SB 10.31.9 – Srila Prabhupada’s Vyasa-puja

Giriraj Swami: We have gathered on the most auspicious day of Srila Prabhupada’s appearance. Srila Prabhupada appeared in Calcutta in 1896 which could be a hundred and thirteen years ago. But as he wrote in his dedication at the beginning of his translation of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which was dedicated to his spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, he wrote: “He lives forever by his divine instructions and the follower lives with him.” So although from the physical point of view Srila Prabhupada is no longer with us but from the spiritual point of view he is. One way in which he is manifest is through his instructions. “He lives forever by his divine instructions.” By following his instructions we feel his presence and live with.

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura also wrote a very nice inscription for the tomb of Haridasa Thakura in Jagannatha Puri. “He reasons ill who say that Vaishnavas die when thou art living still in sound. Vaishnavas die to live and living spread the holy name around.”

Both of these statements contain two elements. One is that the Vaishnava never dies, he continues to live; and the other is that by following their instructions, by chanting the holy name, one can live with them and fulfill their purpose.

I thought today to read a verse that glorifies Srila Prabhupada’s merciful nature and service. The verse comes from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Ten, Chapter Thirty-one: “The Gopīs’ Songs of Separation,” Text Nine. The same verse also appears in Śrī Chaitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, Chapter Fourteen. It is a very beautiful verse in Sanskrit poetry so I will request you to repeat after me:

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

TEXT 9

tava kathāmṛtaṁ tapta-jīvanaṁ

kavibhir īḍitaṁ kalmaṣāpaham

śravaṇa-maṅgalaṁ śrīmad ātataṁ

bhuvi gṛṇanti ye bhūri-dā janāḥ

COMMENT

This verse was actually spoken by the gopīs after Krishna had left the rāsa dance and they were searching the forest of Vrindavan for Him and in their mood of separation they sang this song, this verse to Krishna.

TRANSLATION

The nectar of Your words and the descriptions of Your activities are the life and soul of those suffering in this material world. These narrations, transmitted by learned sages, eradicate one’s sinful reactions and bestow good fortune upon whoever hears them. These narrations are broadcast all over the world and are filled with spiritual power. Certainly those who spread the message of Godhead are most munificent.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

King Pratāparudra recited this verse to Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu during Lord Jagannātha’s Ratha-yātrā festival. While the Lord was resting in a garden, King Pratāparudra humbly entered and began massaging His legs and lotus feet. Then the King recited the Thirty-first Chapter of the Tenth Canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the songs of the gopīs. The Chaitanya-caritāmṛta relates that when Lord Chaitanya heard this verse, beginning tava kathāmṛtam, He immediately arose in ecstatic love and embraced King Pratāparudra. The incident is described in detail in the Chaitanya-caritāmṛta (Madhya 14.4–18), and in his edition Śrīla Prabhupāda has given extensive commentary on it.

COMMENT

As we discussed on the occasion of Snana-yatra, during the fifteen day period of anavasara when Lord Jagannatha and Baladeva and Subhadra retire to their private quarters to recover from the cold that they caught during the Snana-yatra, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and the all the devotees of Jagannatha Puri felt extreme separation from the Lord and therefore Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu walked by foot fourteen miles to Brahmagiri to Alalanatha where He received some solace by reciprocating with Lord Alalanatha who is actually Krishna assuming an extra two arms as Narayana as a playful pastime to conceal His identity from the gopīs.

And then Lord Chaitanya would come to Puri again for the Ratha-yatra but although He was seeing Lord Jagannatha at the Ratha-yatra, His heart was not satisfied. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was in the mood of Srimati Radharani and seeing Lord Jagannatha dressed in regal garments and riding upon His chariot in great pomp and splendor He felt like Srimati Radharani when She met Krishna in the holy place of Kurukshetra. Although He was Krishna, it wasn’t the same. He was a different Krishna. He is the same Krishna but different in the sense that She knew Krishna as a cowherd boy, as one of the cowherd community of which She was a member, and suddenly She saw Krishna being worshiped as a king, and She didn’t feel the same happiness in Kurukshetra that she felt in Vrindavan. Instead of Govardhana Hill and the Yamuna River and the sweet chirping of birds and humming of bees there were chariots and elephants and horses and clamoring of the royal vehicles and the animals that drew them.

So She was in mood that, “Yes, You are the same Krishna and I am the same Radha, but I am unable to feel the same happiness that We enjoyed in Our youths when We were together in Vrindavan. So please come back to Vrindavan.”

During the Ratha-yatra Lord Chaitanya was in the mood of Radharani when She met Krishna at Kurukshetra and He wanted to bring Krishna to Vrindavan. So in this pastime the Jagannatha temple at Nilacala is considered the representation of Dvaraka or Kurukshetra and the Gundica temple that the chariot was being pulled towards is taken as the representation of Vrindavan.

During the Ratha-yatra there was a break and Lord Chaitanya felt exhausted. All the devotees were. So He took rest in a garden and while He was there King Prataparudra whom Lord Chaitanya had refused to meet because Prataparudra was a king and kings are the emblem of material opulence and sense gratification and in that culture at that time sannyasis—of course it is a general principle for any devotee especially one in the renounced order of life not to associate intimately with materialistic people—but Lord Chaitanya, being the acharya in a very strict society would not meet the king although he was a great devotee. So the king came in disguise when Lord Chaitanya was resting in the garden and he recited this Chapter, the gopīs’ songs of separation which was just the mood of Lord Chaitanya.

When Lord Chaitanya heard this verse that describes the glories of the messengers of Godhead and of the persons who broadcast those messages, He rose and He embraced the king which He never would have done in ordinary circumstances and He exclaimed, “Bhūri-dā janāḥ! Bhūri-dā janāḥ! You are the most munificent! You are the most munificent because you are giving Me the nectar of kṛṣṇa-kathā which has all of these qualities.”

And that is exactly what Srila Prabhupada did for us. Therefore he is also bhūri-dā janāḥ, the most munificent personality. But to really get the benefit of what Srila Prabhupada came to do for us and consequently to really experience the gratitude and appreciation and love that is naturally due to him, we have to take advantage of the transcendental gifts that he has given us specifically kṛṣṇa-kathā, his books first and foremost, and all the kṛṣṇa-kathā that he gave us: his lectures, his morning walks, his group conversations, his letters—it is all kṛṣṇa-kathā.

So tava kathāmṛtaṁ that kathā that Prabhupada gave us and that King Prataparudra gave to Lord Chaitanya is amṛta. Amṛta means “nectar.” Literally amṛta means “nectar that gives immortality.” Mṛtyu means “death” and so amṛta means “without death.” Kṛṣṇa-kathā is amṛta. There is an amṛta in the heavenly planets that gives one a long life but this amṛta gives one eternal life with Krishna and all of His associates which include Srila Prabhupada.

Tapta-jīvanaṁ: it gives life to those who are aggrieved in the material world. So this word tap again literally means “heat.” Samsāra-dāvānala-līḍha-loka, that we are all burning in the blazing fire of material existence. We are suffering the threefold miseries and the spiritual master is a like a cloud who draws water from the ocean of mercy and pours down the water in the form of rain to extinguish the blazing fire. The nectar of kṛṣṇa-kathā is poured upon the conditioned souls by the spiritual master, by Srila Prabhupada. There is also a verse in the Ṣaḍ-gosvāmy-aṣṭaka that they poured songs about Krishna on the conditioned souls and thus they lost the desire even for liberation. So tapta-jīvanaṁ, it is the life of those burning in the fire of material existence.

Tap also has another meaning, “the fire of separation.” Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Radharani, and the gopīs, they were burning in the fire of separation from Krishna. And kṛṣṇa-kathā also gives life to devotees who are suffering in the separation from Krishna, from Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, from Their associates, from Srila Prabhupada, from his associates.

Kavibhiḥ: great thinkers. Kavi also means “poet.” Srila Prabhupada was both, a great thinker and a poet. Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu relates that he was a student of philosophy and religion in the university and he had studied so many philosophies and religious conceptions and he said when he came in touch with Srila Prabhupada and his books and philosophy he realized that everything else that he had heard and read before then was like child’s play compared to the philosophy that Srila Prabhupada gave us, the clarity, the depth, the truth. So kavibhiḥ. And he was also a great poet, Srila Prabhupada.

Īḍitaṁ: describes; describes Krishna. Kalmaṣāpaham. Kalmaṣa means “sinful reactions” or “material miseries.” Sinful reactions give rise to material miseries and apaham means “it drives it away.” So we’ve all experienced it. Even in the stage of sādhana-bhakti, one of the qualities of sādhana-bhakti is kleśaghni, it destroys material miseries. From the very beginning we experience this quality of kleśaghni. It destroys material miseries. It eradicates sinful reactions and that enables us to progress in devotional service because in the Bhagavad-gītā Lord Krishna says, yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ, that only one who is freed from sinful actions and reactions and who’s engaged in pious activities can take to the process of devotional service. We have to be freed from sinful reactions. An element of sinful reactions is sinful desires. Sinful desires are themselves sinful reactions. So we are sinful, most of us, before we come into the association of devotees. We are sinful. We are suffering from sinful reactions. So how can we take to devotional service? Krishna gives the answer: sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ, that, “If you surrender to Me I will deliver you from all sinful reactions.” That will enable us to progress.

How do we surrender to Krishna? We don’t know Krishna. We don’t have any relationship with Krishna directly. We surrender to Him through His representative, through Srila Prabhupada, through the spiritual master, and therefore it is said at the time of initiation the spiritual master accepts the sinful reactions of the disciple so that the disciple is free to make advancement to understand the science of Krishna. Even that is a more advanced stage because to come to the point of initiation within ISKCON, within Srila Prabhupada’s line, one has to be following the four regulative principles and chanting sixteen rounds everyday for a significant period of time.

So how did the sinful person come to the stage of giving up sinful activities, following the regulative principles before the time of initiation? It is by this, kṛṣṇa-kathā, which is kalmaṣāpaham. It eradicates sinful actions and reactions—kṛṣṇa-kathā and Srila Prabhupada’s books and chanting the holy name.

Śravaṇa-maṅgalaṁ. Maṅgala means “auspicious” or here “spiritual benefit.” Just by hearing kṛṣṇa-kathā, reading Srila Prabhupada’s books, following Srila Prabhupada’s instructions, you get immense spiritual benefit and auspiciousness. That’s also a quality of devotional service from the very beginning, from the stage of sādhana-bhakti, śubhada, it bestows all auspiciousness. Auspiciousness also is analyzed to include different elements and one of the elements of auspiciousness is happiness. It bestows happiness. Of course it is not the same degree of happiness that one experiences in the more advance stages of bhāva-bhakti and prema-bhakti but one experiences happiness even in the beginning, even in the stage of sādhana-bhakti. Just by chanting, dancing, hearing kṛṣṇa-kathā, and taking prasāda, you feel happy. Therefore Srila Prabhupada said, “Chant and be happy.” The two go together if we them in the right way especially avoiding offenses.

Śrīmad ātataṁ. They are broadcast all over the world. Now this phrase refers very particularly to Srila Prabhupada because before he left India and came to America these messages were not broadcast all over the world. The prediction was there from Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and the desire, pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi-grāma: in every town and village of every country of the world His name or message would be preached. Sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma: His name would be preached. It means Krishna’s name. So it was there. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura made a beginning. He sent some books, The Life and Precepts of Lord Chaitanya to university libraries in different parts of the world but it was never broadcast all over the world the way it was by Srila Prabhupada. He came personally, published books in English, which in turn were translated into so many different languages, and through his books and his talks, he broadcast the message of Krishna all over the world. Where would we be now if he hadn’t done so? We would be where we would be, burning in the blazing fire of material existence, burning in the fire of hell.

Bhuvi gṛṇanti: they chant and spread these messages all over the world. Bhuvi: all over the earth. Those who do so are bhūri-dā janāḥ, the most beneficent people, the most munificent. That was the quality of Lord Chaitanya. Namo mahā-vadānyāya kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāya te kṛṣṇāya kṛṣṇa-caitanya-nāmne gaura-tviṣe namaḥ. Rupa Gosvami appreciated Him as the most munificent incarnation of Godhead because He was freely distributing krishna-prema, love for Krishna. Srila Prabhupada said that the devotees in ISKCON, he even mentioned the temple presidents, they should be munificent. They represent Lord Chaitanya and therefore they should be munificent. So we all should be munificent. How is that munificence, how is that benevolence expressed? By kṛṣṇa-kathā, by spreading the message of Godhead, by distributing books, and by personally speaking about Krishna, that is how one can endeavor to repay the debt that one owes to the spiritual master.

Certainly Srila Prabhupada is the spiritual master of all of us, śikṣā-guru at least. As he said that if we want to repay our debt to him, of course we never can, but if we want to, we should do as he did and preach vigorously all over the world. But of course to preach one must practice, one must have spiritual strength. It is not a cheap thing to affect a person’s heart, to affect a change of heart in a conditioned soul. It is not an easy thing. To do so one must have spiritual strength and that spiritual strength comes primarily from following the four regulative principles and chanting sixteen rounds daily. Srila Prabhupada felt that if we did that—chant sixteen rounds daily, follow the four regulative, and study his books, and repeat his message—we would be effective in our preaching. So it is not very complicated but one must do it. It is simple actually. Prabhupada said, “Simple for the simple but difficult for the crooked.” We all have that crooked tendency in the material world to be deceitful and duplicitous and different things.

At the Ratha-yatra, coming back to this munificence, at the Ratha-yatra very soon after the chariots arrived at Venice beach I met my dear godbrother, Bhargava Prabhu. Bhargava Prabhu, he poured some of the nectar of kṛṣṇa-kathā into my ears. The whole atmosphere at the Ratha-yatra was so surcharged with spiritual potency and bliss and feeling. He told the story which is most appropriate for the occasion of the residents of Vrindavan going to Kurukshetra to meet Krishna.

Krishna Himself was always feeling separation from the residents of Vrindavan. In His sleep He would call the names of the cowherd boys, the cows, the gopīs, and sometimes His pillow would be wet with the tears that He shed.

He was thinking if He goes to Kurukshetra He may be able to meet the residents of Vrindavan because Kurukshetra is not so far from Vrindavan like Dvaraka. The residents of Vrindavan were also eager to meet Krishna. But someone had to stay back to tend to the cows and calves. So Nanda Maharaja asked the community who would be willing to stay back. The cowherd boys who had now grown up, they were men now, they said, “We’ll stay back. We are grown men now so we’ll stay back and look after the cows and calves.” The gopīs were very happy with that arrangement.

So they came to Kurukshetra. Krishna had entered into a pact with Nanda Maharaja and the pact was that no one should know about their intimate relationship that Krishna was actually raised as the son of Nanda Maharaja because Krishna knew that if people understood the intimate relationship between the vrajavāsīs and Him that to get at Krishna they would attack Vraja and do harm to the vrajavāsīs.

It is natural. If you want to please someone, you please someone who is dear to that person. Prabhupada used to say, “Love me, love my dog,” in relation to the spiritual master. What can you offer to Krishna? Krishna has everything. What can you do to please Him? But if you please His devotee, if you please the spiritual master then Krishna will be pleased. Yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo. He gave the example of Mr. Rockefeller who was the wealthiest man in America at the time. “What can you give Mr. Rockefeller? He already has everything. But if you give his grandson a little sweet and the grandson is happy then Mr. Rockefeller will be pleased.” So, in the same way if we please the devotee of Krishna, if we please the spiritual master, if we please Srila Prabhupada, Krishna will be pleased. The contrary is also true that if you offend a devotee, Krishna will feel more offended than if you offend Him directly.

So Krishna understood that if demons who were out to get Him understood His intimate relationship with Nanda Maharaja, they would attack Vrindavan to get at Krishna, to hurt Krishna. When Nanda Maharaja and the cowherd community reached Kurukshetra, there were so many people and horses and chariots and elephants, he couldn’t see Krishna but he could smell Him. He could smell the fragrance of His body. So he went to that place where the fragrance was coming from. Then he saw Krishna but it wasn’t his Krishna. It wasn’t his little cowherd boy. He was dressed up as a royal prince and all these big people were coming all dressed and ornamented and offering, putting their heads at His feet. But he couldn’t approach Krishna because he was supposed to keep their relationship secret according to their pact.

So he went to the place that was allotted for him and his people and then Krishna Himself came secretly later and met them all. I’m making it brief. Anyway Krishna reciprocated with them. Then after meeting with Nanda and Yasoda, it is described that Yasoda took Krishna on her lap and with the tears from her eyes and the milk from her breast. . . everything about Yasoda is prema. Her very body is completely spiritual. It is made of prema. Her tears are prema in liquid form. Her breast milk is prema in liquid form. So she bathed Krishna with her tears and breast milk. She did abhiseka for Krishna.

And then Krishna went out and saw the bulls, the oxen. Now they were all grown up. So He went to each one. He remembered the name of each one and went up to each and every one and said, “Oh, So-and-so, I remember you. I remember when you were just a little bull and now you are all grown up and big.” He just so affectionately related to all of these devotees.

I was just thinking how merciful Krishna is, how kind even to the bulls, the animals, how kind He is. Like Prabhupada said about Krishna that He is so kind to all of His devotees. He loves all of His devotees. There is a vrajavāsī print where Krishna has His arm around a calf, very beautiful one. Even if you are an animal which I basically am but even then Krishna has affection if you try to serve Him. It is very deep. And then I was thinking about Bhargava Prabhu that—it is not an intellectual idea but from my heart—I was really feeling, “You have given me the greatest gift. You have really given me the greatest gift, kṛṣṇa-kathā,” and that’s what Prabhupada did for all of us and that’s what we as his servants and followers are meant to do for others and for each other. Hare Krishna.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!