically, he said there are two words; the last two words of the verse are sanātha-jivitam. sanātha means master like Vaikunthanatha, the master Lord of Vaikuntha, Radhanath the Lord and master of Srimati Radharani. So one word is sanātha which means with master and the other word is anātha which means without master.

Srila Prabhupada said that the goal of life is to become sanātha; to have a master whom we can serve, who will care for us and protect us, and of course the supreme master is Krishna. This verse was actually spoken by Dabir Khas and Shakir Malik, who later became Rupa Gosvami and Sanatana Gosvami, when they first met Lord Chaitanya. They wanted him to become their master. And the word anātha, without master, in a dictionary translation, means orphan. If someone does not have a master to serve, he is an orphan. And then Srila Prabhupada pointed out some of the dogs on Juhu Beach. At that time there was a very stout and strong gentleman walking on the beach; well built, with his white shirt and white short pants and he had a dog on a leash, and that dog was also very stout and strong and they were both very confident walking down Juhu Beach. So Prabhupada said the dogs who have masters are very peaceful and happy because they know, “I have my master to take care of me. I don’t have to worry about anything.” And then Srila Prabhupada pointed to some street dogs and they are very thin and scraggly and scrawny and he said that these poor fellows they are always in anxiety; they don’t know where they will spend the night; they don’t know where they will get food; children throw stones at them; bigger dogs bark at them; they are always in anxiety because they are anātha. They have no master to look after them.

At one stage he stopped walking and planted his cane in the sand. And I was towards the back of the crowd around Prabhupada, and I could see his eyes just full of, I think, tears of love. Anyway, his voice was full of compassion and he looked right at me and said, “So our goal is to become sanātha, have a master.” And what is the result of being sanātha, having a master, gaining the shelter of a mahatma? Praśānta—one becomes peaceful, and one becomes free from material desires. And this is also a very interesting word, compound, mano-ratha; ratha means chariot, we know ratha, Ratha-yatra and mano means mind. So literally you could say mano-ratha means the chariot of the mind. And on the walk, Srila Prabhupada was saying that the chariot of the mind is always dragging us here and there, here and there. We are after this sense gratification or this facility for sense gratification; that facility, here there, here there. But again, the dictionary definition is material desires. So when one becomes sanātha, when one has a fitting master to serve, he becomes praśānta, peaceful and jubilant, aham praharṣayiṣyāmi, one becomes jubilant; sanātha-jīvitam, literally means to have a living master, perfect living master, and to always serve, kinkara. 

So that is our hope; it is our salvation; it is our everything; to have ultimately Krishna, but in a more immediate sense through disciplic succession, to have the shelter of Srila Prabhupada. To be sanātha with that fitting master and not the anātha; orphans, stray dogs, just so vulnerable. Stray dogs are so vulnerable. We all are without the shelter of Srila Prabhupada and his devotees.

I am not quite sure how much time we have. I will just tell one more story because it is so appropriate. It is very appropriate; this is so important; this word samācita. Samācita—persons who see everyone in a spiritual identity. You could say it is almost in stark contrast to the other line tamo-dvāraṁ yoṣitāṁ saṅgi-saṅgam, where one is making that kind of distinction. But samācita is the internal mood of the mahatma. He sees everyone equally on the spiritual platform. Now this is also a very instructive discussion.

Srila Prabhupada was invited to Indore by the Gita Bhavan for the occasion of Gita-jayanti. And during the course of the ten-day festival, Prabhupada was also invited by an organization called the Gita Samiti, the Gita Society, to speak. So he went there, he spoke. Then the next day a group of men came to meet him. Actually, a lot of people like that came to meet Srila Prabhupada. They had their own opinions and they would ask questions, not to get the answers because they felt that they were ignorant fools which they were, but to test Srila Prabhupada to see if he agreed with them. Prabhupada would meet people in the afternoon, like 4:00 to 6:00. One afternoon he actually complained that they come with their own opinions and they want to see if I agree with their opinions. If I agree they think Oh, Swamiji is very good, and if my opinion differs from theirs, they think, Oh this Swamiji is not so good.

So this group came, they had many ideas; Hindu ideas and new shlokas, so Srila Prabhupada said that our mission, The International Society for Krishna Consciousness, is to present the Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, and to present the speaker of the Gītā, Lord Krishna, as He is, and to expose everyone who is not presenting the Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, or Krishna as He is. So immediately they got riled up. Just by that, they got riled up and they said, “What do you mean by that. What do you mean, not presenting it as it is?” And then Prabhupada said, “Just like last night, I went to the Gita Samiti, they didn’t have a single picture of Krishna. The whole Bhagavad-gītā is spoken by Krishna, the whole conclusion of the Gītā is to surrender to Krishna, and they didn’t even have a picture of Krishna. That means they haven’t understood the Bhagavad-gītā.” They all tend to be impersonalists like we are discussing. Anyone who is not a pure devotee some way or the other is impersonal. So then one man said, “Well they had a lamp.” So Prabhupada said, “What is this lamp? Where do you find in the Bhagavad-gītā lamp? Lamps are common everywhere in India; every temple has lamps.” Prabhupada really got quite intense, he was pounding his fist on the table saying, “Where does Krishna say in the Bhagavad-gītā that you worship a lamp?” So then they got very defensive and basically, they didn’t like that Prabhupada was criticizing everyone else, and saying that he was presenting Bhagavad-gītā As It Is and no one else was; that he was presenting it in the right way and everyone else was presenting it in the wrong way. So they said, “You should be equal to everyone, samācita, you should be equal to everyone; why are you discriminating, why are you distinguishing that you are presenting it in the right way and other people are presenting it in the wrong way?”

Prabhupada said, “Well if you are, if you see everyone equally why are you finding fault with me? I am not on that platform, I make distinctions. But if you are on that platform, then why are you finding fault with me?” So then they said to Prabhupada, “You should come to that platform.” So then Prabhupada quoted this verse,

vidyā-vinaya-sampanne
brāhmaṇe gavi hastini
śuni caiva śva-pāke ca
paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ

That one who is on that level of sama-darśinaḥ, he sees everyone equally. He sees a brahman gentle, vinai, gentle and learned brahman, and a dog, śuni, the same. That is the highest level. He doesn’t distinguish between pious and sinful activities. Someone is supposed to take birth as a brahman because of his pious activities, and another living entity is supposed to take birth as a dog because of his sinful activities. So to see a brahman and a dog the same means that one doesn’t distinguish between virtue and sin. He sees everyone the same; he sees everything the same. “But I am not on that level. I say that you are not surrendering to Krishna, so you are sinful.” I can’t believe this discussion, so then the one man said, “They have made many mistakes in the shastra.” He was saying you don’t distinguish between someone who is a murderer… and then the other one said, “Well they have made many mistakes in the shastra.” Prabhupada said, “Okay, you are finding fault with Vyasa now? I am sorry I can’t talk with you; please get out. You are finding fault with Vyasa, I am sorry I can’t speak with you. You can go.”

So then they said, “Well, every acharya should make some contribution. He should do something beyond what his predecessors have done.” Prabhupada said, “No, I am not making any contribution, I just follow what my predecessors have done and said. I just repeat what they say.” So it was really getting heated. They didn’t want to leave. That was one good thing; they didn’t want to leave, they stayed. And then, I don’t remember exactly but I think at some stage there was a little lull, what you call tense silence, and he was pointing out how Prabhupada had made people devotees all over the world, all different types of people. And then Prabhupada said, “This is my sama-darśinaḥ. That I thought why Krishna should be only for the Hindus. Krishna should be for everyone.” He said, “That is my sama-darśinaḥ, and that is my contribution to my predecessors, that for the first time in the history of the line, that the teachings of Bhagavad-gītā have been presented all over the world and people all over the world have accepted the teachings and become devotees of Krishna.”

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

So that is my sama-darśinaḥ, and that is my contribution. And they were stunned; they realized they had met more than their match, and they became very respectful. Somehow, they became humble and they became respectful. They said, “Yes, what Swamiji has done is wonderful. No one else has done such.”

So I think we will end now. Thank you very much.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!