SB 2.3.23 – Sri Radhastami

Giriraj Swami: It is a great honor and privilege and pleasure to be here for the most auspicious celebration of Sri Radhastami at the lotus feet of Sri Sri Radha-Giridhari. This evening I will read a verse from the Second Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that does have relation to Srimati Radharani.

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

We read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Two, Chapter Three: “Pure Devotional Service.”

TEXT 23

jīvañ chavo bhāgavatāṅghri-reṇuṁ

na jātu martyo ‘bhilabheta yas tu

śrī-viṣṇu-padyā manujas tulasyāḥ

śvasañ chavo yas tu na veda gandham

TRANSLATION

The person who has not at any time received the dust of the feet of the Lord’s pure devotee upon his head is certainly a dead body. And the person who has never experienced the aroma of the tulasī leaves from the lotus feet of the Lord is also a dead body, although breathing.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

According to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, the breathing dead body is a ghost. When a man dies, he is called dead, but when he again appears in a subtle form not visible to our present vision and yet acts, such a dead body is called a ghost. Ghosts are always very bad elements, always creating a fearful situation for others. Similarly, the ghostlike nondevotees who have no respect for the pure devotees, nor for the Viṣṇu Deity in the temples, create a fearful situation for the devotees at all times. The Lord never accepts any offering by such impure ghosts. There is a common saying that one should first love the dog of the beloved before one shows any loving sentiments for the beloved. The stage of pure devotion is attained by sincerely serving a pure devotee of the Lord. The first condition of devotional service to the Lord is therefore to be a servant of a pure devotee, and this condition is fulfilled by the statement “reception of the dust of the lotus feet of a pure devotee who has also served another pure devotee.” That is the way of pure disciplic succession, or devotional paramparā.

Mahārāja Rahūgaṇa inquired from the great saint Jaḍa Bharata as to how he had attained such a liberated stage of a paramahaṁsa, and in answer the great saint replied as follows (Bhāg. 5.12.12):

rahūgaṇaitat tapasā na yāti

na cejyayā nirvapaṇād gṛhād vā

na cchandasā naiva jalāgni-sūryair

vinā mahat-pāda-rajo-’bhiṣekam

“O King Rahūgaṇa, the perfectional stage of devotional service, or the paramahaṁsa stage of life, cannot be attained unless one is blessed by the dust of the feet of great devotees. It is never attained by tapasya [austerity], the Vedic worshiping process, acceptance of the renounced order of life, the discharge of the duties of household life, the chanting of the Vedic hymns, or the performance of penances in the hot sun, within cold water or before the blazing fire.”

In other words, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the property of His pure, unconditional devotees, and as such only the devotees can deliver Kṛṣṇa to another devotee; Kṛṣṇa is never obtainable directly. Lord Caitanya therefore designated Himself as gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ, or “the most obedient servant of the servants of the Lord, who maintains the gopī damsels at Vṛndāvana.” A pure devotee therefore never approaches the Lord directly, but tries to please the servant of the Lord’s servants, and thus the Lord becomes pleased, and only then can the devotee relish the taste of the tulasī leaves stuck to His lotus feet. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is said that the Lord is never to be found by becoming a great scholar of the Vedic literatures, but He is very easily approachable through His pure devotee. In Vṛndāvana all the pure devotees pray for the mercy of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, the pleasure potency of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is a tenderhearted feminine counterpart of the supreme whole, resembling the perfectional stage of the worldly feminine nature. Therefore, the mercy of Rādhārāṇī is available very readily to the sincere devotees, and once She recommends such a devotee to Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Lord at once accepts the devotee’s admittance into His association. The conclusion is, therefore, that one should be more serious about seeking the mercy of the devotee than that of the Lord directly, and by one’s doing so (by the good will of the devotee) the natural attraction for the service of the Lord will be revived.

COMMENT

This verse and purport are so deep. Practically the whole philosophy of Krsna consciousness is contained in the purport. One could discuss it for many hours and days. Still, we will try to say something within the time available to us.

The first point, very basic point, is that the living entity is not the body. The living entity is the soul within the body. The living entity in the material body has material desires for sense gratification or more subtle desires manifested in mental speculation. Some unfortunate living entities end up after leaving the body as ghosts or in a ghostly body.

How does it happen? The living entity—this is one common way—is full of material desires and he is frustrated in the pursuit of material happiness which everyone is but sometimes the conditioned soul can become so frustrated and so disappointed that he commits suicide. What is the result? The result is he gets a ghost body, he gets a subtle body because Krsna, the Supersoul fulfills all desires. The person who commits suicide, he wanted to be free from a gross body, so Krsna fulfills his desires and gives him a ghost body which is a subtle body. But the frustration and disappointment that gave rise to the impulse to commit suicide was strong material desires. So he still has the material desires but he doesn’t have a gross body with which to fulfill them. So he is even more frustrated. As a result the ghost will try to inhabit or possess someone else’s gross body and try to fulfill his desires through the other person’s gross body. Therefore ghosts are disturbing elements. They create fearful situations.

Another way in which a person can get the body of a ghost is if he is very attached, for example, to his home. At the time of death he thinks of his home. Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ: whatever you think of at the time of death will determine your next body. So if you think of your palace at the time of death, you can’t get the body of a palace because that is not one of the species of life but you can take birth as a ghost in a palace. Therefore there are many big mansions, castles that are reputed to be occupied by ghosts.

Now what to do about ghosts? The chanting of the holy name is the best remedy for practically any ailment in the world. It is also the remedy for being haunted by ghosts. Sometimes devotees take advantage of this fact. A large estate will be haunted and people won’t want to buy it but devotees will see, “Oh, here is a good opportunity. We can get a major property for a small amount and as far as the ghosts, we’ll just do hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana and the ghosts will go away and we will have a nice temple for Krsna.”

In the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu Srila Rupa Gosvami has composed a very beautiful verse in which he says that one who is haunted by material desires can never experience the sweet taste of devotional service. He actually uses the word piśāca: ghost. These material desires are like ghosts. A ghost will fill our minds with ideas that are foreign to us. In our normal consciousness we think a certain way but when a ghost possesses our mind, we think in a completely different way. So as spirit souls we are all originally Krsna conscious. We are by constitution eternal servants of Krsna: jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya — kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa’ So to desire anything other than to be the servant of Krsna or the servant of the servant of Krsna is like being haunted by a ghost. We are getting these desires; we are getting these ideas for sense gratification to take the place of Krsna. Such ideas, such desires are really foreign to our true nature. Therefore it is like being haunted by a ghost.

Everyone in the material world needs shelter—this is a basic principle—and we are always in a fearful position. Once someone asked Srila Prabhupada, maybe challenged Srila Prabhupada that, “You talk so much about chanting Hare Krsna. What do you personally feel when you chant Hare Krsna?” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “I feel no fear.” Every conditioned soul is filled with fear. If we think about it, we are always afraid. We can’t even enumerate all the things we are afraid of all the time. The Bhāgavatam says that fear arises from thinking of things as separate from Krsna. If we see that everything is related to Krsna and that Krsna is the supreme proprietor, He is the supreme enjoyer, and He is our best friend, then we wouldn’t be afraid. We’ll feel peaceful.

We need shelter. We need the shelter of Krsna ultimately but we cannot get the shelter of Krsna directly. We have no way to approach Him directly. Therefore the scripture recommends and all the acharyas recommend that to achieve the shelter of Krsna one should seek the shelter of a pure devotee of Krsna who himself has achieved the shelter of another pure devotee who has achieved the shelter of another pure devotee all the way back to Krsna. This is devotional paramparā. Mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha

daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ. The great souls are under the divine energy. They are under the spiritual energy. They are not under the material energy. But they achieve the shelter of the spiritual energy by taking shelter of a pure devotee who is under the spiritual energy who in turn has taken shelter of a pure devotee and so on.

Once Srila Prabhupada was invited to speak at the home of the wealthiest family in India at the time, the Birla family, and I had proposed a list of various topics on which Srila Prabhupada could speak, and I presented it to Mrs. Birla, very nice lady, very pious lady, Gopikumari Birla. Looking at the list and considering the people that she would invite to the program, she chose the subject “How to be Successful.” Now these are people who we would imagine—I was struck by it actually—these are people whom we would imagine are very successful but implicit in that choice was the idea that they are not satisfied. Whatever success they have achieved they are not satisfied. They want to learn the secret how to be more successful. So that was the topic and I knew that Prabhupada could speak on any topic and that was the one she chose.

So Srila Prabhupada came to the program and he gave a very interesting definition of success. It is a definition that one would not ordinarily imagine. He said that everyone in the material world is under the control of the material energy which is personified as Durgadevi and Durgadevi rides on her lion carrier and she has many arms with many weapons. That’s the material energy. As opposed to the material energy is the spiritual energy personified as Srimati Radharani. Srila Prabhupada said success in life means to transfer oneself from the control of Durgadevi, the material energy, to the shelter of Srimati Radharani, the spiritual energy. She said that Durga holds a trident (trisula) and the trident represents the threefold miseries of material existence and she is always piercing the conditioned souls with those miseries. That whose shelter we are under. Of course she is herself performing a service to Lord Krsna but her service takes the form of punishing us who are under her control. So just like being in a prison, success for a prisoner is to be released from the prison. Success for a prisoner is not to move to a better facility in the prison house. Success is to be released.

Srila Prabhupada was so intelligent and so subtle. Basically he was telling them that success doesn’t mean to move into a better grade of prison cell. Success means to get out of prison and that is achieved by transferring oneself to the protection of Srimati Radharani, the spiritual energy. But we cannot do that directly. So we do it by taking shelter of someone who has taken shelter of someone who has taken shelter of someone who has taken shelter of Srimati Radharani. And that is paramparā. We take shelter of Srila Prabhupada or we take shelter of those who are working under Srila Prabhupada’s direction. He took shelter of his guru maharaja, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, and served him. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura took shelter of his spiritual master, Srila Gaurakishora dasa Babaji Maharaja and served him, and like that, all the way back to Krsna.

So it a simple process but it requires humility and that can be a problem, big problem, big, big problem. We don’t want to submit. When Hiranyakasipu asked his son Prahlada, “What is the best thing you learned in school?” he thought his son who was five years old would say something cute. Like sometimes we’ll ask a little child, “What is your favorite subject?” So we, being relatively good people, relatively pious people, we would be shocked and abhorred if that five-year-old child said, “The best thing I learned is how to cheat people and get ahead by pushing them into the dust.” We would be shocked, “Where did he learn that?” So Hiranyakasipu was the type, he thought that learning how to defeat others was a good thing. So when Prahlada said, “The best thing I learned was śravanaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ,” he was shocked. “Where did you learn that? Who has spoiled your consciousness?”

So that was a big question. Hiranyakasipu is a big demon. He accused the boy’s teachers that, “You have taught him this nonsense, bhakti, service to Vishnu. You spoiled his intelligence.” They said, “No, we haven’t.” “Then you have allowed Vaishnavas to enter into the school.” “No we haven’t.” “They have come in disguise and fooled you and entered into the school.” “No, no.” “Well then, how did he become Krsna conscious?” They said, “Well we don’t know. He seems to be naturally Krsna conscious. You should ask him.”

So Hiranyakasipu thought, “Alright. I’ll ask him directly.” And Prahlada replied with a verse very similar to the one Srila Prabhupada quoted in the purport: naiṣāṁ matis tāvad urukramāṅghriṁ spṛśaty anarthāpagamo yad-arthaḥ / mahīyasāṁ pāda-rajo-’bhiṣekaṁ niṣkiñcanānāṁ na vṛṇīta yāvat. Before that he said one cannot become Krsna conscious by one’s own efforts and one cannot become Krsna conscious by the efforts of others and one cannot become Krsna conscious by the combined efforts of oneself and others. So how can one become Krsna conscious? It seems that all the logical possibilities have been eliminated. And then he spoke this verse that one cannot become Krsna conscious unless one has been favored by the dust of the lotus feet of a pure devotee who has nothing to do with the material world. And by taking shelter of the lotus feet of a pure devotee or by serving the instructions of a pure devotee one becomes free from all anarthas, all unwanted conditions, miseries. These miseries: birth, death, disease, and old age, these are unwanted. One becomes free from unwanted desires. One becomes free from everything that is unfavorable to Krsna consciousness.

Srila Prabhupada explains that indirectly what Prahlada was saying to his father was, “You don’t have to worry about becoming Krsna conscious because you can only become Krsna conscious if you bow down to the lotus feet of a pure devotee but you are too proud. You will never bow down to the lotus feet of a pure devotee. So my dear father, you don’t have to worry about becoming Krsna conscious. It’s not going to happen.”

This is a very nice story. It is nice to identify with Prahlada and to see other people as Hiranyakasipus but if we—I shouldn’t speak for all of us but many of us—if we look inside ourselves we will see that we are also not that humble. We also have a little rebellious spirit. We don’t want to submit. We don’t want to surrender. And we might say, as people say, “I’ll surrender to God. I’ll serve God. I won’t surrender to any human being.” That’s not the process.

I could say more on that topic but I will say something very encouraging and that is that in this age of Kali, Krsna came in the mood of Srimati Radharani. As we read in the purport, Srimati Radharani is the tenderhearted feminine counterpart of Krsna. And in The Nectar of Devotion also Srila Prabhupada says the same thing that Srimati Radharani represents the compassionate nature of Krsna that Krsna, like the father, he might be a little strict—and that’s also necessary, that’s also beneficial—but the mother may be more compassionate, more understanding, more encouraging. Therefore devotees approach Krsna through Srimati Radharani. Srimati Radharani, among other qualifications, She’s mahā-bhagavata. She sees that everyone is a better servant of Krsna than She is. So if someone approaches Her with the desire to render service, She’ll very easily recommend the person to Krsna and when Srimati Radharani recommends someone to Krsna, Krsna is bound to accept that person because ultimately transcendentally Krsna comes under the control of Srimati Radharani. Therefore in Radharani’s hometown of Varshana they have a saying that whatever Radha does, Krsna likes, and whatever Radha likes, Krsna does. So if Radharani wants Krsna to accept us then Krsna will accept us.

But, yes, today is a special day. On Radhastami we can approach Radharani directly but even then it is really through Her servants. Even when we go to the spiritual world, when that fortunate occasion takes place, we will serve Krsna under the servants of Krsna, not directly. That’s an eternal principle. There are different rasas. We can have different relationships with Krsna. But in whatever relationship we have, we will be under the eternal guidance of some eternal associates of Krsna.

So that principle, gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ, being the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant of Krsna, the maintainer of the gopis, that applies both in the conditioned state of sādhana-bhakti and in the liberated state of prema-bhakti. It is an eternal principle. So we should welcome the opportunity to serve the servant of the servants. We shouldn’t think, “Oh, alright, now in the stage of bondage, I guess I have to do it. It is the only way to get out.” “Okay, I am in the prison. I got to do what the warden says but once I am out, that’s it. Then I am free.” No. This is an eternal principle and we should welcome it and we should relish it.

That verse of Rupa Gosvami’s about ghostly haunted as Srila Prabhupada paraphrases it, as long as one has the desire to become more and more important either in the material sense or in the spiritual sense, one can never relish the really sweet taste of Krsna consciousness. In one class Srila Prabhupada said the same thing in a positive way that the more you become the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant of Krsna, the sweeter and sweeter and sweeter and sweeter and sweeter Krsna consciousness becomes. So this is our glory to be the servant of the servant of the servant.

Devotees have no material possessions—niṣkiñcanānāṁ na vṛṇīta yāvat. We want to take shelter of someone who is niṣkiñcana, who has no material possession. Yes, there are sadhus, they hardly have any material possessions, sadhus in India. Or it means one is freed from the sense of false proprietorship. Like we are in the temple, if I think, “This is my temple,” then that’s false proprietorship. It is a beautiful facility but it is not mine. If I think, “This is Krsna’s temple. I am just a humble servant of the servant of the servant,” that’s also niṣkiñcana. The only thing the devotee owns so to speak is service, service to the lotus feet. And the more lotus feet he has to serve, serving the lotus feet of the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant, the richer he is in bhakti, and that is the life of the living entity.

This whole series of verses makes the same point that if you are not engaged in devotional service, you are dead. So what does that mean? It means that devotional service is real life. Anything other than devotional service is just a walking dead man, a breathing dead man.

Srila Prabhupada has given us this life. He has given us this opportunity. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Krsna but He adopted the mood of Radharani that kindhearted, tenderhearted, merciful, compassionate mood, and in that mood of love and compassion and care, He has given us the recommended process for the present age which is the chanting of the holy names: harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam / kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā. By chanting the holy names all the dirty things in the heart become cleansed—ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam—so even if we have this little rebellious spirit that, “Why should I surrender?” by chanting which is very easy and enjoyable, by chanting all these dirty things, all these misconceptions, all these false identifications, they are cleansed, and then naturally we come to our position as eternal servants of the servants of Krsna. So it is very easy. We just have to do it. This is ultimately Srimati Radharani’s mercy. It is all Srimati Radharani’s mercy even that Srila Prabhupada came to America and gave us Krsna consciousness, it is Srimati Radharani’s mercy.

In one of his early poems before he even came to America, arrived in America, he said, “My dear brothers, you will obtain your good fortune from the Supreme Lord Krsna only when Srimati Radharani becomes pleased with you.” It is the idea of pleasing Srimati Radharani. And how? By serving the order of the spiritual master, fulfilling the mission of the spiritual master. So we have everything. We have every opportunity. We have the beautiful Deities of Sri Sri Radha-Giridhari, we have Srila Prabhupada, we have his instructions, we have his books, we have the holy name, we have the association of devotees—we have everything. We just have to take advantage and that’s why we are here. Hare Krsna. [applause]

Does anyone have any question or comment?

Lady: How do you get the aroma of tulasi or how do you become the servant of the servant of the servant?

Giriraj Swami: She is a very intelligent, young lady. She said how do you get the fragrance of the tulasi leaves from the Lord’s lotus feet? Or, in other words, how do you become the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant?

In principle the steady devotees in ISKCON. . . Do you know what ISKCON is?

Lady: Not really.

Giriraj Swami: ISKCON is the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. It is an organization that Srila Prabhupada founded. So you could say the more senior devotees who are steady in their service, they are serving Srila Prabhupada, Srila Prabhupada is serving the instructions of his spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta, and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta is serving the instructions of his spiritual master. So by serving the solid devotees of Srila Prabhupada, you are automatically serving the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant because it is all going back through the line to Krsna. Exactly.

Gentleman: How can one overcome the fear of losing one’s identity and uniqueness by surrendering oneself to a pure devotee?

Giriraj Swami: This is a very deep question. He says how can one overcome the fear of losing one’s unique individual identity if one surrenders to a pure devotee of Krsna?

Every living has a unique identity and the process of Krsna consciousness is to discover what our eternal, unique, specific identity is. So you don’t lose your identity but you discover your actual, unique identity.

One godbrother had a very nice insight. Just imagine Krsna’s situation. He is in the spiritual world, Goloka Vrindavan, surrounded by wish-fulfilling desire trees and being served by beautiful, pure, loving devotees, unlimited numbers of beautiful, pure, loving devotees, and then somewhere off somewhere there’s this cloud and there’s this bunch of morose, angry, rebellious souls, “I’m not going to serve Him.” Why should Krsna bother? Why should Krsna even care? He is enjoying an eternal, celestial party. Why should He bother about us?

One answer—there are other answers—but one answer is that each one of us is a unique living entity. No two of us are exactly the same. Every one of us is unique. That means that our mood of service to Krsna when we’re liberated will be unique. It means the service that we offer to Krsna will be unique and that means that as long as we remain in the material world and don’t serve Krsna, Krsna is deprived of that particular unique flavor of loving service that we’re meant to offer Him. So, each one of us has a very specific, unique contribution to make to Krsna’s pleasure that no one else can make in the exact same way.

So we are completely individual and personal. But as far as in the stage of sādhana-bhakti, we might have our own personal preferences and that is alright but whatever our preference is, we give the highest preference to what Krsna wants.

When we first went to India, we were so new, we didn’t know how to conduct ourselves in this very pious, aristocratic Vedic culture, and sometimes we would be invited to very cultured people’s homes with Srila Prabhupada to take prasāda. We didn’t know what to do. So we would just watch him. If he broke off a piece of puri then eleven disciples sitting at the same table, they’d all break off a piece of puri [laughter] and they would be watching him. If he dipped it in the chutney, we’d all dip our piece of puri in the chutney and we would follow exactly what he did because we didn’t know what to do. But after a while we learned that we don’t have to. . . yes, we follow in the footsteps but we don’t imitate.

So you might be thinking, “Oh, if I surrender to a pure devotee, I have a guru, then if he likes bitter melon and I like gulābjāmuns then I am going to have to eat bitter melon instead of gulābjāmuns,” but it is not really like that. If you are cooking for him and he wants bitter melon, then you cook bitter melon because that’s for his pleasure. As you become purified you take more pleasure in his pleasure than in your own pleasure but you are still an individual; you are still unique, but that’s your pleasure.

It is very common with parents. It means more to the parents to do what the children want than for the parents to do what they want to do. That’s why it is very important to have nice programs for the children because if the children want to come to the temple, even if the parents are feeling a little lazy or something but, “Come on mommy, come on daddy, I want to go to the temple. I want to see the Deities. I want to go to the ārati. I want to meet the other children. I want to have prasāda,” you agree with me right?

Child: Yes.

Giriraj Swami: And the parents will come. It is not that they don’t have their individuality but out of love. They get more happiness when they see the children happy than when they do things for their own pleasure that would leave the children feeling neglected. So you remain individual but you give preference to what Krsna likes and as you become purified you actually get more pleasure in doing what Krsna likes for His pleasure than you would get out of doing what ordinarily you would like for your own sake. So don’t hesitate.

Thank you all very much. Hare Krsna. [applause]