SB 1.8.25 – The Lotus Feet of the Lord Are the Most Suitable Boat for Crossing the Ocean of Nescience

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. So, now we will read one verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto One, Chapter Eight, “Prayers by Queen Kunti,” Text Twenty-Five.

TEXT 25

vipadaḥ santu tāḥ śaśvat

tatra tatra jagad-guro

bhavato darśanaṁ yat syād

apunar bhava-darśanam

TRANSLATION

I wish that all those calamities would happen again and again so that we could see You again and again, for seeing You means that we will no longer see repeated births and deaths.

COMMENT

So, I will be speaking while reading the purport, so it won’t be very useful to continue to have the purport on the screen.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Generally the distressed, the needy, the intelligent and the inquisitive, who have performed some pious activities, worship or begin to worship the Lord.

COMMENT

As this is described in the Bhagavad-gītā, catur-vidhā bhajante mām, that these four categories of persons, who have some background of pious activities, they begin to worship Lord Krishna.

PURPORT (continued)

Others, who are thriving on misdeeds only, regardless of status, cannot approach the Supreme due to being misled by the illusory energy. Therefore, for a pious person, if there is some calamity there is no other alternative than to take shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord.

COMMENT

So, in the material world, we are always in danger. There is danger at every step, but the only hope and shelter for a devotee and really anyone, ultimately, is the lotus feet of the Lord. So, when we are in difficult situations, we should welcome the opportunity to take more shelter of Krishna. “Therefore, for a pious person, if there is some calamity, there is no other alternative than to take shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord.” So, as we see in this verse, Queen Kunti is welcoming the calamities, of course, calamities are bound to come in the material world, but generally, we don’t welcome them. But Queen Kunti is welcoming them because in the calamities, she is finding herself taking more shelter of the Lord. And she is finding that the Lord is actually present with her. Queen Kunti’s prayers were spoken to Lord Krishna when He was about to leave her in Hastinapura and return to Dwarka. So, she was reflecting on Lord Krishna’s presence that in the face of the calamities He was there with them; her and her sons, the Pandavas. And now, that everything is settled, Lord Krishna is leaving. So, she is praying that she would rather have those calamities with Lord Krishna than to be nicely situated without Lord Krishna.

PURPORT (continued)

Constantly remembering the lotus feet of the Lord means preparing for liberation from birth and death. Therefore, even though there are so-called calamities, they are welcome because they give us an opportunity to remember the Lord, which means liberation.

COMMENT

So, there is a saying that, there are no atheists in the foxholes. Foxholes means a position in war. So, in war, when one is faced with the possibility of death, at any moment, there are no atheists because they need help, they need shelter, they need protection; and the only protection, the only guaranteed protection is that of the Lord. So, sometimes being in a dangerous situation means that we take more shelter of the Lord and being under the shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord means, ultimately, that we will be liberated from the repetition of birth and death, which is our goal in a way.

PURPORT (continued)

One who has taken shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord, which are accepted as the most suitable boat for crossing the ocean of nescience, can achieve liberation as easily as one leaps over the holes made by the hoofs of a calf. Such persons are meant to reside in the abode of the Lord, and they have nothing to do with a place where there is danger in every step.

COMMENT

So, here Srila Prabhupada is paraphrasing a verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, from the end of the Chapter of Lord Brahma’s prayers to Lord Krishna, the Tenth Canto, Fourteenth Chapter. The prayer is beautiful in terms of its Sanskrit and also in terms of its meaning and for a while we used to sing this prayer every morning in the old Boston temple, as part of the early morning program. So, I will sing that verse. samāśritā ye pada-pallava-plavaṁ mahat-padaṁ puṇya-yaśo murāreḥ bhavāmbudhir vatsa-padaṁ paraṁ padaṁ padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ na teṣām.

The meaning is, for those who have accepted the boat of the lotus feet of the Lord, who is the shelter of the cosmic manifestation and as famous as Murari, the enemy of the Mura demon, the vast ocean of material existence shrinks and becomes just like the puddle contained in the hoof print of a calf. Although there is danger at every step the devotee crosses right over it. So, yeah, there are many important words in this verse but the word mahat-padaṁ, has two meanings; mahat can mean the material cosmic manifestation and mahat can also mean the great souls or mahats, mahatmas, who take shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord. So, yes, so this is very encouraging. It is very encouraging for us, who are in a world where there is danger at every step, that if we take shelter of the boat of the lotus feet of the Lord, that vast ocean shrinks and becomes just like the puddle contained in the hoof print of a calf. And although there is danger at every step, we can just cross right over it. Now, back to the purport.

PURPORT (continued)

One who has taken shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord, which are accepted as the most suitable boat for crossing the ocean of nescience, can achieve liberation as easily as one leaps over the holes made by the hoofs of a calf. Such persons are meant to reside in the abode of the Lord, and they have nothing to do with a place where there is danger in every step.

This material world is certified by the Lord in the Bhagavad-gītā as a dangerous place full of calamities.

COMMENT

Yes, in the Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Krishna says, duḥkhālayam aśāśvataṁ, duḥkhā means misery or calamities and ālayam means a place of residence. So, this material world is a place of misery. And as Srila Prabhupada says, foolish people try to make this place of misery, dukhalaya into sukhalaya, a place of happiness. But this material world is not a happy place, we can find happiness in Krishna consciousness but not in the interactions of the material energy. And Krishna further says, aśāśvatam, it is temporary. Even if someone is ready to accept his position in the material world, all right, there is misery but there is also some happiness, whatever, I have my wife, I have my children, I have my bank balance, I have my different assets. So, I agree there is misery but still there is also happiness; so, I will agree to take it. But no, you can’t, because aśāśvatam it’s temporary, you can’t hold on to it, you can’t keep it.

PURPORT (continued)

This material world is certified by the Lord in the Bhagavad-gītā as a dangerous place full of calamities. Less intelligent persons prepare plans to adjust to those calamities without knowing that the nature of this place is itself full of calamities.

COMMENT

So, we can’t, we can’t avoid calamities in the material world but we can take shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord to be protected from the calamities. And to be protected from the calamities doesn’t necessarily mean that externally there won’t be calamities, but it means that, internally, we will feel the shelter and protection of the Lord.

PURPORT (continued)

Less intelligent persons prepare plans to adjust to those calamities without knowing that the nature of this place is itself full of calamities. They have no information of the abode of the Lord, which is full of bliss and without trace of calamity.

COMMENT

So yeah, as we sang in that beautiful verse, our goal is Vaikuntha, where there is no anxiety, not to try to enjoy here, which we can’t. Although in a way we can, which I will explain. Srila Prabhupada initiated a disciple and gave him the name Bhavananda. So, bhāva, that word bhāva comes in this verse of Queen Kunti, bhāva, repetition of birth and death. So, Srila Prabhupada gave him the name Bhavananda, not Bhavananda, bhāva means ecstasy, transcendental ecstasy; but Bhavananda, the pleasure of the material world, the bliss of the material world. So, the disciple Bhavananda, was concerned, what is Srila Prabhupada saying by giving me the name, “the bliss of the material world”? What is he trying to indicate?

So, he asked Srila Prabhupada. And Srila Prabhupada replied, that a devotee experiences happiness in relation to the Lord’s happiness. The devotee has no way to experience happiness independent of the Lord’s happiness and the more he gives pleasure to the Lord, the more he experiences pleasure. So, the bliss of the material world, Bhavananda, is the bliss of bringing people to Krishna. You cannot do that in the spiritual world because in the spiritual world everyone is already with Krishna, everyone is already a pure devotee of Krishna. So, in the spiritual world you can’t preach but preaching and bringing people to Krishna, gives Krishna the highest pleasure. And therefore, the bliss of the material world is preaching and bringing people to Krishna and by giving Krishna the greatest pleasure, by doing so, we also experience the greatest pleasure. So, that is Bhavananda, the bliss of the material world.

PURPORT (continued)

Less intelligent persons prepare plans to adjust to those calamities without knowing that the nature of this place is itself full of calamities.

COMMENT

Duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam.

PURPORT (continued)

Suffering all sorts of unavoidable misfortunes, one should make progress in spiritual realization because that is the mission of human life.

COMMENT

So, we can’t stop the calamities, we should tolerate them, titikṣavaḥ, that’s one of the most important instructions in the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, to tolerate. So, we tolerate the calamities. We can’t remove them entirely and whatever we can’t remove, we tolerate.

PURPORT (continued)

The duty of the sane person, therefore, is to be undisturbed by worldly calamities, which are sure to happen in all circumstances. Suffering all sorts of unavoidable misfortunes, one should make progress in spiritual realization because that is the mission of human life.

COMMENT

When we had the last big pandal program in Bombay, in 1977. The chief minister of the state of Maharashtra was scheduled to be the chief guest, almost the last day, on Rama-navami. But there was a lot of political upheaval and it wasn’t sure that he would even be the chief minister when the time came for him to speak at the pandal. And it wasn’t sure if he would even come because of all the upheaval, but he did come and he was the chief minister. And in Srila Prabhupada’s talk, I mean, the chief minister spoke very nicely and then in Srila Prabhupada’s talk he said, that these upheavals cannot be avoided and therefore we have to tolerate them and make progress in the real mission of human life, which is to become a god-conscious or Krishna conscious, to serve God or Krishna. So, no one is exempt from these upheavals. He was the chief minister, even the prime minister is not exempt, nobody is exempt. And so, Srila Prabhupada gave the advice for all of us, in whatever situation we are in, and that is to tolerate, tolerate the upheavals, tolerate the reversals and remain fixed in our determination to fulfill the purpose of human life, which is to become Krishna conscious.

PURPORT (continued)

Suffering all sorts of unavoidable misfortunes, one should make progress in spiritual realization because that is the mission of human life. The spirit soul is transcendental to all material calamities; therefore, the so-called calamities are called false. A man may see a tiger swallowing him in a dream, and he may cry for this calamity. Actually there is no tiger and there is no suffering; it is simply a case of dreams.

COMMENT

So, our material existence is like a dream. Dreams are real but they are temporary. And similarly, our material existence is temporary, whatever fifty years, eighty years, a hundred years, but it’s temporary. And in that sense, it’s like a dream, it won’t last very long and so we should not become overly preoccupied with the gains and losses of the material world, but we should remain fixed in our determination to get out of the material world.

There was a period when Srila Prabhupada was in Juhu and almost every night he would make this point about our dream life, that at night we have our night dreams and during the day we are in our day time dream, but they are both dreams, in the sense that they are temporary, they don’t pertain to our real identities as spirit souls, eternal servants of Krishna. The Mayavadis, as Srila Prabhupada says, they say that this world is false, it’s a dream but they are very expert at enjoying the dream, trying to enjoy the dream. But our principle is, that although it’s a dream, in the sense that it’s temporary, but still, everything in the dream, including ourselves, belong to Krishna. And therefore, everything in the material world, including ourselves, should be engaged in Krishna’s service. And then, even though it’s material, in a sense, it becomes spiritual or spiritualized. And there is a beautiful verse by Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati, in which he says that, now, that he is happy in the material world. So, Srila Prabhupada raises the question, how can he be happy in the material world? Because duḥkhālayam aśāśvataṁ, the material world is a place of misery. But Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati is happy because he sees everywhere all sorts of happy opportunities for serving Krishna; so, in that sense, it can be a happy place in Krishna consciousness.

PURPORT (continued)

A man may see a tiger swallowing him in a dream, and he may cry for this calamity. Actually there is no tiger and there is no suffering; it is simply a case of dreams. In the same way, all calamities of life are said to be dreams. If someone is lucky enough to get in contact with the Lord by devotional service, it is all gain.

COMMENT

In the material world there is always gain and loss, that’s what calamities mean, we are losing something. In the material world there is always gain and loss but in devotional service there is only gain, no loss.

PURPORT (continued)

If someone is lucky enough to get in contact with the Lord by devotional service, it is all gain.

COMMENT

And how do we get in contact with the Lord?

PURPORT (continued)

Contact with the Lord by any one of the nine devotional services.

COMMENT

śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ sakhyam ātma-nivedanam

PURPORT (continued)

Contact with the Lord by any one of the nine devotional services is always a forward step on the path going back to Godhead.

COMMENT

So, as Kunti says, let the calamities come and because in those calamities, I can see Krishna. And seeing Krishna means I no longer have to see the repetition of birth and death. Hare Krishna. So, are there any questions or comments? I guess, well yeah, I guess Isvara Puri said they could send them in chats. So, you can raise your hands, I’d like to see devotees raise their hands and ask their questions directly or make their comments directly.

Devotee: Mercy and grace are everywhere in a devotee’s life. Grace and mercy of the spiritual master, Krishna, the devotees and the holy name. So, could you enlighten a little more about the nature of this grace and mercy, the quality of the recipient to recieve this mercy?

Giriraj Swami: Yes. The, you could say, paradigmatic example of how to get mercy was shown in the dāmodara-līlā when mother Yasoda was trying to bind Krishna with ropes and the ropes were always two inches or two fingers short. She kept adding more length to the ropes but no matter how many ropes she added and she had a lot of ropes, being in a cowherd community, but the ropes were always two fingers too short. But eventually, Krishna seeing her hard labor was merciful and allowed Himself to be bound and the commentators such as Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura and Srila Jiva Gosvami say that that distance of two fingers was overcome by two elements as mentioned in the verse in Bhāgavatam in the Sanskrit. One is pariśrama, pariśrama means hard labor. So Bhāgavatam says that Krishna seeing the hard labor of Yasoda (pariśrama) gave her His mercy, kṛṣṇa-kṛpā. So, they say that that distance of two fingers can be covered one by pariśrama, by our hard labor, by sincere efforts and two by Krishna’s mercy, kṛṣṇa-kṛpā. So, if we think that we don’t have to make any effort and we can just pray for Krishna’s mercy, that is not complete and if you think I can do it by my own effort alone and I don’t need anything else, that is also not complete. But it is the combination of our own efforts, pariśrama and Krishna’s mercy, kṛṣṇa-kṛpā. Of course, we can pray for mercy, we should, we must pray for mercy and at the same time make our own efforts and by that combination we can bind Krishna. We face that struggle when we chant. We are trying to bind Krishna in our mind but we are not able to. But by making an effort and also praying for His mercy, we can. We can bind Krishna. Of course, it is a gradual process. We can bind Him increasingly. But yeah, that is the proper combination and it makes sense, it makes sense.

Rupa Ragunath Prabhu: Guru Maharaja in the section of Queen Kunti’s prayers, she is also kind of teaching that if one has any material desires that one cannot really approach Krishna and I was wondering in terms of us as householders, we have to sort of have a vocation, we have to make an endeavor to pay the rent and cover the expenses and it seems that if one isn’t kind of motivated, if one doesn’t sort of concentrate and desire to be successful materially that one can’t really get that. So how do we find the balance is really my question in terms of how do we find the balance of, obviously we are desiring because we ourselves want to be comfortable or perhaps we want to be comfortable so that we can perform our devotional service with a peaceful mind but some of it is also for our own material comfort. So, how do we find the balance, I think is my question, Guru Maharaja?

Giriraj Swami: Well, I am not convinced that one has to have material desires to be successful materially. Although it depends on what you mean by material. But Srila Prabhupada had a disciple, he was a disciple in Bombay but he wasn’t actually initiated by Srila Prabhupada but within his heart he accepted Srila Prabhupada, Dr. N.D Desai who later was initiated as Srinathji dasa. And he was born into a wealthy family. His father D.D Desai was a very shrewd businessman and built up quite an industrial empire and after he died, the talk amongst the business community, because I would be meeting them, the talk amongst the business community was that Dr. Desai was sort of a simpleton, like a Pollyanna they say, he wouldn’t be able to maintain the family’s fortune. But, actually he did and he expanded it greatly even beyond what his father had done. But he was very strong in his sadhana.

Occasionally I would visit his home early in the morning and I would see him, he had nice furniture, simple in a way but elegant and he would be sitting cross-legged and chanting very intently and he said that many of his best ideas for his businesses would come while he was chanting very intently in the early morning. He started one line of electricals, a light bulb and I started to see these billboards all around Bombay advertising his tube lights, Seema tube lights. There was something about those billboards that was very attractive. I mean I am not generally attracted by tube lights per say, but there was something about it, very attractive. I felt that Krishna was arranging for him to be very successful financially because he knew that Dr. Desai would use the laxmi in the service of Narayana, use it for Krishna consciousness and he did. He really spent a lot of money and he had very ingenious ideas also. He didn’t just give the money but he also provided facilities. He had the idea of getting the devotees in Juhu these buses for traveling saṅkīrtana and he out fitted them with a place for deities in the back and then the devotees could stop the van and open it up and there would be deities. People would gather around to see the deities and could worship the deities. There is also a place for storing books and of course a place for the devotees.

There is a lot of, what to say, lot of histories not only in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, yes in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. There is a story of Bali Maharaja in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Vamanadeva came because Bali Maharaja was very charitably inclined. So, He came as a dwarf, brahmachari, brahman and He begged for three steps of land and Bali Maharaja said You are very attractive but You don’t seem to be very intelligent because I could give You a whole planet and You are just asking for three paces of land. So, with the first-pace, Vamanadeva expanded Himself and He covered the whole upper part of the universe and with His second step He covered the whole lower part of the universe.

So, He said you promised me three steps and you have only given Me two and you have given everything you have. So, you are not keeping your promise. So, I am going to punish you. And then Bali Maharaja said, “My Lord, You can keep You third step on my head.” Thus, he surrendered himself fully to the Lord. The Lord was so pleased with his surrender that He gave, He gave Bali Maharaja his own planet and He became Bali Maharaja’s gatekeeper, his servant, and was always with him.

So, and Srila Prabhupada said himself that in the beginning Krishna tested me by taking everything away from me. You know Srila Prabhupada’s history. He lost everything in his business. That first Krishna tested me by taking everything away from me and then He tested me by giving me everything and both are tests because if we have something and we lose it, we have a choice. Are we going to chase after that thing that we lost or are we going to chase after Krishna? And the same thing, Krishna tested Srila Prabhupada by giving him everything, that was also a test. Okay now I have everything. Am I going to try to enjoy it or am I going to stay fixed in service to Krishna? So, whatever we do, in grihastha ashram or any ashram, we can do it for Krishna.

There are certain guidelines, for example, taking the example of Rupa Gosvami, Srila Prabhupada said that the householders should give 50 percent of their income. So that’s a way to purify your household life. But even if not 50 percent, some percent. But the rule is 50 percent. Srila Prabhupada had a disciple named Dayananda. In the early days of ISKCON almost all the devotees were temple devotees but Dayananda prabhu was an exception. He had quite a good job with IBM and he was earning and he was giving Srila Prabhupada 50 percent. So, Srila Prabhupada was having a conversation with some of the disciples about this principle of 50 percent, how important it is, and someone said, “Well Dayananda prabhu is giving 50 percent.” Srila Prabhupada said, “No, he is giving 48 percent.” So, Srila Prabhupada was aware. He was aware of how much Dayananda prabhu was earning and how much he was giving. It wasn’t quite 50 percent. It was only 48 percent. So, but whatever we can do. Some percent. I mean in the Christian churches they have the principle of tithing, that means 10 percent, sort of obligatory, they should give 10 percent to the church.

I am not sure if I have exactly answered your question as you presented it. But you want to present it again, I can try to make the answer more focused on your particular question. But yes, balance is important, balance is necessary. But I wouldn’t say that the balance is between material and spiritual. Because in principle everything we do should be spiritual. It should be for Krishna and even keeping our body and soul together so we can serve Krishna, that is also part of the spiritual process. But we do need a balance between our sadhana, our direct chanting and hearing and engaging in those nine processes of devotional service and our working to earn our livelihood. We do need a balance there.

I mean in America they have a saying, “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” so our play I guess is playing with Krishna, engaging in Krishna consciousness. So, we do need that balance. And your family, your wife is a devotee. I have heard that some wives are, I have heard this years ago from Mahatma prabhu, he said that some wives are materialistic and it really becomes a problem for the husbands for they have to work extra hard to earn the money to fulfill the material desires of the wives. But you have a good wife and so you don’t have that problem.

Damodar Prabhu: Guru Maharaja I was just wondering if you could relate an incident where Srila Prabhupada exhibited this mood of Queen Kunti of “let the calamities come”?

Giriraj Swami: Well, everything depends on context. During the war with Pakistan in 1971, a newspaper reporter asked Srila Prabhupada, what would he think or what would he do if Yahya Khan, who I guess was the head of Pakistan, came to kill him. Srila Prabhupada said that “I would take it that Krishna is coming to kill me in the shape of Yahya Khan.” But then another time, a reporter asked him what if someone attacked you, what would you do? Srila Prabhupada said, “I would defend myself. Why should I let some nonsense harm Krishna’s devotee?” So, Srila Prabhupada exhibited both moods. But Srila Prabhupada was so much in the mood of yukta-vairāgya, of using everything in Krishna’s service. He didn’t at least as a preacher in ISKCON, he didn’t really exhibit the mood of let the calamities come. He was always fighting to overcome the obstacles. But sometimes he would exhibit the other mood during the whole struggle for the Juhu land. At one stage he said alright, well if we don’t get the permission then we will turn Hare Krishna land into a bus stop. We will just have our buses come and stop, fill up with books and devotees and go out and distribute books. I mean it might have been different in other places but in Juhu he was very tenacious. No, he wouldn’t give up and of course in the end he was successful. So, I mean in his householder life, like he said Krishna tested me by taking everything away. He did think of the verse yasyaham anugrhnami harisye tad-dhanam sanaih. Lord Krishna tells Yudhisthira Maharaja that “when I am especially inclined to a devotee the first installment of My special mercy is I take everything away from him and then when he is poverty stricken and rejected by his relatives, he can take shelter of Krishna’s devotees.” So, he did see that in his own life and he consulted, I think his godbrother, Srila Śrīdhara Bhakti Rahkshak Śrīdhara deva Gosvami Maharaja. “Could this be happening to me?” So, in that sense you could say he did see that as Krishna’s arrangement. Not exactly “let the calamities come.” If that was what was happening and if that was what Krishna wanted to happen, he was ready to accept it.

Mother Ananda Chandrika devi dasi: When the calamities do come, we understand the philosophy but we also tend to get depressed by it. How do we pray to tolerate the calamities?

Giriraj Swami: Well, again coming back to the example of Srila Prabhupada. Sometimes he would become discouraged. Before he went to America, he was trying to complete all the formalities to get permission to travel. And he had many setbacks and at that time he was staying in the Scindia colony in Andheri before ISKCON. So, I think Sumati Morarji’s secretary, Mr. Nagarajan, he was also staying there at Scindia colony and he would see that Prabhupada became discouraged, you could say depressed. But he didn’t Mr. Nagarajan said, but he didn’t stay down for long. He would get up and he would say “Alright, tomorrow is another day, we’ll try again.” But he did show that but not for too long. He would get up and try again.

Comment by Meera M: [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: Srila Prabhupada translated the Bhagavad-gītā and the whole manuscript was stolen so he translated it again.

Preeti Radhika:  Calamities come to devotees and non-devotees and like you said they come uninvited irrespective right. So, when a devotee is suffering or is going through some hard times and then their relatives that are not devotees and they make a comment Krishna will take care of you, more a snide comment. So, in this case you can’t really educate them tat te’nukampāṁ su-samīkṣamāṇo. But all you can tell yourself, okay, I am going to titikṣava, can tolerate. Apart from that what should be the right attitude of a devotee in that case?

Giriraj Swami: Well, the main thing with family members in general and this can apply when there are calamities, is to always be happy. If they see you are happy even in the face of calamities, apparent calamities then they will be respectful. Oh, Krishna consciousness even if there are calamities, the devotee is still happy. And then the other thing is to deal nicely with people, with them. And generally, if they see that you are happy and you are dealing nicely with them, they will appreciate Krishna consciousness even if they don’t really understand philosophy or accept the philosophy.

I also think of the example of what Srila Prabhupada gave about the cat and the kittens and the rat. This is in relation to death. That death, the cat opens its jaws and it catches a mouse and for the mouse the jaws of the cat are death. But the cat also picks up the kitten with her mouth and takes the kitten from once place to another. So, it’s the same jaws of the cat but it’s different. In the case of a non-devotee the jaws of death are just death. It’s a very fearful situation. But for a devotee death is just like the cat taking the kitten and placing the kitten somewhere else, where the cat wants the child to be. So, it’s not a fearful situation. The thing is that it cannot be the case that if one comes to Krishna then he or she will have no material problems. Because then all sorts of materialistic people will come to Krishna so they can get free from material problems and Krishna does not want materialistic people. He wants people to love Him purely. Lord Chaitanya said if you make Me brokenhearted you are still My worship-able Lord unconditionally. That’s what Krishna wants. He wants our surrender and He wants our love.

So, if He made everything nice materially for His devotees then He would attract all sorts of materialistic people and that’s not what He wants. If they are materialistic and they think that by you are being a devotee of Krishna you have lost materially, well then, they could worship Lord Shiva. If they think they can do better, go worship Lord Shiva. And that’s sort of the background to that question that Maharaja Yudhisthira asked Lord Krishna to which Krishna replied, yasyaham anugrhnami. And the question was that Lord Shiva is so poor, he just lives under a tree. He doesn’t even have a hut to live in. He is so poor that he lives under a tree. But it seems, it is seen that his devotees are often materially opulent and Lord Krishna or Lord Narayana is so opulent. His wife Lakshmi is the goddess of fortune. That Lord Narayana is most opulent, But it’s seen that often His devotees are poor. So, it seems contradictory. And then Krishna gave that answer, yasyaham anugrhnami harisye tad-dhanam sanaih. Then if someone wants Me and he is being held back by material attachments then I give him My special mercy and take away those material things.

But in the story of Bali Maharaja, when Krishna, Vamanadeva takes everything away from him, Srila Prabhupada says that’s Krishna’s mercy, yasyaham anugrhnami. But then later He gave everything to Bali Maharaja and Srila Prabhupada said that “Yes it’s Krishna’s mercy when He takes everything away from a devotee but it’s His greater mercy when He sees that that devotee will use everything in Krishna’s service and then gives everything to the devotee.” But as long as we have enough, you don’t need to worry about having more. If you are too greedy then you can never be satisfied. That also came in the story of Bali Maharaja, when Vamanadeva asked for three steps of land and Bali Maharaja said, “You are very attractive but You don’t seem very intelligent. Because I could give You a whole planet and you are only asking for three paces of land,” and Vamanadeva replied that if I can’t be satisfied with three paces of land even if you give me a whole planet I won’t be satisfied. So that satisfaction is an internal state.

At one time Jay Paul Getty was the richest man in the world and a reporter asked him, “You are the richest man in the world, you have everything that money can buy. Can you tell us in one word what is your philosophy of life?” He said, “Yes, I can tell you in one word what is my philosophy of life: MORE.” Well in a way that’s quite sad, because it means that he is not satisfied. Although he has so much, he is still not satisfied and he wants more.

Radhika: Who does Krishna meditate on when He gets up in the morning?

Giriraj Swami: Probably Srimati Radharani. It depends, that would be in Vrindavan and in Dwarka, it’s described He gets up and He does Gayatri mantra when He gets up in the morning. In Dwarka He may be thinking of other things there but in Vrindavan He is probably thinking about Srimati Radharani.

Varsabhanavi Mataji: Recently our godsister Kamala devi left her body. Please can you share your realizations on her departure?

Giriraj Swami: Well, Kamala devi dasi in Mauritius attained a very exalted state of consciousness and she was very fixed on her goal of Goloka Vrindavan and everything about her departure was auspicious. One person who was very instrumental in helping her in her departure was His Holiness Bhakti Brhat Bhagavata Swami Maharaja who was with her. I am not seeing all the pages, but if he is here, I think it would be very nice for the devotees to hear from him about her wonderful, auspicious departure. She is a very saintly devotee and he really helped her a lot.

[Giriraj Swami explains his previous statements to Bhakti Brhat Bhagavata Swami].

Bhakti Brhat Bhagavata Swami: I saw an opportunity and I was quite motivated to do service for her before she leaves us. When she goes back to Goloka Vrindavan, she can put in a good word for me. Just a private motivation that I had. The other thing it was natural in my heart to do some service for her. She left yesterday morning, but I think it was a collective effort from the devotees here. I may have been the common thread throughout you could say the līlā, pastime. Some devotees like Krsangi shared some reading with here and Karunika also sacrificing her duties to be with her. We had two other wonderful devotees also helping.

For the last two nights they stayed with here in the room and they took turns being awake to be with her. I was with her for about ten days. She is a very exalted, pure personality and I don’t know what I did. I am not sure. I just was in her association. Well, I saw an opportunity and I was quite motivated that (voice not clear) before she leaves us and she goes back to Goloka Vrindavan and she can put in a good word for me. That is the prime motivation I had and the other not so much a motivation, but it was a natural thing my heart, that if I can please you by trying to do some service for her and also please Srila Prabhupada. She left yesterday morning and I think it was also if I can call it a group effort with different devotees. I may have been a common thread through this whole nice līlā in one sense, a nice pastime. Some devotees did come to the consciousness that our Krishangi (cannot understand as voice not clear) was in sharing Kṛṣṇa book, readings and other readings were there every evening in Mauritian time.

Then we have our Karunika here spent quite a number of hours in our, sacrificing duties at home and also sacrificing it. She has a type of prasādam business she was sacrificing and she came all the time very quickly. Then we had two other wonderful devotees here. One of them is Mansi Ganga. She is an initiated disciple of His Holiness Bhakti Chaitanya Swami and her husband is Haridev Prabhu who is responsible for the devotees in Mauritius and is involved with the management also. So, she came when I was also there with Mother Kamala and there is another significant devotee initiated by his Grace Saṅkarṣaṇa prabhu. Her name is mother Archavi Siddhi. So, for the last two nights they actually stayed with her in the same room and one of them was sleeping on the same bed with her and the other was awake and then the other takes rest next to and the other is awake and whole night chant throughout the night. Her younger child the daughter was also a medical doctor. She was initiated by His Holiness Bhakti Dhira Damodara Swami. Her name is Dhira Prashanta dasi. She was also instrumental in assisting us with her mother’s consciousness and there was also a son Lesh. He also is a (not clear voice). He is studying in London. He is also a very wonderful devotee. Most of all the father was a quite an experienced and well-known doctor in Mauritius also. He opened the whole home for us in terms of the devotees coming in and mainly being with her in her room. He is favorable, quite a favorable personality. Although mainly being responsible for his family. He was there for them all the time and he definitely allowed all the devotees to come and so one by one. It was also a closed situation because of this COVID 19 so we didn’t have many people coming along in their home.

She was especially attracted to Srimati Radharani, how Srimati Radharani in Radha-Madhava in Mayapur and she was also especially attracted to our Lord Nityananda in Vrindavan. So, it was the other way around Srimati Radharani in Mayapur and Lord Nityananda in Vrindavan in our Krishna-Balarama mandir. Certainly this particular service by Your Divine Mercy and by the mercy of Srila Prabhupada and also my specially God sisters and cousin God sisters that were around me. That I felt a little bit purified by her association. I have a long way to go to come to her state of consciousness eventually. Hopefully I am also praying that when I leave, that somebody will also be with me.

Giriraj Swami: I would like to add something to that, to read something.

Bhakti Brhat Bhagavata Swami: One more person was there also. I forgot to mention. I am sorry. Vajreshwari was also there also quite often. Somehow didn't come to my mind. Vajreshwari was here in Mauritius so she came quite often also especially in the afternoons. I spent about six to eight hours with her daily but Vajreshwari was also there in the afternoon.

Giriraj Swami: She phoned us yesterday, Vajreshwari, and gave an account of what had happened. It was very purifying to hear. So, now I will read from a letter that Karunika sent me which explains a little more about Bhagvat Maharaja’s role.

“Today Bhagvat Maharaja asked Kamala if she would wish to go to Goloka Vrindavan, Mayapur, or Jaganath Puri? He then elaborated: with Krishna, preaching Krishna’s glories or experiencing the ecstasy of separation from Krishna. She uttered, “Preaching Krishna’s glories.” Maharaja then said ‘You want to go to Mayapur dhāma?’ She shook her head in the negative and whispered, ‘Goloka Vrindavan.’ Maharaja then asked her, ‘When do you want to go?’ She responded by repeating, ‘Goloka Vrindavan, Goloka Vrindavan.

“Maharaja wanted an answer as to when but she did not reply. Then he asked, ‘Are you there already? Are you on the way or would you like to go?’ And she replied, ‘I am on the way, on the path.’ Maharaja lead a very sweet kirtan and afterwards asked her where did the kirtan take you? She replied, ‘Goloka Vrindavan.’ Then again, he pressed her for an answer, ‘When will you reach Goloka Vrindavan?’ She did not reply. Then he left me with her, means left Karunika with her so that she could tell Karunika. She said she did not know. Then Karunika asked her if she was determined and fixed on going to Goloka Vrindavan and she said ‘Yes.’ I told her that anything in this world that could keep her back was of no significance in the light of what lay ahead. She should not waver in her determination in her journey to Goloka. She nodded in the affirmative. I asked her if she felt any fear. She shook her head in the negative. Later when I was leaving, I went to see her. She was resting with Srila Prabhupada singing in the room. I said, ‘I am going now, please be fixed on Goloka Vrindavan.’ Then I asked her, ‘When you are in Goloka Vrindavan, will you remember me?’ She opened her eyes and gave me a big smile. It is wonderful, well it is wonderful to witness your mercy on Kamala. It is wonderful to experience Bhagvat Maharaja taking her step by step. Her son and daughter are also depending on this support and the mood in the house is very nice. Yeah, that was very auspicious, very auspicious. Thank you for asking Varsabhanavi devi dasi. Thank you for your talk and your service Maharaja.”

Mother Malika: Guru Maharaja, I just wanted to know on the level of tolerance, I do know that in the very early days of ISKCON you also tolerated a lot with Srila Prabhupada and I have heard from some devotee that in some instance that you had, incident, one or two incidents that you had where there were an extent that you had to even tolerate the difficulties of the rats. So, I just wanted to know that you don’t really hear this, I really found that such a high level of tolerance. I am not sure if you would like to share anything on that. I do know that it was very difficult in the early days in terms of accommodation and prasādam and tolerating different things.

Giriraj Swami: Well, my motive was to serve Srila Prabhupada and to please him and I didn’t really, now that you mention it, I suppose I did tolerate a lot but at the time it didn’t bother me much. I was there for a purpose. Whatever happened incidentally along the way wasn’t of much consideration. I mean, I am reminded of an exchange that Srila Bhakti Swarupa Damodar Swami Maharaja had with Srila Prabhupada. He said to Srila Prabhupada that I am just one department, the Bhaktivedanta Institute (BI), and I have so many problems that I have to deal with, and you have the whole world wide movement of ISKCON. I can’t even imagine how many problems you have to deal with. And Srila Prabhupada replied, “Problems, I don’t see problems, I see only service to my Guru Maharaja.” So, we might distinguish something as a problem. Something is not a problem. In the mood of service to the guru, it’s all the same. It’s just service. But I can, probably wouldn’t take me long to read a little something from the manuscript of my Juhu book. Oh, there is quite a bit about the rats actually. The Bombay rats are not ordinary rats. They are really big and they can bite you in the night, you don’t even feel it and then when you wake up there is blood, your blood. So let me see if can find the. . .

So, this is an exchange with Srila Prabhupada about Juhu. This came in 1976. So Hridayananda Maharaja came to visit and he saw the Juhu land and he said to Srila Prabhupada, “Your Bombay project is very impressive. We’ve just taken a tour.” And then Prabhupada replied, “Therefore I persistently took that place. Nobody encouraged me. Nobody helped me. I hesitated a little that if I am persistent to take it, they will not cooperate,” meaning us, his disciples. “It may be a failure. Still, I took it and only 50,000 and one lakh rupees I gave this thief Nair. Alright take it, come on. Whatever I’ve got you take it. Still, he thought oh, I’ll get money. I took the risk. I have no money. If he cheats me that’s alright. Let me try.” “Then you installed the deities as soon as possible,” Tamal Krishna said. “Yes. Immediately after leaving Akash Ganga. All Krishna’s desire.”

Then Tamal Krishna: “Everyone is appreciating how wonderful this project is. All of Bombay.”

Prabhupada: “So many obstacles, one after and another. One after and another. One after and another.”

Tamal Krishna: “Krishna would not leave.”

Prabhupada: “No, that was my request. Please sit down here tight. I would do everything.”

“Practically Giriraj has not left either.” Panchadravida added.

Prabhupada: “Yes, he has not trembled in any circumstance. That is his qualification. That nasty place, hot, mosquitoes. No gentlemen can live there. Rats, mosquitoes, and so much inconvenience.”

So yeah, I guess that’s my story of the rats.

Mukunda Prabhu: It seems by desire for happiness and freedom of fear and suffering is greater than my desire to be a servant of Krishna. Sometimes I read that no matter what one desires, we should chant Hare Krishna to get those desires fulfilled and sometimes we read that we should only chant in a mood of service. So how to approach the name with our heart when our heart is mixed?

Giriraj Swami: Well, when we chant, we want to purify our heart. I mean yeah, there might be different things in the heart. But we don’t want some of those things in the heart. So, when we chant and of course the main thing is to chant attentively and hear, chant carefully and hear attentively, and pray for those other desires to be removed. Because they are obstacles not only to devotional service but also to our happiness. But pure devotional service, anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ, should be without any other desire. But you can desire things in relation to service, like you mentioned to be comfortable.

I’ll tell one story about our devotee here in Santa Barbara named Giridhari Priya. Giridhari Priya wanted to find a house. His father who is also a nice devotee in the San Francisco area, his father was offering to pay for a house for him. Giridhari Priya was looking but he couldn’t find one. So, I asked him if he had prayed? He said, “No, I can’t pray for something material.” So, I said, “Well, that’s true. But your prayer doesn’t have to be material. Your desire for the house doesn’t have to be material.” So, I said, “You can pray that you get a nice facility for your deities and for hosting devotees, and having programs.” So, he changed, he changed the way he saw the house and then seeing the house in the mood of a servant of Krishna and Krishna’s devotees, he was able to pray for it. And then very soon thereafter he got it. We shouldn’t pray for material things and we shouldn’t want material things unless the so-called material things are favorable for devotional service. And then in that case, we don’t have to see them as material and we can pray for them in terms of service. But that being said, we should be prepared to serve with or without facility. We may want a certain facility for service but we should be prepared to serve even if we don’t get that particular facility. Like Srila Prabhupada said, if we have a microphone its good. It’s good for our preaching, but even if we don’t have a microphone, we’ll still preach.

So, Mukunda do you want to clarify your question further or elaborate on it.

Mukunda Prabhu further elaborates on his question asked before.

I understand what you are saying but for me that’s a very high standard and it doesn’t see, it seems that I am not there to, I understand what we should do but I am not there, and so when I am not there and I am in a mixed place, I mean trying to frame my prayer or adjust so that I pray in such way that I can see it. It seems like I am trying to do a trick almost and that’s where I am at; I want happiness and for happiness’s sake, for me. I want to be happy. So, what do I do with that? That’s material. So, I don’t know where to (not clear as Guru Maharaja speaks)

What do you think would make you happy?

Mukunda Prabhu: I am not sure. Freedom of fear. I am not sure.

Giriraj Swami: Freedom of fear that comes with surrender to Krishna. How can you be free from fear without Krishna’s shelter?

Mukunda Prabhu: So, If I want freedom of fear do I pray for freedom of fear or do I pray for Krishna’s shelter if my motivation is freedom of fear.

Giriraj Swami: Well, you can pray for freedom of fear. You won’t be free from fear without Krishna’s shelter but you can pray for it. Krishna knows what will fulfill your prayer.

Mukunda Prabhu: Well, that’s the larger question. Krishna has us all under control anyway. So, me praying to the person who is arranged everything in my life anyway for something different than what He is already arranging doesn’t often seem to make much sense. Rather, I had that other question which is do you go to Krishna with these kinds of prayers when He is already arranging whats best for us?

Giriraj Swami: But, you, well yes, because intellectually you are saying He is arranging what’s best for you but still there is a part of you that wants something else or something more.

Mukunda Prabhu: Yeah, well sometimes Krishna will allow me to suffer because He thinks it’s good for me and I may not, I am not surrendered enough to feel that I can just accept whatever is going to happen. Although I understand in some level that in the long- term Krishna knows far better than me. It’s not a realized position that I am living on. So that full surrender, where whatever you want Krishna do it because I am your servant, is a hard place to stay in and that I have been there in periods and that at some periods I fear the purification.

Giriraj Swami: Okay. You can’t do anything about it, anyway. I mean the phrase that comes to mind is, “If you can’t fight them, then join them.”

Mukunda Prabhu: I want to but it’s not, to give myself when I am chanting it feels to me is heart-felt thing and not just a practice. Although, I am practicing, I am doing the sadhana. I really want to commit in some way but I am not able to because I am not surrendered like that so I am stuck and that’s a cause of stress for me because I want to give myself to, I want to give myself.

Giriraj Swami: Yeah, well keep trying. Like Srila Prabhupada said, practice makes perfect even in spiritual life. So yeah, but there is a problem and that is that it is an offense to maintain material attachments, to not have complete faith in the chanting of the holy name and to maintain material attachments. So, it’s not an offense to have material attachments, it’s an anartha but it’s not an offense, but to hold on to them is an offense. So, would you say you are holding on to them?

Mukunda Prabhu: Yes.

Giriraj Swami: Well, then you are committing an offense against the holy name.

Mukunda Prabhu: That’s my problem.

I don’t know how to let go. Its, I can’t, I maintain them because I feel that this is what, I can’t be what I am not. I understand where I need to go. I understand that. I understand that it’s quite high what’s being said, to not maintain a material attachment, that’s for me I consider that a very high position and it’s not so easy to do that. I can’t artificially pretend. I kind of when I check myself, I see where I am at and it’s actually discouraging when I hear that too. What you meant to do? It’s discouraging. Because you feel maybe you are in too high a situation, that the demands are too high. Even the basic practices that supposedly there are no hard and fast rules. Actually, it’s a cause of concern for me. That’s been disturbing me for a few years now.

Giriraj Swami: Well, I think let’s pray to Krishna to do whatever is best for you. I mean there is a very nice prayer in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. It’s sort of an all-purpose prayer and basically its Pṛthu Maharaja to the Lord and the translation, it’s from the Fourth Canto, Chapter Twenty Text Thirty-One and the translation is: “My Lord, due to Your illusory energy, all living beings in this material world have forgotten their real constitutional position, and out of ignorance they are always desirous of material happiness in the form of society, friendship, and love. Therefore, please do not ask me to take some material benefits from You, but as a father, not waiting for the son’s demand, does everything for the benefit of the son, please bestow upon me whatever You think best for me.”

He knows what’s best for you probably more then you yourself. So, you can just pray for Him to do whatever is best for you. I don’t. . . I heard that the result of an offensive chanting is material opulence. So, I mentioned that to Badahari dasa prabhu once and he said that I’ve been doing that for years and it hasn’t worked for me. So, maybe it will work for you. Who knows? Okay, I don’t know if I can say anymore.