Sri Radhastami—Pearl Festival

Giriraj Swami: So, it is a great privilege and pleasure and surprise for me to be with all of you this evening, a most auspicious occasion in this most wonderful association. Having heard His Holiness Radhanath Swami Maharaja and Dhanurdhara Swami Maharaja and others speak, I was reminded of a verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam first Canto, second Chapter: śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ. It means that simply by hearing the messages of Krishna, one becomes pious because Krishna is absolute, Radha and Krishna. And therefore, talks about Them on the absolute platform are the same as Them. And when we hear a discussion of Them, that transcendental sound enters our ears, and through the channel of our ears enters our heart. And because Radha and Krishna are pure, pure exchange or pure love, Their presence in our hearts purifies us and brings forth our pure love.

And the verse says further, vidhunoti suhṛt satām. As we progress in spiritual practice, we may become more aware of the dirty things within our hearts. In fact, not to frighten you or disturb you, but things might start coming to the surface that you were not even aware were there. In fact, one disciple of Srila Prabhupada, approached Srila Prabhupada and told him that he felt that he was more advanced before he started chanting Hare Krishna, because so many things came up.

And Srila Prabhupada explained, it’s just like in a house or a room that you haven’t cleaned for a long time. There is a lot of dirt and dust but it’s all settled. It’s there but it’s settled in different places, everywhere where it can find the surface to settle. And when you start cleaning all that dust starts to fly. And it is part of the process of cleaning, but during that period it seems like there is so much dirt you didn’t even know there was that much dirt.

So that cleansing process is necessary, nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-prema, that pure love is there within us, but it is covered. So we have to remove that cover. And so, the verse says, vidhunoti suhṛt satām. Suhṛt means well-wishing friend. Radha and Krishna are within our hearts as our well-wishing friends and, They help us by cleaning our hearts as our well-wishing friends. Suhṛt satām ; satām means devotee. It’s related to the word “sat” which means eternal. It means truth, the truth is eternal.  

And so Srila Prabhupada translates this phrase as a truthful devotee. A devotee should be simple; he should not have duplicity. So truthful means that he is aspiring for pure devotional service and he has no other motive. So, one who is simple and sincere, and hears the messages of Godhead spoken by saintly persons, then the messages enter his heart and the Lord within the heart takes up that work. Because we do not have the power on our own to cleanse our hearts, but the Lord will take up that work for us.

And I thought of that verse because of the experience I was having here listening. Not that I’m satām, but even I could experience that, and I sense that you also were experiencing it. And that is very enlivening.

Hearing how God is conquered by love, love conquers all, I thought of some instances with Srila Prabhupada, our spiritual master who we have been hearing about, who brought this message and this love and this process to us—- bhakti-yoga. Once Srila Prabhupada was sitting in a room on the second floor of a house in Bombay, and at the time he was undergoing a great struggle to secure some land that he had entered an agreement to purchase for the deities, that His Holiness Radhanath Swami mentioned – Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihari. But the person who was selling the land was very crooked, and he really created many difficulties for Srila Prabhupada.

So Srila Prabhupada couldn’t even stay on the land but there was an unfinished house of a neighbor where he was staying on the second floor. And he was meeting with some very important people to discuss the issues with the land. And suddenly, a man appeared at the door and he was very sinewy, muscular, and he had just a very simple sort of tattered grayed white cloth around his waist. From his appearance we could understand he was a laborer. And he came to the door, walked into the room, came right up to Srila Prabhupada’s low desk and placed a bunch of wild flowers on Prabhupada’s desk, bowed his head to the floor, stood up, looked at Srila Prabhupada, and walked out.

And Srila Prabhupada was so moved by that offering, that he was literally speechless. He was choked and he couldn’t speak. And then finally he looked up and he quoted the verse that His Holiness Radhanath Swami mentioned, patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁyo me bhaktyā prayacchati—that if one offers Krishna a leaf, a fruit, a flower, or some water with love and devotion, He will accept it.

And Srila Prabhupada said, “How did he know I was here, how did he get the idea to go here and there and collect these flowers?” He was really overwhelmed by that love. And he said, “I’m just an insignificant living entity so I’m overwhelmed.” But just think of Krishna how great He is, even He is overwhelmed. Krishna’s heart is so soft and grateful that even He is overwhelmed by a small offering with love and devotion. I’m saying Krishna, but actually Krishna includes Radharani. We don’t say it, but Radharani actually is the compassionate side of Krishna.

Srila Rupa Gosvami and Srila Prabhupada explained that, because Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, it’s difficult to approach Him. But Srimati Radharani represents the compassionate side of Krishna, and therefore devotees, approach Srimati Radharani, and by Her grace they can approach Krishna.

Srila Radhanath Swami also mentioned this important verse in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, that the one Krishna became two, Radha and Krishna. And those two again became one as Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And so for us, this most merciful form of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is extremely important. Because He has that mood of compassion of Srimati Radharani, and He has Srimati Radharani’s mood of pure ecstatic love for Krishna. And He came specifically to taste that love and also to distribute that love to us.

And all of the spiritual masters in the line of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, have that mission. But even amongst them, Srila Prabhupada is unique because he brought that love to us. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu desired it, that it should go to every town and village in every country of the world. And others, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, he also desired it and prophesied that it would happen.

But Srila Prabhupada was actually the one who brought it for us, and every single one of us is indebted to him. Because if it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t be here, we wouldn’t know anything of this, we wouldn’t have any experience of it, and we wouldn’t be in the association with so many wonderful devotees, practitioners of bhakti-yoga.

Once, someone asked who he was in his eternal identity, and Srila Prabhupada didn’t really answer directly, but he said, “If I were to tell you, you would quit.” So he is very special and we are fortunate to have been recipients of his mercy and be associated with devotees who were associated with him.

I’ll conclude with one small story. When Srila Prabhupada was staying in a rented house in Calcutta, it was our first temple in Calcutta, one of the devotees met the landlord. And the landlord had his own theories of spiritual life, and there are many people like that. And so, one of the devotees met him and he told the devotee that actually, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu comes before Radha and Krishna. And he said that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is also greater than Radha and Krishna. And he said that just like. . . how many of you know what is a rasagullā? Rasagullā is a sweet delicacy, famous from Bengal. Anyway, it’s made of milk and sugar.

So, the landlord was saying that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is greater than Radha and Krishna, just like rasagullā is greater than milk and sugar. So our devotee approached Srila Prabhupada and repeated what the landlord had said. And he said, “So who comes first?” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “Radha and Krishna come first, the same example, milk and sugar exists first and then they combine and become rasagullā.” And then the devotee asked, “And who is the greatest?” And Srila Prabhupada paused and looked down, and then he said, Radharani, Srimati Radharani is the greatest.”

And he pointed to a picture on the wall that showed Krishna kneeling at Her feet, begging for Her favor. And then he pointed to a picture of Nanda Maharaja who plays the part of Krishna’s father in Vrindavan, and little Krishna was carrying Nanda Maharaja’s sandals on His head. And Srila Prabhupada said, “Nanda Maharaja is the greatest.” And then he said the devotee is the greatest because Krishna becomes subservient to His devotees’ love.

And this is a unique conception. There are many spiritual traditions, religious traditions, that share many points in common with us, with bhakti-yoga. But there is something special that Srila Prabhupada brought, and that is this exalted love of Vrindavan in which the Lord is conquered by His devotees.

So this is the special contribution of Srila Prabhupada. Why he took so much risk and so much trouble to give us this extraordinary vision of pure love, intimate love in which the Lord Himself becomes subservient to the love of His devotees. And because Srimati Radharani is the greatest devotee of Krishna, Krishna is most conquered by Her love. But He likes to be conquered by love. So, we conclude that it’s also service to Krishna.

So we should appreciate the inconceivable treasure that Srila Prabhupada brought with him to us and take advantage of it. I was concluding but I take it back. I just want to add one more thing.

When Srila Prabhupada arrived, the people he met, the hippies in New York and then San Francisco, were something amazing. In fact, on one television show, the interviewer asked Srila Prabhupada, ”What is a hippie?” And Srila Prabhupada said, “You should know better than me, something amazing.”

So, for someone from his background and culture it was, I think for anyone, would be quite amazing. But he offered us this most priceless treasure. And one of our teachers has given the example to explain how it is possible that this most sacred treasure could be offered to such degraded people. And he says that if a king is intoxicated, he may go into his treasury and take out the most precious gems and go out on the street and just give them to the most degraded people, and no one can stop him. No one can question him.

So, in the same way, Lord Chaitanya, intoxicated with love of Krishna in the mood of Srimati Radharani, He is distributing these most priceless gems to anyone without discrimination, who will take them. So, He is so merciful and His representatives are so merciful, that they are offering this to us and we just have to take it. And the way we take it is by listening as we have been doing tonight, and by rendering service and by chanting the holy names.

Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.