Janmashtami Celebration

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. I am very pleased and honored to be with you all today. In fact, my joy knows no bounds. According to The Nectar of Devotion or the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu there are five items of devotional service that are especially potent, and a slight performance of any one of them can bestow upon one love of Godhead, which is the supreme goal of life, and which ensures fulfillment of all our desires. So, these five are sādhu-saṅga, sadhu-saṅga means to associate with sadhus, and Rupa Gosvami gives a very specific definition of sadhu, when he speaks of sādhu-saṅga, and that is sajātīyāśaye snigdhe sādhau saṅgaḥ svato vare. So, sajātīyā means in a loose translation, like-minded, or belonging to the same community. For example, we are devotees of Lord Krishna, and specifically, devotees of Lord Krishna following in the line of Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who is Krishna Himself, descended in the age of Kali, to give us the chanting of the holy names—in fact, to give us all of these processes, and thereby bestow upon us love of Godhead. And specifically, we are in the line of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, that has come to us through Srila Prabhupada.

Now, of course the Chaitanya tree—if we accept that metaphor from Caitanya-caritāmṛta—the Chaitanya tree has many branches. And one of them is Srila Prabhupada and his followers. But there are some special reasons why it is beneficial for us to accept that sādhu-saṅga, sajātīyā, that is faithfully following Srila Prabhupada.

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself predicted:

pṛthivite āche yata nagarādi-grāma

sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma

“That in every town and village of every country of the world, His name or Krishna’s name would be sung or preached.” He made that prediction five hundred years ago, and even followers of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu—even as recently as one hundred years ago—could not imagine how this could be possible, that the chanting of Hare Krishna and how the propagation of the message of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, could spread to every town and village of every country of the world. Even followers of Chaitanya thought it may be something symbolic, but not literal. Then, about one hundred years ago—or maybe a little more than one hundred years ago—one of our previous acharyas, he also foresaw the day when there would be Vaishnavas—devotees of Krishna—all over the world, and these devotees would raise the sounds of hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana, the chanting of the holy names in streets throughout the world, and they would come together and meet with their brothers in Bengal and Mayapur and chant the holy names together. So, these predictions were there—these desires were there—but how they would be fulfilled remained a mystery. In fact, the prospects seemed impossible. But it is described in the revealed scriptures that when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was asked, “How is it possible that Your holy name could spread in every town and village of the world?” He replied that he would send his “Senapati-bhakta.” Senapati means commander in chief and bhakta, of course means devotee.

So, we are remembering now how fifty years ago Srila Prabhupada left India, came to the United States, and chanted Hare Krishna, and from that very humble beginning, I am describing in very brief how the prediction of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and the previous acharyas has become fulfilled. So, it is a very good thing that Srila Prabhupada left India, arrived in America at the age of seventy, and began chanting Hare Krishna and so many – well, all of us are here now because of him. So, sādhu-saṅga—this is the first of those five especially potent items. So, what is “sadhu”? Again, sajātīyā, someone in the same community and for us that means devotees of Krishna, devotees of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and ultimately, devotees of Srila Prabhupada. Sajātīyāśaye snigdhe, and snigdhe means affectionate. And that can be translated that we should associate with sadhus who have the same type of affection for the Lord as we do. And we have been hearing what is the pure devotee’s affection for the Lord—it is without any desire for material elevation or even spiritual emancipation, but it is simply to serve the Lord for the Lord’s pleasure. And snigdhe, affectionate, means he should also be affectionate to us. There may be advanced devotees, of course, in our line the devotees are all affectionate so, but the devotees should be affectionate toward us, and that will encourage us spiritually. And svato vare—he should be more advanced than we are. So, this is the definition of sādhau saṅga and it is the first item of these five items, and this sādhau saṅga, I might venture to say is available here, in ISKCON of Silicon Valley. So, straight away you have come in touch with one of these five very potent items of devotional service, and even a slight contact with any one of these fives—if one is offenseless, there is a condition—but if one is offenseless, even a slight association with any one of these five can bestow love of Godhead.

So, now we will pass the microphone onto another sadhu. Well, not that I am one, but to a sadhu.

Devotee: If I have not introduced to you yet, if you came later, this is Giriraj Swami, one of the early pioneers of the Krishna consciousness movement—especially in India. He comes from a very wealthy family in America, but he gave his whole youth as a brahmachari, now a sannyasi in his later years. And in his early years, he spent many years living in Bombay, living in very simple conditions, and he helped start the whole project there in India and spread Krishna consciousness, so it is a very great pleasure to introduce him to you, and he would like to say a few words. I do not know if he would like to, but I asked him, so.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. It is a great pleasure and privilege for me to be with you all tonight. When Vaisesika was speaking about giving the money to Krishna while we can, I thought of something that Srila Prabhupada. . . Vaisesika is aware of it, because what he said was very similar. But what Srila Prabhupada said was that Krishna is asking us to give to Him and if we do not give to Him, it will be taken away anyway. And he gave that exact same example of a fire yajña – “that okay, you did not want to give to me, okay, here is some big legal implication—Twenty thousand dollars, svaha!” Srila Prabhupada said, “Okay, you did not want to give to me, okay, this huge medical expense – svaha!” So, better give to Krishna voluntarily and that will be good. My own little experience—it was good—anyway, I do not know if I should say a business or a branch of law called personal injury. It is true that the driver of my vehicle, he put on the breaks a little late and he touched a lady. She did not fall or anything, but he did touch her.

So anyway, she went to a personal injury lawyer, and I could not believe it, because she seemed sort of nice—anyway, I do not want to go into too many details. So, she goes to a personal injury lawyer. I mean, she was very friendly, “we can give you a ride,” the driver was a doctor, “no, no, I’m okay everything is fine.” So, someone came up with a notice weeks later—I opened it up, this huge amount, and the guy who delivered it—I said, “What is this?” He says, “I deliver a lot of things, most things are frankly, they are rubbish, but we are just delivering.” But anyway, it put me in some anxiety, and I was chanting and I was thinking—what to do about this? And then I had the realization—if I give all my money away first, there will not be anything for her to collect. And seriously—I thought of some very good causes, we have a hospice in Vrindavan so devotees can leave their bodies in Krishna consciousness, so I gave some major gifts, and it was a relief—it was really a big relief. And I was so thankful that happened—I felt that I needed that little bit of encouragement to sort of help me see things in perspective. And I do not know, whatever I had and gave away, there is that much there now anyway—I do not know how that worked—but it reminds me a little of this story.

In education, the teachers were brahmans, and they would not take money as a salary because that was considered for Sudras, Sudras take. . . But the students would give dakṣiṇā, a gift to the teacher. So, it was the teacher’s birthday, and so the students were all going to bring gifts. And so, there was one boy who was very poor, and he asked his mother, “What can I give the teacher for his birthday?” And she said, “I don’t know, we are so poor, we are hardly existing, I don’t know.” And he said, “What can I do? I must give something; everybody is bringing something.” So, the mother said, “Well, I think the only one who can help you is God—Krishna. Krishna is Deenbandhu, He is the friend of the poor.” So, he said, “Well, how do I approach Deenbandhu?” She said, “Well, many people they go to the forest to find God, maybe you go there, and you call His name.” So, he went into the forest and he called out: “Oh Deenbandhu! Deenbandhu my friend—friend of the poor – Deenbandhu, please help me!” And Deenbandhu responded and the boy explained, “My predicament is that I have to give a gift to my teacher.” So, Deenbandhu gave him a little cup of yogurt. So, everyone brought real nice gifts to the teacher and this boy just brought this cup of yogurt—little cup of yogurt. And the teacher—It is not a very brahminical quality—he was a little annoyed that all the boy brought was a little cup of yogurt. So, in anger he turned the cup of yogurt over—this is useless. But then when he turned it up again, the yogurt was still there. No matter how much yogurt came out of it, there was still more yogurt. So, then the teacher thought, Oh this is something special. So, then the little boy was saying, “Oh, Deenbandhu friend of the poor, You are so great, You are so wonderful.”

So, I am thinking—I just made this connection tonight—that okay, I gave away all that money thinking that if that lady wins that exaggerated personal injury suit, I am going to have to give it to her, so better give it to Krishna first. But whatever I gave away, I thought I was cleaning out my pockets, but they filled up again. So, after hearing this talk I think I better give it away again because you never know what might happen. But actually, it is true—whatever you give to Krishna, Krishna gives back many folds. So, speaking of books, I would like to say something about this book. As Vaisesika Prabhu said, this book just recently came out, and as soon as I got my copy, I opened it up and I started to look at it, and I was truly astonished. Because sometimes Srila Prabhupada would use the phrase “Science of God.” Now, we may say science of God, and I even met one or two scientists that objected. “We have a different idea of science—this is not science.” And we tend to be conditioned by scientific ideas that we accept something is true if we can see it, if it can be measured, if we can make an experiment and verify it according to the scientific method, and as a result—although we do have some inclination toward Krishna, we have some sentiment, and we are here—we may have doubts also.

In fact, if we did not have doubts, we would be here every day and be engaged in Krishna’s service all day every day as far as possible. So, we do have some faith, we have some attraction, we have some sentiment. But we also have doubts, because we have never seen Krishna. And when I read this book, I felt this is so scientific, and so detailed, that I felt that these lingering traces of atheism or disbelief were being eradicated by this book. Because in this book, Rupa Gosvami deals with questions that many of us probably have. If we have studied a little bit of the Bhagavad-gītā or Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the pastimes of Krishna and His incarnations, and if we are thoughtful, we have probably had questions, but we did not know how to get them answered. And I found that this book deals with many of those questions very explicitly, and reading this book I felt wow, this is amazing—this is scientific. And all these answers. . . and I feel I am becoming more of a theist. So, I really do recommend this, because it answers so many questions that people with a little knowledge will have, and really makes you a convinced theist, so that you can really dedicate yourself to Krishna and Krishna’s service.

Hare Krishna.