SB 7.5.12 – Unity in Variety

Giriraj Swami: So, we shall read a verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Seven, Chapter Five, Prahlāda, the Saintly Son of Hiraṇyakaśipu, Text Twelve. Please repeat after me.

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

Please repeat.

TEXT 12

sa yadānuvrataḥ puṁsāṁ

paśu-buddhir vibhidyate

anya eṣa tathānyo ‘ham

iti bheda-gatāsatī

TRANSLATION

When the Supreme Personality of Godhead is pleased with the living entity because of his devotional service, one becomes a paṇḍita and does not make distinctions between enemies, friends and himself. Intelligently, he then thinks, “Every one of us is an eternal servant of God, and therefore we are not different from one another.”

COMMENT

Please repeat.

TRANSLATION

When the Supreme Personality of Godhead is pleased with the living entity because of his devotional service, one becomes a paṇḍita and does not make distinctions between enemies, friends and himself. Intelligently, he then thinks, “Every one of us is an eternal servant of God, and therefore we are not different from one another.”

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

When Prahlāda Mahārāja’s teachers and demoniac father asked him how his intelligence had been polluted, Prahlāda Mahārāja said, “As far as I am concerned, my intelligence has not been polluted. Rather, by the grace of my spiritual master and by the grace of my Lord, Kṛṣṇa, I have now learned that no one is my enemy and no one is my friend. We are all actually eternal servants of Kṛṣṇa, but under the influence of the external energy we think that we are separately situated from the Supreme Personality of Godhead as friends and enemies of one another. This mistaken idea has now been corrected, and therefore, unlike ordinary human beings, I no longer think that I am God and that others are my friends and enemies. Now I am rightly thinking that everyone is an eternal servant of God and that our duty is to serve the supreme master, for then we shall stand on the platform of oneness as servants.”

COMMENT

So, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has stated jīvera svarūpa haya kṛṣṇera nitya-dāsa, that the constitutional position of the living entity is that he is eternal servant of Krishna, and thus we are all one, in the sense that we are all Krishna’s servants, and we are meant to cooperate for Krishna’s pleasure.

His Grace Bhurijana dasa has given many seminars on japa and in general, and he says that everyone has the mentality that he or she is the center, not Krishna. He said that pretty much everyone goes through life conceiving of it as a movie in which he or she is the hero or heroine, and everyone else is the supporting cast. So, it becomes a conflictful situation because I think I’m the hero of the movie, and I think you are supposed to support me in my heroic role, and you all think you are the heroes or heroines of the movie, and I and everyone else is meant to support you in your heroic role. And so, there is going to be conflict. But when the Lord is pleased with us, we come to the understanding that we are all eternal servants of Krishna, we are all the same, and we are meant to serve Him, with Him as the center.

Otherwise, we have the other psychology, which Bhurijana Prabhu described, it’s as if everyone wants to clear their throats, “Excuse me, I have an important announcement to make; I am the center of the universe, and everyone else should do just what I want, when I want it, and how I want it.” So, you can imagine, with so many billions of people, and then there are also other species, but just human beings, each one is thinking that he or she is the center of the universe and everyone else should just do what he or she wants.

And then if someone helps us, they become our friends, so-called friends. And if someone doesn’t help us, or if someone interferes with our plans, knowingly or unknowingly, then they become our enemies. So, the concept of friends and enemies exists when we think of ourselves as the center. And when we think of Krishna as the center, which is His actual position, rightful position, and ourselves as His servants, then there are no friends or enemies, but we are all one in that we are servants of Krishna.

So, back to the purport.

PURPORT (continued)

Demons think of everyone as a friend or enemy, but Vaiṣṇavas say that since everyone is a servant of the Lord, everyone is on the same platform. Therefore a Vaiṣṇava treats other living entities neither as friends nor as enemies, but instead tries to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness, teaching everyone that we are all one as servants of the Supreme Lord but are uselessly wasting our valuable lives by creating nations, communities and other groups of friends and enemies.

COMMENT

So, we here, as devotees, can understand these principles, and everyone has the potential to understand them, but if they have not had the mercy of the association of devotees, they may be in ignorance and under the false conception that they are the center, and based on how other people deal with them consider others to be friends or enemies. And we as devotees know the reality, and so we should preach Krishna consciousness and help others come to that platform of oneness.

PURPORT (continued)

Everyone should come to the platform of Kṛṣṇa consciousness and thus feel oneness as a servant of the Lord. Although there are 8,400,000 species of life, a Vaiṣṇava feels this oneness. The Īśopaniṣad advises, ekatvam anupaśyataḥ. A devotee should see the Supreme Personality of Godhead to be situated in everyone’s heart and should also see every living entity as an eternal servant of the Lord.

COMMENT

And this applies to every living entity and all the 8,400,000 species of life.

PURPORT (continued)

This vision is called ekatvam, oneness. Although there is a relationship of master and servant, both master and servant are one because of their spiritual identity. This is also ekatvam. Thus the conception of ekatvam for the Vaiṣṇava is different from that of the Māyāvādī.

COMMENT

So, one meaning of ekatvam, or oneness, is that every living entity is an eternal servant of Krishna, and so we are all one. But also, the Supreme Lord and the living entities have the same quality, and that is also ekatvam, or oneness.

But there is also a difference between the living entities and the Lord, and this is Lord Chaitanya’s sublime philosophy of acintya-bhedābheda-tattva, inconceivable, simultaneous oneness and different. We are one with the Lord in quality, that’s the ekatvam Srila Prabhupada mentioned here, but we are different in quantity. And because we are one in quality, we can have a relationship. If two entities do not have some common qualities or some common ground, they cannot have a relationship. So, there has to be some similarity or some commonness. And so, because both the Lord and the living entities are spiritual, they have grounds for a relationship. But because the Lord is infinite and the living entities are infinitesimal, the relationship is defined as master and servant. So, it’s perfect, everything is perfect.

PURPORT (continued)

Hiraṇyakaśipu asked Prahlāda Mahārāja how he had become antagonistic to his family. When a family member is killed by an enemy, all the members of the family would naturally be inimical to the murderer, but Hiraṇyakaśipu saw that Prahlāda had become friendly with the murderer.

COMMENT

So, the history here is that Hiraṇyakaśipu had a brother named Hiraṇyakṣa, and Hiraṇyakṣa is the original demon. Hiraṇyakṣa was killed by Lord Vishnu in the form of Varahadeva, but He was Lord Vishnu. So, ordinarily, if someone kills a family member, all the other family members would consider the murderer to be an enemy, but Prahlada did not see Vishnu as an enemy. And therefore, Hiraṇyakaśipu was distressed with Prahlada aligning himself with the enemy instead of with his own family.

So, I’ll read it again with that background in mind.

PURPORT (continued)

When a family member is killed by an enemy, all the members of the family would naturally be inimical to the murderer, but Hiraṇyakaśipu saw that Prahlāda had become friendly with the murderer. Therefore he asked, “Who has created this kind of intelligence in you? Have you developed this consciousness by yourself? Since you are a small boy, someone must have induced you to think this way.”

COMMENT

So, here the history is that when there was fighting between the demons and the demigods, at one stage, the demigods had the upper hand, and they arrested Hiraṇyakaśipu’s pregnant wife, and they wanted to kill her and the child because they thought that the child in the womb, being of Hiraṇyakaśipu, would be a demon. And so, they didn’t want to allow him to live and become another demon like Hiraṇyakaśipu.

But Narada Muni came on the scene, and he knew that within her womb, she was carrying a great devotee. So, he explained to the demigods, Indra and others, that she is not carrying a demon, she is carrying a great devotee. So, they all circumambulated the mother and offered respects. And Narada Muni took possession of the mother and kept her at his ashram, and while she was at his ashram, Narada instructed her in spiritual science. But he wasn’t instructing only her, he was also instructing Prahlada in the womb. Prahlada was able to hear the instructions within the womb.

So now, coming back to the purport.

PURPORT (continued)

Hiraṇyakaśipu saw that Prahlāda had become friendly with the murderer. Therefore he asked, “Who has created this kind of intelligence in you? Have you developed this consciousness by yourself? Since you are a small boy, someone must have induced you to think this way.”

COMMENT

And so, part of that was the association he got from Narada Muni.

PURPORT (continued)

Prahlāda Mahārāja wanted to reply that an attitude favorable toward Viṣṇu can develop only when the Lord is favorable (sa yadānuvrataḥ). As stated in Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa is the friend of everyone (suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati). The Lord is never an enemy to any of the millions of living entities, but is always a friend to everyone. This is true understanding. If one thinks that the Lord is an enemy, his intelligence is paśu-buddhi, the intelligence of an animal. He falsely thinks, “I am different from my enemy, and my enemy is different from me. The enemy has done this, and therefore my duty is to kill him.”

COMMENT

And that’s what Hiraṇyakaśipu was thinking about Lord Vishnu, that He was his enemy because He killed his brother, and it’s his duty to kill Him, to kill Vishnu. Now, we might think it odd that someone could believe that they could kill Vishnu, but both the demons and the demigods have powers beyond what we ordinary human beings have. And so, the demons think of Vishnu as one of the demigods. And yes, He has powers, but His powers can be defeated, just like the demigods can be defeated by the demons.

PURPORT (continued)

If one thinks that the Lord is an enemy, his intelligence is paśu-buddhi, the intelligence of an animal. He falsely thinks, “I am different from my enemy, and my enemy is different from me. The enemy has done this, and therefore my duty is to kill him.” This misconception is described in this verse as bheda-gatāsatī.

COMMENT

Disastrous.

PURPORT (continued)

The actual fact is that everyone is a servant of the Lord, as confirmed in Caitanya-caritāmṛta by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu (jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya — kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa’). As servants of the Lord, we are one, and there can be no questions of enmity or friendship. If one actually understands that every one of us is a servant of the Lord, where is the question of enemy or friend?

COMMENT

Because we are all servants of the Lord.

PURPORT (continued)

Everyone should be friendly for the service of the Lord.

COMMENT

I’ll repeat that.

PURPORT (continued)

Everyone should be friendly for the service of the Lord. Everyone should praise another’s service to the Lord and not be proud of his own service. This is the way of Vaiṣṇava thinking, Vaikuṇṭha thinking. There may be rivalries and apparent competition between servants in performing service, but in the Vaikuṇṭha planets the service of another servant is appreciated, not condemned. This is Vaikuṇṭha competition.

COMMENT

In other places also, Srila Prabhupada has explained the difference between transcendental competition and mundane competition. In transcendental competition, the competitor acknowledges the good qualities and the good service of the other but wants to excel the other for the pleasure of Krishna. So, they appreciate the other, they appreciate the service of the other and the good qualities of the other, but they want to do even better, or do even more, to give more pleasure to Krishna. But in mundane competition there is envy, and one does not acknowledge the good qualities or service in the other. With that envious attitude, someone may praise another devotee’s service, and then the envious person will say, “Oh, I don’t think they did such a great job,” or they’ll say, “I don’t think it was all him, I think he got a lot of help from other people. He doesn’t really deserve the credit.”

So, coming back here.

PURPORT (continued)

There may be rivalries and apparent competition between servants in performing service, but in the Vaikuṇṭha planets the service of another servant is appreciated, not condemned. This is Vaikuṇṭha competition. There is no question of enmity between servants. Everyone should be allowed to render service to the Lord to the best of his ability.

COMMENT

Again.

PURPORT (continued)

Everyone should be allowed to render service to the Lord to the best of his ability and everyone should appreciate the service of others. Such are the activities of Vaikuṇṭha. Since everyone is a servant, everyone is on the same platform and is allowed to serve the Lord according to his ability. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (15.15), sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭo mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca: the Lord is situated in everyone’s heart, giving dictation according to the attitude of the servant. However, the Lord gives different dictation to the nondevotees and devotees. The nondevotees challenge the authority of the Supreme Lord, and therefore the Lord dictates in such a way that the nondevotees forget the Lord’s service, life after life, and are punished by the laws of nature. But when a devotee very sincerely wants to render service to the Lord, the Lord dictates in a different way. As the Lord says in Bhagavad-gītā (10.10):

teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ

bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam

dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ

yena mām upayānti te

“To those who are constantly devoted and worship Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.” Everyone is actually a servant, not an enemy or friend, and everyone is working under different directions from the Lord, who directs each living entity according to his mentality.

COMMENT

So, although we are all one as servants of the Lord, we are also individual, and the Lord, within the heart, gives us individual intelligence on how to serve the Lord according to our individuality. But that does not disturb or compromise the principle of oneness, we are still one as servants, but we are individuals. And as Srila Prabhupada said, “We shouldn’t condemn the service of another because that service is being done ideally, with intelligence given by the Lord, according to the devotee’s desire.”

So, this is unity in variety. This is a very important concept for devotees in ISKCON, unity in variety. The unity is that we are all servants of Prabhupada and Krishna, and the variety is that we are all individuals, and we all have our own individual contribution to make. And this principle is so important that Srila Prabhupada said that the GBC in their annual meeting should discuss how to implement the principle of unity in variety within ISKCON.

The varieties will be there, just like in a flower arrangement or a bouquet of flowers there will be a variety of flowers. They are one in the sense that they are all flowers, but there are these varieties; different types of flowers, different colors, and that combination of different kinds of flowers and different colors makes the floral arrangement more attractive and pleasing than if it was all just one kind of flower and one color.

So, we should, as they say, embrace the differences and see them as varieties of service and qualities meant for Krishna’s pleasure. And then we all play our part. We play our part but we don’t deny anyone else the opportunity to play their part. And so, we can have unity in variety and be very happy, and be like Vaikuntha when we have this mentality, be like the spiritual world.

And at the same time as we hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, hear this philosophy, which is very purifying and encouraging to the heart, we also take up the process of cleansing the heart through the offenseless chanting of the holy names.

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

That will cleanse the heart, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam, and help us to see things just as described in the verse and purport here, to actually see ourselves and all others as eternal servants of Krishna and to feel ourselves to be the eternal servants of Krishna. Hare Krishna.

Devotees: Hare Krishna.

Giriraj Swami: So, do any of you have any questions or comments?

Devotee: That was such a wonderful class, Guru Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Thank you.

Devotee: Wonderful.

Devotee: Guru Maharaja, I have a question.

Giriraj Swami: All right.

Devotee: We see in ISKCON that, like you said, everyone has individuality. Sometimes because of one’s individuality, one can maybe do things in ISKCON that maybe are not considered following Srila Prabhupada’s mood. We can justify any kind of preaching, any kind of management by saying we are individuals. How can one differentiate when one is following, and one is just following his own individuality?

Giriraj Swami: Well, as members of ISKCON, we are all under the authority of Srila Prabhupada, and so we can serve Srila Prabhupada according to our individuality. But the definition of devotional service is ānukūl, it must be favorable. And for our service to be favorable, we have to know what the master wants. We can’t offer the master something he doesn’t want under the plea that that’s my individuality, because that’s a false conception of individuality.

So, the first thing is Srila Prabhupada is the master. I mean, Krishna is the ultimate master, but for us in ISKCON Srila Prabhupada is the master. And so, we need to know what the master wants, and as long as we give him something that he wants, then we are all right. We are not all going to offer the same thing. Someone might want to make dal and we can offer that. Someone might want to make a vegetable; we can offer that. Someone may want to make sweet; we can offer that. That’s the individuality, but it’s all within the range of what the master wants. But if someone says, “Well, my individuality, I want to offer something with onions,” but you can’t do that because the master won’t accept that, it’s not what he wants.

But then again, unless we know the background of why a devotee is doing something, we might not understand why that is proper. But it may not be proper, but we shouldn’t be quick to judge that something is improper without perhaps investigating further why the devotee is making that offering. So, definitely, there is scope for individuality, but it has to be expressed within the realm of Srila Prabhupada’s and Lord Chaitanya’s desires.

I met a big man in Bombay, this is way back, during Srila Prabhupada’s time, and he carried around with him a little silver box. He was a very wealthy man. He carried around with him a little silver box with tulasi leaves. He was sort of boasting to me that he doesn’t even drink tea without putting in tulasi leaves, but drinking tea is not within the realm of devotional activities, it’s one of the forbidden activities. It’s a minor sin, but it is a sin, it’s an intoxicant.

So, we have to know what the master wants, and we have to provide what the master wants, and within those parameters, we can express our individuality.

Devotee: Thank you, Guru Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Okay. Any other questions or comments?

Devotee: I can read from the chat, Guru Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: But if they don’t ask in the call, I won’t answer them. And here we have the whole mitra system to answer questions. But if there is a question that no one else can answer, I’ll answer it, but someone has to voice it in the call.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:47:17].

Giriraj Swami: It’s not very loud, I’m not actually able to hear.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:47:22].

Giriraj Swami: Yes.

Devotee: So, my delusion I’m suffering, it happens that we know we are not this body we are the spirit soul, but sometimes it’s very difficult to practice it. Not sometimes most of the times, to chant my rounds, you just think about the pain and about the disease…

Giriraj Swami: Well, I mean, we know we are not the body, at least theoretically we know we are not the body, but we still suffer pain.

But there was an incident when Mr. Ramlallah, he was the editor of the Mauritius Times, came to meet Srila Prabhupada, and he criticized Arjuna that Arjuna heard the Bhagavad-gītā from Krishna, and in Arjuna’s own words, he understood the instructions, but still, when his son Abhimanyu was killed, he lamented, he was ready to enter into fire.

So, Mr. Ramlallah was saying, “Isn’t it ridiculous that he heard Bhagavad-gītā directly from Krishna and he said that he understood it, but still, when he lost his son he was lamenting?” And Srila Prabhupada replied that yes, in theory, we know, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre, that when the body is killed the soul is not slain, but it’s natural that temporarily, Arjuna was affected. It’s natural. But the whole Bhagavad-gītā was spoken by Krishna to convince Arjuna to fight. And after his son was killed, Arjuna did not leave the battlefield, but he stayed, and he fought. So, that means he did follow Krishna’s instruction in the Bhagavad-gītā. But Srila Prabhupada conceded that yes, theoretically we know, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre, but it was natural that temporarily, he was affected.

So, it’s natural that you are affected by the pain and suffering, but within that, you should continue with your spiritual practices. And if you read the story of Mother Arca Vigraha in the book Many Moons, she was really in terrible pain with cancer, I think she said it felt like being stung by ten million scorpions, but within that, she discovered that by absorbing her mind in Krishna consciousness, she could get relief from that terrible suffering. Otherwise, the suffering was intolerable.

So, these are tests. Ultimately, we are always facing tests. And the basic test is, are we going to remember Krishna, take shelter of Krishna, or are we going to forget Krishna and try to find some other shelter? And then the ultimate test is the time of death, this life’s final exam. And so, these are smaller tests to help us remember Krishna at the time of death and take shelter of Krishna at the time of death.

But, I mean, it’s always an issue, especially towards the end of life, about pain medication. Because if you are in too much pain, you won’t remember Krishna, and if you are too drugged on medication, you also won’t remember Krishna. So, it’s a very delicate balance at the time of death to have enough relief for the pain so that the pain doesn’t completely just absorb our consciousness, but not to have too much drugs so that our consciousness is dull and we don’t feel the pain but we don’t think of Krishna either.

So, I don’t know what to say about your exact situation, but I’ll pray for you that you can tolerate the pain and continue with your spiritual practices. It’s not that you are physically incapable of chanting, but it’s just that your mind is distracted by the pain. So as long as you are physically capable of chanting, you should. That was a good question. Hare Krishna.