SB 7.9.43 – Being Happy by Seeing Others Become Happy

Giriraj Swami: 

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

We read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Seven, Chapter Nine, “Prahlāda Pacifies the Lord with Prayers,”

TEXT 43

naivodvije para duratyaya-vaitaraṇyās

tvad-vīrya-gāyana-mahāmṛta-magna-cittaḥ

śoce tato vimukha-cetasa indriyārtha-

māyā-sukhāya bharam udvahato vimūḍhān

TRANSLATION

O best of the great personalities, I am not at all afraid of material existence, for wherever I stay I am fully absorbed in thoughts of Your glories and activities. My concern is only for the fools and rascals who are making elaborate plans for material happiness and maintaining their families, societies, and countries. I am simply concerned with love for them.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Throughout the entire world, everyone is making big, big plans to adjust the miseries of the material world, and this is true at present, in the past and in the future. Nonetheless, although they make elaborate political, social, and cultural plans, they have all been described herein as vimūḍha — fools. The material world has been described in Bhagavad-gītā as duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam — temporary and miserable — but these fools are trying to turn the material world into sukhālayam, a place of happiness, not knowing how everything acts by the arrangement of material nature, which works in her own way.

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni

guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ

ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā

kartāham iti manyate

“The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities that are in actuality carried out by nature.” (Bg. 3.27)

There is a plan for material nature, personally known as Durgā, to punish the demons. Although the asuras, the godless demons, struggle for existence, they are directly attacked by the goddess Durgā, who is well equipped with ten hands with different types of weapons to punish them. She is carried by her lion carrier, or the modes of passion and ignorance. Everyone struggles very hard to fight through the modes of passion and ignorance and conquer material nature, but at the end everyone is vanquished by nature’s laws.

There is a river known as Vaitaraṇī between the material and spiritual worlds, and one must cross this river to reach the other side, or the spiritual world. This is an extremely difficult task. As the Lord says in Bhagavad-gītā (7.14), daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā: “This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome.” The same word duratyaya, meaning “very difficult,” is used here. Therefore one cannot surpass the stringent laws of material nature except by the mercy of the Supreme Lord. Nonetheless, although all materialists are baffled in their plans, they try again and again to become happy in this material world. Therefore they have been described as vimūḍha — first-class fools. As for Prahlāda Mahārāja, he was not at all unhappy, for although he was in the material world, he was full of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Those who are Kṛṣṇa conscious, trying to serve the Lord, are not unhappy, whereas one who has no assets in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and is struggling for existence is not only foolish but extremely unhappy also. Prahlāda Mahārāja was happy and unhappy simultaneously. He felt happiness and transcendental bliss because of his being Kṛṣṇa conscious, yet he felt great unhappiness for the fools and rascals who make elaborate plans to be happy in this material world.

COMMENT

This is a very important verse spoken by Sri Prahlada to Nṛsiṁhadeva. It was one of Srila Prabhupada’s favorite verses, which he quoted often, and it establishes the line or the mood of the followers of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His associates and certainly, our more immediate predecessors; Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati and our Srila Prabhupada and his followers.

Most people come in the category of vimūḍha—fools. Again, I think of an interview of Srila Prabhupada with a newspaper reporter. And the newspaper reporter asked him, “Is it possible that one of your followers could have a difference of opinion with you on spiritual matters?” And Srila Prabhupada said, “No, it is not possible.” And the reporter said, “But what if someone did? What would you say about that person?” And Srila Prabhupada said, “Well, if someone did, I would say they were fools. It is not possible, but if someone were to differ with me on spiritual matters, they could only be a fool.” So, I mentioned this to a devotee who was with me at the time I heard the interview, and the devotee replied, “Well, that was a very straightforward answer.” And Srila Prabhupada was straightforward in general.

And here, Prahlada Maharaja is using the same word, which comes up in different places in scripture, vimūḍha—fool. Why are they fools? Because in the Bhagavad-gītā, Krishna says, “The material world is a place of misery, duḥkhālaya, and they are trying to make it into a place of happiness, sukhālaya, which is impossible to do.” Sometimes Srila Prabhupada would give the example, well, there is so many examples, but one is of the goat who has something that resembles a nipple, and the ducks who follow behind the goat, waiting for some drops of milk to fall from what looks like a nipple, but it is not, it is an appendage on the goat’s body, but it doesn’t really have any milk. So, these ducks are pretty foolish, they are pretty foolish, they are following a goat that has no milk, hoping to get some milk. So, in the same way, materialistic people, and we may also, being conditioned souls, have the same tendency. They are thinking they can get some happiness, some drops of happiness from the material world, but actually, there is no happiness here. So, it is an illusion, māyā-sukhāya. It is a place of misery, but they are looking for happiness, and their idea of happiness is māyā-sukhāya—temporary, illusory, flickering happiness. And generally, that happiness is sex, so-called happiness, which is expanded in varieties of manifestations, but that is what it comes to.

One of Srila Prabhupada’s earliest disciples, Bruce Scharf, who later became Brahmananda dasa, was studying English literature. His professor had given them a piece of literature to study, and then they were asked to give some interpretation or explanation of the motive of the characters. And Brahmananda Prabhu said to Srila Prabhupada, I think he was quite happy with himself that, he gave a spiritual interpretation of the character’s motives. But the professor had said that actually, they were impelled by lust, by sex desire. And Srila Prabhupada said the professor was right, that is basically what it comes down to, all these big arrangements. But that māyā-sukhāya cannot satisfy the soul because the soul is spiritual, and it cannot be happy in the material atmosphere. The soul is distinct from the body, and the body is just a machine.

So again, coming back to one of Prabhupada’s interviews with a newspaper reporter, the interviewer said that, “People are complaining that you are not doing anything for the world, that you are having so many young men and women join you, but they are not doing anything for the world.” And Srila Prabhupada said, “Well, it is a difference of perspective. They identify with the body, so they think that service to people is to put petrol or gas in the tank of the car. But what is important is not the car, the machine, what is important is the driver. The body is just a machine; the soul is the person who makes the machine work. And we are giving nourishment to the soul, but these people are so foolish or ignorant,” Prabhupada said ignorant, “They are so ignorant that they identify with the body, and they think that putting petrol in the tank is service to people.”

So this body is a machine. It has utility when the soul is in it, but when the soul leaves it, it has no use. And the interaction of these machines, of course, Krishna’s illusory energy is very powerful and enchanting, but on a certain level, it is just like two machines coming together. One of Srila Prabhupada’s disciple gave the example of two bulldozers, they have these big, I don’t know what you call them, to push the earth. So, it is like two bulldozers come together and their front bumpers, not bumpers but whatever, touch, and that is kissing, these two machines, two bulldozers coming together. But of course, as I mentioned, Krishna’s illusory energy is very enchanting and bewildering and beguiling. And so, one does get attracted and entangled. And then, for the sake of that pleasure, māyā-sukhāya, flickering happiness, so many big plans and little plans and so many burdens and responsibilities.

Last night, Nanda Kumar Prabhu who was Srila Prabhupada’s personal servant told a little anecdote that Srila Prabhupada asked him, “Of the four sinful activities, of the four regulative principles, which is the worst to break?” So, Nanda Kumar Prabhu thought, Well, taking intoxicants, indulging in illicit sex, and gambling are harmful to you, but not particularly harmful to others. But meat eating, that is taking the life of another creature, so that is the worst. So he said, “Meat eating.” And Srila Prabhupada said, “In a way, that is true. But in another way, the worst is illicit sex because illicit sex is the most difficult to overcome, duratyaya, and the most entangling.”

So, most people are helplessly entangled and suffering. Of course, sometimes, that is another trick of maya, that she has two potencies. One pushes us down, and the other covers us. So, that is also another illusion, that someone who is suffering thinks he is happy. And that is a question, “How can one determine whether one is happy or not?” But someone who is actually happy can see when someone is unhappy. And so, liberated souls like Prahlada Maharaja and our whole paramparā, Srila Prabhupada, they can see the actual position of people. Srila Prabhupada had another disciple named Sudama Vipra who came to India, not in the very first group, but he did come to India. And when Srila Prabhupada was traveling by train, often when he would get off of the train, people would gather around, large crowds would gather around and Srila Prabhupada would speak to them. So, on this occasion, a very large crowd gathered around Srila Prabhupada and his disciples, and Prabhupada asked for some of them to speak, and Sudama spoke. He said that before he came to India, he had a very romantic idea of what India was like. He thought that there would be lush forests and jungles and beautiful mountains and rivers and streams, and everywhere there would be yogis practicing meditation.

And then, when he came, he saw something completely different. So many big cities and even towns, so crowded, and people living in filth and squalor and poverty. And a lot of people just on the street, like, a lot of crippled people, deformed people, even lepers. And he said, “Actually, there are all these very wretched people living in these horrible conditions.” And then he said that a pure devotee like Srila Prabhupada sees all of us like that. We are all wretched and miserable and we are all in unfortunate conditions. And Srila Prabhupada commented that he has spoken very nicely. So, that is the reality, and saintly persons speak the truth of our condition, so that we can realize what our position is, so we can get out of it.

Now, how to reach that stage of liberation, of real happiness? That is described here, tvad-vīrya-gāyana-mahāmṛta-magna-cittaḥ, by chanting or distributing, preaching is really chanting, but for the benefit of others who may not be on the same platform, mahā-amṛta, it is like a great ocean of nectarean happiness. So, by chanting the glories of the Lord or distributing the glories of the Lord and being absorbed in that process, one merges into a great ocean of spiritual bliss. And one can do that anywhere, but especially in the beginning or in the case of almost everyone, in the association of devotees. But one can go anywhere. Srila Prabhupada came alone. Of course, he was especially empowered, but he came alone, and some of his disciples would go alone and establish Krishna consciousness in different places. So, in any condition, one can chant and hear the glories of the Lord and be happy.

Nanda Kumar Prabhu mentioned an incident that took place shortly after Srila Prabhupada left in 1978, where someone was killed outside the Juhu temple, on the temple premises. And Prabhupada had many enemies, or you could say there were many envious people, greedy people who wanted the Juhu land. And so, after that incident where the person died, there was a whole clique, like a whole conspiracy between the local municipal corporator and the police and the tenants. And so, it was all rigged really, but they had a line up, and then the widow of the man who died, she pointed out, “This one, this one, this one,” and she point out all the leaders of the project. And she even pointed me out, and I wasn’t even in Bombay when it happened, I came the next morning and I mentioned that, “Oh yes, okay, okay.”

So, she pointed out nine devotees, and these nine devotees were put in jail. And I would say the leader of them, they are all wonderful devotees, but the leader of them was His Holiness Sridhar Swami. So, he turned the jail cell into a temple, and they would have a full morning program, and all day long, there would be japa and kirtan, today. It was continuous, either japa, kirtan, reading, discussing. And they were having a great time. We were the ones suffering, running here and there, trying to get them out, but they were having a great time inside. [laughter] And when eventually we did get them out, the other prisoners were so unhappy that these devotees who brought so much light and happiness to them, brought Krishna, brought the light of Krishna consciousness, were leaving them. So, this is an example of how a devotee can be happy anywhere by absorbing himself and chanting and hearing the glories of the Lord.

And therefore, personally, devotees have no problem, personally, they are not unhappy because they can be happy by Krishna consciousness and they can be Krishna conscious anywhere, at any time, under any circumstance. They are unhappy because others are unhappy, para-dukha-dukhī. That phrase was used by Srila Raghunatha dasa Gosvami in appreciating Srila Sanatana Gosvami. And Srila Prabhupada, that is the mood of a devotee, the heart of a Vaishnava, para-dukha-dukhī. He feels unhappy in the unhappiness of others. So, it is a natural tendency when you are unhappy that you want to do something to become happy. Of course, materially what people do to become happy does not make them happy. And a few verses later, Prahlada gives the example of someone with an itch. These demands of the senses, these material desires are like itches, and people try to get relief by scratching them. And, initially there might be a little relief, but then it comes back worse, the itching is aggravated by the scratch.

So in the same way, the demands of the body, when we act to fulfill them, to indulge our senses, we might get a little temporary relief, but then they come back even stronger, these material demands and desires, and we are more miserable than if we keep them that way, we keep trying more and more extreme measures to find happiness, and none of them work. And then, we just become more and more entangled and degraded. But a Vaishnava, if he feels unhappy, he also wants to do something about it. And if his unhappiness comes from seeing others unhappy because of their vimukha-cetasaḥ, that is like they are turning away from Krishna, their aversion to Krishna, so they want to do something about it, and they do, they make plans, big plans. Prabhupada made very big plans, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura made very big plans how to make people Krishna conscious or at least give them the chance to hear about Krishna and awaken their Krishna consciousness. And that will make them happy, the recipients of that mercy, and it will increase the pleasure of the Vaishnava. It goes beyond his own personal pleasure, to the pleasure of seeing others happy.

Well, I just had a thought sitting down here, but I don’t know how accurate is because I am not that familiar with the medium. But I have heard there is a genre called reality television. And of course, this is a bit of a speculation because I don’t really know exactly what it is, but just from the name, I imagine that it is about ordinary people, people are not actors or engaged in acting a script but they are put in some situation and people watch how they deal with it. It would seem that what would be going on is people would be struggling. And struggling is another way of saying that people are, they are suffering, they are suffering and they are struggling to deal with their suffering. And this is a very popular type of television program, because everyone on the TV show is suffering, and the people watching the TV show are suffering. But the people watching it are getting a sort of pleasure in seeing that the other people are also suffering. They are not the only ones who are suffering but other people are suffering. So, it is like misery loves company. So, anytime they want, they can just turn on the TV and see people suffer, struggle and suffer, and then they feel okay, “I am not the only one.” So again, that contrast between different perspectives, this is para-dukha-sukhī. They are actually happy seeing the suffering of others.

It happens on the highway. The traffic becomes very congested, but actually, there is nothing blocking but there has been an accident on the side of the road, there is nothing on the road itself, it is off to the side of the road, but people slow down, as slow as possible, so they can get a good look at the mangled machinery, maybe the mangled bodies, the stretchers. They just want to look at that and sort of relish, in an odd way, they relish it and they think, Well, it wasn’t me. I am glad it wasn’t me; it was someone else.” So, that is sort of part of para-dukha-sukhī, they are happy in the misery of others. But Vaishnava is para-dukha-dukhī, he is unhappy in the unhappiness of others, and therefore, he tries to do something to make them happy. And that was why Srila Prabhupada came. Of course, he received the order of his guru Maharaja, but the idea was, as Prabhupada said, there was a whole generation of confused young people, and he wanted to make them happy. But that is true of people everywhere, as Prabhupada said, it is true of all people, in all places, at all times. There are just different varieties, different manifestations. But the condition, the material condition is such, people cannot be happy, there is just no way, it is just not built like that, it just doesn’t work like that. But because of that illusory potency of maya, people think others are happy. They are not, but others are, and if they just work at it some more, they will become happy. This is ignorance, it is ignorance.

Bhurijana Prabhu told a story in one class he gave of a man who had, I think he married nine times. So, he married once, he wasn’t happy, so got a divorce and married a second time. He thought, Okay, maybe this time I will be happy. He wasn’t happy with the second one, got divorced, took a third one, wasn’t happy with the third one, got divorced, got another one, wasn’t happy with the fourth one, got another divorce, married again, wasn’t happy with the fifth one, and so on. So, like that, up until. . . Yes, then I think at number eight, he got back together again with the number five thinking, Well, it didn’t work the first time around, but maybe it will work this time. Didn’t work the second time around, got another divorce up till nine. And Bhurijana Prabhu said that was his latest information, for all he knew it could have gone up since then.

So, this is one idea that people think, Okay, I admit I am not happy, I admit I am not happy, but it is just because I haven’t figured out how to do it right. I haven’t gotten the right person, haven’t got the right job, whatever it is. But if I do it right, then I can be happy. Now, that is another illusion that perpetuates the material endeavor. But someone else, intelligent person will figure out, “Actually, no matter what I do, I am not going to be happy here because the material nature is just constructed that way, that you can’t be happy, it is an incompatible situation, I am like a fish out of water, a fish cannot be happy out of water.” We are spiritual beings; we can be happy in the spiritual atmosphere not in the material atmosphere.

So, devotees go, they give this knowledge to help people, and when people take to it, they become happy and the devotees become happy. And therefore, His Holiness Indradyumna Swami coined a nice phrase from his own realization, that chanting alone is perfect, chanting with other devotees is more perfect, and chanting with other devotees in public is most perfect. And you can feel that pleasure, you can feel that pleasure. It is on two levels actually; you feel the pleasure because people are taking to Krishna consciousness and feeling happiness, but you also feel pleasure because our paramparā and the Lord are pleased, so we feel their pleasure.

And I experienced that very vividly on the Polish festival tour. Now, I had been thinking, which is also correct, I had been thinking that the reason the devotees are so blissful is because they spend so many hours out on the street doing hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana and inviting people to the festivals, and they feel blissful at the programs because they are chanting at the programs and preaching, answering questions, distributing prasāda, engaging people. But I had one experience that was just so vivid. As soon as I got to the festival site, I felt tremendous bliss. Just walking onto the festival site, I felt tremendous bliss. And I wasn’t chanting or hearing or preaching or serving, but just walking into that area, I felt pleasure because I could perceive that the Lord was feeling so much pleasure, the Lord and the acharyas were feeling so much pleasure. So, that is another level of it, that when we do this, when we make this effort, the Lord is pleased, our gurus are pleased. And by their pleasure, we feel pleasure.

One last little anecdote relates to our godbrother, Bhavananda Prabhu. When Bhavananda Prabhu was initiated and Srila Prabhupada gave him his name, he said, “Your name is Bhavananda, which means the bliss of the material world.” So, Bhavananda, not bhava, but bhāva. Bhāva means repetition of birth and death. So, Bhavananda Prabhu was thinking, “What does this mean? What is Srila Prabhupada trying to tell me?” So afterwards, he inquired of Srila Prabhupada, and Srila Prabhupada answered that a devotee’s happiness comes from Krishna’s happiness. A devotee has no way of perceiving happiness outside of Krishna’s happiness. And nothing gives Krishna more happiness than His lost children, the fallen souls, coming back to Him, that is His greatest happiness. And therefore, the devotee who gives Krishna that pleasure, the greatest pleasure that Krishna can experience, of His lost children coming back to Him, that devotee experiences the greatest pleasure. But that can be experienced only in the material world because the material world is the only place where you have fallen souls. You don’t have fallen souls in the spiritual world, so the material world is the only place that you can preach and bring fallen souls back to Krishna and give Him the greatest pleasure, and as a consequence, feel the greatest pleasure yourself.

So, our wonderful predecessors in our line and contemporaries like His Holiness Indradyumna Swami and others, they are experiencing that pleasure of giving Krishna pleasure by bringing souls back to Him. And a couple devotees put a beautiful quotation from Indradyumna Swami, framed on the wall of the prasādam hall. And I couldn’t quote it, but if you go to the prasādam hall, you can see it. But it reminded me of, and in a way, it might be a paraphrase of, a verse by Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati, yathā yathā gaura padāravinde, that by serving the lotus feet of Gaura, tata tata, I haven’t read that verse for a long time, but one’s heart is flooded with the love of Srimati Radharani, yathā yathā gaura padāravinde. So, that is our philosophy, and that is the realization of great devotees, preachers like His Holiness Indradyumna Swami, that by serving the lotus feet of Gaura through the saṅkīrtana movement, one’s heart becomes flooded with the love of Srimati Radharani. Hare Krishna.

So, are there any questions or comments? Yes?

Devotee: Thank you, Maharaja, for a genius class. My question is that our situation in the material world is that it is like we are swimming in the middle. We have left the pleasures of the material world, we haven’t really experienced the spiritual yet. So, in order to share with others, you feel short. So, what should we actually do?

Giriraj Swami: That is a very good point. In fact, I have so much faith in this process of association, because I actually had thought to mention that point in the class, but then as the class evolved, I didn’t, and now you have brought it up.

Our godbrother Vaisesika Prabhu who is another very exalted, empowered devotee, has been requested and is in the process of writing a book about Srila Prabhupada’s books and book distribution. And he described to me when we were together a few weeks ago that the book had different sections and different themes. And the first one was on sadhana, that the book distribution or the enthusiasm we have for book distribution comes as the overflow of the nectar or the bliss that we experience in our sadhana. Then it is very natural, it is like the overflow. You are so filled with nectar you can’t contain it all, so you want to share it with others. And that last visit, I stayed with him for one night, and I was with him for his morning program. And he really relishes his morning program; he does puja, recites a lot of slokas. But just relishing, just obviously tangibly relishing. And in that association, you also relish. So, we want to increase our realization of transcendental bliss. Of course, preaching itself you do get reciprocation, that is something else, but just on sadhana, the way to do it is to be very strong in your spiritual practices and to engage in your spiritual practices in the association of more advanced devotees.

I used to see that in Chowpatty. Of course, in those days, Radhanath Swami spent almost all of his time there. But the morning program was so intense. Everyone would get up, brahmacaris living very simply, get up and bathe, put on fresh cloth, go to the temple, the maṅgala-ārati, then japa. And the devotees would sit in circles in the temple room and chant really intently. And if anyone was nodding off, dozing, or anything, they would be there to wake him up and shake him up; really intense. We have japa retreats but, in that atmosphere you don’t need to have a seminar, it is just natural. That is what everyone’s doing. They are sitting together, focused on the holy name and, helping each other to focus on the holy name. And doing it in the association of others with the same intention, and especially, in the association with someone who has taste, you also get taste, you also get taste.

Now, of course, we don’t always have those circumstances. I know at Chowpatty they really made a point of encouraging the congregation to come at least on Sunday for the morning program, beginning from maṅgala-ārati, with the idea that if they experience it at least once in a week, that will give them impetus and inspiration and encouragement to do it on their own, or with their families during the rest of the week. And then they come back again on Sunday and get that encouragement. Or, once a year say that they have a major yatra during Kartik. Well, there is so many; the Polish festival, there is so many festivals in Europe, huge festivals. You could go from one to the other, it is like that, really. I just did a little segment last summer, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Hungary. And that was all I could do, but then after that there was Moscow, and it just goes on and on, it is just like you could just go to one festival after the other. So, to give us a special boost, come on Sunday.

In Durban they had a program during the school holidays that the college students could come, I think for three days, live in the temple for three days, it is like a very powerful experience. Or go on yatra, go to Vrindavan in Kartik, Vraja-mandala parikramā or VIHE, go to Mayapur, Gaura-purnima, Navadvip parikramā, MIHE, Gaura-purnima festival. Somehow or other, you have to make the effort, you just have to make the effort. Because that being caught in between, well, it is not bad, it is better than being fully in the gunk, it is better to be in between, but certainly better than that is to be more on the side of spiritual bliss, and this is really sadhana and more advanced association.

Yes, I was thinking of one statement that Srila Prabhupada’s godbrother, Bhakti Rakshak Sridhar devi Gosvami made about preachers. He made it in relation to gurus, he would say different types of gurus. One type, they have one foot in the spiritual world and one foot in the material world. Like a nitya-siddha, he is from the spiritual world but he comes and has one foot in the material world and he tells us about the spiritual world. Or even a sādhana-siddha, he begins in the material world but then he takes a step and is in the spiritual world. But then he said there are others, both feet are in the material world, but their sight is on the spiritual world, and they are also telling people about the spiritual world indirectly. That is also a quite advanced stage. It is certainly a legitimate platform for a preacher.

The problem is most people have two feet in the material world and have their sights in the material world. [laughter] So, we have to train ourselves to have our sights on the spiritual world. And that itself, puts us in the spiritual world, at least by our minds, we are in the spiritual world. But it all comes back to association with the devotees, with the deities, with the dhāmas, with the holy name, with the scriptures. And I dare say even with yourself. This might sound a little odd, but it is mentioned, I think, in the Eleventh Canto, in one of the purports, that when one becomes absorbed in Krishna consciousness, he can benefit or take pleasure in his own association. [laughter] Because he himself is thinking of Krishna, so his own association is beneficial.

Any other questions or comments? Yes, Advaita?

Devotee: Thank you, Maharaja. In the verse, it says he wasn’t afraid because he was absorbed. And we hear from Prabhupada, his main objection to the question [Unintelligible 01:17:04].

Giriraj Swami: Another very good point. Sort of like we discussed yesterday, that different instructions are relevant to devotees at different levels. So yes, Prabhupada said that his concern about his disciples was that they were not enough afraid of maya. But here, Prahlada Maharaja says he is not afraid of maya. So, on our level of spiritual development, we should be afraid of maya. In fact, in a way, we should always be afraid of maya. But what Prahlada Maharaja is saying is that he is happy, personally, because of Krishna consciousness, but he is concerned for others. That is a little different.

There was one story from London, that Srila Prabhupada, as I heard it related to me, Srila Prabhupada was speaking from the vyāsāsana, and he said that, “The difference between you and me is that you can fall down, and I can’t.” Then afterwards, Srila Prabhupada went up to the deities, he was praying to the deities, and one disciple asked him, “What were you praying?” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “I was praying that I may never fall down.” And the disciples said, “But you just said that you can never fall down.” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “Because I am always praying that I may never fall down, therefore I will never fall down.” So, that is there. Prabhupada said whenever he would go into some big man’s house, he would pray that he should not become attracted to the material allure of opulence. So, that is always there, devotee always feels humble and dependent on Krishna, fearful of material existence.