SB 2.3.23 – Sri Radhastami—Morning

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

I am very happy to be here on the auspicious occasion of Sri Radhastami in the presence of the beautiful Deities and devotees and His Grace Vaisesika. One of the offenses in chanting the holy names is to be inattentive and frankly speaking when I got here I was so happy to be in Vaisesika Prabhu’s presence I couldn’t focus on the holy name at all. I kept thinking about him but I was being torn and then by Srimati Radharani’s mercy I thought of how to reconcile the two and I began chanting for the Pancha-tattva in Vaisesika Prabhu’s heart and that was wonderful. [laughter] They seem to be fully manifest there and all Their mercy and glory. I don’t know how I will focus on the verse and purport but I hope for some mercy.

We shall a verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Two, Chapter Three: “Pure Devotional Service.”

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

TEXT 23

jīvañ chavo bhāgavatāṅghri-reṇuṁ
na jātu martyo ‘bhilabheta yas tu
śrī-viṣṇu-padyā manujas tulasyāḥ
śvasañ chavo yas tu na veda gandham

TRANSLATION

The person who has not at any time received the dust of the feet of the Lord’s pure devotee upon his head is certainly a dead body. And the person who has never experienced the aroma of the tulasī leaves from the lotus feet of the Lord is also a dead body, although breathing.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

According to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, the breathing dead body is a ghost. When a man dies, he is called dead, but when he again appears in a subtle form not visible to our present vision and yet acts, such a dead body is called a ghost. Ghosts are always very bad elements, always creating a fearful situation for others. Similarly, the ghostlike nondevotees who have no respect for the pure devotees, nor for the Viṣṇu Deity in the temples, create a fearful situation for the devotees at all times. The Lord never accepts any offering by such impure ghosts. There is a common saying that one should first love the dog of the beloved before one shows any loving sentiments for the beloved. The stage of pure devotion is attained by sincerely serving a pure devotee of the Lord. The first condition of devotional service to the Lord is therefore to be a servant of a pure devotee, and this condition is fulfilled by the statement “reception of the dust of the lotus feet of a pure devotee who has also served another pure devotee.” That is the way of pure disciplic succession, or devotional paramparā.

Mahārāja Rahūgaṇa inquired from the great saint Jaḍa Bharata as to how he had attained such a liberated stage of a paramahaṁsa, and in answer the great saint replied as follows (Bhāg. 5.12.12):

rahūgaṇaitat tapasā na yāti

na cejyayā nirvapaṇād gṛhād vā

na cchandasā naiva jalāgni-sūryair

vinā mahat-pāda-rajo-’bhiṣekam

“O King Rahūgaṇa, the perfectional stage of devotional service, or the paramahaṁsa stage of life, cannot be attained unless one is blessed by the dust of the feet of great devotees. It is never attained by tapasya [austerity], the Vedic worshiping process, acceptance of the renounced order of life, the discharge of the duties of household life, the chanting of the Vedic hymns, or the performance of penances in the hot sun, within cold water or before the blazing fire.”

In other words, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the property of His pure, unconditional devotees, and as such only the devotees can deliver Kṛṣṇa to another devotee; Kṛṣṇa is never obtainable directly. Lord Caitanya therefore designated Himself as gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ, or “the most obedient servant of the servants of the Lord, who maintains the gopī damsels at Vṛndāvana.” A pure devotee therefore never approaches the Lord directly, but tries to please the servant of the Lord’s servants, and thus the Lord becomes pleased, and only then can the devotee relish the taste of the tulasī leaves stuck to His lotus feet. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is said that the Lord is never to be found by becoming a great scholar of the Vedic literatures, but He is very easily approachable through His pure devotee. In Vṛndāvana all the pure devotees pray for the mercy of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, the pleasure potency of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is a tenderhearted feminine counterpart of the supreme whole, resembling the perfectional stage of the worldly feminine nature. Therefore, the mercy of Rādhārāṇī is available very readily to the sincere devotees, and once She recommends such a devotee to Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Lord at once accepts the devotee’s admittance into His association. The conclusion is, therefore, that one should be more serious about seeking the mercy of the devotee than that of the Lord directly, and by one’s doing so (by the good will of the devotee) the natural attraction for the service of the Lord will be revived.

COMMENT

The goal of every devotee is to serve Krishna and please Him, ultimately in the line of service or in the mood of service to gain admittance into the Lord’s personal association to serve Him. Now in order to achieve the Lord’s mercy we must first receive the mercy of the Lord’s devotee. We sing every morning yasya prasādād that by the mercy of the spiritual master one attains the mercy of Krishna and yasyāprasādān na gatiḥ kuto ‘pi, that without the mercy of the spiritual master one cannot make any advancement. One has no means for advancement or one has no standing in devotional service.

Recently I came across another verse that seemed to run parallel to the verse quoted: vina radha-prasādena mat prasādo na vidyate. This verse is spoken by Lord Krishna in the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa. Vina: without; radha- prasādena: the mercy of Radharani; mat prasādo: My mercy, Krishna’s mercy; na vidyate: no one can achieve. So the parallel between these two statements— yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo —suggests a connection between getting the mercy of the spiritual master and thus the mercy of Krishna and getting the mercy of Srimati Radharani and thus the mercy of Krishna. The connection is paramparā. Srila Prabhupada mentions in the purport that one can achieve the liberated position of a mahat or a great soul only by serving another mahat or great soul. The Bhagavad-gītā says, mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ, that great souls have taken shelter, are under the protection of the divine energy— daivīṁ prakṛtim —which means Srimati Radharani. So by taking shelter of the great soul who has taken shelter of another great soul who has taken shelter of another great soul ultimately who are under the protection of the daivīṁ prakṛtim or Srimati Radharani.

This is in a little more esoteric vain but Srila Raghunatha dasa Gosvami says that the spiritual master is seen either as a manifestation of Lord Nityananda, His mercy, or a confidential servant of Srimati Radharani. This connection with a great soul who is connected to Srimati Radharani is what will establish our connection with Krishna. There are so many verses both positive and negative. Positive, yasya prasādo: by the mercy of the spiritual master one gets the mercy of Krishna, and negative means yasya prasādād: without his mercy, na gatiḥ kuto ‘pi: one has no means of success.

In this verse quoted by Srila Prabhupada, it is again that vinā mahat-pāda-rajo—’bhiṣekam. ‘Bhiṣekam, that is abhiseka we are going to perform—a bathing ceremony—so the verse is actually saying without bathing oneself in the dust of the lotus feet of the pure devotee one cannot achieve a liberated position of a pure devotee. There are many others.

So it is positive and negative. Always remember Krishna and never forget Him. By the mercy of the pure devotee one gets the mercy of Krishna. Without the mercy of the pure devotee one cannot get the mercy of Krishna. 

The best devotee is Srimati Radharani. There is a whole paramparā that we serve our guru and he serves his guru and he serves his guru and all the way back to Srimati Radharani. As Srila Prabhupada mentions in the purport, Krishna is the property of His pure devotee and the pure devotee has the ability to give Krishna to us if we are sincere enough and eager enough. And that eagerness comes from the mood of separation or the mood of separation is the other side of eagerness that you are eager to serve Krishna, to serve Radha and Krishna, but we are not able to and therefore we feel separation, we lament in separation. Therefore Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu—actually beginning before Him was Srila Madhavendra Puri—but Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His immediate followers, the Six Gosvamis, and other associates, they all demonstrated that mood of separation in the worship of Krishna in the mood of separation. We can feel that mood of separation only when we have some attachment to Krishna and that attachment develops by hearing about Krishna, reading. We can become attracted.

Like Princess Rukmini, she had never met Krishna, but when Narada Muni or other great sages and saintly persons used to visit the royal palace, she would hear them talk about the glories of Krishna, the dealings of Krishna, the prowess of Krishna, and just by hearing about Krishna, her natural, eternal, dormant love for Krishna pervaded. Now of course Srimati Rukmini-devi is the eternal consort of Krishna in Dvaraka so it was natural that her love for Krishna would be awakened by hearing about Him, but each one of us has an eternal relationship with Krishna and therefore it is just as natural for every one of us to have our dormant love for Krishna awakened by hearing about Him. Nitya-siddha-kṛṣṇa-prema ‘sādhya’ kabhu naya: love for Krishna is established eternally within the heart. It is not something to begin from another source but our consciousness has to be purified—śuddha-citte—by the association of pure devotees and karaye udaya and that dormant love naturally awakens. 

So there has to be some connection and desire for association in order to feel separation. When we know someone personally we can feel separation. We, for example, met Srila Prabhupada, we saw him, we spoke with him, we followed him, and so we can feel separation from him, but even those whom never met him personally can feel separation by hearing about him and serving him. 

In the case of Krishna, as analyzed by our acharyas—Srila Rupa Gosvami and others—there are different categories of separation. One type of separation occurs when there is a physical distance say between the devotee and Krishna and that can be a big distance or a small distance or one can feel separation when one is away from Krishna for long time or for a short time. There are different categories. But one category is called pūrva-rāga. That is the attachment that devotees feel for Krishna before they have met Him. 

When we go to the spiritual world, when that fortunate day comes, we will take birth. . . I guess I should clarify a little. According to Srila Sanatana Gosvami and other acharyas, shastras, that when the perfected living entity leaves his body he doesn’t go directly to Goloka Vrindavan to associate in the eternal spiritual realm in the spiritual sky, but he first takes birth on the planet within the material world where Krishna is manifesting His pastimes. So he will take birth from a gopī in Bhauma Vrindavan, in Vrindavan on earth, and in Bhauma Vrindavan he or she, depending on what form, will hear about Krishna and by hearing about Krishna before meeting Him one will develop an attraction for Him and yearn for the opportunity to actually meet Him and serve Him in person. 

The eternal associates of Krishna are always roaming about Vrindavan looking for new candidates to serve Krishna. They are not trying to keep Krishna to themselves and keep us away. Like sometimes it happens, I am sure it doesn’t happen here, but in India we had the experience especially Radhastami or Janmashtami, “I want to do the garland,” “No, you get out of the way.” “No, I want to dress the Deities.” “No, no, you get out of the way, I want to dress the Deities.” [laughter] So it is not like that. Everyone is thinking how to welcome more people into the service of Krishna because everyone wants to increase Krishna’s pleasure and Krishna is pleased by devotion, by service offered with love and devotion by devotees. So they always want to encourage more devotees to come closer to Krishna and offer their loving service to Him. There is a beautiful verse about Srimati Lalita-devi that she is always roaming about Vrindavan looking for prospective gopīs who she can bring into the service of Krishna and therefore by her merciful glance. Her appearance day was two days ago. Lalita sasti is always two days before Radhastami.

So they are roaming about and they will find someone, “Oh, this young girl has taken birth. Let us tell her about Krishna.” And by hearing about Krishna very quickly that attraction develops because there is no [?]. For us to develop attraction may take time because our love for Krishna is covered more but there we have already taken birth because we wanted to serve Krishna but we just need further association and training. 

So, we take birth and we hear about Krishna and very quickly, hearing the description of Krishna was spoken with such love from Lalita-devi or different gopīs—Rupa-mañjarī, Rati-mañjarī—so we develop that desire to meet Krishna and serve Krishna. And that creates a feeling of separation because it is not that easy. You are there in Vrindavan with Krishna. Krishna is also present in Vrindavan. It is not that easy to get close to Him. Just to give a rough example, even with Srila Prabhupada, there weren’t that many devotees who were that close to him that they would just regularly meet him and speak with him. Many devotees tell stories of how they didn’t see him or they would just see him at the airport and they would want some little recognition and some glance or one word or two words. So, they hear about Krishna but it takes a while before they can actually get a glimpse of Him or hear the sound of His flute. And then whatever type of association they get it just inflames their desire to meet Him and serve Him and that creates yearning or the feeling of separation.

I know devotees who at a young age heard about Krishna and their parents were against. . . I am sure there are many, many examples but one was a devotee names Puri dasa who eventually came to Juhu and assisted me there, but he heard about the devotees as a teenager, and he was living with his parents in Scotland, and he really had very little chance to meet them, so he would just sit in his room and cry and wish he could be with the devotees or he would secretly phone them and get association on the phone. So that eagerness and feelings of separation are very purifying.

So there is a paramparā in the material world and even in the spiritual world and we have to be recommended to be admitted into Krishna’s association. We have to be recommended. There is a paramparā but ultimately Srimati Radharani, She holds the key to the gate. So Srila Prabhupada exemplified in a very poignant way this idea that Krishna is the property of His pure devotee and by the mercy of the pure devotee, by the goodwill of the pure devotee one can get Krishna.

This event took place in Madras in 1971, Srila Prabhupada had come for about a week, so much happened in that week. The Chief Justice of the Madras high court, Justice Vira Swami, he became very attracted to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna consciousness that he wanted to join the movement and take initiation. So he arranged a program for Srila Prabhupada, an outdoor program, to which he invited all the high court judges and advocates and prominent citizens of the city and they came in good numbers. In the course of Prabhupada’s discourse he quoted the example of the Six Gosvamis who were very highly placed in government service, very highly placed in society but who gave everything up to join the mission of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Tyaktvā tūrṇam aśeṣa-maṇḍala-pati-śreṇīṁ sadā tuccha-vat. So Srila Prabhupada was suggesting that they, highly placed people in society, they should also follow the footsteps of the Six Gosvamis.

So that was the talk and then after the public program Srila Prabhupada and the disciples went to Chief Justice Vira Swami’s residence for prasāda. The Chief Justice offered Srila Prabhupada a beautiful sandalwood garland. I don’t know how many of you have seen them but they shave very thin pieces of sandalwood and make them curl into flowers and then they make a garland out of that. I think he gave Srila Prabhupada some cloth, maybe a chaddar or some cloth, and a little silver figurine of Krishna. 

So Prabhupada sat down on a chair and all the disciples were sitting around him in the Chief Justice’s lounge and Malati was there with her daughter Sarasvati who was about three years old. Srila Prabhupada held this little deity of Krishna in front of him and he engaged with Sarasvati and said, “Look Sarasvati, who is this?” “Krishna! It is Krishna!” And then he very slowly moved the deity to his side and then without her seeing it, he hid Krishna behind his back. And then he said, “Sarasvati, where is Krishna?” And then she noticed that Krishna was gone. Then she became so alarmed, so concerned where is Krishna, she started looking, her eyes were darting all over. She was going up to the devotees and seeing if they had Krishna, and she was really disturbed with anxiety for where is Krishna. And then again, three-year-olds, their attention span is [short], so again, “Sarasvati, where is Krishna?” And again looking, looking, looking, going around checking the devotees, seeing if anyone was holding Krishna or hiding Krishna.

Then one of the devotees said, “Sarasvati, where is Krishna?” And the same anxiousness. And then the devotee said, “Who has Krishna?” And then like an awakening dawn in her consciousness and she said, “Prabhupada has Krishna!” [laughter] So then she rushed up to Srila Prabhupada’s seat where he was and he very slowly brought Krishna up from behind his back and held Him in front of Sarasvati.

It so perfectly demonstrated. . . he quoted the mood of separation of the Six Gosvamis: he rādhe vraja-devike ca lalite he nanda-sūno kutaḥ. He rādhe: O Radharani; vraja-devike: Queen of Vrindavan; he nanda-sūno kutaḥ: O Krishna, son of Nanda, where are You” ca lalite: and Lalita. “Are you on the banks of the Yamuna or are you at Govardhana? Where are you?” And they would roam all over Vrindavan loudly shouting. So this is the mood of separation and Sarasvati really got in that mood of transcendental anxiety to find Krishna. When her anxiety reached a sufficient pitch, Srila Prabhupada gave her Krishna. 

And our chanting is supposed to be the genuine cry of a child for its mother, for Radharani, “Mother Hara, please help me in achieving the grace of the Supreme Father Krishna.” His Holiness Niranjana Swami told a nice story that he was in the Boston temple and one of the devotees had a young child maybe four years old. And it was like that, the father would do deity service on the altar and he would hear the child calling for the father and no big deal. Everyone was used to it. It was no big deal. And then one day the child started to call for the father and the same thing as usual but then it got louder and louder and more intense and finally that child was shouting and then wildly screaming and when that child was screaming wildly then everyone took notice and began to rush like, “What is the matter?” And it turned out, with all due respect, that the child had locked himself in the bathroom and couldn’t get out. And so Niranjana Swami was making the point, yes, we chant, we call the names of the Lord, yes, the usual, everything goes on as usual, calling for his father and life goes on. But when it was really serious and he was shouting and screaming and wildly hysterically screaming, then everyone took notice and then they rushed. So that phrase, the genuine cry of a child for its mother, that is how we have to chant and when we chant in that mood then Radharani will come running and She will call Krishna and He will come running. Not quite like that but in broad terms They will come, They will reciprocate.

From the time I heard Srila Prabhupada say a genuine cry of a child for its mother, I always imagined, although I don’t think it is there in the test, but I just always envisioned a child at a fare or carnival getting lost and crying for its mother. So we have really, in other words, not at home, in some foreign place, we have actually turned away from Krishna. We have left our eternal home with Krishna and come into this mad carnival of material existence and we are lost. If we are really conscious of what our actual situation is, we are like a child lost in some carnival or fare and we are in a very vulnerable condition. One of the reasons a child screams is because he feels helpless, lost and helpless, and anything could happen without the protection of his mother, and that is actually the fact. Because of maya’s influence we are not always conscious of how vulnerable we actually are. We live in an illusion that everything is okay that even though we see calamities around us, even though we read about calamities in the newspaper and see it broadcast on the news, we always think it is someone else, “It is not going to happen to me.” So we have a false sense of security. 

As an aside I should mention our godbrother Narottama Nanda dasa who was the head pujari in Juhu for many years, his niece got carried away by recent flooding from Hurricane Irene and is gone, carried away, and has never been seen since. So anyway we can pray for that soul to come closer to Krishna. Somehow that soul had a connection with a devotee.

So we tend to think that, “We are okay, we are safe. Nothing will happen or if it does happen, it wouldn’t happen to me,” but we don’t know that. We don’t know that. So if we were really to recognize how vulnerable we are in this material body in this material world and we are like a lost child at a fare or a carnival or a zoo, we would really be crying out like a child for its mother because we are lost and we are in a very precarious situation without our mother and father’s protection. So, when we have that mood in our heart and chant in that mood then the Lord reciprocates, Radharani reciprocates, and all the devotees reciprocate. 

Now we are in a very fortunate position in ISKCON because we are engaged in the service of Srila Prabhupada and our guru-paramparā in the service of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who is Krishna in the mood of Radharani, that merciful, magnanimous mood of audārya and we, although we are maybe at different stages of development or levels of development, but we are engaged in the topmost service of glorifying Krishna. Just like the residents of Vrindavan, they are always glorifying Krishna and we can do the same thing here, glorify Krishna and distribute books that glorify Krishna—saṅkīrtana. In a way we are like Lalita-devi who is always roaming about Vrindavan, canvassing for new souls to serve Krishna. So we are also roaming about Silicon Valley looking for souls who can eventually come to the stage of rendering service to Krishna. We talked to them about Krishna but how much can we say in five minutes or fifteen minutes? So we give them a book that has hours of reading of glorification of Krishna and with exactly the same process. By hearing the glories of Krishna they can develop faith in Him and attraction for Him and ultimately the desire to serve Him and please Him will awaken. So we are actually engaged here in the same activities as the eternal associates of Krishna in the spiritual world. This is really special mercy. Those eternal associates of Radha and Krishna in Vrindavan, they also appear as associates of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and they serve Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who is Radha and Krishna—śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya rādhā-kṛṣṇa nahe anya—in the material world by saṅkīrtana. In fact it is very similar to saṅkīrtana in the spiritual world.

So we just have to give ourselves fully to these activities, to this process, because they are really not different from the eternal activities in the spiritual world. Sometimes as conditioned souls we have the materialistic idea that, “I will serve here for a while and then I will get promoted and then I won’t have to serve anymore. People will serve me.” But it doesn’t work like that. Our constitutional position is to be the servant and the more we advance the more we become the servant. Srila Prabhupada said that, “You become the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant of Krishna and the more you become (and he moved his hand like this) the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant, the more Krishna consciousness becomes sweeter and sweeter and sweeter and sweeter and sweeter.” 

That is actually related to another verse by Rupa Gosvami, bhukti-mukti-spṛhā yāvat. The idea is that desires for bhukti and mukti haunt the conditioned soul just like a ghost or witch. We were reading about ghosts and our acharyas comment that why does Rupa Gosvami use this word [tusakavarad?], “ghost” for these desires for bhukti and mukti. Bhukti means “material enjoyment” and mukti means “impersonal liberation.” And they explain that when someone is haunted by a ghost he thinks things that aren’t really his thoughts that are not his normal way of thinking. So they are not really his thoughts but they are ghost’s thoughts, the influence of the ghost on his thoughts.

Once one of our godbrothers said to Srila Prabhupada, “Sometimes these crazy ideas come in our mind and we don’t act on them, we don’t take them seriously, but sometimes horrible thoughts come in our mind.” You want to strangle someone you love. Pretty crazy thoughts. [laughter] Or you want to just jump off a cliff and end your life. These thoughts pass through our minds. Prabhupada said it is like that that ghosts can actually influence your thoughts like that especially if you have a weak mind they can influence your thoughts like that. 

So Rupa Gosvami uses this word because these ideas for bhukti and mukti are foreign to us. As pure souls we are eternal servants of Krishna. We have no desire for bhukti or mukti. We desire only bhakti, to serve Krishna with love, and so being afflicted by these desires is like being haunted by a ghost. In The Nectar of Devotion Srila Prabhupada comments on this verse. He doesn’t quote the Sanskrit because it is a summary study, but he paraphrases the verse and adds his own commentary. The commentary is paraphrased from commentaries of Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura and Srila Rupa Gosvami. He says that the desire to become more and more important, if one desires to become more and more important either in the material sense or the spiritual sense he cannot really taste the sweetness of devotional service. Sort of the converse that the more you become the servant of the servant of the servant the more it becomes sweeter and sweeter and sweeter.

So that is our natural position. Just a little after Prabhupada left I had this thought, it just came in my mind that everything that exists in the spiritual world also exists in the material world. Pride exists in the spiritual world so what is that pride, what is pure pride, what is transcendental pride. So I asked Pradyumna Prabhu, Prabhupada’s Sanskrit scholar, and he replied and I don’t know if he had asked Prabhupada or just come across it in his readings, but he replied that the pride of a devotee is that he is the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant. He is the last in the line. Like in the material world we want to become our boss’ boss and then that boss’ boss and then we want to become the boss of the boss of the boss of the boss and then we feel proud, “I am at the top.” But in spiritual life they want to be the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant—the last one. “I am at the bottom. I am at the very bottom. I get to serve everyone else,” because our only possession is service, our life. 

That is the implication of this whole section of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that our real life is devotional service. If you are not dedicated in devotional service we are like dead men, breathing, but we have the shell of the body but the real life which is devotional service is not there. So the more service we have, the more life we have, and the more masters we have to serve, the more service we have. So being the last in the line of servants of the servants means having the greatest number of masters to serve. It is just the opposite. Prabhupada said it is an inverted reflection, the material world is an inverted reflection of the spiritual world. Of course the top of the spiritual world is the bottom here. 

And so today is a most auspicious occasion for us, it is Srimati Radharani’s appearance day and She is who we are all serving ultimately. We are all under Her protection. Prabhupada explains that She is mahā-bhāgavata. Every mahā-bhāgavata feels that everyone else is serving Krishna except him or her. It is just the nature of the mahā-bhāgavata. So Srila Prabhupada said, “She is a mahā-bhāgavata. She is the mahā mahā-bhāgavata.” So She sees that everyone else can serve Krishna better than She does and so She recommends the devotees to Krishna, “Oh, look at this devotee. This devotee is doing such nice service. You should accept that devotee.” And then when Srimati Radharani recommends, Krishna cannot refuse. As they say in Varṣāṇā, “Whatever Radha does, Krishna likes, and whatever Radha likes, Krishna does.” [laughter] Today we are in the Varṣāṇā mood. 

We will end now and if there are any questions we will try to answer.

Devotee: Maharaja, I am sure you have seen your share of healthy and unhealthy competition. You mentioned in the beginning of the class something about competition and it sounded unhealthy. In the context you said that, “I want to put the garland on and I want to dress the Deity,” etc. And so there is a way in which devotees become attached to their service and want to do a particular service and there is intense competition. It seems that sometimes at the same time [?] spiritual competition and you indicated from the statement it is healthy and unhealthy. Could you help us outline our understanding of what is really healthy competition without even relinquishing one’s service all of a sudden and [?] everybody else should do it and not being attached to one’s service but at the same time having a healthy sense of where the balance goes. 

Giriraj Swami: Yes, very intelligent and relevant question and Srila Prabhupada did speak about the difference between. . . for the unhealthy competition he used the word “envy” and in the unhealthy competition one tries to make oneself look higher by making others look lower. Like someone will say, “Oh, do you see how So-and-so dressed the Deities. Wasn’t it beautiful.” And they will say, ‘Yes, but if you look a little closer, you will see there is a lot more than what you thought you were seeing.” And then you point out all the faults. And then the implication of that is that, “If you really look closely enough, it is not really all that good and if they would let me do it, I could have done it a lot better.” It is a way of putting yourself up by putting others down. Whereas transcendental competition is, “Yes, that devotee really did a nice job. I want to do better.” Do better means I want to please more. 

So say in the realm of book distribution, unhealthy competition will be, “Oh, so and so distributed so many books.” “Yes, well, but I know that that devotee went home and got some money from his parents and so he could pay for the books with his parents’ money and make it look like he was distributing them.” That actually happened once in Mauritius. [laughter] So that is unhealthy from whichever side. Whereas healthy is, “So-and-so distributed so many books. That is amazing, that is wonderful. I don’t know how he did it. I am going to really chant sincerely. I am going to ask how to do more and I am going to do better. I would do even better than that.” So that is transcendental. You are not minimizing what the other person has done, you are recognizing it and you are appreciating it and you are glorifying it but in the mood of increasing Krishna’s pleasure you want to do more even than the other devotee and that is healthy. That is transcendental competition.

As far as competition to do a particular service, it comes up with deity worship because there is only one set of Deities in the temple and Janmashtami is only once a year. But book distribution there is no limit. Any number of devotees can go out on book distribution and distribute any number of books. So there is no limit. That is bhāgavata-marga. With pañcarātrika-marga there are some considerations that can be a bit of a [challenge?]. Even in terms of cleanliness—so many things, time, place—but bhāgavata-marga, preaching the glories of the Lord, any number can do it under any circumstances. Transcendental book distribution ki jaya!

But I am sure you all have deep realizations on this subject. Would you like to add to what I just said?

Vaisesika dasa: I don’t have anything to add.

Giriraj Swami: Okay. We won’t force.

Devotee: Maharaja, in light of today’s topic of discussion that you said wanting to be the servant of the servant of the servant, receive mercy from [?]. There are a couple of verses in the tenth chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā, one of them is: teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam / dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ yena mām upayānti te. There the translation is, “To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.” So Krishna is telling that to Arjuna. Then in a subsequent verse He says, “To show them special mercy, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with a shining lamp of knowledge the darkness of ignorance.” Do we presuppose that from this type of understanding given by Krishna, to take away the darkness from someone, that one is already a servant of the servant of the servant and serving devotees, to reap this mercy from the Lord?

Giriraj Swami: That is also a good question. I would say that in the preliminary stage Krishna within the heart can give the seeker, if the person is sincerely seeking for Krishna but hasn’t had the association of devotees, Krishna within the heart can inspire the person to seek the association of devotees. Like brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja, the living entities are wandering throughout the universe, but when one is fortunate, by the mercy of guru and Krishna, one gets the seed of devotional service. Krishna within the heart sends the guru to you but Krishna within the heart inspires you to approach the guru or accept the guru. And then being the servant of the servant begins. If you are sincerely seeking, Krishna within the heart will give you the intelligence to begin the process of serving His servants.

Devotee: Thank you, Maharaja. You were talking about calamities and how we can overcome them? My question is that we hear about so many things happening around us but how not to get mental about it and yet continuing one’s service with a positive attitude?

Giriraj Swami: That is a very good question too. We were discussing the other day that psychologists have perceived a new type of anxiety disorder called environmental anxiety. In other words when people are actually aware of what we are doing to the planet, to the environment, to the ecology, they can get in anxiety about it, and then they get environmental anxiety disorder. So, if we are to be preoccupied with all the things that are going wrong on a collective scale and what could go wrong with us individually on a personal level, we could be very anxious, full of anxiety. But devotees are not for two reasons. One: they know they’re not the body. So whatever can happen, it is going to be to the body. It is not going to be to you. And the other thing is that they have faith in Krishna’s protection that Krishna will take care of the devotee or do for the devotee whatever is best for the devotee. And that confidence comes from the devotee’s awareness of the precariousness of material existence and the need to be under Krishna’s shelter.

There is a famous line, “Pride goeth before a fall.” So if you are proud of your own prowess then you can easily fall but if you are humble then you will be protected. Once I went to the printer in Karachi. We were printing Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gītā in Sindhi language. So there was the master printer and then there were other people in the print shop. This was in the old days of letter press printing. So there was one young fellow, when the master printer was showing us the press and everything, he ran and got us stools for the master printer to sit on. The devotee I was with, Sarvabhauma, said, “He will go far because he is rendering humble service to the master.” And then there was another guy who was sort of a little more proud and cocky and he was missing a finger because it had gotten caught in the printing press because he was overconfident. He was proud and cocky and overconfident. 

So if we remain humble and aware of our vulnerability and aware of our dependence on Krishna we will be under Krishna’s protection. It doesn’t mean that there won’t be any reverses in life but it means that whatever the situation is, we are under Krishna protection and we can use it in conjunction with Him for our advancement. Because sometimes something looks bad in the beginning from a material point of view we think it is bad but in the end it turns out to be good. If I asked every one of you to think of some really terrible thing that happened to you and then if any good had come out of it, a lot of times a lot of good comes out of things that we think are bad. Sometimes, to make us more dependent on Krishna, Krishna will take away some opulence or facility and, “Oh, that is terrible,” but in the end it is for our good.

But He knows what is best for everyone and sometimes it is good for a person’s faith or a person’s service to have more opulence, to have more facility so Krishna may give you more. But He will do that when He is confident you won’t misuse it for sense gratification. Like if He gives you something, you get carried away by it and forget Krishna then that is not good, but if He is confident that if He gives it to you, you will be able to use it for His service without being diverted then He can give it to you because He wants to give you facility to serve Him. He just doesn’t want you to get carried away and become distracted or diverted.

Prabhupada told the story of a man—I forget the name—but he was a pharmacist. I think his name was Bicham or something. So he was a pharmacist and no one was buying his product. He was so discouraged no one was buying his product and he was on the verge of bankruptcy. So someone walked into his store and asked for Bicham’s powder and he couldn’t believe it, “Someone has actually come into my store and asked for my product!” He got so excited that he finally got a customer that he had a heart attack and died on the spot. [laughter] 

So it is happening. I read it in the last whatever ten years since I have been in America about someone who won the lottery, the same, he was so excited he won the lottery he had a heart attack and died. 

So Krishna knows what we need and He knows what is best for us. We should have that faith. He is not going to give you a difficulty that is too hard for you to manage and He is not going to give you a facility that is too much for you to handle in your present state, but as you show yourself to be more reliable and trustworthy He will give you more and more. But there cannot be any duplicity. It can’t be, “Oh, so if I show I am trustworthy, He will give me more and more and then when He gives me a big facility then I will keep it for myself and enjoy it.” No, there can’t be any duplicity. That mood has to be constant because Prabhupada said his own policy was everything for Krishna and nothing for himself. So if we maintain that attitude then Krishna can gradually give us more and more for His service.

Devotee: Maharaja, we have a lot of competition of book distribution in different temples especially a lot of competition with different temples. So in that competition sometimes you do a lot of books and sometimes not. When it goes down is the competition healthier?

Giriraj Swami: Well, we hope it is healthy. If goes down and you are disappointed, if it is, “Oh no, we are not number one. Okay, I give up. I am going, I am watching TV. I have tried so hard and we are number three,” that is unhealthy, but, “They did that much! How did they do that? We got to do better. We got to rally. We can’t let them defeat us. We got to do better,” and that is healthy.

Devotee: Maharaja, I have a question. You mentioned the term kari udaye about reviving a situation. Because the process of devotional service is reviving our situation, is this kari udaye, is that a separate arrangement? I am not familiar with that.

Giriraj Swami: It is part of the verse nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-prema. Nitya means “eternal.” Kṛṣṇa-prema ‘sādhya’ kabhu naya: it doesn’t have to be or came from any other source. Śravaṇādi-śuddha-citte: by hearing about Krishna, one’s consciousness is purified. Karaye udaya: and then love which is already eternally established becomes awakened.

Akruranatha dasa: I was thinking about this point you were making about how the devotees are looking for others to serve Krishna, how different that is from material affection and attachment for someone that when we are in love with someone and if that person starts taking an interest in someone else we feel anxiety that there is competition, that maybe they are going to forget me. There is jealousy. So where does that come from in material affection and how is it so different in spiritual love?

Giriraj Swami: That is a good question too. When we talk about material affairs we have varnashrama-dharma which is meant to organize and regulate things in a way in which we can be relatively peaceful and happy to engage in spiritual life. So, it is the dharma if you will of the wife to be chaste and faithful to her husband. So, in the case of a devotee—I am not talking about ordinary people—for the husband or even father but say in this case for the husband to feel some anxiety that, “My wife is getting interested in someone else,” it doesn’t necessarily mean the anxiety is that my sense gratification is going to be disturbed but the anxiety could be that there could be a transgression of dharma that will create havoc for her for me for the children. So that is not wrong. That type of anxiety is appropriate I would say.

The girl goes out and she is out late. The parents are not exactly sure where she is or what she is doing and they are in anxiety. It doesn’t mean they want to possess her and control her and enjoy her. They are concerned about her welfare that she doesn’t get into trouble. So that type of anxiety that someone doesn’t get into trouble that is natural and it is proper. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also felt anxiety for the fallen souls.

Parama-karuna dasa: One of the offenses of the holy name is to instruct the faithless person about the glories of chanting Hare Krishna. [unclear]

Giriraj Swami: Unless someone has faith in the scriptures and the scriptures that teach about Krishna and the holy name they won’t believe what you say. So the first business when preaching is to develop faith in the person and when they have faith then you can tell them more. Usually begin by pointing out the defects of the conditioned souls and how if you want perfect knowledge you have to accept a knowledgeable authority. But we can engage them in hearing the holy name and chanting the holy name. That is not an offense. That is our whole purpose. We go out on hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana so that people hear the holy name. Prabhupada said when we go on hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana there is a vibration that knocks on the door of their hearts. So that is what we do and if they become inquisitive then you can explain more.

Lady: Hare Krishna Maharaja. [unclear]

Giriraj Swami: Spiritual means for Krishna. You could be tolerant and it could be maya. Arjuna was ready to let the Kauravas take the kingdom. He was ready to tolerate and Krishna said. “No, I want you to fight. I want you to rule.” So spiritual means what Krishna wants. The question is does Krishna want you to tolerate or does Krishna want you to take action. And that so-called managerial solution if it is what is going to please Krishna then that is bhakti. It is not material. It is spiritual. So it would seem from what you described that there should be something. Prabhupada said intelligence and organization, we might be a little intelligent, organization-driven but someone. . . like when you are driving on the highway, someone’s in the right lane, someone’s in the left lane. You have the right lane and the other person has the left lane. If he is cutting in front of you, it could cause an accident. So they should stay in their lane and you stay in your lane and you go forward and the other person goes forward. 

So, yes, I don’t say managerial is not spiritual. If it is for Krishna it is spiritual. Just tolerating and letting things go on isn’t necessarily spiritual either. It could be material. You don’t want to take the trouble, you don’t want to take the risk, just let it go on. We must do what is best for Krishna, for Krishna’s service. But it should be done in the mood of sympathy for the other person—that is the main thing. If there is hatred or anger towards the other person, that we don’t want, but if it is done with sympathy and maybe because you have been so hurt in your service by the other person it is hard for you to feel sympathetic, so then involve someone who will be able to deal with that other person with sympathy because it wouldn’t work if the person is not dealt with sympathy.

Vaisesika Prabhu thinks that we are ready for abhiseka. If he thinks we are ready it means we are ready. His thinking is not ordinary thinking.