BG 9.13 – Doing Everything for Krishna

Giriraj Swami:

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
 

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

Hare Krishna. So we have gathered at the lotus feet of Sri Sri Madan-Modan, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and Srila Prabhupada, to understand who we are, what is the purpose of life, and how to attain the goal. And the Vedic literatures are meant to give information of the three categories of knowledge; sambandha, abhidheya, and prayojana. When Lord Chaitanya was giving His instructions to Srila Sanatana Gosvami, He told the story of Sarvajna the astrologer. The astrologer visited a poor man who was suffering tremendously, and he told him that, “Actually, you are not poor. Your father has left you a great treasure but he died before he could tell you the whereabouts of the treasure.” Then the astrologer said, “The treasure has been left right in the property of your home and you can try to dig for it on the northern side or the southern side or the western side, but you will not be able to reach it. But if you dig on the eastern side, then very quickly you will touch the treasure and you will become happy, and all of the misery due to poverty will automatically disappear.” Then Lord Chaitanya explained that the northern side, southern side, and western side referred to different processes for attaining these supreme, namely karma, jnana, and yoga, but digging on the eastern side referred to the process of bhakti. And by the process of bhakti, one can very quickly achieve the treasure of kṛṣṇa-prema, which is the goal of life. And one when one experiences the treasure of kṛṣṇa-prema, then all miseries of material existence are automatically gone.

So Srila Prabhupada at the age of seventy years, arrived in New York City to deliver this knowledge to people in ignorance of who they are and what the purpose of life is, and how to achieve it. And he toiled with great difficulty, to establish the Krishna consciousness movement. Once in Calcutta, there was some dissatisfaction in the temple. This was in 1973, and the devotees were waiting for Srila Prabhupada to come. And when he finally did come, different devotees spoke to him of their difficulties and then he called a whole meeting of all the devotees. And they expressed their difficulties to him and he listened with great sympathy. He said they should form a management committee and the committee should meet regularly, and whatever they decide should be recorded in a minute book, and then everyone should follow the decisions. But then Srila Prabhupada’s mood changed, although he had been listening very patiently and sympathetically to what everyone said. Then Srila Prabhupada commented that as long as we are in the material world there will be difficulties, but if we become too absorbed in what the problems are and what to do about the problems, then we will forget Krishna, and instead of talking about Krishna, we will talk about the problems. And then Srila Prabhupada said that in his own life, he always followed the principle “everything for Krishna, nothing for me.” And because he followed that principle, he never had any complaints. Because his motto was “everything for Krishna, nothing for me.”

Srila Prabhupada said that he had suffered a lot to establish the Krishna consciousness movement, and he described a little, how he had suffered two heart attacks on the steamship while crossing the ocean, and he described how in the United States, he felt some pounding in his ear or in his head, he could not sleep at night. He said he suffered in so many ways, which he did not wish to discuss, but he never complained because his motto was “everything for Krishna, nothing for me.” Once our dear godbrother, Bhakti Svarupa Damodara Swami, at that time he was Svarupa Damodara dasa Brahmachari. He said to Srila Prabhupada that, “I have just one department,” he was referring to the Bhaktivedanta Institute. He said, “I have just one department and there are so many problems, and sometimes it becomes very difficult to deal with all the problems, and you have the whole mission, the whole worldwide movement; you must have so many problems to deal with. How do you manage?” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “Problems? I do not see any problems. I see only service to my guru Maharaja.” So that is the vision of a pure devotee. He doesn’t regard the world as a place for his own sense gratification. Generally, people are engaged in the mad pursuit of money so that they can enjoy material happiness, or now they madly pursue money for the sake of just maintaining what they have, and then they see problems. Problems because they are in the world of duality; in the world of happiness and distress, friends, and enemies, but a pure devotee, he sees nothing but Krishna and Krishna’s service. And what we might consider to be a difficulty; he sees as just another type of opportunity for service.

The Bhagavad-gītā explains that in the world of duality, we have to be neutral or transcendental to the duality. The seasons change; sometimes it is hot, sometimes it is cold. Depending on where we live, when it is cold it may snow and we have to shovel the snow from the driveway or the walkway; it is just a type of service. And when it is hot the grass grows; we have to cut the grass. That is another type of service. And when the weather changes in autumn the leaves fall down; we have to rake up the leaves. It is just another variety of service. So for a devotee there is no duality, it is just service. He sees only Krishna and Krishna’s service. The Nectar of Devotion discusses bhoga and tyāga. Bhoga means enjoyment; tyāga means renunciation. And in the material world people work for sense gratification in gross or subtle ways, but then after some time they become disgusted, tired; they want a break so they go away. They want to forget the business, forget all the trials and tribulations but then, after being away for some time they become restless. They feel they have to get back to their work and other responsibilities. So our changing of positions, this changing of positions is always going on because in the material world one can never be fully satisfied or happy in one position. He gets frustrated, he tries something else; that feels good for a while but then he gets frustrated there, then he goes back to the first position or tries a third position. But he is never satisfied because whatever rasa or taste or mellow he experiences in the material world is temporary. And opposed to the temporary rasas, or tastes, or mellows of the material world is bhakti-rasa, which is eternal, never ending, and always increasing. So in bhakti-rasa there is no changing of positions; one is fixed in one position, the position of pure devotional service in which one relishes bhakti-rasa, which is unlimited and always increasing.

So once Srila Prabhupada raised a question to his guru Maharaja about bhoga and tyāga, about different positions in the material world. And he said that Rupa Gosvami, he renounced everything; his aristocratic position or lucrative post as a minister in the government and lived just wearing a loin cloth and sleeping under a different tree every night, tyāga. And Ramananda Raya, he lived as a governor in a grihastha ashram in great material opulence, bhoga; yet Chaitanya Mahaprabhu seemed to be equally pleased with both of them. So how do we understand bhoga and tyāga? And Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura replied with reference to a Sanskrit term, actually, that describes a heroine or a lady when her husband is away. When her husband is away, this was the Vedic culture, the lady would dress very simply. She wouldn’t bathe herself very regularly and dress attractively, she would lie down and sleep on the floor, she would eat very simply, but when her husband came home, she would bathe, apply aromatic oils and dress very nicely and attractively, and behave in a very happy and spirited way. The same lady but behaving in very different ways apparently. But in both cases, when the husband was at home and when the husband was away, the central point was the husband. She would live in a very renounced way, a very austere way, for the pleasure of the husband. Or she would dress in a very attractive way and behave in a very happy way for the pleasure of the husband. So in either situation, the central point was the same; the husband or the pleasure of the husband.

So Rupa Gosvami, he lived in a very renounced way but the central point was Krishna; pleasing Krishna. And Ramananda Raya, he lived in a very opulent position, but the central point was Krishna. So as devotees we are not interested in bhoga or tyāga, we are interested only in Krishna and Krishna’s service. And according to our situation, which may come to us by our destiny or which may be allotted to us by our spiritual master as our service to him or a place of service, prabhu-datta deśa, we may sometimes be in an opulent situation materially or in an austere situation materially. But the devotee is not disturbed in either situation, because he is not there to enjoy or renounce. How can he enjoy something that doesn’t belong to him? That would be criminal. And how can he renounce something that doesn’t belong to him? That would be absurd. Like Srila Prabhupada says, if someone says “I renounce the Golden Gate Bridge” what is the meaning of that? You don’t own it; what is the meaning of your renouncing? So we cannot renounce something that doesn’t belong to us, and we can’t enjoy something that doesn’t belong to us. So this enjoyment and renunciation, bhoga and tyāga, they have no place in the life of a devotee. A devotee’s life is only service to Krishna. And serving Krishna, of course, means with the goal to please Him, and to please Him we have to know what He wants. And therefore, we read books like the Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, so many other books that tell us what Krishna wants. And in the Bhagavad-gītā, Krishna Himself tells us. Of course, the present verse is describing a mahatma, but indirectly the verse tells us what pleases Krishna.

By definition, a mahatma is someone who pleases Krishna, and so one qualification is that he is always thinking of Krishna, his mind is always on Krishna, that is Krishna consciousness. We are meant to cultivate that consciousness in all of our activities,

śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ

smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam

arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ

sakhyam ātma-nivedanam

Whatever the different activity is, we are meant to do it in consciousness of Krishna. Srila Prabhupada devised a program in India called “The Life Membership Program” whereby life members would contribute a certain amount, and they would get a set of Srila Prabhupada’s books, they would get a subscription to Back to Godhead Magazine, they would get the facility to stay in our guest facilities. So Srila Prabhupada explained, in relation to the basic principle of vidhi-sādhana-bhakti, that one should always remember Krishna, never forget Him. So he explained, that to always remember Krishna, never forget Him, we must chant at least sixteen rounds daily. And he said that of all the regulative principles, the spiritual master’s instruction to chance sixteen rounds daily was most essential. But then he also said that we have other activities in the Krishna consciousness movement such as distributing books and making life members, and in those activities too, the goal is to always remember Krishna and never forget Him. These are not ordinary activities because in the course of these activities, our goal is to serve Krishna and please Krishna. And so we think of Krishna when we go out to distribute His books or enroll life members, or whatever the service is related to the spread of the Krishna consciousness movement. But still, although all service is absolute, there are varieties of service and Srila Prabhupada distinguished, that although all the activities in Krishna consciousness are meant for remembering Krishna, but still to actually remember Krishna we have to chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra.

When we were traveling with Srila Prabhupada in India, when Srila Prabhupada first returned to India with some disciples from America, we didn’t really have any major centers established in India. So one western young man somehow met up with the group and started to travel with us, and it wasn’t very common for westerners to go to India then; and he was a nice fellow. But one day he asked Srila Prabhupada that, “If all service is absolute, why do we have to chant sixteen rounds?” And then he said, “Suppose it is late at night and I haven’t finished my rounds and some gentleman comes and he could become a life member, should I stop chanting my rounds and make him a life member? If all the service is absolute, why do I have to chant sixteen rounds?” So Srila Prabhupada explained, but somehow the boy was a little stubborn on this point, he just kept insisting on the same point. And finally, Srila Prabhupada said, “Why do you have to chant sixteen rounds? Because the Supreme Personality of Godhead wants you to chance sixteen rounds!” And then he said “If it is late at night and someone comes, you can make him a life member and you can still stay up and finish your rounds. Why are you so anxious for sleeping?” But then he said, and this is just to emphasize the point of the sixteen rounds, then he said, “If you are so interested in sleeping, you can eat and sleep all day long but you must chant sixteen rounds.” And then he looked at all the other devotees and he said, “This is a special prerogative for him.”

So it is true; all service is absolute. And definitely, when a devotee is transcendentally situated, he sees only Krishna and Krishna’s service. But being conditioned souls, coming from the material environment, we have to maintain a balance in our activity so that we can always remember Krishna and not forget Him. And part of that balance is to chant the Hare Krishna, maha-mantra along with surrendering service. Actually, the two go together; chanting Hare Krishna and rendering service. We can’t just chant all day long like Haridasa Thakura without engaging in practical service. But at the same time if we just engage in practical service and never chant, we won’t be able to maintain our Krishna consciousness and then our consciousness will become mundane and instead of doing the activities for Krishna, we want to do them for ourselves. So we do both and then the chanting inspires us in our practical service, but also to do our practical service nicely, we know we have to chant. So the two go together and, in fact, the chanting is a prayer to the Lord: “Oh Lord, oh energy of the Lord, Krishna, please engage me in your service.” So when we are chanting, we are praying for service. So when Krishna gives us service, we should accept it gladly, gracefully.

One Sunday morning walk in Juhu, His Holiness Lokanath Swami asked Srila Prabhupada, “Why have you prescribed sixteen rounds?” Prabhupada said, “Not sixteen rounds, minimum sixteen rounds. If you can chant sixteen thousand, it is welcomed.” So then Lokanath Swami said, “But some devotees have prescribed for themselves minimum twenty rounds or more.” So Srila Prabhupada said, “Well, who is stopping them? That is welcomed.” So Lokanath Swami was saying, “But you prescribed sixteen minimum and they are prescribing some other minimum.” And Prabhupada said, “That is fine, you can increase from sixteen but you can’t decrease.” So then Lokanath Swami said, “How do we know if we are imitating Haridasa Thakura or following in his footsteps?” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “Imitation is also good. If you are imitating Haridasa Thakura that is also good.” But you cannot refuse service. If someone approaches you, some temple authority approaches you and says there is some service to be done and you say, “I can’t do that service, I am busy imitating Haridasa Thakura,” Prabhupada said, “that is not good.” So we have to be sincere; ultimately it comes down to being sincere and chant the holy name, hear kṛṣṇa-kathā and render service, sevonmukhe hi jihvādau, by rendering service. And chanting is also service, sevonmukhe hi jihvādau, beginning with the tongue, svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ, Krishna reveals Himself.

I will conclude. Vaisesika Prabhu related one incident in which a devotee was discussing with Srila Prabhupada, what is the most important verse in the Vedic scriptures? And the devotees said, “harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam,” and Srila Prabhupada said, yasya deve parā bhaktir yathā deve tathā gurau. Of course both are true; there is no doubt, but yasya deve parā bhaktir, that verse means one who has implicit faith in both the Lord and the spiritual master, to him all the truths of the Vedas are revealed. In other words, it is Krishna; Krishna reveals Himself, svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ. So that is really the conclusion; that we should be ready to do anything for the service of guru and Krishna. Of course, under ordinary circumstances, we should always chant, kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ, and at the same time do service. But ultimately, there should be no conditions. Whatever in the world Krishna wants, I am prepared to do. And in that mood, Krishna will reveal Himself. Hare Krishna.

So, I believe we have about five minutes. Are there any questions or comments? Yes, what is your name?

Devotee: My name is Dikshit. The question is, can you (Unintelligible 00:48:15) Krishna while working or while studying or in job, yes, we chant sixteen rounds, when we go out we need to deal with many people, we need to study many of the things that are not directly related to Krishna. How do you see that in relation to Krishna?

Giriraj Swami: Well, I am sure you have experienced that when you chant japa your mind wanders. The same applies to when you do work; your mind is wandering. It applies to students when they are doing their studies; their mind wanders. The mind is always wandering, but we still study, we still work, we still chant. So when you are working or when a student is studying, what is the harm if their mind wanders to Krishna? It is wandering anyway, why not wander to Krishna.

Srila Prabhupada has one disciple named Alfred Ford, the great grandson of Henry Ford, and he was a brahmachari for a while; came to Bombay with Srila Prabhupada and was serving. The first time I saw him I didn’t know who he was. I saw this new person wearing saffron, lifting the suitcases out of the trunk of the car and I asked who is this? They said, “That is Ambarish dasa, Alfred Ford. So after spending about two weeks in Bombay, he was going to leave and he was discussing his future with Srila Prabhupada. And he asked Srila Prabhupada what he should do when he goes back home to Detroit. And Srila Prabhupada told him that he should work, because he wanted people to know that someone can be a devotee and at the same time, live like an ordinary gentleman and work and have responsibilities and family. Of course, in those days most of the devotees were fully engaged in service in the temples. There were not very many who did have jobs and work outside, but he specifically wanted Ambarish dasa to sort of like bhoga and tyāga, so he was like Ramananda Raya in the story. And then Ambarish asked, “Do I have to work at the Ford Motor Company?” And Prabhupada said, “No, you can do any work; it doesn’t have to be in the family business.” And then he asked Prabhupada, “What do I do for association while I am working?” Srila Prabhupada replied, “If while you are working you are thinking, I am doing this for Krishna, that will be your association.”

So we just have to have that consciousness, not the activity so much but more the consciousness that we are doing it for Krishna. But it can’t be duplicitous that, “I am doing this for Krishna,” but actually within your heart you are doing it for yourself or your relatives. But genuinely, if you are doing it for Krishna, to keep your body and soul together so you can serve Krishna, to maintain your household so that in the household the family members can serve Krishna. Or if you get a little extra you can contribute to the deities or book distribution or festivals. Then it is genuine and then you are Krishna conscious, even while working. Yes.

Devotee: Many times, I hear you saying we need to go back home back to Godhead. So when we get there, do we do something different there? Do we derive more happiness there? What else we do there back home?

Giriraj Swami: That is a good question. Again, someone asked a similar question to Srila Prabhupada on the morning walk and Srila Prabhupada replied that going back to Godhead is a matter of consciousness; it is not really that you go physically from one place to another place. So a pure devotee, he is already back to Godhead; even if he is in the material world, he is already back to Godhead, jīvan-mukta. That is pure devotional service. Srila Prabhupada explained and I am quoting Srila Prabhupada because of the nice way in which he expressed things, but everything he said can be traced to scripture. I could give you scriptural references to support the things he said. So what I am going to say now is in the Third Canto, but as Srila Prabhupada put it, even while engaged in devotional service, one can be influenced by the modes of nature. So a devotee who is influenced by the mode of ignorance will think, I am the only real devotee here; everyone else is nonsense. Then one influenced by the mode of passion will think, I want to be the best devotee; I going to be known as the best devotee. And one in the mode of goodness will think, I want to go back home back to Godhead. The one who is transcendentally situated will think, I just want to please Krishna.

So to make any progress in spiritual life there has to be some influence of the mode of goodness, even if there is a lot of influence or other modes, there has to be some influence of the mode of goodness, because the mode of goodness is the mode of enlightenment, illumination. That has to be there to some extent. And so, we are in the material world, we are suffering and we do want to get out. It is not pure devotional service, but it is better than the people who want to stay in the material world and try to enjoy like pigs and dogs and camels and whatnot. So that is better; to want to go back to Godhead, for someone who is materially conditioned. But a pure devotee, he doesn’t even have that conception, “I want to go back to Godhead,” he just wants to serve Krishna, however Krishna wants.

Devotee: Thank you, Maharaja. One thing that I always think of, this life is so limited and you can’t understand ourselves properly because we spend most of our time in researching (Unintelligible 00:57:05). So, can you summarize the whole philosophy in one line?

Giriraj Swami: jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya — kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa’ You are the eternal servant of Krishna.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!