Sri Radhastami

Giriraj Swami: Document by which Srila Prabhupada formed ISKCON state that one of the purposes of the society is to bring the members closer to God.

Bg. 9.13

mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha
daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ
bhajanty ananya-manaso
jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam

TRANSLATION

O son of Pṛthā, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

In this verse the description of the mahātmā is clearly given. The first sign of the mahātmā is that he is already situated in the divine nature. He is not under the control of material nature. And how is this effected? That is explained in the Seventh Chapter: one who surrenders unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, at once becomes freed from the control of material nature. That is the qualification. One can become free from the control of material nature as soon as he surrenders his soul to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is the preliminary formula. Being marginal potency, as soon as the living entity is freed from the control of material nature, he is put under the guidance of the spiritual nature. The guidance of the spiritual nature is called daivī prakṛti, divine nature. So when one is promoted in that way – by surrendering to the Supreme Personality of Godhead – one attains to the stage of great soul, mahātmā.

The mahātmā does not divert his attention to anything outside Kṛṣṇa, because he knows perfectly well that Kṛṣṇa is the original Supreme Person, the cause of all causes. There is no doubt about it. Such a mahātmā, or great soul, develops through association with other mahātmās, pure devotees.

Pure devotees are not even attracted by Kṛṣṇa’s other features, such as the four-armed Mahā-viṣṇu. They are simply attracted by the two-armed form of Kṛṣṇa. They are not attracted to other features of Kṛṣṇa, nor are they concerned with any form of a demigod or of a human being. They meditate only upon Kṛṣṇa in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They are always engaged in the unswerving service of the Lord in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

COMMENT

So, this verse describes how the mahatmas, or great souls, are placed under the guidance of the divine nature or Srimati Radharani. On the auspicious occasion of Sri Radhastami, we want to know how we can place ourselves fully under her guidance and be engaged in devotional service under her protection.

In 1976, I arranged a program for Srila Prabhupada at the Birla House, the home of the wealthiest family in India. I presented the proposed topic to Mrs. Gopikumari Birla and gave the choice of which topic she could take for Srila Prabhupada. She chose the topic “How to be Successful in Life.” Of all the topics, she chose that one. All the guests invited to the program were people whom we would all consider to be very successful in life. But that is the nature of material success; you can never be successful. You always want to be more successful, which means that relatively, you are unsuccessful. At one time, the richest man in the world was John D. Rockefeller, and a newspaper reporter asked him, “You are the richest man in the world. You have everything that money could buy. Can you tell us in one word what is your philosophy?” He said, “Yes, I can answer that in one word: more.”

So, whether you have one dollar or a hundred billion dollars, as long as you are in material consciousness, you want more, which means you are not satisfied. That means you are not successful. Srila Prabhupada came to the program and gave a very interesting definition of success. He said that there are two energies: the material energy and the spiritual energy. The material energy is personified as Durga devi, and she rides on a lion and has a trident or triśūla with three points. The three prongs indicate the threefold miseries of material existence: adhyātmika, ādibhautika, and ādidaivika—miseries caused by one’s own mind and body, miseries caused by other living entities, and miseries caused by acts of nature. Durga devi is always piercing the conditioned souls with these miseries, punishing them like the warden of a prison.

We are like prisoners of the material energy, and Durga devi is punishing us. And oppose to material energy is spiritual energy, personified by Srimati Radharani. Success in life is to become free from the control of the material energy, free from the punishment of Durga devi, and to come under the protection of Srimati Radharani. That is our success in life. And how is that success achieved? That is achieved by surrendering to a great soul who is surrendered to another great soul, who is surrendered to another great soul, all the way back to Srimati Radharani and Krishna. That is paramparā. We cannot surrender to Krishna directly. We may not have such facility in our present stage of bondage, but we can surrender to someone who has surrendered to someone who has surrendered, all the way back to Krishna. For us here, that means Srila Prabhupada and those who are surrendered to him.

Once in Bombay, a very prominent Hindu gentleman came to meet Srila Prabhupada and lamented that India is the land of mahatmas, but there are always so many problems. Being blessed by the presence of mahatmas, India should be flourishing. But instead, we have so many problems, why? And Srila Prabhupada explained that the reason is that you cannot distinguish who is mahatma and who is not mahatma. And this is very important point because if we are going to surrender to a mahatma as a representative of Krishna, we have to be able to recognize who is a mahatma. This is another interesting and instructive incident that took place. Srila Prabhupada had a friend in Bombay named Dr. Patel, who would accompany Srila Prabhupada every morning on his walk on Juhu Beach. They would have very lively discussions, and Dr. Patel was hard to figure out because sometimes he spoke like a Mayavadi, and whenever Srila Prabhupada would accuse him of being a Mayavadi, Dr. Patel would say, “No, no, I am not a Mayavadi. I am a Vaishnava.”

So, on one morning, Srila Prabhupada happens to criticize a popular religious figure of India and Dr. Patel became very upset. He said, “You cannot speak about him like that.” Srila Prabhupada said, “I am not saying this, Krishna is saying.”

na mā duktino mûhā prapadyante narādhamā
māyayāpahta-jṣānā āsura bhāvam āsritā

If someone does not surrender to Krishna, he falls into one of those categories of duktino, miscreants; mûhā —fools, rascals, and so on.”

Dr. Patel became really livid with rage and began to shout at Srila Prabhupada and Srila Prabhupada was shouting back to him. Both were shouting at each other. Dr. Patel’s friends, who admired him and followed him, were trying to restrain him and said, “Swamiji, he has heart condition. Don’t upset him so.” They tried to take him away. Srila Prabhupada’s disciples wanted Dr. Patel to go away, but it was hard to separate them. It was like in a boxing ring, with the referee trying to separate them, but they just kept pawning at each other. Finally, they managed to pull Dr. Patel away.

Afterwards, Tamal Krishna Goswami went up to Srila Prabhupada’s room, and he said, “What is Dr. Patel’s position? It’s very hard to understand him.” And Srila Prabhupada explained by telling a story. There was once a man who was very expert in many languages. He came to a village, and whatever language the people spoke to him in, he would reply perfectly in the same language. Nobody could figure out where he was from or what his native tongue was. It became a big topic in the village. Finally, one man said, “I will find out what his original language is.” So one day, when that man was not looking, the other person came up behind him and gave him a very strong slap on the back. That expert linguist began cursing in his own language. Srila Prabhupada said, “Dr. Patel was like that and he could speak very expertly, like a Vaishnava, like a Mayavadi. He can speak like scholar, as a nationalist. He could speak many languages, but when I hit him where it really hurt, his true language came out.” Then Tamal Krishna Goswami asked that why did you keep annoying him, it was like war. The Srila Prabhupada replied, “We have to engage everyone.” Without Srila Prabhupada he had doomed. While someone want to associate with him, Prabhupada want to give them association so that gradually they can make progress in Krishna consciousness.” So, Srila Prabhupada did not reject anyone, but he did say, “From now on, no more talking on the morning walk. We will just read Krishna books.” The next morning, for the first time in many years, Dr. Patel did not come on the walk. For one or two days, there was no Dr. Patel.

Then one day, Srila Prabhupada was walking in one direction, near the ocean, near the beach, Dr. Patel was walking in the opposite direction, quite some distance from the beach. He was trying walk by Srila Prabhupada on beach. But something in heart made him come to Srila Prabhupada’s lotus feet. He bowed to Srila Prabhupada and said, “Srila Prabhupada, I am sorry, but I have been taught to respect all the accredited saints or mahatmas of India.” Srila Prabhupada said, “Yes. But my business is to expose who are not.” So, in Bhagavad-gītā, we get clear definition of who is mahatma. And as Srila Prabhupada said that a mahatma is developed in association of another mahatma. There are so many verses in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that recommend serving the great souls.

mahat-sevāṁ dvāram āhur vimuktes
tamo-dvāraṁ yoṣitāṁ saṅgi-saṅgam
mahāntas te sama-cittāḥ praśāntā
vimanyavaḥ suhṛdaḥ sādhavo ye

That by serving the great souls, the door to liberation opens, and by serving materialistic people, it takes hell to people. So, we are fortunate that somehow or other, we are in touch with Srila Prabhupada through his line of disciplic succession. We have the opportunity to associate with mahatmas, and the basic qualification of mahatma is surrender to Krishna. And by surrendering to Krishna, he is in internal potency.

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

That one who surrender to Krishna is not just the mahatma but very rare mahatma. Srila Prabhupada considered his disciple to surrender to Krishna through him is rare mahatma. So, this paramparā to surrendering to a great soul who surrendered to another great soul who surrendered to another great soul goes back through disciplic succession. It is so beautifully depicted here. And eventually, in our line, we come to Rupa Gosvami, Raghunatha dasa Gosvami and Six Gosvamis, and Svarupa Damodara Gosvami and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Now. . .