SB 2.3.17 – Following Mukhara Dasi—Attaining Eternal Life

Giriraj Swami: We read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Two. Please repeat as far as you are able.

TEXT 17

āyur harati vai puṁsām
udyann astaṁ ca yann asau
tasyarte yat-kṣaṇo nīta
uttama-śloka-vārtayā 

TRANSLATION

Both by rising and by setting, the sun decreases the duration of life of everyone, except one who utilizes the time by discussing topics of the all-good Personality of Godhead.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

This verse indirectly confirms the greater importance of utilizing the human form of life to realize our lost relationship with the Supreme Lord by acceleration of devotional service.

COMMENT

What does acceleration mean? Speeding up. So, according to this, we should speed up. We should speed up utilizing our human form of life to realize our lost relationship with the Supreme Lord.

PURPORT (continued)

Time and tide wait for no man. So the time indicated by the sunrise and the sunset will be uselessly wasted if such time is not properly utilized for realizing identification of spiritual values. Even a fraction of the duration of life wasted cannot be compensated by any amount of gold.

The ultimate end of Vedic knowledge is realization of the Personality of Godhead, Lord Kṛṣṇa, as stated in the Bhagavad-gītā (vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ). There is a guarantee of money’s being returned if given in charity, regardless of the proportion. Similarly, a moment passed in the association of a pure devotee by hearing and chanting the transcendental messages of the Lord is a perfect guarantee for eternal life, for returning home, back to Godhead. Mad-dhāma gatvā punar janma na vidyate. In other words, a devotee of the Lord is guaranteed eternal life. A devotee’s old age or disease in the present life is but an impetus to such guaranteed eternal life.

As a highly potent drug injected intravenously acts at once on the whole body, the transcendental topics of the Lord injected through the ear by the pure devotee of the Lord can act very efficiently. Aural realization of the transcendental messages implies total realization, just as fructification of one part of a tree implies fructification of all other parts. This realization for a moment in the association of pure devotees like Śukadeva Gosvāmī prepares one’s complete life for eternity. And thus the sun fails to rob the pure devotee of his duration of life, inasmuch as he is constantly busy in the devotional service of the Lord, purifying his existence. Death is a symptom of the material infection of the living being; only due to material infection is the living entity subjected to the law of birth, death, old age and disease.

COMMENT

And again, the conclusion.

PURPORT (continued)

A devotee of the Lord is guaranteed eternal life. A devotee’s old age or disease in the present life is but an impetus to such guaranteed eternal life.

COMMENT

So, the idea, as stated in the verse, is that by rising and by setting, the sun decreases the duration of life of everyone, that we know. But there is an exception. The rising and setting of the sun does not decrease the duration of life of who? One who utilizes the time in chanting and hearing about Krishna, a pure devotee. And how does that work? I mean, we see that as every day passes, our duration of life is decreased, we are approaching death. So, how is it that someone who is utilizing the time and hearing the topics of Godhead is not decreasing his or her duration of life? What is the explanation? Because it seems that everyone is approaching death.

Devotee: He utilizes his time?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, because the pure devotee who utilizes his life for chanting and hearing about Krishna, engaging in devotional service to Krishna, is not approaching death, but is actually approaching eternal life. So, Mukhara Mataji, she wasn’t feeling that she was approaching death. I mean, yes, but what she was feeling was that she was approaching her eternal life with Radha and Krishna. And she achieved that position by utilizing her time in chanting, hearing about Krishna, and rendering service.

And so, according to this verse and purport, all of us in the human form of life is. . . Are any of you not in the human form of life? All of you in the human form of life should utilize your time by following in Mukhara Mataji’s footsteps of chanting, hearing about Krishna, and rendering service to Krishna and Krishna’s devotees. And the result will be that you won’t die like ordinary people, but you will realize your eternal life with Radha and Krishna, and rejoin Mukhara Mataji in your eternal spiritual forms, and you will recognize her.

Srila Prabhupada has explained that this material life is like a dream, and realizing your eternal relationship with Krishna is like waking up from the dream. And in the dream, you imagine so many things; a tiger is chasing you or you are flying through the sky. And there are so many fearful situations. But when you wake up, you realize, “There is no tiger, there is no falling from the sky, everything is alright.” So, this material existence is like a dream, and when you wake up, although you forget your actual identity in the dream, when you wake up, you remember everything about your identity, “I’m so and so. I’m a son or daughter of such and such. I have to get up. I have to wake up, get ready for school or work or whatever my duties are.” We remember everything of our real life as soon as we wake up from our sleep.

So, as we’ve heard the wonderful descriptions of Mukhara Mataji, she awakened to her eternal spiritual identity and her eternal service to Radha and Krishna. And we all can experience the same result if we follow the same method with the same spirit. And even though our forms will be different in the spiritual world, Srila Prabhupada said we’ll recognize the people we knew in the material world. So, this is also very encouraging, very encouraging. We will be reunited in kirtan and sevā, and that is achieved primarily through the chanting of the holy names.

Devotees: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. I think unless someone wants to say something or propose something else, I thought of singing the Nṛsiṁha prayers. I thought of it last night, but it was late.

Devotee: Maharaja, [Unintelligible 00:17:38]. I mean, you’ll be able to see and understand who’s the previous. In your previous life as a human, when you get back to the spiritual world, whenever, you are able to make out your relationships with people in this life. [If they are there] So, is there any connection with this life when we get to eternal life, or is it also a relation of your previous life?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, that’s a good question. If our connection from the previous lives was based on Krishna consciousness, it could extend to the previous lives as well. But what Prabhupada said was specifically this life. More on that topic?

Devotee: Maharaja, you said that one who utilizes his life in the devotional service of Krishna and chanting Hare Krishna [Unintelligible 00:19:04].

Giriraj Swami: Well, the one reason is becoming Krishna conscious, and the essential processes for becoming Krishna conscious begin with śravaṇam, uttama-śloka-vārtayā, to be absorbed in hearing topics of the Lord. And what Prabhupada was saying in the purport is that if a patient gets an injection, the medicine will immediately act on the entire body. Although it’s injected in one particular point, it will act on the entire body.

So, he was saying that the transcendental sound of Krishna nāma and kṛṣṇa-kathā is injected through the ear. But although it’s injected through only one point—the ear, it acts upon the entire being. And so, he is saying that you begin by hearing, say the name, but that expands to realization of the form, the qualities, the pastimes, the associates, the entire reality of Radha and Krishna and Their associates in the spiritual world.

Another example that Srila Prabhupada gave, because sometimes we use the expression ‘the jaws of death.’ Have you ever heard of ‘the jaws of death’? So, it might appear that an ordinary person and a pure devotee both died. So, what’s the difference? What’s the advantage of being a pure devotee?

And Srila Prabhupada gives the example of a cat. A cat picks up a rat in its jaws, and that means death for the rat. The cat also picks up her kitten in her mouth, that’s how she carries her kitten, but that’s not death for the kitten, that’s just taking the kitten from one place and moving the kitten to another place. So, death for an ordinary person is just death, you are devoured by time. Whereas death for the devotee is just being carried by the Lord from one place to a better place. So superficially, the two appear to be the same, but in reality, they are very different.

Devotee: One last question.

Giriraj Swami: Well, you say it’s the last question. I don’t know if everyone else will agree, but you can ask your last question.

Devotee: How do we understand the pain of forty-eight thousand scorpions? Because when we see people many times, they departed peacefully or in their sleep or probably they were unconscious. And how do we understand this? It’s mentioned in the scripture.

Giriraj Swami: Well, if it’s an ordinary person, they may be passing away in their sleep, but their soul is conscious. Just to give a common example. Someone might be sleeping but they may be having a terrible nightmare. But you are just seeing they are sleeping peacefully on the bed, but they are actually having a horrible nightmare. So, that suffering of the soul leaving the body may not be perceived by us in the body because the body doesn’t have the physical strength to express what it’s experiencing.

In, I guess, medical terminology, there is a state called active dying. Active dying means that the body is shutting down. As they say, you are closing up the house to leave, so you turn out the lights, you lock the doors, turn off the water, turn off the electricity, whatever you do. So, it’s an activity that’s like active dying. So, during this stage of active dying, the person is shutting down all of its senses, and the last one to be shut down is the sense of hearing. So, even if the person appears to be dead to external stimuli, the sense of hearing continues.

So, we have to be very careful about what we say because sometimes ordinary people start saying things as if the dying person isn’t hearing because they think the person’s unconscious. But actually, the sense of hearing is still active and they can hear whatever nonsense you are speaking. But of course, it works favorably for devotees because they’ll be chanting the holy names and discussing the transcendental topics of Krishna so that dying person can hear that even at the end.

But for devotees, Krishna can take away the pain of dying. As I heard, Mukhara Mataji, she felt that the Lord was taking away her pain. The doctors were astonished, they thought that she should be feeling more pain. But the Lord was taking it away, out of His mercy. But usually, at the end, there is pain. And depending on the context, that pain is helpful to create a sense of detachment.

I know with my father, when he was leaving his body, I just wanted him to stay longer, so we could have more time with him. And he wasn’t experiencing pain, much pain. But then at a certain point, it changed and he was experiencing pain. So, even though I wanted him to stay with us, but when I realized that his staying would be so painful for him, I didn’t want him to stay longer and experience the pain, and I was ready to let him go. So, that pain at the end actually does serve a purpose, and even if someone’s attached to the body, the pain is such that it makes the person lose its hold on the body so it can move on to the next destination.

But it is a fact, and it was experienced by Mukhara devi herself, that the Lord took away a lot of the pain that she should have been experiencing, just by His mercy. Any other continuations of your last question?

Devotee: When a person passes from his body, not speaking in context of the devotees, otherwise, they get into a different body. So, is that an immediate thing, or they go to Yamaloka, and then they suffer?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, that’s also a good question. Well, the Bhāgavatam says that it’s just like you are walking and you put down your forward foot and you lift up your back foot. When the next body is ready, you give up the present body. But that next body can be a spiritual body in the case of a pure devotee, or it can be a human body in the case of a decent person. Or it can be eventually a lower form of life, if one has been sinful.

Now, we give the example that if you are a glutton and you just want to eat more and more and more and you don’t care what it is, you don’t make any discrimination, you can eat whatever you want. So, we say that Krishna will fulfill your desire in the next life. You can take birth as a pig, but no matter how much of a glutton you are as a human being, you are not ready to eat stool like pigs do. So, in that state, this is where the hellish punishments come in. You are taken in your subtle body and you are forced to endure many horrible situations which condition you, so that when you take your next birth as a pig, you like the taste of stool.

So, there may be a period where you are being conditioned by hellish punishments to take your next gross body. That punishment is inflicted on the subtle body. But whatever pain we experience, we experience in the mind, which is the subtle body.

Devotee: Are you saying that experience in mind is more painful than what we experience on a physical level?

Giriraj Swami: It certainly can be, because if the physical pain is too much, you just pass out, you become unconscious.

Well, thank you very much. It was a pleasure to meet you and hear your kirtan.

Where were we?

Devotee: The mind.

Giriraj Swami: So, suppose you are being beaten up. Your gross body is being beaten. When the pain becomes too much, you become unconscious, because your physical body can take only so much. But when you are being tortured in your subtle body, you can’t pass out and lose consciousness, there is no escape. So, that’s why the pain inflicted on the subtle body can be greater than the pain inflicted on the gross body.

So, we shouldn’t take chances. As Prabhupada says, the guaranteed process, the guaranteed result of eternal life is Krishna.

So, all right. Coming back to the Nṛsiṁha prayers, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura has given a good example of how to pray to Nṛsiṁhadeva. On the one side, we pray to Him to protect us from all the obstacles in devotional service, to remove all the obstacles, which can be internal or external. And he also prays to Nṛsiṁhadeva to protect his desire for devotional service. That his desire to serve Radha and Krishna becomes stronger. And everything depends on desire, ultimately. We want our desire to serve Srimati Radharani and Krishna to be strong.