SB 10.2.31

Giriraj Swami: 

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

We read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Ten, Chapter Two, “Prayers by the Demigods,” Text Thirty-One.

TEXT 31

svayaṁ samuttīrya sudustaraṁ dyuman
bhavārṇavaṁ bhīmam adabhra-sauhṛdāḥ
bhavat-padāmbhoruha-nāvam atra te
nidhāya yātāḥ sad-anugraho bhavan

TRANSLATION

O Lord, who resemble the shining sun, You are always ready to fulfill the desire of Your devotee, and therefore You are known as a desire tree [vāñchā-kalpataru]. When ācāryas completely take shelter under Your lotus feet in order to cross the fierce ocean of nescience, they leave behind on earth the method by which they cross, and because You are very merciful to Your other devotees, You accept this method to help them.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

This statement reveals how the merciful ācāryas and the merciful Supreme Personality of Godhead together help the serious devotee who wants to return home, back to Godhead. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, in His teachings to Rūpa Gosvāmī, said:

brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva
guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja

(Cc. Madhya 19.151)

One can achieve the seed of bhakti-latā, devotional service, by the mercy of guru and Kṛṣṇa. The duty of the guru is to find the means, according to the time, the circumstances and the candidate, by which one can be induced to render devotional service, which Kṛṣṇa accepts from a candidate who wants to be successful in going back home, back to Godhead. After wandering throughout the universe, a fortunate person within this material world seeks shelter of such a guru, or ācārya, who trains the devotee in the suitable ways to render service according to the circumstances so that the Supreme Personality of Godhead will accept the service. This makes it easier for the candidate to reach the ultimate destination. The ācārya’s duty, therefore, is to find the means by which devotees may render service according to references from śāstra. Rūpa Gosvāmī, for example, in order to help subsequent devotees, published such devotional books as Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. Thus it is the duty of the ācārya to publish books that will help future candidates take up the method of service and become eligible to return home, back to Godhead, by the mercy of the Lord. In our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, this same path is being prescribed and followed. Thus the devotees have been advised to refrain from four sinful activities — illicit sex, intoxication, meat-eating and gambling — and to chant sixteen rounds a day. These are bona fide instructions. Because in the Western countries constant chanting is not possible, one should not artificially imitate Haridāsa Ṭhākura, but should follow this method. Kṛṣṇa will accept a devotee who strictly follows the regulative principles and the method prescribed in the various books and literatures published by the authorities. The ācārya gives the suitable method for crossing the ocean of nescience by accepting the boat of the Lord’s lotus feet, and if this method is strictly followed, the followers will ultimately reach the destination, by the grace of the Lord. This method is called ācārya sampradāya. It is therefore said, sampradāya-vihīnā ye mantrās te niṣphalā matāḥ (Padma Purāṇa). The ācārya sampradāya is strictly bona fide. Therefore one must accept the ācārya sampradāya; otherwise one’s endeavor will be futile. Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura therefore sings:

tāṅdera caraṇa sevi bhakta sane vāsa
janame janame haya, ei abhilāṣa

One must worship the lotus feet of the ācārya and live within the society of devotees. Then one’s endeavor to cross over nescience will surely be successful.

COMMENT

We are gathered here at the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada, Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai, Sri Sri Krishna-Balarama, and Sri Sri Radha-Shyamasundara, Lalita, and Visakha, in the most sacred days, approaching the appearance day of Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and of Srila Prabhupada, the pure devotee of Krishna, the founder acharya of ISKCON. And the present verse, which was spoken by the demigods to Lord Krishna within the womb, describes the mercy of the Supreme Lord and the spiritual master, how they work together to deliver the fallen souls from the ocean of nescience and deliver them to the spiritual abode. And the two work together, the Lord and the devotee, in a very dynamic and personal reciprocation.

In the purport, Srila Prabhupada quotes the verse

brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva
guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja

By the combined mercy of Krishna and the spiritual master, one gets the seed of devotional service. And as Lord Chaitanya describes, after receiving the seed of the bhakti-latā-bīja, one should plant it within one’s heart and water it by the process of śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ, chanting and hearing about Krishna. At the same time, one should be careful of weeds that may grow alongside the devotional creeper. The weeds, in broad categories, are the desires for sense gratification and mental speculation, and in particular, some weeds that are mentioned in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta are kuṭīnāṭī, diplomatic behavior or fault finding, pratiṣṭhā, the desire for position, the desire to be worshiped, jīva-hiṁsā, which is translated as violence towards other living entities.

So, there are different weeds that may grow alongside the devotional creeper and which may very much resemble the devotional creeper. And therefore, the devotee must be very careful to distinguish the weeds from the creeper. Otherwise, the water that is meant to nourish the creeper will be sucked up by the weeds and the creeper itself will become weak, dry.

So, take for example jīva-hiṁsā, violence to other living entities. Of course, on the gross platform, this refers to physical violence - to killing animals and eating their flesh. But Srila Prabhupada explains jīva means the living entity or the life of the living entity, and the life of the living entity is bhakti, devotional service. There are many verses in the Second Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to the effect that if you are not engaged in devotional service, you are a dead person although breathing. So, devotional service is real life, the life of the living entity, and therefore, to deprive someone of the chance to engage in devotional service is violence to them, it’s killing them.

Another verse in the Fifth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that says that if you see a person running forward blindly to a cliff and that if he keeps running in the same direction, he’ll fall off the edge of the cliff to his destruction, no sane or gentle person will allow him to do so. So, people in general are rushing towards their destruction, following the path of sense gratification, suicidal path of sense gratification, and therefore, any genuine devotee or compassionate person will want to intervene by giving them proper instruction. Therefore, Srila Prabhupada says that jīva-hiṁsā means to stop the preaching of Krishna consciousness, doing violence to people or letting people commit themselves to a violent end.

And Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura explains that this can take the form of doing business. One may think that by doing business, one can get money to spread Krishna consciousness, and certainly, that is a bona fide activity, but it may happen that the preoccupation with business encourages one to forget the real purpose, which is to preach, and we get into a sort of vicious circle of earning money to spread Krishna consciousness, but we invest the money into earning more money to spread Krishna consciousness, and how much preaching are we actually doing?

It’s like a saying I heard when I was in high school, I guess it was supposed to be in an Italian accent but it doesn’t really have anything to do with Italians, “I dig in the ditch to gather the money to have the strength to dig in the ditch.” It just goes in that circle, nothing more.

Then kuṭināṭī, diplomatic behavior, and it’s interesting that in the purports or even in the synonyms sometimes diplomatic behavior is connected with fault finding, but the basic idea is that I want to get ahead at the expense of others, I want to promote myself at the expense of others. So, I’m very diplomatic, I present myself in a certain way to look good and I may present others in a certain way to make them look bad. Or in other words, I find fault with them to make them look bad so I look good in comparison.

This is very common. Many devotees who work in the material world find it and they are troubled; they don’t know what to do because as devotees, we learn tṛṇād api sunīcena taror api sahiṣṇunā amāninā mānadena kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ. But then they feel, “Well, if I act like that, all these materialistic people around me in the workplace will just take advantage to get ahead and I’ll be left behind, and thus I’ll have less facility to serve Krishna, and so many complications.”

And pūjā, lābha, pratiṣṭhā - wanting to be worshiped or adored, wanting to have some position, wanting to have some distinction. These are in the list of weeds. Now, these weeds seem very gross, so why does Lord Chaitanya say that they may closely resemble the devotional creeper? The reason is that the same tendencies can exist within the effort to practice devotional service. And therefore, Lord Chaitanya says one must be very vigilant to identify these weeds and separate them from the devotional creeper.

Just to give a very simple example. One devotee told me of a story, a very ordinary story, that it was a rule that the Deities’ mahā-prasāda from the morning would be kept stored in a certain place and then distributed to all the devotees. So, this other devotee who had some position in the temple was hungry. He had access to the area where the mahā-prasāda was stored, and he went in and took the mahā-prasāda for himself and started eating it. Meanwhile, one of the devotees was authorized to come there to actually take care of the mahā-prasāda to distribute, and found him there. So, he said, “I wanted to taste the mahā-prasāda to make sure the quality was proper for the Deities.”

That’s a very simple, relatively innocent example of diplomatic behavior. Our motives are something, but our presentation of why we are doing what we are doing is different. And that can enter any sphere of devotional activity, and we ourselves may not even be clear about what our motives are, we may actually be under the impression that we are pure devotees, and all this, whatever it is we are doing; collecting money, collecting followers, collecting worship, is for Krishna, “I’m just a medium.” But within that process, we may be taking some of it for ourselves, some percentage. We don’t know what the percentage is, but we might be taking some percentage for ourselves and we may not even be that conscious of it.

But the effect of the weeds is that the water that’s meant to nourish the creeper is sucked up by the weeds, that energy is sucked up by the weeds, and the creeper doesn’t become strong, it becomes weak.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura told the story of the wedding party. One of his disciples in his institution asked a question, “All of your disciples are getting up for maṅgala-ārati, they are chanting their regular quota of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, they are reading the scriptures, they are doing service in the temple or for the temple, but some seem to be making great progress, and others seem to be making hardly any progress at all, but they are all engaged in the same activities. What is the reason?”

And in reply, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati told the story that a wedding party had to attend a wedding across the river, and they boarded the boat at night and they took rest expecting that in the morning, they would have reached their destination, but in the morning, they found that they were in the exact same place, they hadn’t made any progress at all. So, they began to accuse the boatman, “Instead of rowing the boat, you were just sleeping.” He said, “No, I wasn’t sleeping, I was up the whole night rowing, I’m exhausted.” “Well, why haven’t we gone anywhere?” It was a big mystery. Eventually, someone found that the anchor was still in the ground and that he had indeed been rowing all night, but the boat didn’t go anywhere because the anchor was left in.

So, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura was saying that if we have material attachments, if we remain anchored to the material world in spite of the efforts that are meant to take us back to Godhead, we’ll stay where we were, we won’t actually progress. So, we may not be so conscious of what the weeds are, but we can infer the presence of weeds, of material desires and attachments, from our lack of advancement.

So, Srila Prabhupada and the previous acharyas leave the method by which we can cross the ocean of nescience. The boat is surrendered to the lotus feet of Krishna, that’s the boat. Samāśritā ye pada-pallava-plavaṁ mahat-padaṁ puṇya-yaśo murāreḥ bhavāmbudhir vatsa-padaṁ paraṁ padaṁ padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ na teṣām, that this material world is like a vast ocean, but for one who surrenders unto the lotus feet of Krishna, that vast ocean becomes just like a puddle of water created by the hoof print of a calf. Although there is danger at every step in the material world, the devotee crosses right over it.

So, that is the boat, the lotus feet of the Lord, surrendered to the lotus feet of the Lord. And there is a method to that surrender, it’s not just a sentiment. Of course, the sentiment is good if it’s genuine, “Krishna, I am Yours, I’m a fully surrendered soul until You do with me what You like.” But there is a process of surrender, that process is bhakti-yoga. That process is given to us through the instructions of the acharyas, the revealed scriptures. But the acharyas adjust the basic principles that are given in the scriptures according to time, circumstance, and candidate.

Even Vyasadeva who compiled the Vedic scriptures did the same thing. Originally, there was one Veda and he divided the Vedic literature to accommodate the people in Kali-yuga so that they could make spiritual advancement. So, every acharya does that; Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura did it, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura did it, and Srila Prabhupada did it, he kept the same principles enunciated in the scriptures, but made adjustments according to time, the circumstances, and the candidate.

And Srila Prabhupada concluded that the basic instructions that he wanted every one of his followers to accept and follow are to chant sixteen rounds of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra daily, and to follow the four regulative principles of no illicit sex, no taking of intoxicants, no gambling, no meat-eating. And he says, “These are bona fide instructions.”

Now, some people may think, Well, historically, Gaudiya Vaishnavas chanted sixty-four rounds. And, Well, Srila Prabhupada gave the instructions to us when we were new, but now we should do more. Of course, doing more is good or can be good, but Srila Prabhupada says in this purport, in effect, that if you chant sixteen rounds daily and follow the four regulative principles, which are bona fide instructions, you will board the boat that will carry you across the fierce ocean of nescience, and you will be successful in your journey back home. And why did Srila Prabhupada speak with such confidence? With such certainty? Because Krishna, who is very merciful to His empowered representative, who’s very merciful to the acharya, accepts the method that the acharya leaves behind for the other devotees to follow.

Srila Prabhupada gave us instructions that were meant to engage us in devotional service that Krishna would accept. And Krishna, out of His mercy or love for Srila Prabhupada, accepts the method, accepts the service that is rendered according to the instructions left by the acharya. In a way, it’s a very simple process, although in another way, it’s a mysterious process.

And when I first joined, I heard that Srila Prabhupada gave an example of a representative of a business entering into an agreement or a contract with a customer. When the representative comes back to the main office, his boss or his authorities in the main office may not actually be happy about the agreement, but because he was their representative and he entered the agreement on behalf of the establishment, the organization is obliged to honor the agreement.

So, it was a little puzzling for me then because I thought the spiritual master will only do what Krishna wants him to do, and certainly, in principle, that’s true, but now I’ve understood that everyone is an individual; Krishna is an individual, our spiritual master is an individual, his spiritual master is an individual, his spiritual master is an individual, Nityananda Prabhu is an individual, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is an individual, Krishna is an individual, Balarama is an individual, Radharani is an individual. They are all individuals, and they are the well-wishers of every living entity, but they are still individuals. Krishna wanted Subhadra to marry Arjuna, Balarama wanted her to marry someone else, they are individuals.

So, Srila Prabhupada is Krishna’s empowered representative, kṛṣṇa-śakti vinā nahe tāra pravartana, no doubt about it, he is also an individual, he is a devotee. And Krishna, out of compassion and love for His devotee, accepts the method that the devotee, Srila Prabhupada, has left behind for us to follow in his books and in his core instructions. And yesterday, devotees were pleased to hear a half hour brief description of the passing of Nirguna Prabhu in Mayapur from Janmashtami Prabhu, how through the process of dying, Nirguna Prabhu became completely purified, and in the end, he was eligible to go back home, back to Godhead. He was invited to come.

And Janmashtami Prabhu made the point that this example of Nirguna Prabhu’s life proves that Srila Prabhupada’s promise to us that if we just chant sixteen rounds, follow the four regulative principles, and dedicate our lives to spreading Krishna consciousness to our capacity, he will take us back home, back to Godhead.

Now, of course, within those last three years, two years, one year, six months, six weeks, six days, a lot of internal purification took place, but that was also arranged by the merciful acharya and the merciful Supreme Personality of Godhead, so that at the end, he was deemed fit to return back home, back to Godhead. And many devotees who’ve had the experience of attending to dying patients have seen the same thing.

Each case is unique, but there are examples, one after the other, after the other, of devotees who from a certain point of view were not so extraordinary, not great world preachers like Sripad Gaur Govinda Swami, Tamal Krishna Goswami, Śrīdhara Swami, Bhakti Tirtha Swami, Bhakti Svarupa Damodara Swami, they were devotees just like any of us sitting in the temple today, not famous as being great devotees throughout the world, but in their last years or months or days, they reached a very exalted level of consciousness that could be perceived clearly by anyone close to them, and therefore, each and every one of them is an example that substantiates Srila Prabhupada’s promise to us, a promise that is fulfilled, ultimately, by the mercy of the Lord.

This theme or principle of the Lord upholding the promise of the devotee appears in kṛṣṇa-līlā, in caitanya-līlā. The example from kṛṣṇa-līlā, which is quoted by Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya to Gadadhara Pandita in gaura-līlā is that Krishna had taken a vow, made a commitment before the battle of Kurukshetra, that He would not take up weapons and fight in the battle, that whichever side He was on, He would not take up weapons or fight, and that the other side would get His army.

So, during the battle, Duryodhana accused Bhīṣmadeva, the general on the side of the Kauravas, of not fighting to his full capacity out of his affection for the Pandavas, which in terms of kshatriya chivalry was an insult, it was a challenge, and Bhīṣmadeva accepted the challenge and said, “All right, I will fight so fiercely in the battle tomorrow that either I will kill Arjuna, or force Krishna to break His promise not to enter the fighting.”

And it just so happened that Arjuna was in great difficulty, he was on the verge of being killed by Bhīṣmadeva, and Krishna picked up a broken chariot wheel as a weapon and rushed towards Bhīṣmadeva as if to kill him. Krishna did not want the word of His devotee, the commitment or promise of His devotee to be broken, and therefore, He was willing to break His own word to uphold the word of Bhīṣmadeva. So, Krishna does that.

So, in that vein, Srila Prabhupada gave his word to us, it’s here in the purport, and Krishna will uphold his word. And that’s what the verse says, that Krishna accepts the methods that the acharyas leave behind to help the other devotees out of mercy upon the acharya and also out of compassion for the other devotees who are behind, trying to follow the method. It’s so simple and clear, but we have to do it. It’s so simple, but we have to do it.

And how many of us really chant sixteen rounds and follow the four principles? I’m sure here in this audience many do, but if we take the total number of devotees who have been initiated by Srila Prabhupada or by his disciples, how many do and how many don’t? I don’t have the statistics, but as Srila Prabhupada said, chanting Hare Krishna is easy, but the determination to chant Hare Krishna is not so easy, we need that determination. And Srila Prabhupada has given the definition on many occasions of determination as meaning, “I’m determined that I shall go back home, back to Godhead in this very life,” that’s what it means to be determined. So, we should have that determination and engage in our service with that intensity.

Now, what to say, so much affected by the departure of Aindra Prabhu, but he was an example of that intensity, the intensity that’s required. It doesn’t matter who you are, what your background is, what your nature is, what your history is, what your ethnic community is. What matters is the intensity with which you apply yourself to devotional service.

The second Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam [2.3.10] says,

akāmaḥ sarva-kāmo vā
mokṣa-kāma udāra-dhīḥ
tīvreṇa bhakti-yogena
yajeta param puruṣa

—akāmaḥ, that if you have no desires, sarva-kāma, are full of desires, or mokṣa-kāma, are desirous of liberation, tīvreṇa bhakti-yogena, if you engage in the process of bhakti-yoga with great intensity, tīvreṇa, like the intensity of the sun, the hot sun, you will reach the supreme destination. So, that’s what we need, we need that intensity, and we get that intensity, we get that determination by associating with devotees.