SB 9.14.1–3 – Finding Happiness

Giriraj Swami: Canto Nine, Chapter Fourteen, “King Purūravā Enchanted by Urvaśī.”

CHAPTER SUMMARY by Srila Prabhupada

The summary of this Fourteenth Chapter is given as follows. This chapter describes Soma and how he kidnapped the wife of Bṛhaspati and begot in her womb a son named Budha. Budha begot Purūravā, who begot six sons, headed by Āyu, in the womb of Urvaśī.

Lord Brahmā was born from the lotus that sprouted from the navel of Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. Brahmā had a son named Atri, and Atri’s son was Soma, the king of all drugs and stars. Soma became the conqueror of the entire universe, and, being inflated with pride, he kidnapped Tārā, who was the wife of Bṛhaspati, the spiritual master of the demigods. A great fight ensued between the demigods and the asuras, but Brahmā rescued Bṛhaspati’s wife from the clutches of Soma and returned her to her husband, thus stopping the fighting. In the womb of Tārā, Soma begot a son named Budha, who later begot in the womb of Ilā a son named Aila, or Purūravā. Urvaśī was captivated by Purūravā’s beauty, and therefore she lived with him for some time, but when she left his company he became almost like a madman. While traveling all over the world, he met Urvaśī again at Kurukṣetra, but she agreed to join with him for only one night in a year.

One year later, Purūravā saw Urvaśī at Kurukṣetra and was glad to be with her for one night, but when he thought of her leaving him again, he was overwhelmed by grief. Urvaśī then advised Purūravā to worship the Gandharvas. Being satisfied with Purūravā, the Gandharvas gave him a woman known as Agnisthālī. Purūravā mistook Agnisthālī for Urvaśī, but while he was wandering in the forest his misunderstanding was cleared, and he immediately gave up her company. After returning home and meditating upon Urvaśī all night, he wanted to perform a Vedic ritualistic ceremony to satisfy his desire. Thereafter he went to the same place where he had left Agnisthālī, and there he saw that from the womb of a śamī tree had come an aśvattha tree. Purūravā made two sticks from this tree and thus produced a fire. By such a fire one can satisfy all lusty desires. The fire was considered the son of Purūravā. In Satya-yuga there was only one social division, called haṁsa; there were no divisions of varṇa like brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya and śūdra. The Veda was the oṁkāra. The various demigods were not worshiped, for only the Supreme Personality of Godhead was the worshipable Deity.

TEXT 1

śrī-śuka uvāca

athātaḥ śrūyatāṁ rājan

vaṁśaḥ somasya pāvanaḥ

yasminn ailādayo bhūpāḥ

kīrtyante puṇya-kīrtayaḥ

TRANSLATION

Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī said to Mahārāja Parīkṣit: O King, thus far you have heard the description of the dynasty of the sun-god. Now hear the most glorious and purifying description of the dynasty of the moon-god. This description mentions kings like Aila [Purūravā] of whom it is glorious to hear.

COMMENT

There is no purport, so we will continue to the next verse.

TEXT 2

sahasra-śirasaḥ puṁso

nābhi-hrada-saroruhāt

jātasyāsīt suto dhātur

atriḥ pitṛ-samo guṇaiḥ

TRANSLATION

Lord Viṣṇu [Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu] is also known as Sahasra-śīrṣā Puruṣa. From the lake of His navel sprang a lotus, on which Lord Brahmā was generated. Atri, the son of Lord Brahmā, was as qualified as his father.

COMMENT

Again, there is no purport, so we will continue to the next verse.

TEXT 3

tasya dṛgbhyo ‘bhavat putraḥ

somo ‘mṛtamayaḥ kila

viprauṣadhy-uḍu-gaṇānāṁ

brahmaṇā kalpitaḥ patiḥ

TRANSLATION

From Atri’s tears of jubilation was born a son named Soma, the moon, who was full of soothing rays. Lord Brahmā appointed him the director of the brāhmaṇas, drugs and luminaries.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

According to the Vedic description, Soma, the moon-god, was born from the mind of the Supreme Personality of Godhead (candramā manaso jātaḥ). But here we find that Soma was born from the tears in the eyes of Atri. This appears contradictory to the Vedic information, but actually it is not, for this birth of the moon is understood to have taken place in another millennium. When tears appear in the eyes because of jubilation, the tears are soothing. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says, dṛgbhya ānandāśrubhya ata evāmṛtamayaḥ: “Here the word dṛgbhyaḥ means ‘from tears of jubilation.’ Therefore the moon-god is called amṛtamayaḥ, ‘full of soothing rays.’” In the Fourth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (4.1.15) we find this verse:

atreḥ patny anasūyā trīñ

jajñe suyaśasaḥ sutān

dattaṁ durvāsasaṁ somam

ātmeśa-brahma-sambhavān

This verse describes that Anasūyā, the wife of Atri Ṛṣi, bore three sons — Soma, Durvāsā and Dattātreya. It is said that at the time of conception Anasūyā was impregnated by the tears of Atri.

COMMENT

Hare Krishna.

To an ordinary person, the descriptions here in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam may sound fantastic. Fantastic in the sense of fantasy. But we must consider how limited we are before we pass judgment. Srila Prabhupada often gave the example of the frog in the well, who he sometimes called Dr Frog PhD. So, Dr Frog PhD lived in a well, and somehow one of his other colleagues saw the Atlantic ocean, and he came back and he reported that I have seen a very huge body of water. And Dr Frog replied, “How big?—is it twice as big as my well?” “Oh no, it is much bigger.” “Well, is it three times, four times?” And frogs, they can take in air and puff themselves up, so Dr Frog PhD was taking in air, to like, “How big is it? How big is it? As big as this, as big as this?” And he exploded. That was the end of Dr Frog PhD.

So, we are like frogs in a well, especially in Kali-yuga. Our potencies are much diminished, and so when we hear such fantastic stories, we may find them hard to believe, because they do not fit within our limited experience. But we should approach the scriptures in a humble mood. We should approach everything in a humble mood, because for one who is proud, everything becomes difficult. And sometimes even devotees can become proud. We just read how Soma became proud, and out of pride, he kidnapped Tara, who was the wife of the spiritual master of the demigods.

Hare Krishna. That is bad. But that is what pride can do. And even in English literature – “pride cometh before a fall.” When someone becomes proud, he is almost asking for a fall-down. In the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, we read about King Indra who had become proud. And out of his pride. . .

Hare Krishna.

Sri Sri Gokulananda ki jaya!

Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai ki jaya!

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

So out of his pride, he attempted to destroy the whole village of Vrindavan, including all of Krishna’s dearest devotees. And although Krishna accomplished many things in the govardhana-līlā, one important thing He accomplished was smashing the pride of Indra, because when one is maddened by pride one can do anything. But one will have to suffer the consequences. And Krishna never likes His devotees to become proud. And if any devotee does become proud, He takes action.

There is a story that a King—a sort of temperamental King—he asked his minister: “What is God’s constant activity? And it could not be creation because that is temporary, and it could not be destruction because that is also temporary, and it could not be maintenance because sometimes there is creation and sometimes there is destruction.” So, his minister did not know what to answer, and he did not want to face the King’s wrath. So, he told the King, “You have not asked the right person, you should ask the court priest—the court pandit.” So, the King asked the court pandit, and he was also stuck, but he also did not want to face the King’s wrath, so he said, “Give me one week and I will go through the scriptures and I will reply.” But the pandit felt very uncomfortable, he was not going to come up with the answer. So, he also did not want to face the King’s wrath, so he decided to leave town. And as he was leaving town, he met one of his disciples, who was a very simple laborer. And his disciple asked him, “Guru Maharaja, where are you going?” He said, “Well the King has asked me a very difficult question, and you know he is very temperamental, so I am leaving.” So, the disciple said, “Well what was the question?” He said, “I am the guru, if I do not know the answer, how are you going to know the answer?” He said, “No, no, just tell me what is the question.” So, he told him the question. He said, “Okay, at the appointed time I will go on your behalf.”

So, at the appointed time he went and he came into the court; the King was sitting on his throne, and he said, “I have come on behalf of my spiritual master to answer your question—but there is a discrepancy here, you are sitting on the throne, you are sitting on a higher level than me, and that is not proper according to etiquette. You are enquiring, you are taking the position of the student, and I am answering, so I should sit on a higher level than you. I shall sit on the throne, and you sit down here.” So, the King did not like that, but he was intelligent, he knew that according to etiquette, that what the simple young man had said was correct. So as the simple disciple was walking towards the throne and the King was getting down, he said to the simple disciple: “This better be good, otherwise you are going to face the consequences of my wrath.” So the simple disciple got up on the throne and he said, “God’s constant activity is that He is always exalting the humble, and humbling the exalted—the proud. If you are proud, God will humble you, and if you are humble, God will exalt you. And this is God’s constant work, and you are seeing Him right at this very moment in your own life. You were proud and now you are down there.”

So that is God’s constant work, and whenever He sees a devotee that is proud, He will arrange to smash that pride. And a very vivid example is King Indra, who was so maddened by pride that he was ready to kill the cows, the cow herd community, Krishna’s parents, everyone. All of Krishna’s dear most devotees. And Krishna could have just killed him, or He could have summoned him and said, “What do you think you are doing, do you know who I am, I am your master?” But He did not. What Krishna did was—He protected the vrajavāsīs and there was a tremendous festival of love under Govardhana Hill, it was unprecedented. It was a continuous festival of love for a week. In fact, it was such an ecstatic festival that after a week, when Indra realized to some extent his mistake, and he called back all the samvartaka clouds and everything, the vrajavāsīs did not want to leave, they wanted to continue to stay under Govardhana Hill with their festival. But as far as Indra goes, Krishna ignored him, and this is often the best medicine for a proud person who wants name and fame and worship—is just to ignore them. I mean I am not suggesting that we do this with devotees, but Krishna totally ignored him. And that made Indra even more nervous, because he did not know what was going on.

It is a long story, it is a beautiful story, but in the end, Indra realized that he was in very big trouble. He realized that he was in his position as Indra, the King of Heaven, by the mercy of Krishna. It is not that he was elected by an assembly of demigods, he was appointed by Krishna. And he went against Krishna, and Krishna’s dear ones, in the most horrible way. So, he realized he was in big trouble. It is a long story—an interesting story—but he asked for help, “What do I do?” And Lord Brahma suggested, “Do not go alone, because when Krishna sees you, He may be very angry, but you should go with Surabhi.” Surabhi is like a heavenly cow. “Because you were so offensive to the cows, so you should go with Surabhi and when Krishna sees Surabhi, He’ll become happy, and then eventually you can present yourself to Him.” And Indra followed the advice.

But the result was that Indra became humble—that was the point. And Krishna told him that “I do not like any of My devotees to become proud.” So, someone might wonder why in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam there are so many stories about kings. In fact, there is a definition of Purana—what qualifies a literature as being a Purana. And one of the elements is that it must contain a genealogy of kings. But why? Why should a spiritual literature have to contain a genealogy of kings? And the answer is that kings are like the highest emblem of what a conditioned soul wants to be. I mean, underneath it all we want to be God. But in the material world we cannot be God – then at least we could be a king. And kings had so much power; they had power over life and death. They could order someone to be killed and that would be the end. But kings are also unhappy—everyone in the material world is unhappy—and therefore the Puranas have stories of kings just to illustrate the fact that no one can be happy in the material world without Krishna consciousness, even if you are a king. And we see from many of these descriptions in this chapter how these very powerful people got into trouble because they were under the control of lust and other inebrieties.

So okay, you cannot be happy even by becoming a king, or the king of the demigods, or anyone. But you want to be happy—everyone wants to be happy—so how do you become happy? And every generation is different. It arises in different contexts and it faces different challenges. So, of course even in this room there are different generations. But if we take my generation’s parents or grandparents, many of them were immigrants who came to America, and they struggled to establish themselves and earn a living and support their families. Then our generation, we were sort of born to parents who had already dealt with that challenge of basic maintenance, so we sort of had the luxury of not having to worry about all those things. Or to put it in plain language, we had the luxury of not having to work. And so, from our generation you got hippies and so on. And then—because we were sort of rebelling against our parents and grandparents—as Srila Prabhupada said about the hippies, that they know what is wrong, they are rejecting the stereotype materialistic way of life, but they do not know what is right. And then the next generation—and by then I was already in the movement and spending most of my time in India—but they did not want to be hippies or counter cultural, they wanted to be rich. They wanted to be successful. In fact, there was a survey done at the University of California about why students enrolled. And the vast majority said they enrolled because they wanted to learn things which would help them be affluent and successful, which was a very different situation than our generation. I went to university because I wanted to find out about the meaning of life.

So, that next generation, they did everything that they were told would make them happy. And a lot of them, they did quite well—it means they got a qualified spouse, either a good job or a good business, and beautiful children, they went on fabulous holidays. They did everything that they were told would make them happy. But guess what? They were not happy. So, this phenomenon gave rise to a whole new study of psychology—what makes people happy? Because there is a generation of people who did everything that was supposed to make them happy, and they did not become happy. So, now what do we do? And I also will not discuss too much about it, but one of the major researchers in the field—he is a Professor at Harvard University—he was mentioned in a BTG article by Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu, so it is bonafide to mention him. But he wrote a book called “Selling Unhappiness,” which came to me by chance. And his basic premise is that we human beings are very poor at predicting what will make us happy, and you more or less just stumble upon it. I mean if you are lucky, you just stumble on it. Otherwise, most people just are not happy.

There are plenty of other studies that suggest that people have a sort of baseline of happiness, and all the things that they think will increase their happiness—like what we listed—will hardly affect their baseline of happiness. Maybe 5 percent—but it hardly makes any difference. And the things that do affect their happiness are things like meditation, doing something meaningful that helps others—things that people do not ordinarily consider; things that are not in the range of acquiring material things. And a lot of the findings corroborate the teachings of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. I mean, we do not actually need to read any of these things, but sometimes when you speak to people, it may be good to cite that kind of evidence for people who do not have faith. But that is a basic teaching of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that our happiness—yes, the Bhāgavatam says—Narada says it in the First Canto and Prahlada says it in the Seventh Canto—that nobody wants misery. Does anyone here want misery? Raise your hand if you want misery. Has anyone come to the temple and prayed for misery? No, we all want happiness, but misery comes. So Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam says that just as misery comes without our asking for it, similarly, happiness will also come without our asking for it. We do not make any effort to get misery, but it comes. So, in the same way, without making any effort, whatever happiness which is due to us will come. So, we should not waste our time trying to increase our happiness or decrease our misery because they will come as destined by our karma. But rather we should use our time and energy to become Krishna conscious.

And if we really take this one instruction to heart, we will transform our lives. Because although we are devotees and we do know the philosophy, but we still have that conditioning to try to increase our happiness and try to decrease our distress. And so much mental energy goes into that, and physical exertion also goes into it. But if we could just. . . yes, we do take normal precautions, like if we are sick, or to avoid sickness, but basically, we just accept whatever is destined to us, knowing that it is going to come anyway. And really invest our time and energy in becoming Krishna conscious, which will really make us happy.

The Nectar of devotion, Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu lists six characteristics of pure devotional service. One is kleśaghnī—relief from distress, and the other is śubhadā—it bestows auspiciousness. And these two characteristics come at the stage of sādhanā-bhakti. There are other ones that come at the stage of bhāva-bhakti, two more come and last one is premā-bhakti, but these two come at sādhanā-bhakti – kleśaghnī—relief from distress, śubhadā—bestows auspiciousness. And what is auspiciousness? There are different elements for auspiciousness, but one of the elements is happiness. It is not the same happiness that comes at bhāva-bhakti or premā-bhakti, but there is happiness right from the beginning of sādhanā-bhakti and we feel it. But because of conditioning and you could say mundane association, we get lured by the false promise of increasing our happiness or decreasing our distress by the standard material formulas which do not work – even scientifically it has been proven that they do not work, no more than a few percent.

Once an interviewer asked Srila Prabhupada, “What is the purpose of life?” He said, “The purpose of life is to become happy,” which anyone can relate to. But there is a process, and there are degrees of happiness. So, Srila Prabhupada’s mission was to give the process for absolute happiness. When Srila Prabhupada was staying in Scindia Steam workers colony near Juhu when he was preparing to go to America, one of the officers of the Scindia Steam navigation company sort of joked with him and said, “Oh Swamiji, I know why you want to go to America, all the Swamis they want to go to the West, they want to enjoy.” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “What have I got to enjoy? I am almost seventy years old. But I know there is a generation of young people who are very confused and frustrated and I want to go for them, to make them happy.” He wanted to make us happy. And being with Srila Prabhupada made us happy. And of course, we do have a perfect philosophy, the perfect process—but even without knowing that, just being with Srila Prabhupada could make you happy, because he was someone who genuinely cared for you, and that is so rare. So just to find someone who genuinely cared for you – who was not on an ego trip or trying to get something for himself from you—but really wanted nothing but to see you happy—that itself was enough to make people happy. And then the other things followed.

Once another reporter asked Srila Prabhupada, “You have dedicated your whole life to Krishna. . .” and reading these types of descriptions it could make someone wonder, is this true? So, the reporter asked Srila Prabhupada, “You have dedicated your life to Krishna, you are doing everything for Krishna, but what if in the end there is no Krishna?” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “I would not do a single thing different, because what am I doing? I am chanting Krishna’s name, I am speaking Krishna’s glories, I am eating kṛṣṇa-prasāda, I am associating with Krishna’s devotees, and I am getting so much happiness from everything I am doing, even if there was no Krishna, I would still do it—I would not do anything different.” So, I think this is the ultimate factor, because it is true—if someone is in the mood to argue, there can be so many arguments but if someone wants happiness—which we want—if someone wants love—which we want—you really cannot have happiness without love – then this is the place.

And it does not really depend on what other people think. Once Bhakti Tirtha Swami. . . Bhakti Tirtha Swami was like a child evangelist in the Christian religion, and so he was interviewed by a Christian evangelist who asked him, “You, were a child evangelist and now you are a Hare Krishna—what happened?” And Bhakti Tirtha Swami said very intelligently, “I am no more a Hare Krishna than you are—I was looking for love of God. If I could have found love of God in the boy scouts, I would have joined the boy scouts, but I happened to find it here. And that is why I am here. And if you could show me a place where I can get it in a better way then I will go there.” So, it is not a question of sectarian designation, it is a question of where you find what you want. And that is basically love—pure love and happiness, the two go together. And I do not know why each one of you is here, but even if you just stumbled on it, you stumbled into the right place, and there is no need to go anywhere else.

And just one thing about the youth. One of my dear friends H.H Ṛtadhvaja Swami has done a lot for the youth in America in particular, but he has been everywhere, brought a group to Europe and spent time in Mayapur. But he said that about the children of devotees, that they are born into the Hare Krishna movement, but they have not joined the Hare Krishna movement—they still must decide to join. So, he/she who have knowingly or unknowingly stumbled into this ocean of nectar should act in such a way that they want to join. There is a difference in ignorance, and that will be a great contribution to the movement and to those fortunate souls who have been born into the Hare Krishna movement, and who are still waiting to decide whether to join or not.

Hare Krishna.

So, are there any questions or comments? Yes?

Devotee: Very nice class.

Giriraj Swami: What is your good name?

Devotee: Jaya Krishna dasa.

Giriraj Swami: Jaya Krishna dasa. Jaya!

Devotee: You were saying that people come to Krishna consciousness—Krishna consciousness means happiness, and I am seeing a lot of my friends, when they come to Krishna consciousness, they are generally very happy. But after a certain period, they leave. So, I was wondering if they were happy in Krishna consciousness, why did they leave?

Giriraj Swami: Well, that is a very good question. I think his question was he knows many people, they come to Krishna consciousness and they are happy. And after some time, they leave, so why would they leave when they are happy? And I would probably rephrase it that if they were not happy completely, they would not leave. So, I think the real question is why aren’t they happy? Like when they joined. And there could be various reasons. One is laxness in spiritual practices—usually when someone joins, they are at least trying their best to follow, but then for whatever reason—usually some sort of bad association, but whatever—they become lax. And when you become lax you lose your enthusiasm and you go down—you are not where you were. And that of course can be rectified by good association and by following strictly.

Another reason could be offenses. And as we discussed on Sunday, the effect of committing offenses is that one becomes filled with material desires, and so that is another thing—you must be careful not to commit offenses. And depending on the nature of the offense, you can be relieved from the reaction to the offense by different processes. So, we should be very careful by our words and our examples, we should really encourage devotees to maintain their spiritual practices and to avoid offenses – especially blaspheming devotees, finding faults with devotees.

There is no reason why they should want to leave. I mean for us aspiring devotees we have our human side and our spiritual side, and so it may be that when we join, we completely forget about our material side—we are just fully absorbed in Krishna consciousness. But then that material side may come up again, and that may require us to be properly situated in varnashrama-dharma. And so that is another delicate operation—someone joins, they get so much relief from the material world, and they are so enthusiastic about Krishna consciousness, and they forget about everything else. But actually, they may not be able to maintain that platform, and so they need to be in a position—what for them is a stable position that will allow them to progress in a steady way. You understand what I am saying? And for some that may involve marriage. It will vary from person to person, but most people. And that is best achieved with devotees. There should be compatibility, but a very important part of the compatibility should be spiritual. And there is one authority on marriage. I heard about it from a devotee but it really struck me. The authority made a statement that the purpose of marriage is not to make you happy—the purpose of marriage is to make you married, and when you are properly and fully married, then you have a position of stability in which you can find your own happiness. And I thought that was a very beautiful summation of the relationship between varnashrama-dharma and Krishna consciousness.

The purpose of marriage is not to make you happy—the purpose of marriage is to make you married. And when you are properly and fully married, you have a position of stability from which you can find your own happiness. Find your own happiness means in relation to Krishna, as we have been discussing. Mother Kulangana the whole time since you approached me—the first time in a long time I have been here—I was thinking you should be giving the classes, you have so much realization.

Mother Kulangana: We should not expect anything from Krishna, and we should love Him even if he does not give you anything [Unintelligible 01:09:05]

Giriraj Swami: That has summed it all up wonderfully. Thank you very much. It reminded me of a verse by Rupa Gosvami, anyway, it just takes two minutes. Once Srila Prabhupada was on a morning walk in Chicago, and came to a car called ‘Thunderbird.” And so, he asked the devotees is there any such thing as “Thunderbird?” So, one devotee said, “Well, I think he was an Indian chief – Thunderbird.” And he said, “No, but is there any such bird as a Thunderbird?” And then he said we have a “Thunderbird.” And then he quoted this verse by Rupa Gosvami that, “This bird will not take water from anywhere except the cloud. And sometimes the cloud does not give water—it gives lightning and thunder, but still that bird will not go anywhere else for water.” And then the devotees asked what does that mean? And Srila Prabhupada explained that a devotee will go only to Krishna for mercy—for happiness, for love, for mercy. But sometimes the cloud does not give mercy in the form of rain, sometimes the cloud gives lightning and thunder. But still that bird will never leave the cloud—it will tolerate the thunder and lightning and just wait for that mercy. So, yes, that is surrender—that is exactly what you told us, that is our duty.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 01:12:25]

Giriraj Swami: Yes, Krishna will love even an ant. What else? You should give us at least three gems of wisdom. Anyway, I guess we will have to meditate on what you have said so far, and if we do that it will be more than sufficient. Alright, thank you very much.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Gaura-bhakta-vṛnda ki jaya!