SB 2.3.23 – Krishna’s Mercy Comes Through His Devotees

Giriraj Swami: We welcome you to today’s Sunday festival at ISKCON New Dvaraka, which is a tradition that has been continuing for at least forty-six years, established by Srila Prabhupada. Tomorrow we will be observing the Appearance Day of Srila Srivasa Pandita, who is a member of the Pancha-tattva, Lord Chaitanya in Five Features. And those of you who are familiar with the process of Krishna consciousness know that every time we chant kirtan, we begin with the Pancha-tattva mantra, śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda. So, śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda, srivasa refers to Srivasa Pandita, and ādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda means that he is the leader of all of the other devotees. And as we will read in today’s verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, to make progress in spiritual life, one needs the mercy of the devotees, and Srivasa Pandita shows us how to get the mercy of devotees. But for now, we will read about the principle enunciated in many verses in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, but we will read Canto Two, Chapter Three, “Pure Devotional Service,” Text Twenty-three. Please repeat after me.

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.

COMMENT

So, we will read more about devotees, but just to get a basic understanding of what a ghost is, according to the Bhagavad-gītā, which is the basic textbook of yoga, there are two categories of energies, the superior energy or spiritual energy, and the material energy or inferior energy. The spiritual energy by nature is eternal, full of knowledge, and full of bliss, and the material energy by nature is the opposite, temporary, full of ignorance, and full of misery. Now, within the category of the material energy, there is gross energy, we would say solids, liquids, and gases, and there are subtle material energies called mind, intelligence, and false ego. The Bhagavad-gītā explains that the body is like clothing that covers the soul, and just as we have our outer garments and undergarments, the outer garments are made of gross matter, liquid, solids, gases, and so on, and the subtle body is made of mind, intelligence, and false ego, that is like the undergarments.

Now, according to the laws of karma, we get our next life according to the activities of our present life and our thoughts at the time of death. But the body of a ghost is in a different category. People get the body of a ghost mainly by some unnatural activity such as suicide. Suicide is an activity that will result in one getting the body of a ghost, which is a very painful existence. Generally, someone commits suicide because he or she is very frustrated in life, very disappointed in life. In other words, the person has material desires that have been frustrated and so, the person commits suicide and God, Krishna fulfills the desires of the living entities. So the person didn’t want a gross body, okay, so he won’t get a gross body but he will have the subtle body. And all the person’s desires are conserved within the subtle body, within the mind, so the ghost has all the material desires within the mind but does not have the physical body with which to fulfill them.

Some years ago, there was a movie called Ghost, and devotees who saw the movie believe that the writer must have read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam because it quite accurately depicted the miseries of a ghost. For example, there is one scene in the movie where the ghost is on the train platform and wants to have a smoke. So, the ghost in that subtle form is, banging on the vending machine that sells the cigarettes but he can’t actually get cigarettes because he doesn’t have a gross body but he has the desire. And therefore, ghosts try to possess the physical body of someone else who has a physical body. So, they are in a very miserable condition and they create fearful conditions for others because they often are trying to get possession of someone else’s physical body so they can fulfill their gross desires, which are in their subtle body, through the other person’s gross body.

Now, when someone is possessed by a ghost, he will say things and do things that are not natural to him. And Srila Rupa Gosvami explains that the pure soul who has desires for material pleasure, sense gratification, or impersonal liberation merging into the supreme are like ghosts because the nature of the soul is to serve Krishna. Every one of us wants to love and be loved, and that desire to love and be loved can be perfectly and completely satisfied only in relation to Krishna, the Supreme Soul. So, when we desire anything other than to love the Supreme Soul and be loved by the Supreme Soul, we are like a person who is possessed by a ghost and has thoughts and desires that are not really his or her own. And these desires to gratify the selfish desires of the senses or even to obliterate one’s individuality and try to merge and become one with the Supreme, are completely foreign to our original nature as spiritual beings, individual souls who are part and parcel of the Supreme Soul.

Now, sometimes a person may be very attached to an inanimate object like a castle or a palace, and at the time of death, the person may be thinking of that palace but he can’t take birth as a palace, so he may take birth as a ghost within the palace. Therefore, many big mansions, castles are haunted by ghosts, by the previous owners who were so attached that at the time of death they were thinking of that mansion or castle and then took birth as a ghost in it. And usually, these haunted houses are put on the market for a low value because nobody wants to live in a house that is haunted by ghosts. But our spiritual master Srila Prabhupada said we could buy these mansions, and by performing kirtan, chanting the holy names, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, the ghosts will go away, so we can get a very nice castle to make a temple for Krishna at a very low price.

Now, coming back to the second part of the verse, most important part of the verse, so just to reread the last sentence from the other part, “The Lord never accepts any offering by such impure ghosts.”

PURPORT (continued)

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.

COMMENT

So, in the Bhagavad-gītā Krishna says, evam paramparā-prāptam, that, “One should receive the knowledge of yoga through paramparā.” Paramparā means literally ‘one after the other.’ So, the original guru is Krishna, and He has His disciple or disciples, His disciple has his disciple, his disciple has his disciple, and in that way, the perfect knowledge of the Bhagavad-gītā, of yoga, is passed down through disciplic succession. So, in the present age, well, from time immemorial, there have been four paramparās, and the one here, and this is special for reasons which we may discuss if we have time, but Krishna imparted the knowledge to Brahma, Brahma imparted the knowledge to Narada, Narada, by the way, incarnated in caitanya-līlā as Srivasa Thakura. So, Brahma imparted the knowledge to Narada, Narada imparted the knowledge to Vyasa, who compiled the Vedic literature, Vyasa imparted the knowledge to Madhvacharya, and in this way, it has been passed down through disciplic succession to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, his immediate followers, The Six Gosvamis, and through disciplic succession to Srila Prabhupada’s spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, then to Srila Prabhupada, and then to us, and now to all of you. And just as the knowledge is received through disciplic succession, service is offered through disciplic succession. The student serves the teacher, the disciple serves the spiritual master, who has in turn served his spiritual master, who has served his spiritual master and so on. And the service is conveyed through that chain to Krishna. So it is a perfect system, as long as one is connected to that chain. And it is as if that chain is reaching down from the spiritual world into the material world for us.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura says that the Lord wants to pick up the fallen souls who have descended into the material world. It is just like a person will reach down with his hand to pick up an object that has fallen. So, that hand is the devotee, the spiritual master, the disciplic succession. So, we will just read one more part of the purport.

PURPORT (continued)

Mahārāja Rahūgaṇa inquired from the great saint Jaḍa Bharata as to how he had attained such a liberated position 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.”

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. 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 the Lord’s lotus feet.

COMMENT

So, those of us born in America and other places would never have had the opportunity to come in touch with a pure devotee had Srila Prabhupada not come to America and traveled all over the world. And it is only because we had that opportunity to receive the dust from his lotus feet or in other words, to receive his divine instructions, that we have been able to engage in devotional service, and through disciplic succession that opportunity is available to all of you and you are taking advantage of that opportunity. And the most essential process of devotional service, especially in the present age, is the chanting of the holy names, but according to scripture, the holy name should be received from a pure devotee. It is not that anyone can just chant and you get that name from that person and get the same result. And Srila Prabhupada said that anyone who gets the holy name from him and then repeats the holy name, the people who hear the holy name from that person, it is the same as if they were receiving it from Srila Prabhupada. So, this holy name is very potent, it is coming from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who infused the holy name with his own love for Krishna and through disciplic succession to Srila Prabhupada and to us. So, we should take advantage of this wonderful opportunity and constantly, kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ, whenever possible, always chant 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? Yes. One, two, three. We will go from junior to senior.

Devotee: What is the difference between receiving it from an impure devotee and a pure devotee? And the mantra is opening the [Unintelligible 00:45:33].

Giriraj Swami: Well, receiving it from a quote, “impure devotee," who received it from a pure devotee is fine, but there are people who are not at all devotees who are chanting. Especially now, kirtan is very popular in yoga circles, and those people may not be devotees at all; that is different. But if you receive it from a devotee, it is fine. Hare Krishna. Yes?

Devotee: Thank you, Maharaja, for a wonderful presentation. You were mention that a ghost body is even someone who commit suicide. So what about someone who dies in an accident?

Giriraj Swami: It is not necessarily so that someone who dies a violent death will get a ghost body, it really depends on their thoughts at the time of death.

There was one devotee whose car stalled on the train tracks, and the train was approaching but naturally, he was, sort of, fiddling with the ignition, trying to get the car to start, and he was absorbed in that but he couldn’t get it to start, and then he looked and saw the train was bearing down on him and there was no way he was going to escape. So, he began chanting Hare Krishna. And then, at the last moment, he thought, “What will happen to my wife?” And then the train hit the car and that was his last conscious thought. Now, fortunately, he lived to tell the story but generally, if one thinks of a woman, in one’s next life one will take birth as a woman, or vice versa. If a woman thinks of a man at the time of death, she will take birth as a man, but there are many other factors. But it is not that because it is a violent death or a sudden death that one will take birth as a ghost. One could take birth as a devotee, one could even go back to Godhead, it really depends on the way the person has lived his or her life and the person’s thoughts at the time of death. Hare Krishna.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:48:38] What if somebody commits suicide because they no longer can stand to be away from the Lord anymore, and so the last thoughts of him dying from his own hand happens to be of Krishna and the desire to be with the Lord. If he has to take a birth as a ghost, will he be a devotee ghost? [laughter]

Giriraj Swami: Well, that is a very good question. [laughter Actually, Lord Chaitanya had a devotee named Sanatana Gosvami, who wanted to commit Vaishnava suicide by throwing himself under the wheels of the chariot of Lord Jagannatha at the time of Ratha-yatra. But Lord Chaitanya, being the omniscient Lord, understood the desire of Sanatana Gosvami and he told him that, “If I could obtain Krishna just by giving up this body, I would give up hundreds and millions of bodies, but you cannot obtain Krishna in that way, you can obtain Krishna only by pure devotional service. So, you should stay in your body and develop your devotional service and that way, you will attain Krishna.”

Devotee: Maharaja, thank you for a very beautiful, easy to listen to, easy to understand, crystal clear explanation of many questions of devotional service. My question is, what is it exactly, ideally that we are trying to achieve? In other words, what is the ultimate goal of devotees to achieve by accepting this philosophy and participating in this whole way of life?

Giriraj Swami: The ultimate goal is to develop love for Krishna and enter into your eternal loving relationship with Krishna. And that can be done even while you are on earth, it doesn’t mean you have to go somewhere to do it. But that is our goal, to awaken our dormant love for Krishna. Yes?

Devotee: I don’t know if this is in the ghost category although it might be, people like John of God who channel and heal lots of people, what is that?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, it is related to ghosts. There are people who have the ability to, you could say, communicate with ghosts, and they can get whatever knowledge the ghost has; if the ghost is willing to share it, can be given to that medium and he can use it for different purposes. I will take the opportunity to mention that tomorrow is also the Disappearance Day of Srila Prabhupada’s disciple, our dear godbrother His Holiness Sridhra Swami Maharaja. Sridhar Swami Maharaja ki jaya! And Sridhar Swami, he had hepatitis C and he went to Brazil to get healed. And he went to this. . . I think probably the same person, and there are many details but that John of God, because Sridhar Swami was a very spiritually advanced person, so he, sort of, wanted to use him as an example for his instructors and other patients. So, he had a meeting with Sridhar Swami and he asked Sridhra Swami, “What were you in your past life?” He was going to say what Sridhar Swami’s previous life was. And Sridhra Swami replied, “I was a worm in stool.” [laughter] Now, that was, like, a joke but it is also the humility of a Vaishnava, he doesn’t really think he was anything in his past life; he is no better than a worm in stool until his Guru Maharaja saved him.

So, when he said that, everyone cracked up and started laughing and it was, sort of, embarrassing for John of God. And then Sridhar Swami, being a kind-hearted Vaishnava, he said, “I am sorry, I didn’t really mean to make a joke of what you are doing but the fact is that I really had no value whatsoever until I met my spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada.” But yes, I mean, he said he could do, surgeries because he could get in touch with a surgeon who would let. . .

Devotee: Yes, the surgeon ghosts and the Swami ghosts, they can get in touch with [Unintelligible 00:55:05].

Giriraj Swami: Yes, whatever. [laughter] But the point is that this is all in the material realm, I mean, I discussed ghosts because it is in the verse and purport and we should understand there is the gross body and the subtle body and the soul, but what is really important is the soul. The other two are temporary, and the relationship of the individual soul with the Supreme Soul, which is the only thing that can really bring full satisfaction and bliss to the individual soul. So, that was our ultimate purpose, but thank you for that. Yes?

Devotee: Is ghost living with subtle body without the gross body?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, a ghost is a living entity with a subtle body, with gross desires, but without a gross body to fulfill them. There are other beings who don’t have gross bodies, they are more elevated than human beings, but they don’t have gross bodies. But a ghost is someone on the earth who has gross desires but no gross body, only a subtle body. Yes?

Devotee: You know, people like Eckhart Tolle, do you think he is for real or do you think he is being impractical and faking it?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:56:59].

Giriraj Swami: Well, let us take it off of the personal platform because I don’t know Eckhart Tolle, but let me ask you what does he teach and we will compare what he teaches to what the Bhagavad-gītā says, and then, on the basis of the standard of the Bhagavad-gītā, we will assess his statements.

Devotee: Well, he teaches about, like, [Unintelligible 00:57:42] a lot of stuff he grabs from the world religion. He also was grabbing from the Bhagavad-gītā as well. But anyway, he was really depressed for a really long time and he moved out of his house the house that he was staying in. He was living with his family for a while but then he moved out and all of a sudden, he attained this awakening and then he met some Buddhists; he stayed at a Buddhist monastery for a while and he started talking on Oprah and all these different personalities.

Giriraj Swami: Well, I don’t really know what to say about him, but if we want perfect knowledge, it has to come from the source of perfect knowledge, which is God or Krishna. And that knowledge is received through disciplic succession. So, if anyone, Eckhart Tolle, Oprah Winfrey, or anyone, is not receiving knowledge through the disciplic succession, then we cannot be assured of its authoritativeness.

And, we are on a very low level and when you are down, anything can look up, but there are degrees of up and the highest degree of up is Krishna and the spiritual world, and that is our ultimate goal and that is our ultimate home. And so, we should accept whatever is favorable to reaching that goal. I wouldn’t dabble in too many different things because it could just confuse you and you should really just come to the process that we want to follow and then follow it with our heart and soul. And if we don’t look here and there, like horses. They put blinders on them, otherwise they get distracted and they go off track. So, it might seem like we have a narrow vision but it is not. We actually can see everything and we know everything is going on, but when it comes to our spiritual progress, we remain focused.

There is one story in Mahābhārata. . . Anyway, there are so many wonderful stories, but the idea is that there was a competition and there was a fish that was hanging and then there was something turning under it and it was very complicated. And the different archers had to shoot the fish through the eye with a bow and arrow. And no one could do it. And then, finally, Arjuna, who was Krishna’s student in the Bhagavad-gītā, he did it. And afterwards, when they asked him, “How did you deal with the turning rods and this and that?” he didn’t see any of it, he said, “All I saw was the fish’s eye and I shot it.”

So, we should be like that. We should just see Krishna; that is our goal, and not be distracted, then we will reach our goal. Yes?

Devotee: If Krishna consciousness is supposed to ultimately purify our consciousness and bring us back to Godhead, then why do impure devotees exist?

Giriraj Swami: You are saying, if Krishna consciousness is meant to purify our existence and take us back to Godhead, why do impure devotees exist?

Well, it is a gradual process, it is like, if hospitals exist to cure people of their diseases and release them from the hospital, why are there sick people in the hospital? But the reason is, it may take time for them to get cured and released but ultimately, yes, that is the goal that they become cured and released from the hospital. Yes?

Devotee: During the class you reported that movie Ghost and that one little incident when the ghost was trying to get the cigarettes from the cigarette machine but he couldn’t. But people report sometimes seeing ghosts, and there are ghost stories where objects fly through the air, where people get the rattling and chains sometimes and stopping with these, and even in the [Unintelligible 01:03:25]. So, what was that?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, there is possibility for us to interact. I don’t know if you have had the experience of feeling a ghost. . . like when you are sleeping and a ghost is trying to get possession of you and then, you try to chant the holy name, Hare Krishna, and as soon as you can do that, then the ghost leaves. So, it is not that you can’t perceive their presence, but they don’t have gross bodies. But yes, we can perceive subtle things, certainly we can perceive subtle things. Yes?

Devotee: From my own experience, I have noticed that chanting Hare Krishna strengthens your physical senses but all the [Unintelligible 01:04:39]. Is it true that chanting Hare Krishna strengthens those senses? Because I have noticed that for me.

Giriraj Swami: Well, the chanting purifies the senses, and then when your senses are completely pure, you can see Krishna. Who to speak of other subtle beings, you can see Krishna himself. Okay, last, I guess.

Devotee: Maharaja, you [Unintelligible 01:05:20]. Are you going to speak tomorrow?

Giriraj Swami: Yes. For more about Srivasa Pandit and how to get his mercy and by his mercy get the mercy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, all the devotees can come or tune in to tomorrow morning’s class at about 7:30. And I think I will also speak more about our godbrother, His Holiness Sridhar Swami Maharaja.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

His Holiness Giriraj Maharaja ki jaya!