SB 2.1.11 – Our Personal Relationship with Krishna’s Holy Name

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna! We welcome you to our Sunday Festival. We are known as the Hare Krishna people, and this mission is known as the Hare Krishna movement. And tonight I brought to discuss why we are the Hare Krishna people and why this is the Hare Krishna movement, the reason is explained very nicely in a verse and purport from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is considered the ripened fruit of the tree of Vedic literature. So, it is the most authoritative book, and this verse and purport explain who should chant Hare Krishna, why they should chant Hare Krishna, and how they should chant Hare Krishna. So, we will begin and, and we will see how far we get. There is always next Sunday. So please repeat after me.

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

I’ll just recite Sanskrit.

TEXT 2.1.11

etan nirvidyamānānām
icchatām akuto-bhayam
yogināṁ nṛpa nirṇītaṁ
harer nāmānukīrtanam

TRANSLATION

O King, constant chanting of the holy name of the Lord after the ways of the great authorities is the doubtless and fearless way of success for all, including those who are free from all material desires, those who are desirous of all material enjoyment, and also those who are self-satisfied by dint of transcendental knowledge.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

In the previous verse, the great necessity for attaining attachment to Mukunda has been accredited. 

COMMENT

Who is Mukunda? Raise your hand. Who is Mukunda? Yes, sorry, Mukunda is a name for Krishna, and it means, literally, the giver of liberation (mukti).

PURPORT(continued)

There are different types of persons who desire to attain success in different varieties of pursuits.

COMMENT

Who here wants to attain success? Everyone wants to attain success, but they have different varieties of pursuits, as we will read.

PURPORT (continued)

Generally the persons are materialists who desire to enjoy the fullest extent of material gratification. 

COMMENT

That is what most people are, and I won’t ask you to raise your hand.

PURPORT (continued)

Next to them are the transcendentalists, who have attained perfect knowledge about the nature of material enjoyment and thus are aloof from such an illusory way of life. More or less, they are satisfied in themselves by self-realization. Above them are the devotees of the Lord, who neither aspire to enjoy the material world nor desire to get out of it. They are after the satisfaction of the Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. In other words, the devotees of the Lord do not want anything on their personal account. If the Lord desires, the devotees can accept all sorts of material facilities, and if the Lord does not desire this, the devotees can leave aside all sorts of facilities, even up to the limit of salvation. Nor are they self-satisfied, because they want the satisfaction of the Lord only.

COMMENT

So now, this verse describes who should chant the holy name to achieve success, and there are basically three categories: those who are free from all material desires, a smaller section of the population; those who are desirous of all sorts of material enjoyment, that is the larger section; and those who are in neither category. They don’t want to enjoy the world, and they don’t want to renounce the world, but they want to serve the Lord. And they use material objects in the service of the Lord, or if the Lord doesn’t desire, they can leave aside material facilities. Their pleasure comes in the pleasure of the Lord, and those are devotees. And everyone who becomes a devotee, a sincere devotee or pure devotee will experience unlimited spiritual bliss.

The defect with those who want to enjoy the material world is that the material world is a place of misery duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam. Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gītā. So whatever happiness we experience is limited and temporary. Everything is accompanied by its opposite in the material world because we are in the world of duality. It is like a coin; there is heads and tails. You can’t have heads without tails; they go together. So, we may want it to come up heads every time we want it to go the way we want, but actually, the two come together. There is heads and tails, and in the long run, you are going to get whatever enjoyment is due to you and whatever misery is due to you as a result of your past activities or karma.

And therefore, the Bhāgavatam also recommends that one should not try to increase one’s happiness or decrease one’s distress because they are already destined to come to you according to your karma. There is a saying in India that even if you go to Calcutta, your forehead will go with you. Previously, Calcutta was the most opulent city in India it was, considered like the jewel in the crown of the British Empire. And so, people would want to go to Calcutta, thinking that, “Oh, if I go to Calcutta, I’ll become rich,” like some people now think, “Oh, if I go to America, I’ll make good money.” So they would go to Calcutta. This is the land of promise; this is the land of fortune. So the saying was, “Even if you go to Calcutta, your forehead will go with you,” because it is stated that your destiny is written on the lines of your forehead. Also, they have the idea it is on the palms of your hands. So the forehead is sort of the emblem of one’s destiny, and it is very common amongst people from India that if they are lamenting over their bad luck, they go like this with their forehead like, “Oh, I could have, but oh, this is because of the forehead. That is their destiny, that is their luck.”

So the Bhāgavatam says that, well, let me ask you: How many of you want misery? How many of you come to the temple to pray for misery? This is your last chance. Raise your hand. Almost nobody. But misery comes. You don’t want misery, you don’t try for it, you don’t pray for it, but it comes of its own accord. So the Bhāgavatam says that just as misery comes of its own accord according to your destiny without any separate endeavor, similarly, happiness will also come of its own accord without your making any effort according to your destiny.

Today I got an email from an old friend of mine from Bombay. And when I knew him, he was like in his early twenties, and he was quite devotional and also artistic. He wanted to make movies, and actually, we collaborated and made a feature film about Haridasa Thakura. And his father had a sort of perfumery business, and his older brother was, working with the father in the business, and this young man was pursuing a life of devotion and creativity. And then his brother died, the father passed away, and then his brother died, so he had to take up the business. And now he has become something like the secretary of the All India Association of Perfumers. And he said it is a joke, he doesn’t know anything. He said it is a joke, but it is like destiny. I know he is destined to be successful, and he. . . But a few times, he used the word “joke.” He said it is like a joke. I just ended up in this by accident, and I have no inclination for it. So that is sort of the way it works.

I had this one experience in Calcutta. I was meeting people gathered to get advertisements for our souvenir for a big Hare Krishna program that we had there. The Hare Krishna programs are like a tent program, but huge. We were getting like thirty thousand people, maybe twenty thousand people during the week, and thirty thousand on the weekend. We had done one in Bombay; it was very successful. So, Srila Prabhupada sent Tamal Krishna Goswami and me to Calcutta to do a similar program.

So when we got there, Tamal Krishna Goswami said, “You make the money, and I’ll spend it.” And so, I was meeting people and getting their support. There was one man; he was like a chairman of a huge company, and he had a large plush office, but he didn’t seem very smart, frankly. And I thought, How did he get in this position? I thought it must be his karma; otherwise, he wasn’t that smart, didn’t appear to be. And I mentioned it to Srila Prabhupada that this must be karma.

So the idea is that just as misery comes of its own accord without your endeavoring for it, happiness will also come. So we shouldn’t spend our time and energy trying to increase our happiness, because we can’t; we will get what we are destined, or decrease our misery because we can’t do that either. But we should use our time and energy to develop God consciousness, Krishna consciousness. Now, when one surrenders to Krishna, then in a way, he is freed from his destiny because Krishna is above destiny; He is above karma. So in that sense, you can be free from your destiny, but not by trying to artificially increase your material happiness or decrease your material misery, but by surrendering, by chanting the holy names, and then everything is wiped off.

There was once an astrologer who came to our camp when we were with Srila Prabhupada in Indore, and he wanted to read the palms of all the devotees. So I said, “Okay, let him.” But, then he gave different predictions for different devotees. Afterwards, the devotees asked Prabhupada what about all these predictions, and Prabhupada said, just by clapping your hands and dancing in kirtan, all the lines get wiped off. So devotees are beyond that, in a way. So now, who should chant? So we have these three categories, and everyone is in; we are all in one of those categories. But sometimes it is not that we are purely in one; we could be in a combination, sort of mix. We want to be devotees, but at the same time, we want to enjoy the world, or we want to be devotees and at the same time, we want to get out of the world. But pure devotees, they don’t want to stay in the world to enjoy it or get out of the world to escape it; they just want to serve Krishna, however Krishna wants. But whatever your field of pursuit is, the doubtless and fearless method to attain success is the chanting of the holy names of the Lord. So who should chant? Logically, everyone. Everyone is either free from material desires or desirous of all kinds of material enjoyment or wants, to please Krishna. So who should chant? Everyone because they’ll be successful in whatever their pursuit.

And this is also a stated fact that on their own, karma, in the sense of work for material elevation, cannot be successful without some element of bhakti or devotion to God. And similarly jnana, which desires impersonal liberation, that also cannot be successful without some element of bhakti. So every process is so weak on its own that one cannot be successful without some element of bhakti. And of all the practices of bhakti, as stated here, the chanting of the holy names of the Lord is the most highly recommended and most highly effective. So then, how? So this is established that we should chant the holy name; everyone should chant the holy name for success. But how? And the answer is hari-nāmānukīrtanam. Anu means to follow. And, there are many words with that, like Ramanuja, who of course, there is Ramanujacharya, but who is Ramanuja? Huh? Yes. Ramanuja is Lakshman, the younger brother of Rama, and they consider Ramanujacharya to be an incarnation. So he followed Ram, Ramanuja, Lakshman. He followed Ram. So aṇu means to follow. We are followers of Rupa Gosvami, rūpānugas; we are followers of Rupa Gosvami. And aṇu also means continuously. So how should we chant? We should chant continuously, following the ways of the great authorities.

And what does it mean to follow the ways of the great authorities? Here, Srila Prabhupada quotes Jiva Gosvami. In fact, the day after tomorrow is the appearance day of Jiva Gosvami, who was a very important spiritual teacher in the line of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. So Srila Jiva Gosvami, in discussing how to chant the holy name, has quoted the Padma Purāṇa that there are ten offenses to be avoided while chanting the holy name and it is important for us to know these ten offenses and to make a conscious effort to avoid them.

In the beginning, we may not be aware of the ten offenses, and we may chant and get a lot of benefit, but eventually, we will have to come to the stage where we are aware of the offenses and make a conscious effort to avoid them. Then we come to the liberated stage of chanting, and when one is in the liberated stage of chanting, then one really relishes. And then beyond the liberated stage of chanting is the stage where one has pure love for God, for Krishna. And at that stage, one swims in an ocean, a fathomless ocean of divine ecstasy. But pretty much everyone starts from the offensive stage and by practice and by good association, they come to what Prabhupada calls the liberated stage, and then they really relish. And then chanting in the liberated stage, one comes to the stage of pure love for Krishna.

So this is a detailed discussion; it is a science, a spiritual science. But I think we should continue next week because there are some in the audience who, I wouldn’t say they are not desirous of prasādam, but they probably are, but they are willing to wait. And then there are those who have already left, whose desire for prasādam is so great that they already left. But we don’t want to; we want to keep a healthy balance here. So I think we will end now. We can maybe have a few minutes for questions and answers, and then we can continue. So, are there any questions or comments?

Devotee1: [Unintelligible 00:31:01] but could you maybe elaborate on those ten quickly, maybe please?

Giriraj Swami: Well, I couldn’t really speak about ten quickly. But I can mention two that are most, I would say, important. One is called pramāda, which means inattention. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura a great teacher in line says that if one chants attentively, in other words, one pronounces each holy name carefully and hears attentively, and then all the other offenses will be destroyed. And if one chants inattentively, which means offensively, then the other offenses can flourish. So that is one very important one to avoid.

And the other is the first offense. Sādhu-nindā, Padma Purāṇa says something like the greatest offense, or the worst offense, and that is to criticize devotees, to blaspheme those who have dedicated their lives to the propagation of the holy name of the Lord. So if we were to focus on any, we should, of course, avoid all of them. But if we wanted to focus on two, those would be now. Chanting attentively is more within our, apparently, more within our immediate circle of influence because there is just you and the holy name and your mind; it is a very limited playing field, if you will. So you are chanting, there is the sound of the holy name, and then there is your mind, which has the tendency to go hither and thither. In the beginning, it can be so unruly, so rebellious; it just will not cooperate. So, if it can be a battle, that battle one day must be fought. Otherwise, you remain on the offensive stage, and we don’t make much progress. We can make a little, but not much.

And then the other, criticizing devotees. My god brother, Bhurijana dasa, he sometimes gives seminars on the holy name. So, in one of the seminars, he gave the homework assignment to work on these two: inattention and criticism. So, the next day, he asked for a report, you know. And so, one of the devotees said, “Well, because everyone resolved they were going to chant attentively and avoid criticizing devotees, especially devotees.”

So, Bhurijana Prabhu asked, “How did you do your homework?” So, one of the students said that she had just—she had resolved to, not criticize, but the atmosphere was such that she couldn’t help. So, Bhurijana Prabhu said, “Well, you have two choices here. One is to change the atmosphere, and two is that what is right and wrong, and you just do what is right, and you don’t do what is wrong. And if you want to change the atmosphere, good luck, because the atmosphere doesn’t want to change. So, you know better; you just know what is right, and you do it, and let the atmosphere go on because the atmosphere wants to criticize, and you know, the atmosphere doesn’t want to do what you want it to do. So, you just do what you know you should do.” So, those would be like the two—two probably most essential for us practicing devotees or aspiring devotees. Yes,

Devotee 2: About astrology. So, as practicing devotees, my question is too bad, like how much devotee should give weightage to the astrological thing? And just as beginners in Krishna consciousness, the second question is: Do the beginners in Krishna consciousness also experience Krishna’s hand in, like, as you said, by clapping Prabhupada said that the lines of destiny changes? So, is it for the pure devotees, or is it for the beginners too?

Giriraj Swami: In Bhagavad-gītā (18.66) Krishna says

sarva-dharmān parityajya

mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja

ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo

mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ

From the moment you surrendered to Krishna, He takes charge of your sinful reactions. You may be new in that sense; you may be a beginner. But once you surrender to Krishna, Krishna takes charge and Srila Prabhupada said that Krishna uses the devotees’ karma in the best interest of the devotee. In other words, in a way, you are free from karma because you are under Krishna’s personal care. But there is something there that Krishna, He is like, He takes it away from you, but He can also administer it to you according to His discretion, in a way that is best for you.

As far as astrology, I didn’t exactly speak about astrology. I was speaking more about destiny and surrender. So, I think, we will stick to that. I mean, there—but I should mention that there is one devotee, a very intelligent lady in India; she wrote a book, “How to Ruin Your Life with Astrology.” So, foreign, it is—it is, yes. So, okay, any other questions?

Devotee 3: Is a lot of discussion in Bhagavad-gītā about ātmā and soul? What exactly is soul? Where does it reside, in the heart or the mind? And when does it enter the body, and when does it leave the body?

Giriraj Swami: That is a very good question. The—yes, the first instruction of the Bhagavad-gītā is that we are not the body, but we are the ātmā within the body, the jīvātmā within the body. And later in the Bhagavad-gītā, Krishna explains He has two categories of energy: the material, inferior energy, and the spiritual, superior energy. And the material energy is solids, liquids, gasses, earth—earth, water, fire, air. And then there are subtle material elements: mind, intelligence, and false ego. But apart from these gross and subtle material elements, there is the spiritual energy, which is the living entity, and which is us, that is our actual identity.

The gross body and subtle body are—they are like coverings of the soul, just like we have this dress. We may have our underdress and our overdress, outer dress, but they are not us. So the body also is like that; gross body and subtle body, they are not us. They are just coverings, and we are—are the soul.

So, He has—when does the soul enter the body? Well, it is more the sort of the other way that the body is built up around the soul. At the time of conception, the male impregnates the female with semen, from—and within that is the soul. And then, when the soul, through that medium, enters the egg of the mother, that conception takes place. And because of the presence of the soul, the body develops. I mean not every attempt at conception leads to a child because sometimes—because the soul, it has to be there in order for the and there are other conditions that are also required, but the soul has to be there for the body to develop. And death is the same. Death means that the soul leaves the body. The body is able to function; the body is like a machine. So, a machine can’t function without an operator. So, as long as the soul is in the body, it works; we say the body’s alive. But the body is never actually alive; the body is just a machine. And what’s alive is the soul within the body. And as long as the soul is in the body, it works, and as soon as the soul leaves the body, it doesn’t work, and we say it is dead.

So, this is really such an important point that if we could just understand this one point, that we are not the body but we are the soul within the body, that would create a whole revolution in our lives, our personal lives. And if society in general could understand, it would create a revolution in the whole consciousness of the world. So that was an excellent question.

Any other questions, comments?

Devotee4: I heard an example of you talking about mixed devotees, one with many desires, and the pure devotee has just fixed on Krishna. So, it is like a child who says to his mom, “I want to go to bed. I want to watch a video. I want to play a game. I want to go outside.” If he speaks like this, the mother doesn’t know, okay, what do I give this child? But if he says, “I want to go outside. I want to go outside. I want to go outside. I want to go outside,” then okay, this is what he wants. So with Krishna, we are—I want you, but I want this mixture all over the place. There is a—Krishna is like, “What to do with this guy?” Sometimes he is saying he wants me, and sometimes he

Giriraj Swami: And the mind is like a child, an obstreperous child. It is demanding all sorts of things all the time. So, we have to control the mind with intelligence, you know? There is the gross sense, and then higher than the senses is the mind, higher than the mind is the intelligence, and higher than the intelligence is the soul.

So, when we chant, we have to control the mind with intelligence, Bhagavad-gītā says whenever the mind wanders; we have to bring it back. So, that is a—that is part of our sadhana, that is part of our practice, yoga practice, bhakti-yoga. But eventually, the mind will surrender; as you practice, you will develop more taste, and then when you actually relish the chanting, then, because the mind wants to enjoy, ultimately, the mind wants to enjoy.

So, when you come to that stage where it connects, you relish the chanting, and then the mind will cooperate. In the different stages of the development of bhakti, Rupa Gosvami has mentioned, eight stages, nine stages, and another teacher Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura has elaborated on them, so he says that in the lower stages, like you are chanting and your mind wanders. You don’t even know, in the beginning, you don’t even know when it is begun to wander. You can’t even figure it out, but then you bring it back. But in a more advanced stage, your mind may wander momentarily, but it will automatically come back. You don’t even know how it came back; it just came back. So it is like different stages. But I mean, no one should feel discouraged because they are not on the highest stage in the beginning. I mean, chanting and by good association gradually improves, and you will progress, and you will experience this wonderful, wonderful mercy of the holy name, which is Krishna himself. Yes, sir.

Devotee5: At what point of guru Maharaja, at what point of time one experiences his spiritual body or experiences that it is growing?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, so in the different stages of advancement, ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅga; ādau śraddhā means like a preliminary faith and attraction. Like many of you, come to this stage of niṣṭhā. Niṣṭhā means steadiness. We are not steady because of these anartha. And that is why, one minute we wanted to go to the temple and chant, the next minute we wanted to, whatever, but watch something or do something. So that is a very significant point to cross over, anartha, anartha-nivṛtti, come to niṣṭhā. After niṣṭhā comes ruci taste, and even in taste, there are two divisions. In the first division, one has taste, if say, kirtan, if the kirtan is done in a very melodious way, one has taste. But if it is not done in such a melodious way, one doesn’t have taste. That is sort of like the lower, as a lower stage of ruci. Higher stage of ruci, it doesn’t matter if it is musically palatable or not, one has taste for the holy name. That is, and then āsakti, that means attachment. And it is like, you are subtle, but then you are really attached to Krishna. I mean, in ruci, you have taste for talks about Krishna, for chanting, kirtan, japa. And in āsakti, you are attached to Krishna, that you want Krishna; you want to serve Krishna anyway. Or maybe all of you, have at least some preliminary faith and attraction that is śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅga. So the next comes regularly associating with devotees. Even to come to the stage of śraddhā, there must be some association with devotees. But the next stage, sādhu-saṅga, means that you regularly associate with devotees. You systematically associate with devoting. And then, so, ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅga, atho bhajana-kriyā, and bhajana-kriyā, means that you actually start to take up the practice of bhakti-yoga. And then if you do it properly, you come to the stage of anartha- nivṛtti. Anartha means unwanted habits, unwanted desires. So if you chant attentively, make the effort to chant attentively, then anartha- nivṛtti, all those unwanted things will be eradicated. And then the next stage, so that all of these stages, seven stages sādhana-bhakti, and then comes bhāva—bhakti. And at the stage of bhāva-bhakti, Krishna reveals Himself. That is when you actually start. Yes, Krishna reveals Himself, and along with Him revealing Himself, He reveals your relationship with Him, your eternal relationship with Him. So, and then, that is like the beginning stage of love, bhāva. And then the more mature stage of love is called prema. And at that stage, your spiritual body, because we are talking about the ātmā, the soul, and by that soul ultimately has a form, and it has an eternal relationship with Krishna. Krishna, and so when you come to that stage, bhāva, you get glimpses of it, and prema, you get more full realization.

And Srila Prabhupada said it is like when you are sleeping, you are dreaming, you are this, you are doing that, and you dream so many things which are not you. But when you wake up, you immediately remember, “Oh, I am so and so. I have to get up, I have to bathe, I have to dress, I have to go to school, or I have to go to work, or I have to cook for my family.” Immediately when you wake up, you remember everything about your identity, not just who you are, but who your relations are, and what your activities are. So, coming to these stages after sadhana, that is called sādhya. You remember who you are, your actual identity, and what your relationship with Krishna is, what your particular service to Krishna is, and which other servants of Krishna are associated with you in your service to Krishna. Everything is revealed. And at that stage, you have no identification with the physical body. You totally identify with your spiritual form. And at that stage, death, it doesn’t even exist. It is just like that; like that we discuss the bodies like a dress. So some people, if they are really absorbed in something, they get undressed, they are not even really conscious of it. They are so, it is like that. They have realized their spiritual identity and their eternal relationship with Krishna. And that, and leaving the body, it is just like the dress is coming off, and it has no real significance.

So, is that answering your question? Yes, so it is an exciting journey. Any other questions? This is definitely the advanced class here. Very, very nice. Good question, good attention. And it is also important to read, read the books. I mean, whatever I am saying is coming from the books. Of course, it is, as we have realized, and what we say has more effect. Srila Prabhupada gave the example, if you are smoking and you tell someone not to smoke, it is bad for you, you won’t have that much effect. I mean, it could, if one is honest and say, “You know, I am weak. I haven’t been able to give it up myself, but I know it is bad for me, and it is bad for you.”

So yes, I mean, each verse, like, there is one verse in the First Canto Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam called the ātmārāma verse. Ātmārāma, it begins, and ātmārāma means one who takes pleasure in the ātmā, in the self. And it came here that there are people who are satisfied within themselves, but they are not devotees. They are just satisfied within themselves. So this verse, the ātmārāma verse, says that even people who are ātmārāmāś, who are self-satisfied, take pleasure in Krishna consciousness. So one example is Śukadeva Gosvami, who spoke Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam? He was a liberated soul within the womb of his mother, and he didn’t want to come out because he thought, “Why should I come out? If I come out, I’ll just get entangled in maya, in the illusory attractions of the material energy.” So he didn’t want to come out. So then, Krishna sort of assured him that he could come out, and Krishna would personally make sure that he didn’t become entangled in maya. So he came out, but he had no interest in home. He just immediately left home because he. . . So anyway, so his father wanted to get him back, but there was nothing material that could get him back. So his father recited two verses from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam one that described the mercy of Krishna, a beautiful verse, and another that described the physical beauty of Krishna. And when Śukadeva Gosvami heard these verses, he became attracted. In those, he had no material attraction, but Krishna is attractive even to liberated souls, even to ātmārāma. So this verse, ātmārāma verse, Lord Chaitanya explained it, so many different ways to Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, say eighteen ways, whatever. So then later, another devotee, Sanatana Gosvami, said to Lord Chaitanya, “I heard that you explain this verse in so many different ways. Can you also explain it to me?” And Lord Chaitanya explained it in sixty-one different ways, and each explanation was true and distinct from each of the other explanations. And at the end, Sanatana Gosvami was astonished. “How could you speak like sixty-one different explanations, and each one was true?” And Lord Chaitanya described that, “My dear Sanatana, please consider the nature of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is Krishna Himself, and just as Krishna is unlimited, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is unlimited.”

And he said, “Every verse in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam has unlimited meanings.” And then he said, “Every word in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam has unlimited meaning.” And he said, “Every syllable in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam has unlimited meaning.” And then he said, “Actually, I am not speaking, because you are so sincere and eager to hear, so this knowledge is passing through me to you.” He gave the example of the first, you can say, we now call him the original commentator on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Śrīdhara Swami. And he lived quite some time ago, but when his commentary first came out, it was so novel and revolutionary, and you really got into the inner essence of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and the rasa, the relationships with Krishna of different devotees. So people were sort of, they didn’t know what to make of it, whether it was authentic or not.

So this is in Varanasi, so there is a temple of Lord Shiva called Visvanatha. So they said, “All right, we will place the commentary at the feet of Visvanatha, and we will see if we get any answer.” And after some time, the answer came, “ahaṁ vedmi śuko vetti  vyāso vetti na vetti vā” I know the true purport of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. This is Lord Shiva speaking. “Śukadeva Gosvami who spoke Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, he knows the real purport of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and Vyas who wrote Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam may or may not know the real meaning.” So Lord Chaitanya quoted this to make the point that he, this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that we have is written by Veda Vyas. It is perfect in every respect, but he may or may not know the purport of everything that he wrote, but it passed through him to us. That is the idea. So Lord Chaitanya was saying, “Yes, I have spoken sixty-one meanings, but I don’t necessarily possess them.” Of course, he was being humble. I mean, he is Krishna, Krishna Chaitanya that is a fact, but he was making that point that because you are so sincere and eager to hear, all these meanings came through me to you.

Oh yes, so we are so fortunate to be in this line from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Things are so easily available to us that were not available. I mean, before Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s time, they just were not available. Rich understanding and then before Srila Prabhupada time, they were not available outside of India. And even people from India often end up appreciating Krishna Consciousness more when they come to America, say, than when they were in India. So this is the mercy of Srila Prabhupada. This knowledge, this practice, this association is available to us, easily available, and we should take it.

I mean, there is an interesting conversation at a devotee’s house in England, in London. His son, basically, he was just saying that he, the father, went through a tortuous journey to try to find a bonafide guru because they are so many out there called gurus. And he, it was really an agonizing process to find a real guru, at which he found when he came to ISKCON, well Srila Prabhupada. And he was saying that many of the children in ISKCON, they grow up with that association all around them. They may take it for granted, but he doesn’t take it for granted because he knows what he went through to come to that place where he could get real knowledge coming in paramparā.

So it is the New Year, and we should really make this the best ever by immersing ourselves fully, as much as possible, in Krishna consciousness.

All right, thank you very much. Hare Krishna,

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!