SB 4.13.26 – Devotees–Pessimistic and Optimistic

Giriraj Swami: 

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

We read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Four, Chapter Thirteen, “Description of the Descendants of Dhruva Mahārāja.”

TEXT 26

tam ūcur vismitās tatra
yajamānam athartvijaḥ
havīṁṣi hūyamānāni
na te gṛhṇanti devatāḥ

TRANSLATION

The priests engaged in the sacrifice then informed King Aṅga: O King, we are properly offering the clarified butter in the sacrifice, but despite all our efforts the demigods do not accept it.

COMMENT

There is no purport, so we’ll proceed to Text Twenty-Seven.

TEXT 27

rājan havīṁṣy aduṣṭāni
śraddhayāsāditāni te
chandāṁsy ayāta-yāmāni
yojitāni dhṛta-vrataiḥ

TRANSLATION

O King, we know that the paraphernalia to perform the sacrifice is well collected by you with great faith and care and is not polluted. Our chanting of the Vedic hymns is also not deficient in any way, for all the brāhmaṇas and priests present here are expert and are executing the performances properly.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

It is the practice of the brāhmaṇas conversant with the science to pronounce a Vedic mantra in the right accent. The combination of the mantra and Sanskrit words must be chanted with the right pronunciation; otherwise it will not be successful. In this age the brāhmaṇas are neither well versed in the Sanskrit language nor very pure in practical life. But by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra one can attain the highest benefit of sacrificial performances. Even if the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is not chanted properly, it still has so much potency that the chanter gains the effect.

COMMENT

So, the story of King Aṅga is full of mysteries and apparent contradictions. And therefore, Vidura asked Maitreya to explain the history and unravel the mysteries. So now, Maitreya begins to recount the history in detail and from the very beginning, there is another mystery, another apparent contradiction, that the sacrifice was performed for the sake of the demigods, but none of the demigods came to accept their portions of the sacrificial offering.

So, how did it happen? And the king, as was the practice, was observing a vow of silence during the sacrifice, but the priests informed the king that although they were doing everything they were supposed to do, the demigods did not come. And here, they mentioned in an indirect way the qualifications of the persons involved in the sacrifice. First is the king who was meant to collect the sacrificial ingredients. So, they say that he collected them with great faith and care. So, there is no defect in the collection of the items to be offered. But one might collect the items properly, but then, they might become contaminated. But the priest said, “No, the items were not polluted.”

So then, one might question, “Well, there might be some defect in the brahmans and priests.” And they say, “No, the priests are all experts. They are qualified, and not only are they qualified, but they are doing their duties properly.”

So, the chanting of mantras in Vedic sacrifices had to be done perfectly. The mantras had to be pronounced perfectly. And if there was even a slight discrepancy in the pronunciation, the whole sacrifice could be nullified, or the sacrifice could actually have the opposite effect of the intended result.

There is a story in the Bhāgavatam that just by mispronouncing one syllable, the whole meaning of the mantra changed, and the sacrifice produced the opposite result. And therefore, there were referee brahmans who would be like a referee in a football match; he would be on the sidelines and observe everything. And if someone made a mistake, he would blow the whistle figuratively, and point out, “You mispronounced this word, or this syllable.” And then, they would have to recite the mantra again properly. Because if even one syllable was mispronounced, even one vowel, the effects would be spoiled.

But that was not the case in this sacrifice, and the mystery remained, until finally, the king wanted to know what offense he had committed that in spite of everything being executed properly, still, the demigods were not coming. Of course, I know the secret of this mystery, but I will not tell you. You will have to come back tomorrow and the next day, as the mystery is gradually revealed.

But the one important point for us is that we are unable to collect the ingredients for sacrifice in the present age. We don’t have such resources and we don’t have such qualified brahmans who could perform the sacrifice and pronounce the mantras properly. And therefore, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has given us the holy names of the Lord to chant as the yuga-dharma. Vedic sacrifice was practiced in Treta-yuga, and Deity worship was performed in Dvapara-yuga, and we are not even able to perform Deity worship as we should.

There was one incident at the Ardha-Khumba-mela in 1971. It was very cold and of course, we were living in tents, that’s how people live at the Khumba-mela. It was so cold that most of the devotees didn’t want to get out of their sleeping bags in the morning because it was so cold. There were a few staunch ones; Tamal Krishna Goswami and Hansadutta Prabhu. They would get up early every morning and they would walk from our camp to the Ganges, take bath in freezing cold water. But the rest of us, we sort of stayed in our sleeping bags as long as we could, waiting to gather the courage to get up.

And Srila Prabhupada knew what was happening, and he considered it very important that the devotees rise early. One of the basic principles of sādhana-bhakti is to rise early in the morning before sunrise, during the brāhma-muhūrta period. Even my ayurvedic physician, who is very qualified and who speaks on the authority of scripture mainly, the Charaka Samhita, also mentioned that the Charaka Samhita says one should get up in the brāhma-muhūrta, which is in the mode of goodness, and that if one sleeps through the sun rise, he will be affected by the modes of passion and ignorance.

I mean, maṅgala-ārati is in the brāhma-muhūrta period. Prabhupada said if we attend maṅgala-ārati, the whole day will be auspicious. And if we don’t, then it’ll be inauspicious. So, at the Ardha-Khumba-mela, Prabhupada perceived that the devotees were sleeping late, and what happened after we would get up is we’d have to take bath from a pump. The type of pump that goes down and that was cold water.

One morning, just to encourage us, Srila Prabhupada came out of his tent. He would usually wait because that was his schedule. He would translate, get up at midnight or one in the morning, translate, and then take bath. But just to help us, he came out at four in the morning and took bath. Just came out of his tent and took a cold bath. Otherwise, the devotees would heat the water for him, just to set the example for us.

So, of course, the news spread. So, we all jumped out of our sleeping bags and rushed out. We saw Srila Prabhupada, and then we were so humiliated. Of course, we had to take our baths. And then we would go to the pandal for maṅgala-ārati. And even though Srila Prabhupada wouldn’t take bath, not quite sure of the details of the schedule, but he would come to the pandal, the maṅgala-ārati would be later. I think just before the class, or maybe the class would be earlier, but after the maṅgala-ārati would be class.

So, one morning, Nanda Kumar Prabhu, he was the main pūjārī, and it was so cold that he had to wear gloves, because if he didn’t wear gloves, his hands would become numb and he wouldn’t be able to do anything with them. There were gusts of wind and he was trying to light every incense, ghee lamp, and the wind kept blowing out the flame on the match. And it was a crisis. He would try to shield the flame with his hand. And then some other devotees came up because the pandal was a little raised, and they also came up and tried to help shield the flame from the wind. And in the midst of this unsuccessful effort, Srila Prabhupada spoke into the microphone.

TEXT 76

harer nāma harer nāma
harer nāmaiva kevalam
kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva
nāsty eva gatir anyathā

COMMENT

So, on one level, I thought he was sort of being sarcastic, “You can’t even worship. You can’t even light the flame, you can’t worship the Deity. All you can do is just chant Hare Krishna.” But then, I also thought there was a deeper truth to it as well, that in Kali-yuga, that really is all we can do.

One year at the Mayapur festival, there was a controversy between the sannyasis and the householders. The history was that the Radha-Damodara party led by Tamal Krishna Goswami was visiting the temples, which were managed mainly by temple presidents, who were householders. And especially that combination of Tamal Krishna Goswami and Vishnujana Maharaja, and the whole party, the whole program of traveling and preaching was very attractive.

So, many of the brahmacharis were leaving the temples, and so the temples were having difficulty managing without the brahmacharis. So, it became a bit of a controversy in Mayapur. “What should be the role of the sannyasis? What should be the role of the brahmacharis? What should be the role of the grihasthas?” And Srila Prabhupada handled it very expertly and tactfully, sort of resolved the controversy with one verse from Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta.

kibā vipra, kibā nyāsī, śūdra kene naya it doesn’t matter if you are a brahman or a sannyasi or a sudra, yei kṛṣṇa-tattva-vettā, sei ‘guru’ haya, if someone knows the science of Krishna, he can be a guru. In other words, it doesn’t matter what your position is in varnashrama, what matters is your Krishna consciousness.

But still, there was so much quarreling, fighting, and fault finding. So, Srila Prabhupada commented that in Kali-yuga, no one can follow all the rules and regulations of the different varnas and ashrams properly. And he said, “But if you criticize me and I criticize you, then our Krishna consciousness will be lost.” So, no one can follow properly, and we should not find faults. And he said, “And therefore, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has given the holy name.”

So, that is our position in Kali-yuga. We can’t perform Vedic sacrifices, we can’t even do Deity worship properly, and we can’t follow varnashrama-dharma correctly. So, the only thing left is the holy name. That’s all we have, and the chanting of the holy name is sufficient to produce the desired result of all the other practices. There is a verse that says, “What could be achieved in Satya-yuga by meditation, what could be achieved in Treta-yuga by sacrifice, and what could be achieved in Dvapara-yuga by worshiping the Lord in the temple, can be achieved in Kali-yuga by chanting the holy names.”

So, it is so easy. Srila Prabhupada says even if we don’t chant properly, the process is so potent that we get the effect. By properly, I believe Srila Prabhupada means in terms of accidental mispronunciation. Because Krishna is bhāva-grāhī janārdana, He accepts the mood of devotion. And Srila Prabhupada commented in New Vrindavan that when the devotees were singing the Gurv-aṣṭaka, they were saying vande guroh sri caranaravindam, instead of guror, which means spiritual master, what they were pronouncing came out as cow. It's also not bad to worship the cow, but it came out, “We offer our respects under the lotus feet of our cow.” But Srila Prabhpada said, Krishna is bhāva-grāhī janārdana, He accepts the mood.

So, even though one mispronounced the word, still, one gets the benefit. And so, if we don’t chant properly, we still get benefit. And in the beginning of the movement, no one really taught us how to chant. Of course, we would learn the ten offenses, that’s something else, you have to avoid the offenses. But it was really a while before devotees came to appreciate the science of chanting, the art of chanting, that you actually have to hear, you have to pay attention, you have to try to fix the mind on the sound of the mantra and sit properly and pronounce the words to the mantra correctly, and try to hear every name, and chant in the mood of prayer to be engaged in service. All the things that are being discussed more frequently and more openly now.

His Holiness Sivarama Swami, in his Vyasa-puja offering to Srila Prabhupada, glorified Srila Prabhupada as the deliverer of the holy name to the fallen souls in the western countries. And he was making the point. Actually, he was speaking with His Holiness Bhakti Bringa Govinda Swami Maharaja, who is the devotee who carried this huge govardhana-śilā here to Houston.

So, they were talking that although over the years, we’ve had different plans for the Krishna consciousness movement and different projects, and a lot of the times, things didn’t turn out the way we thought they would or hoped they would, but one thing that never let us down was the holy name, the holy name always delivered the goods. And they said, “Like Srila Prabhupada and Krishna, They never let us down.”

And Sivarama Swami said that if earlier devotees had appreciated the importance of chanting and had made more effort to chant attentively, many of the problems that took place in devotees’ lives individually and in the movement generally, those problems could have been avoided. And he said, “And perhaps, even some of those defeats could have been turned into victories.”

So, the chanting is so important. It’s really the only thing we can do that’s suitable for us in general, but we have to do it. That’s also our misfortune. As Srila Prabhupada said, the process of chanting is simple, but the determination to chant is not so simple. So, even though this is almost by process of elimination, this is the only thing we can do, the only thing that’s suitable for us to do, even then, we are negligent. We don’t chant our sixteen rounds, or we do, but in a little haphazard way.

Of course, Kali-yuga is difficult and people have to work to maintain their families and so many complications, but part of it is just our own causeless reluctance. Because we have time for so many other things, like talking. I mean, what to speak of eating and sleeping. We find time to take prasāda. We find time to sleep, we find time to talk. We meet friends and talk. We pick up the telephone and talk. We type on the computer and talk.

Now, there is more. We have Facebook. We talk on Facebook. And now, we have Twitters, we have so many ways to talk and we find time to talk. But what about time to realize who we are? Realize our relationship with Krishna, get out of the miserable material world? But that is also part of the problem, that although we all suffer, no one is exempt, we are not convinced that the problem is that we are in the material world. We think the problem is that we haven’t figured out how to live in the material world happily.

In one talk, Bhurijana Prabhu gave an example. I’ve also repeated it because it’s a bit humorous. But there was a man, he got married. But it didn’t work out with his wife, so he divorced her and remarried. Didn’t work out with her, so he divorced her and married again. Didn’t work out with the third one, so he divorced her, married a fourth one, divorced the fourth one, married a fifth one, didn’t work out with her, married a sixth one, didn’t work out with her.

So, he thought, Maybe it will work again, work out this time. It’ll work out with the fifth one. So, he married the fifth one for a second time. She became the seventh one, that didn’t work out. He married an eighth one. Of course, there is more that could be said about this particular person, but the point that Bhurijana Prabhu was making is that he married the first one to be happy, didn’t find happiness, married the second one to be happy, didn’t find happiness, married the third, fourth, and so on, hoping to find happiness. But he didn’t find happiness. But he kept trying in the same way, but he never found happiness.

So, the application to us is that we keep trying to be happy in the material world. We try one thing, it doesn’t work. We try the second thing, that doesn’t work. We try the third, that doesn’t work. If we try the fourth, that doesn’t work. We try the fifth, it doesn’t work. We try the sixth, that doesn’t work. We try the fifth again to try to do it better.

But this is not how to get happiness. This is not the place to be happy. And it’s really only when we are convinced that we cannot be happy in the material world that we can fully take to Krishna consciousness. Because all this time we spend talking, what are we talking about? What are we trying to achieve by talking? I mean, of course, kṛṣṇa-kathā is the exception. But otherwise, we are trying to be happy. We are trying to reduce our misery, and our distress, our anxiety, our fears. We are trying to get some positive feeling of happiness, affection, some support, some encouragement, [we’re] trying to be happy.

So, it’s actually sort of a sign of progress when one understands clearly that one cannot be happy in the material world. And that requires a little soberness. People are generally so intoxicated by the material energy that they can’t see the plain truth. A devotee told me that he had read somewhere that people who are depressed actually see things more accurately than other people. But the problem is, they are depressed. They see the reality of the world, the reality of other people. They see the reality, but they don’t know about the positive alternative of Krishna consciousness.

So, they are depressed because they don’t see any hope. They don’t see any solution. But there is truth to what they see. And therefore, Srila Prabhupada said that we should be pessimistic about the material world, but we should be optimistic about the spiritual life. Then we can go on. If we are just pessimistic about the material world and don’t see anything else, we will be depressed. And if we are optimistic about the material world, we will be depressed. Because the optimism is not found, it’s illusion.

His Holiness Bhakti Tirtha Swami had a disciple, she kept hearing that her Guru Maharaja wanted all of his lady disciples to get married, but she didn’t feel that she was ready for marriage or inclined to marriage. But people kept saying, “Guru Maharaja wants all of his lady disciples to be married.”

So, it was bothering her, and she thought she would just ask him directly and hear from him directly. So, she approached him and asked him the question, and Bhakti Tirtha Swami replied, “If you remain single, you will suffer. And if you get married, you will suffer. The only question is whether you want to suffer alone or with someone else?”

So, this is the plain truth about material life. There is no perfect place, there is no perfect situation, there is no perfect relationship in the material world, there just isn’t. Recently, one devotee had been offered an apartment as a gift, which is really a nice thing, so he wanted to consult me about which apartment in the condominium he should take. So, one would have thought, Wow, this is great. He’ll have a place for his old age. He’ll have a base, this is really great. And I really thought, kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati or yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham that Krishna’s providing for His devotee. It’s true.

So, we looked at the plans and it was really great, but the back apartment was good because it had more windows. But the problem was it was near the railway tracks. And then, there is the sound of the trains. So, we decided, “Alright, it’s between the two; being trapped without fresh air and sunlight, or being trapped near the railway tracks. It’s better to be trapped without so much sunlight and fresh air.”

So then, the question was, “Should it be on the first floor or the second floor?” “Well, initially, that’s great. Well, I could have either one.” “Well okay, the second floor is good because you are a little aloof. But then in your old age, when it’s hard to walk, you have to climb up a flight of stairs, so that’s not so good.” So, “Alright, take the first floor. But when you take the first floor, what’s going to be going on over your head? Is there going to be some child riding around in his tricycle? Is there going to be noise over your head? Are they going to be stomping their feet? And then the other neighbors are playing music.”

It’s like this beautiful gift, when you actually analyze what was going to be going on there, there were so many possibilities for misery. Not just possibilities, almost eventualities. It’s just a matter of degree.

So, this is what it means to be sober or depressed. Let’s say sober. But within all of this, there is Krishna. And when you actually realize that wherever you turn, you are trapped, no matter what solution you try to find to one problem, you get into another problem. When you actually realize that none of it is going to work, I mean, it’ll work to a degree but it’s not really going to work. You are not really going to be happy, and it’s not going to be an ideal situation.

So then, you think, Well, is there an ideal situation anywhere? Yes, with Krishna in Goloka Vrindavan. Is there a perfect person that I can fully trust and love and be loved by? Yes, Krishna. So, it’s all there. When you realize you are not going to get it here, and you want it, everyone wants it, everyone wants to be happy, everyone wants to love and be loved, and you realize those natural desires, intrinsic desires, are not going to be fulfilled here, but you still have those desires, then how will they be fulfilled? Well then, Radha-Nilamadhava. Well, why not just go for that? Why fool around trying to make things work that we know are not going to work ultimately? Why fool around? Why not just go for it, go for the real thing that’s really going to make me happy and will be permanent. Let’s just go for it.

Then one can really take up the process very sincerely and genuinely. And one can give up the less worthy pursuits that take our time away from chanting the holy name, from reading the scriptures, from worshiping the Deity, from associating with advanced devotees. Because there is time and it’s just a matter of where we place our priorities. There’s time. And all the other things that we want even in the material plane, when we really give ourselves to Krishna and Krishna consciousness, even those things become better. Or well, if Krishna wants, they can become better.

And one example I think of is a very nice couple Karnamrita Prabhu and Arcana Siddhi Mataji. Actually, well yeah, I think she was at the japa weekend in Dallas once and then at the japa retreat in Montgomery.

So, her life has been transformed. I mean, she was always a good devotee, but she said her life was transformed by the japa retreat she attended. And she felt that she made more advancement in the, whatever it is now, two years since she took her first japa retreat than in the twenty years leading up to it. And everyone experiences in the japa retreats how close the devotees come to each other.

And she is a qualified social worker, family therapist or counselor. And a major part of her recommendations, and she deals mainly with devotees now, her finances are such that she can maybe just deal with devotees, her advice relates to faith. A lot of the reason devotees suffer is because they lack faith, and on japa as an activity that the husband and wife can do together. It’s something they can support each other in. Something they can talk about. Something they can share their successes and difficulties with. It just transforms people’s relationships.

And then, she told a story in Montgomery that related to the previous japa retreat in New Vrindavan. She had been planning to leave on the last day, but I really wanted to speak with her, and I asked if she could stay on. So, she explained that she was having house guests. If she left the last day, she’d get there that night, she’d have a day to prepare, and then they would come the next afternoon. So, she really had to get back, but the thing is, we really wanted to have some time together. So, she decided, Alright! I’ll stay on. I’ll just try to deal with it when I get back. 

So, they stayed on, she and her husband. And we had a very wonderful discussion, then they left the next morning, early. And that was the end of it, as far as I was concerned. But when we met at the japa retreat in Montgomery, she explained what had happened when she got back. She discovered that in her absence, her lawn had been cut. She walked into the house, she found the whole house had been completely cleaned. She opened the refrigerator, she found the refrigerator was completely stocked.

Everything she would have done herself in that extra day was done by her neighbor who had the key to the house, in her absence. And she said that neighbor had never done anything like that before. And she took it as a direct reciprocation from Krishna, that she had really given herself to her japa for those two retreats, and then even stayed on to associate with devotees. And Krishna just did it through her neighbor.

So, when we do surrender to Krishna, Krishna reciprocates and takes care of us in ways that we could not even imagine. But it has to be genuine surrender. It can’t be, Oh!! This is a good deal, go to japa retreats, associate with sadhus, I come home, my garden is manicured, my refrigerator is stocked, my house is cleaned from top to bottom.

You can’t do it with that motive, do it with a sincere desire to surrender to Krishna and develop your relationship with Him and serve Him, serve the holy names or the other servants of the holy, and even then, Krishna will help. But the help should not be taken, Oh! Material life isn’t so bad after all. But rather, it should be, Oh! Krishna is so kind. Even though I’m such a poor beginner in devotional service, even with me, He is so kind.

Who could be a more merciful master than Krishna? We should serve Him. But experience Krishna’s kindness in our lives here and imagine that you can have a direct relationship with that person who is so kind, and merciful, and beautiful, and blissful.

So then, when we have that akiñcana-gocara, we have no possession. And everything belongs to Krishna, but even if we try to possess something, we can’t hold on to it. We really don’t have anything that we can keep other than Krishna, our relationship with Krishna, service to Krishna. And when we realize that’s all we really have and embrace it and cherish it, then we can have that resolution, determination to chant. And from the chanting, we will get everything. Hare Krishna.