SB 10.13.16 – Establishing Vrindavan through Consciousness

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

We welcome you to the Sunday festival at Sri Sri Radha-Kalachandji dhāma. Those of you who were here earlier have the opportunity to see some dramas enacted by the children of the Sunday school here, and by the students of the TKG Academy. And one of the dramas depicted Lord Chaitanya’s journey through the Jarikhanda forest, which was filled with many ferocious beasts. But when Lord Chaitanya was passing through the forest, chanting the holy names of Krishna in great ecstasy, he inspired the animals in the forest (elephants, tigers, deer) to also chant and dance. And it is described that even animals who were naturally enemies, they forgot their enmity, and in the ecstasy of love of Godhead, they chanted and danced and embraced, and even kissed.

So, witnessing this scene, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu remembered a verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that describes the real feature of Vrindavan. And I shall read the verse and Srila Prabhupada’s very beautiful purport to it. Please repeat after me.

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

We read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Ten, Chapter Thirteen, “Brahmā Stealing the Boys and Calves,”

TEXT 60

yatra naisarga-durvairāḥ

sahāsan nṛ-mṛgādayaḥ

mitrāṇīvājitāvāsa-

druta-ruṭ-tarṣakādikam

TRANSLATION

Vṛndāvana is the transcendental abode of the Lord, where there is no hunger, anger or thirst. Though naturally inimical, both human beings and fierce animals live there together in transcendental friendship.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

The word vana means “forest.” We are afraid of the forest and do not wish to go there, but in Vṛndāvana the forest animals are as good as demigods, for they have no envy. Even in this material world, in the forest the animals live together, and when they go to drink water they do not attack anyone. Envy develops because of sense gratification, but in Vṛndāvana there is no sense gratification, for the only aim is Kṛṣṇa’s satisfaction. Even in this material world, the animals in Vṛndāvana are not envious of the sādhus who live there. The sādhus keep cows and supply milk to the tigers, saying, “Come here and take a little milk.” Thus envy and malice are unknown in Vṛndāvana. That is the difference between Vṛndāvana and the ordinary world. We are horrified to hear the name of vana, the forest, but in Vṛndāvana there is no such horror. Everyone there is happy by pleasing Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇotkīrtana-gāna-nartana-parau. Whether a gosvāmī or a tiger or other ferocious animal, everyone’s business is the same — to please Kṛṣṇa. Even the tigers are also devotees. This is the specific qualification of Vṛndāvana. In Vṛndāvana everyone is happy. The calf is happy, the cat is happy, the dog is happy, the man is happy — everyone. Everyone wants to serve Kṛṣṇa in a different capacity, and thus there is no envy. One may sometimes think that the monkeys in Vṛndāvana are envious, because they cause mischief and steal food, but in Vṛndāvana we find that the monkeys are allowed to take butter, which Kṛṣṇa Himself distributes. Kṛṣṇa personally demonstrates that everyone has the right to live. This is Vṛndāvana life. Why should I live and you die? No. That is material life. The inhabitants of Vṛndāvana think, “Whatever is given by Kṛṣṇa, let us divide it as prasāda and eat.” This mentality cannot appear all of a sudden, but it will gradually develop with Kṛṣṇa consciousness; by sādhana, one can come to this platform.

In the material world one may collect funds all over the world in order to distribute food freely, yet those to whom the food is given may not even feel appreciative. The value of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, however, will gradually be very much appreciated. For instance, in an article about the temple of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement in Durban, South Africa, the Durban Post reported, “All the devotees here are very active in the service of Lord Kṛṣṇa, and the results are obvious to see: happiness, good health, peace of mind, and the development of all good qualities.” This is the nature of Vṛndāvana. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇāḥ: without Kṛṣṇa consciousness, happiness is impossible; one may struggle, but one cannot have happiness. We are therefore trying to give human society the opportunity for a life of happiness, good health, peace of mind and all good qualities through God consciousness.

COMMENT

Seeing the animals in the jungle, in the Jarikhanda forest, chanting and dancing in ecstasy, and embracing and kissing and exhibiting transcendental friendship with each other, Lord Chaitanya thought of this verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. This suggests that Vrindavan can be recreated anywhere. Lord Chaitanya created Vrindavan in the Jarikhanda forest. As hinted in the last paragraph, the devotees in the Hare Krishna temple in Durban, South Africa, also recreated the same situation as Vrindavan by Krishna consciousness. Krishna consciousness means living together without malice or envy, simply for the satisfaction of Krishna. And that consciousness can be developed by sadhana, by the regulative practice of bhakti-yoga, which is taught by Srila Prabhupada in his books, and is followed by all of his devotees in his temples. That means every temple can become as good as Vrindavan if we develop Krishna consciousness through proper practice of sadhana. It is gradual, it cannot develop all of a sudden, but it can develop by practice. Practice makes perfect even in spiritual life.

And as Srila Prabhupada says, there is no envy in Vrindavan because envy develops because of sense gratification. In Vrindavan there is no sense gratification. The only goal is Krishna satisfaction. So, if we allow sense gratification to enter, then there will be some disturbance, but if we engage in devotional service without any motive of sense gratification, we will live in Vrindavan, we will not be in the material world. Srila Lochan dasa Thakura wrote a beautiful song, Sri Gaura Nityanander Daya (The Mercy of Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda) and he says that one should chant the holy names, mukhe bolo hari hari, one should be absorbed in the chanting without any motive of sense gratification, that is the only condition. And if we understand that we are not the body, we are the soul within the body, that the body is just an external covering of the soul, it is not really us, it is just a machine, so then, where is the question of acting for sense gratification? It is just a machine?

Once, one of Prabhupada’s disciples had the thought about kissing, that it is like two bulldozers. These are big machines with a bumper in the front, like a shovel, and it is like the two machines come together and they touch their bumpers, that is kissing. So, what is that? Two machines touching? But when we falsely identify with the body, we don’t need to elaborate, but we try to get some pleasure from the machine. And this consciousness is very different from material consciousness. In material consciousness, everyone is working for sense gratification, either personal or extended. Once, a newspaper reporter challenged Srila Prabhupada that, “You are taking your students out of the workforce. They could be contributing to society, but you are taking their intelligence, their energy out of the workforce, and thus, society is losing the benefit of their contribution.” So, the newspaper reporter was saying, “That is what people think. So, what do you have to say in reply?” And Srila Prabhupada said that, “The reason people think like that is because they are ignorant. They think that the body is the self, and therefore, they think that we should be serving the body.” He said, “Suppose there is a car and a driver. What is more important, the car or the driver? So people are thinking, Oh, you should be putting petrol in the tank of the machine, and meanwhile, the driver is dying of starvation. So, we are feeding the driver, but because they misunderstand and think that the person is the body, they think, Oh, you are not putting petrol in the tank. But we are feeding the driver, what is more important, the driver or the car?”

Another example he gave as the discussion continued, the reporter said that, “People say that you have a negative attitude towards work in the material world.” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “Again, the material world is like a prison. And in the prison, the prisoners are engaged in breaking rocks.” At least traditionally, prisoners would be engaged in doing hard labor like breaking rocks. “So, the ordinary people see the devotees, they are not breaking rocks, they are not contributing, they should be breaking rocks like us.” And Srila Prabhupada said, “But our service is to tell the prisoners that, “This is not your real life, this is not your real work. Your real life is outside the prison house. Your real work is not breaking rocks, your real work is chanting and dancing and loving Krishna.” So I don’t think that is negative, that is positive. If someone is a prisoner, and you tell him, “This is not your real home, and breaking rocks is not your real work, but you have another life outside the prison, which is a better life,” that is not negative, that is positive, we are giving them a positive alternative. But because people misidentify with the body, they miscalculate everything.”

Srila Prabhupada gave the example that if you perform a mathematical calculation, very complicated elaborate calculation, but if you make a mistake in the first step, even if you perform all the other steps perfectly, you may end up getting further and further from the actual answer because you made a mistake in the first step. So, if people make a mistake in the first step, and they think, “I am the body” instead of understanding that they are the soul, then if they do everything perfectly based on the idea that they are the body, they will end up getting further and further away from the solution, happiness; everyone wants happiness. And as I have mentioned recently, there have been many books written on the subject of how to find happiness because people have done everything that they were told would make them happy. They have gotten good educations, they have gotten good jobs, they have gotten qualified spouses, and they have made lots of money, and they have got good houses, and good cars, and gone on fabulous holidays, and everything that they were told would make them happy, but in the end, they found that they were not happy.

So, many studies have been done, research, experiments, “What makes someone happy?” And the result of the studies tells us that human beings are very poor at predicting what will make them happy. A Harvard psychologist wrote a book, Stumbling on Happiness. And that is the idea, that human beings are very poor at predicting what will make them happy, and therefore, if they become happy, it is something that they stumble on by chance. Now, very few people look for Krishna consciousness. Most people stumble on it. Many devotees, if you ask them a year or two or five before they came to Krishna consciousness, “Can you see yourself chanting Hare Krishna, dancing, and bowing down?” “You are not going to find me doing that, no way, no way. Don’t even think of it.” But somehow or other, by the mercy of the devotees who are making Krishna consciousness available, people stumble on it. They stumble into it, and suddenly, they find themselves happy. And sometimes they find that happiness in the midst of great difficulty or distress.

I will tell a true story about someone. She was actually born in India, I think, but came to the United States to study, and in the United States, was very much into doing what the other people do here; partying, drinking, eating flesh, and everything. And so, one year, she and her friends went to the mountains on a holiday, which really meant partying. So, they were in the smoky mountains or wherever, partying, which means drinking. So they had all been drinking, and some Hare Krishna devotees came by with books. So she asked her friends, “There is some Hare Krishna devotees, they have books. Do you want to talk to them?” “No, no, no, we don’t have anything to do with them, no, no.” And somehow, I don’t know, even after a few drinks, it came in her mind. So, she went up to the devotee, and he gave her a Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, and she gave him $20 and went back to her friends. She took the book home, put it, threw it, whatever, on the shelf in her closet, and forgot about it. And then, time passed, she got married.

Her husband, there are many details but, his father died. And so, he was supposed to get an inheritance, but when he went to India, he found that his siblings had cheated him. Somehow, they had transferred the house that was supposed to be his into one of their names, and they plundered the house, took all the furniture, everything out of the house. There was nothing left for him, except, they kept their grandmother’s Radha-Krishna deities. And they said, “Sorry, you can have this.” So, he brought the deities home, and said, “This is what happened, they cheated me out of everything, and they gave me this, my grandmother’s statues.” So his wife said, “All right, well, we will keep it, put it somewhere.” So, then things happened, and the wife went through a very bad period, and in the depths of her despair, she thought of that book, the Bhagavad-gītā. She looked in the closet, found it tucked away somewhere, and started to read it. And then the deities, Radha-Krishna. It is like Krishna arranged everything. Even though she wasn’t looking for it, it is like Krishna arranged it for her, and then, when the time was right, she stumbled on it. And since then, her life has just been getting better and better and better and better. She is a completely different person. Certainly, nothing like drinking or eating meat, but in other ways, she is just more peaceful, more happy, and yes, it improved her relationships with her husband, with her children, with everybody. She is just more peaceful and happy.

So, everyone in this room has stumbled upon the right place, and you have stumbled upon happiness, but the happiness may be in other people, not you. But if you follow the same process and associate with the devotees, then you can also become happy. In the early days of the movement in America there was some confusion. People didn’t know what the Hare Krishna movement was, and there were hippies, and they had long hair and were generally taking drugs and rock and roll and free love and everything. So there was confusion, this is like hippies in another dress? Another form of hippies?” And Srila Prabhupada said, “No, no. They are not hippies, they are happies.” [laughter]

So, this is the place where you can find real happiness. And to further illustrate the point that anywhere can become Vrindavan by consciousness, Deena Bandhu Prabhu, Srila Prabhupada’s disciple in Vrindavan who takes devotees on parikramā and is a resident of Vrindavan, he is a vrajavāsī now, after so many years. So, for a long time, he would not leave Vrindavan, but then he started to travel. One of the first places he came to was Durban. And so, Brindavan, Brindavan, the forest of Brinda. So, he said, “This is Durban. The furthest forest of Brindavan.” And any place can be Brindavan, Durban, or Nearban by Krishna consciousness. And that is the message of this verse and purport. Of course, the temple is Vrindavan, Krishna is the center, our home can be Vrindavan, the school can be Vrindavan, the workplace can be Vrindavan, any place can be transformed into Vrindavan by the consciousness. And that consciousness can develop by sadhana, by the same activities that the devotees perform here, discussing Krishna, worshiping the deity, honoring prasāda, and above all else, chanting the holy names,

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

Hare Krishna.

So, are there any questions or comments? Alex? Wait, the microphone is coming.

Devotee: Hare Krishna. Guru Maharaja, [Unintelligible 00:40:08].

Giriraj Swami: But, of course, Vrindavan has some special potency, but the benefit we get from Vrindavan will depend on our consciousness. Once, I was speaking with His Holiness Gour Govinda Swami Maharaja and discussing the five main practices of devotional service, panchanga bhakti, and explaining how I appreciated each of them and was engaged in each of them. And then I mentioned mathurā-vāsa, residing in Mathura, Vrindavan. And he looked at me in the eye, and he said, “Kamsa also lived in Mathura.” [laughter] So, living in Mathura doesn’t mean that you will become a devotee, you could be a demon and live in Mathura. But what Rupa Gosvami says is that if you engage in any of these five processes, even a little, without offense, you can very quickly awaken a dormant love for Krishna. So, it is true that the effects of one’s service in Vrindavan are multiplied a hundred times, or a thousand times, but the effects of one’s offenses are also multiplied by a hundred times, or a thousand times. So, it is a matter of our qualification for living in Vrindavan. If we can live there without committing offenses, then the value of our service rendered there is multiplied. But if we commit offenses, the reactions to the offenses are also multiplied.

It was Srila Prabhupada’s mood that we should take Vrindavan everywhere. We should not stay in Vrindavan for our own personal benefit. One year, on a morning walk in Mayapur, one of the sannyasis was saying how much he liked Mayapur. And Prabhupada said, “Yes. Now you have to go and make the whole world Mayapur.” And I recently heard a tape, it was an early talk of Srila Prabhupada in New York city, when he first came. It was a class, and someone was asking questions, and he was answering, but basically, he said, “I am always thinking about my Vrindavan. I am always hankering for my Vrindavan. Then why am I here? You might ask, ‘Then why are you here?’” And Srila Prabhupada answered, “Because I have been ordered by my superiors to come here and teach you what I have learned. Otherwise, I am not happy here, I am always thinking of my Vrindavan.”

Even years later, after I had been in India for three years and got jaundice and Srila Prabhupada said, “As long as Giriraj stays in Bombay, he won’t be able to recover.” So, eventually I went to Los Angeles. And one day, when I was feeling a little better, I was able to come out of my room, and I went up to Srila Prabhupada’s room. He was lamenting that he had to be so involved with management, and then he quoted a line from a song by Narottama dasa Thakura, viṣaya chāriyā kabe śuddha ha ‘be mana kabe hāma herabo śrī-bṛndābana. “When will I be free from viṣaya?” It means, desires for sense gratification. [Unintelligible 00:46:57], “Then I will be able to see Vrindavan.” And then he said, “Of course, it is not viṣaya, it is Krishna’s service. But still, I hanker for Vrindavan.” So, that was there, but ultimately, because he had received the order from the superiors, from his spiritual master in disciplic succession, he left Vrindavan. Of course, in the end he returned.

So, we do that. But to go periodically to Vrindavan, if one can get a spiritual inspiration, it is very good. And then, when one returns to one’s place or travels to different places, he can share with people some of the inspiration and realizations he or she got while in Vrindavan. Prabhupada established these centers for his disciples so they could come to Vrindavan and Mayapur and relish practicing Krishna consciousness in the holy dhāmas. Any other questions or comments? Yes, sir?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:47:49]

Giriraj Swami: Yes, Srila Sanatana Gosvami showed us how to approach a guru, how to inquire. It is one of the items of devotional service, to inquire, sādharma prictya. So, ke ami, who am I? And tryaitapa, why are the threefold miseries always afflicting me? So, it is like you go to a doctor, and you need to find out different examples are used in different ways. So if you are lost, you want to know how did you get where you are, so you can find your way out. But if you are lost and someone tells you the way out, you don’t necessarily have to retrace how you got there. So, it is not really contradictory, it is according to the circumstances. The real idea is that you shouldn’t delay getting out, that is the idea. If you need to know how you got there in order to figure out how to get out, then okay. But if you don’t need to know how you got there in order to get out, and you have a way out, you shouldn’t say, “Well, I am not leaving until I find out how I got here.”

Prabhupada gave the other example that you are drowning in the ocean, and a boat comes and throws you a life preserver and a rope and says, “Catch hold, come on, we are going to bring you on the boat, it is going to take you to safety.” You don’t say, “Well, wait a minute. First, I want to know how I got here.” [laughter] That doesn’t make sense. You get on the boat, and then, if you want to talk about it, you can talk about it.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:51:51]

Giriraj Swami: Yes.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:51:55]

Giriraj Swami: Well, the question was, “By what does one engage in sinful activities as if propelled by force?” And Krishna replied, “Lust.” But from your questions, I think not to avoid giving the answer, but I think what you need to do is take up the process more seriously, study the literature more seriously; picking up things here and there, which is good. It means you are listening, you are reading, but you don’t have a really clear understanding, and that can come by more systematically studying and reading, associating with devotees, and then it will definitely become clear to you. That is why we are here.

Hare Krishna.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Sri Sri Radha-Kalachandji ki jaya!

Nitai-Gaura, premānande Hari Haribol.

Devotee: His Holiness Giriraj Maharaja ki jaya!