TLC – Japa Retreat—Siksastakam 05

Giriraj Swami: We are continuing our discussion of three successive verses of the Śikṣāṣṭakam, specifically with the intention of applying the instructions to our own attempts to chant the holy name and progress in Krishna consciousness. I will read the verse. Can we have the verse on the screen? We can repeat responsively, because each word is so full of meaning, it would be good to chant each word and read the synonyms.

TEXT 32

ayi nanda-tanūja kiṅkaraṁ

patitaṁ māṁ viṣame bhavāmbudhau

kṛpayā tava pāda-paṅkaja-

sthita-dhūlī-sadṛśaṁ vicintaya

TRANSLATION

“O My Lord, O Kṛṣṇa, son of Mahārāja Nanda, I am Your eternal servant, but because of My own fruitive acts I have fallen into this horrible ocean of nescience. Now please be causelessly merciful to Me. Consider Me a particle of dust at Your lotus feet.”

COMMENT

This translation is taken from the Antya-līlā of Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Chapter Twenty, in which Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself recites and relishes the meaning of the verses. So, I will just read the verses that surround this Text.

TEXT 31

In great humility, considering Himself a conditioned soul of the material world, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu again expressed His desire to be endowed with service to the Lord.

COMMENT

“Again” means in the previous verse, which we discussed earlier in the morning. He prays for ahaitukī  bhakti, but again, he is trained to be accepted as a servant of the Lord, as a particle of dust from the Lord’s lotus feet. But after reciting the verse, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says. . .

TEXT 33

“I am Your eternal servant, but I forgot Your Lordship. Now I have fallen into the ocean of nescience and have been conditioned by the external energy.

TEXT 34

“Be causelessly merciful to Me by giving Me a place with the particles of dust at Your lotus feet so that I may engage in the service of Your Lordship as Your eternal servant.”

TEXT 35

Natural humility and eagerness then awoke in Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He prayed to Kṛṣṇa to be able to chant the mahā-mantra in ecstatic love.

COMMENT

Lord Chaitanya, considering Himself to be a conditioned soul like us, has prayed to the Lord in the mood that we, who are actually conditioned souls, should pray. This verse is very significant, and we will discuss the basic clear meaning, or literal meaning.

Ayi, O My Lord, nanda-tanuja, of course, that refers to Krishna, the son of Nanda Maharaja, it is a very intimate term. Tanu means body, and aja means born, to be born in the body of Nanda Maharaja. So, he presents himself as the eternal servant of Krishna who has fallen into the horrible ocean of nescience. That is our constitutional position, jīvera svarūpa haya kṛṣṇera nitya-dāsa. Somehow, we have fallen into this horrible ocean. Viṣame is translated as horrible, it is related to the word Viṣama, which means poison, floating in an ocean of poison, or drowning in an ocean of poison, which is forgetfulness of Krishna, and the desire to be Krishna, to take the place of Krishna, to enjoy the material world. And he feels, and all of us, if we are honest and introspective, will feel, that we cannot get out of the ocean by our own strength and endeavor. We can only get out by the mercy of the Lord and His devotees.

And therefore, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is praying for the Lord’s causeless mercy. The word causeless is significant, because we cannot really claim that we deserve the Lord’s mercy. In fact, the very idea of mercy suggests that we do not deserve it, we have no right or claim, but it is given freely, causeless. But still, we make our efforts. Yesterday, someone asked the question, that if the mercy is causeless, then what is the question of our endeavor? What role does our endeavor play in receiving causeless mercy? We cannot force the Lord to give us His mercy, or demand that He gives us His mercy, but we can do things that will increase the likelihood that He will give us His mercy. And the two things that we can do or demonstrate are an eagerness to hear, and an eagerness to serve, and a general mood of humility and humble submission to surrender. But if we imagine that we have turned away from the Lord, forgotten Him, come into the material world, Kṛṣṇa bhūlīya jīva bhoga-vañchā kare, and thus come under the stringent laws of nature, we will feel repentant for what we have done, what we have done is very offensive.

In fact, one devotee shared with me the thought that everyone in the material world suffers disappointments in relationships. We all have relationships, or a desire for a relationship, that ends in rejection. And his idea was that we are experiencing something like what we did in relationship to Krishna. This is a way of understanding what we did in relation to Krishna. And so, for us to claim that we have any right over Krishna is very incongruous because we forgot Him, He didn’t forget us, we forgot Him in coming to this world and our parading as little imitation Gods and Goddesses. So, we can only pray for His mercy, beg for His mercy, ask Him to forgive us and accept us back. And we don’t really have any qualification or strength of our own. Although, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura said that this phrase, sthita-dhūlī-sadṛśaṁ, a particle of dust at the lotus feet of Krishna, reinforces the idea that we are meant to be at His lotus feet along with His other eternal servants.

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura raises the question, “Is it appropriate for a spiritual practitioner of bhakti-yoga to think about, or speak about the miseries of material existence?” And he says that in this verse, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu answers the question with a yes, it is appropriate. And we need to understand our unfortunate position in the material world in order to give up our false attachment, and to realize that it is not a place of happiness. The happiness we want will not be found. And he discusses this ocean of nescience, ocean of repeated birth and death, and he describes that our own anarthas; lust, anger, greed, and so on, are like ferocious aquatics with open jaws waiting to devour us, and there are tumultuous waves, thunderous waves. I am not good at imitating sounds like His Holiness Sacinandana Swami. We want to, or not? [laughter] Anyway, we are being bashed about by these waves, which are our own sinful desires and material anxieties. And then there are winds, very forceful winds that blow us in different directions, directions that we don’t want to go in. And those winds are compared to bad association. We don’t want to go in a particular direction, but some powerful wind just blows us there, and that is the power of bad association.

So, all in all, we are in quite a helpless condition. And in this floundering, drowning, helpless condition, we may see some bunches of grass or twigs floating together, and we might think, Oh, let me grab hold of that, but those bunches of straw, twigs, and branches, or whatever, they have no strength to support us. And that floating is compared to the processes of karma, jnana, yoga, tapasya, they don’t have the power to take us out of the ocean of birth and death. The only thing that is powerful enough to take us out of the ocean of birth and death is the mercy of Krishna, tāv-kṛpayā. And that mercy is manifest in a boat, and the boat is the holy name of the Lord. So, if we get in the boat of the holy name of the Lord, we can be carried out of this horrible ocean of birth and death. There are many verses in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and other places that describe the ocean of birth and death, and the boat by which we could cross the ocean. There is one beautiful verse in the Tenth Canto that we used to sing every morning in the Boston temple, somehow it was part of the morning program. And it was so touching, so touching to sing that verse and think about the meaning. And it really seems to describe what we were experiencing, having come to Krishna consciousness.

 samasrita ye pada-pallava-plavam

mahat-padam punya-yaso murareh

bhavambudhir vatsa-padam param padam

padam padam yad vipadam na tesam

That was the tune that we sang every morning. And Srila Prabhupada explained the meaning of the verse, that this material existence is like an ocean, and there is danger at every step. But for one who takes shelter of the lotus feet of Krishna, who is famous as Murari, the enemy of the Mura demon, that vast ocean shrinks to the size of a puddle contained in the footprint of a cat. Although there is danger at every step, the devotee crosses over it. It sounded so simple. [laughter] I guess in the way it is. And there are other verses in the Tenth Canto, in the prayers of the demigods to Lord Krishna within the womb in which they say, “Acharyas who have taken shelter under Your lotus feet cross the fierce ocean of nescience, but they are so merciful, and You are so merciful, that the acharyas leave the boat that they used to cross the ocean behind.” And because the Lord is always favorably inclined to His devotees, He accepts the method that they left to help the other devotees to cross the ocean.

And in the purport, Srila Prabhupada explains that he has left us certain instructions, specifically to chant sixteen rounds of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, and to follow the regulative principles. And he says, “These are bona fide instructions.” And the idea is if we follow those instructions, we will be able to cross the ocean of nescience, because Krishna will help the devotees, and help Srila Prabhupada in his desire that his followers should cross. So, there is a very intimate connection between serving the spiritual master and receiving Krishna’s mercy. Of course, serving the spiritual master means serving him in all respects; serving his desires, serving his mission. But specifically, we are discussing the most essential instruction, to chant sixteen rounds of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra daily. It is the one practice that we take as a vow at the time of initiation. And so, you could say that it is our basic service to our spiritual master. But as we have been hearing and experiencing, there is a matter of the quality of the chanting. And the quality should be without offense.

I was initiated by mail. I wrote a letter to Srila Prabhupada and asked for initiation, and he chanted on my beads and sent them by mail with a letter. And in the letter, he said, “You should chant sixteen rounds daily on your beads, and try to avoid the ten offenses. And your good godbrother, the temple president, will always help you with this connection.” So, that is such a basic instruction, it is, like, the core instruction, and that is the boat that will carry us across this ocean of nescience. And then Srila Prabhupada said, “Chanting is easy, but the determination to chant is not so easy.” It is sort of like ‘chant,’ ‘chant,’ ‘chant,’ ‘can’t,’ ‘can’t,’ ‘can’t.’ Maya will come up with so many reasons why we should not chant. Of course, there could be valid reasons, under a particular situation, but we must chant our prescribed minimum number of rounds.

Now, what we are dealing with, we have dealt with in the previous verse, and again, here is desire. What is our desire? Do we really desire? ahaitukī  bhakti? Do we really desire to be accepted as a particle of dust at Sri Krishna’s lotus feet? And if we are introspective, we will conclude, probably, that we have conflicting desires, or mixed desires. And this can be a problem. When I first joined, there was a devotee in the temple in Boston who would pray to Krishna, “Please keep me engaged in your service and the association of your devotees. And if I become bewildered by the material energy and I pray to you for something else, don’t listen to that prayer, but just listen to the prayer I am making now.” [laughter] One night, Jayadvaita Swami and I went to Spain, and we took rest together in one of the offices there, and he said, “When it is time to get up in the morning for maṅgala-ārati, do whatever you have to do to get me up. Even if you have to throw water on my face, do it. But you must get me up for maṅgala-ārati. And in the morning, if I tell you anything different, don’t listen to me, but listen to what I am telling you now.” [laughter]

So, this is our predicament. Yes, our hearts deepest desire is to serve Radha and Krishna. But because we are so conditioned, the senses and the mind and the false ego, we are so conditioned, that even if we decide that we want to surrender our senses and mind, especially mind, they may be lagging behind. Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu says that the mind is very slow. We may decide to surrender to Krishna, we may decide to get on the boat of the holy name and cross the ocean of nescience, but our mind is slow, it hasn’t caught on, it is still lagging behind and still thinking we want so many other things. So, we have to be persistent in our efforts, and goad the mind like a dumb animal, goad the mind along, because we may decide to surrender, but the mind hasn’t. So now, how to increase our desire? Of course, right in the Twelfth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Krishna says that the best is to be spontaneously attracted to Him, to be fully absorbed in the consciousness of Him, Krishna consciousness, but if we cannot do that, we should follow the rules and regulations of bhakti-yoga. Because by following the rules and regulations, we will develop a desire to attain Him. And, these are not really different answers, but they are different aspects of the answer. But another aspect of the answer is to hear about Krishna.

In the Tenth Canto, Lord Krishna says anugrahāya bhaktānāṁ,  “To show mercy to the devotees, I appear in the human-like form and manifest my human-like pastimes, so that they will be attracted, and develop a desire to serve me.” So, this is a very important practice. One that Srila Prabhupada built into the daily schedule of all devotees in ISKCON very early in the movement. And that was reading Kṛṣṇa book every night, Tenth Canto, Krishna’s pastimes. And by hearing about Krishna’s pastimes, we became attracted. I would hear the descriptions of Krishna; His cowherd boyfriends, herding the cows in the Vrindavan forest and thought, Wow, that is nice. I would like to go there; I would like to do that. And sometimes devotees ask, “Well, should we try to meditate on Krishna’s form and qualities and pastimes when we chant?” Generally, we say that our focus should be on hearing the holy name, but if in the course of hearing the holy name, remembrance of Krishna’s form, the qualities and pastimes arise, that is most welcome. And so, reading Kṛṣṇa book at night, or any book about the pastimes of Krishna or Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, even Srila Prabhupada, it leaves impressions in our consciousness. And then, the next morning, when we chant our rounds, if we are chanting nicely, it is relatively easy for that recollection of Krishna to come into our mind. Not by a separate artificial endeavor, but naturally, because that is what we have in our mind, because that is what we have been absorbed in reading about, or hearing about.

And another aspect to the answer is association. We discussed earlier in the morning the importance of associating with pure devotees. Srila Prabhupada quotes the verse saṅgāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ from the Bhagavad-gītā. He explained that association, desire, kāma, desire develops according to one’s association. And therefore, if we associate with pure devotees who are in this mood of wanting to be re-established in their constitutional positions as eternal servants of Krishna, we will develop that desire. So much depends on association. And this eternal servant, this phrase ‘eternal servant,’ that has a general meaning that is true of every jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya — kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa’ the eternal servant of Krishna. But this verse is related by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura to the advanced stage of progress called āsakti. And in āsakti one actually develops a desire to be established in a specific relationship with Krishna, specific mood, specific type of service. And that comes as we make progress. And again, the process is accelerated, or accentuated, by hearing about Krishna and associating with devotees who have that desire. Now, there is another point.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:42:17]

Giriraj Swami: Good point, good point. [laughter] Yes. Well, I have been so, what to say, enlivened by the encouragement of the organizers and the spontaneity of my co-facilitators, I completely forgot what time I began, and I didn’t even think of what time I should end. But I think I have basically said everything I wanted to say. [laughter]

Devotee: But there was one more point that we wanted to hear.

Giriraj Swami: I think I will save that point for another time. [laughter] Alright, since you insist.

Devotee: I insist.

Giriraj Swami: We have a special facility, which is the mercy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Srila Prabhupada, or Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s mercy, which has come to us through Srila Prabhupada. We have probably, well, we should all have read in the Ādi-līlā of Caitanya-caritāmṛta, that in the chanting of the holy names of Krishna, there are offenses to be considered. But in the chanting of the holy names of the Pancha-tattva, they don’t consider offenses very seriously. And therefore, by chanting the holy names of the Pancha-tattva, we can very quickly become ecstatic, and then in that ecstatic mood, we can chant the holy names of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, and by extensions, service to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Again, we can’t say that it will cause the Lord’s causeless mercy to come upon us, but it is a fact, and Krishna says the same thing at the end of the Bhagavad-gītā, that if one preaches this message, which is direct service to the Pancha-tattva and Srila Prabhupada, they will recognize us, and they will be inclined to bestow their mercy upon us. And that, I believe, is a real hope for us, along with our internal efforts, which have their ups and downs, to try to please the all-merciful members of the Pancha-tattva by spreading their mission, or spreading the holy name, along with minimum, chanting sixteen rounds, following the regulated principles. Otherwise, we won’t have the potency. And I feel that that is a special facility that we have along with all the other disadvantages, a special facility we have to get some causeless mercy from Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the Pancha-tattva, Srila Prabhupada, and paramparā. Hare Krishna.

Devotees: Hare Krishna.

Giriraj Swami: Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Sri Sri Pancha-tattva ki jaya!

Sri Nama Prabhu ki jaya!

Hare Krishna. [applause]