BG 9.14 – Become a Mahatma by Hearing

Giriraj Swami: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

We read from Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, Chapter 9: “The Most Confidential Knowledge.”

TEXT 14

satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ

yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ

namasyantaś ca māṁ bhaktyā

nitya-yuktā upāsate

COMMENT

First I will read it through and then we will do it responsively. 

TRANSLATION

Always chanting My glories, endeavoring with great determination, bowing down before Me, these great souls perpetually worship Me with devotion.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada—Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

The mahātmā cannot be manufactured by rubber-stamping an ordinary man.

COMMENT

This is an indirect reference to Mahatma Gandhi, so-called Mahatma Gandhi.

PURPORT (continued)

The mahātmā cannot be manufactured by rubber-stamping an ordinary man. His symptoms are described here: a mahātmā is always engaged in chanting the glories of the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead. He has no other business. He is always engaged in the glorification of the Lord. In other words, he is not an impersonalist. When the question of glorification is there, one has to glorify the Supreme Lord, praising His holy name, His eternal form, His transcendental qualities and His uncommon pastimes. One has to glorify all these things;

COMMENT

Yes, nāma—that means the holy name; rupa—the eternal form; guna—the transcendental qualities; and līlā—the uncommon past times.

PURPORT (continued) 

One has to glorify all these things; therefore a mahātmā is attached to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

One who is attached to the impersonal feature of the Supreme Lord, the brahma-jyotir, is not described as mahātmā in the Bhagavad-gītā. He is described in a different way in the next verse.

COMMENT

And I will just read the next verse. I don’t know to what Srila Prabhupada is referring. That is:

TEXT 15

jñāna-yajñena cāpy anye

yajanto mām upāsate

ekatvena pṛthaktvena

bahudhā viśvato-mukham

COMMENT

Others is not mahātmās.

TRANSLATION

Others, who engage in sacrifice by the cultivation of knowledge, worship the Supreme Lord as the one without a second, as diverse in many, and in the universal form.

COMMENT

But not in his original form as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Kalachandji!

PURPORT (continued)

One who is attached to the impersonal feature of the Supreme Lord, the brahma-jyotir, is not described as mahātmā in the Bhagavad-gītā. He is described in a different way in the next verse. The mahātmā is always engaged in different activities of devotional service, as described in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, hearing and chanting about Viṣṇu, not a demigod or human being. That is devotion: śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ and smaraṇam, remembering Him.

COMMENT

So this is a reference to the nine processes of devotional service: nava-vidhā bhakti, annunciated by Sri Prahlada Maharaja; śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ sakhyam ātma-nivedanam. So this verse in particular is talking about kirtan: satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ—talking about glorification. And in the nine types of devotional service Sri Prahlada says: śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ. And Srila Prabhupada is making the point here that glorification must be about Vishnu or Krishna, not any demigod or ordinary human being.

PURPORT (continued)

The mahātmā is always engaged in different activities of devotional service, as described in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, hearing and chanting about Viṣṇu, not a demigod or human being. That is devotion: śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ and smaraṇam, remembering Him. Such a mahātmā has firm determination to achieve at the ultimate end the association of the Supreme Lord in any one of the five transcendental rasas.

COMMENT

So that is dṛḍha-vrata—firm determination. Now, what are the five transcendental rasas? Raise your hands dear devotees and answer.

Yes, [Unintelligible 00:30:21] Prabhu?

Devotee: Śānta, dāsya, sākhya, then vātsalya, mādhurya. 

Giriraj Swami: Three out of five, 60 percent. But as a group we did 100 percent. And so we heard, śānta, dāsya, sākhya, vātsalya, and mādhurya. And can we have the English translation of those five rasas or transcendental relationships? 

Devotee: Neutral.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, śānta—neutral. 

Devotee: Dāsya—servant.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, dāsya—servitorship.

Devotee: Friendship.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, sākhya—Friendship.

Devotee: Parental affection.

Giriraj Swami: Vātsalya – parental, and mādhurya—conjugal. Yes.

So whatever relationships we have in the material world exist originally in the spiritual world but in their original pure forms. And however we try to enjoy these relationships in the material world there is always frustration and disappointment because the relationships are based on the body, and the body is temporary. But if we engage in those relationships with Krishna then we will be fully satisfied. And as Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gītā,

ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham

As they surrender to Me, I reciprocate accordingly. So if you want to have a relationship as a servant, Krishna will reciprocate and be the perfect master. If you want to have a relationship as a friend, He will reciprocate and be the perfect friend. If you want to have a relationship as a parent, He will reciprocate and be the perfect child. And if you want to have a relationship as a lover or a wife, He will reciprocate and be the perfect lover or husband. So we should try to repose our loving sentiments in Krishna and then our desires to love and be loved will be fulfilled. One Vedic sage has said that the basic human needs are to love and be loved. And so our desire to love and be loved can be perfectly fulfilled in relationship with Krishna. 

PURPORT (continued)

Such a mahātmā has firm determination…

COMMENT

Dṛḍha-vrata. 

PURPORT (continued)

to achieve at the ultimate end the association of the Supreme Lord in any one of the five transcendental rasas. To achieve that success, he engages all activities – mental, bodily and vocal, everything – in the service of the Supreme Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. 

COMMENT

So yes we have different faculties as mentioned here: mental, vocal, and bodily. And this verse describes how all of those can be engaged. With our voices we chant the glories of the Lord; with our bodies we bow down before Him; and with our minds we are determined in our devotional service. 

PURPORT (continued) 

To achieve that success, he engages all activities – mental, bodily and vocal, everything – in the service of the Supreme Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. That is called full Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

In devotional service there are certain activities which are called determined, such as fasting on certain days, like the eleventh day of the moon, Ekādaśī, and on the appearance day of the Lord. All these rules and regulations are offered by the great ācāryas for those who are actually interested in getting admission into the association of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the transcendental world.

COMMENT

So the Nectar of Instruction, Upadeśāmṛta by Srila Rupa Gosvami mentions six items that develop devotional service and six items that destroy devotional service. And among the six items that destroyed devotional service, of course one is prajalpaḥ. Prajalpaḥ means idle talk, gossip, mundane discussions. And the worst type of prajalpaḥ is criticizing devotees — sādhu-nindā. It is the first offense against the holy name. So we should strictly avoid prajalpaḥ, especially sādhu-nindā. But among the other items are niyamāgrahaḥ. Niyaṁ means the rules and regulations, and it can be joined either to āgrahaḥ, or agrahaḥ; can be divided in two ways—āgrahaḥ or agrahaḥ; one of which means to follow the rules and regulations fanatically without knowing the purpose behind them, and the other means to neglect to follow the rules in regulations and to act whimsically or independently.  

So both kinds of niyamāgrahaḥ, ṣaḍbhir bhaktir vinaśyati, they destroy our devotional service. And here in the purport, Srila Prabhupada is giving a very nice explanation as to why we follow these rules in regulation. I will read it again.

PURPORT (continued)

All these rules and regulations are offered by the great ācāryas for those who are actually interested in getting admission into the association of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the transcendental world.

COMMENT

In other words, the ultimate goal of following the rules and regulations is to go back home- Back to Godhead and serve Krishna in our eternal relationship with Him. 

PURPORT (continued) 

The mahātmās, great souls, strictly observe all these rules and regulations, and therefore they are sure to achieve the desired result.

As described in the second verse of this chapter, not only is this devotional service easy, but it can be performed in a happy mood.

COMMENT

I will read that verse, many of you know it.

rāja-vidyā rāja-guhyaṁ

pavitram idam uttamam

pratyakṣāvagamaṁ dharmyaṁ

su-sukhaṁ kartum avyayam

TRANSLATION

This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed.

COMMENT

Su-sukhaṁ—very happy.

PURPORT (continued) 

As described in the second verse of this chapter, not only is this devotional service easy, but it can be performed in a happy mood. One does not need to undergo any severe penance and austerity.

COMMENT

Once I asked a senior godbrother, many years ago, “What is our austerity in eating?” And he said, “Our austerity is that when our hosts want to feed us more and we don’t want to eat more, we have to eat more. That is our austerity.” Which reminds me of a time when His Holiness Indradyumna Swami and I were invited to a couple’s home for prasāda in Durban, South Africa. And the way they served the meal we kept thinking that the meal was ending and then they would come out with another preparation. And I turned to Maharaja and I said, “What Is going on how are we going to deal with this?” And Maharaja replied, “As Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gītā, one should not eat too much or eat too little, and today we are focusing on not eating too little.”

PURPORT (continued)

One does not need to undergo any severe penance and austerity. He can live this life in devotional service, guided by an expert spiritual master, and in any position, either as a householder or a sannyāsī or a vānaprastha or a brahmacārī; in any position and anywhere in the world, he can perform this devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead and thus become actually mahātmā, a great soul.

COMMENT

I first met Srila Prabhupada and joined the temple in Boston. And every day we would go out to the Boston commons and do hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana and distribute, at that time, mainly Back to Godhead magazines. And I would always like to stay near the chanting party. But one day, I am not sure why I had to walk a couple of blocks away, maybe I had to go to a store to buy something. So I was walking down this street and a man, ordinary man, he saw me and he went like this, I think joking but he went like this, “mahatma, mahatma, mahatma.” And I figured he must have gotten the idea, I don’t know if he knew what a mahatma was, at the time I thought he must have gotten the idea from Mahatma Gandhi. But Srila Prabhupada, he did insist that his disciples were mahatmas. 

When we had the first Calcutta pandal and, yes, the first pandal program was in Bombay; it was a huge success. And then Srila Prabhupada sent Tamal Krishna Goswami and me to Calcutta to organize a similar pandal program there. And Tamal Krishna Goswami said, “You collect the money and I will spend it.” “Okay.” Because I am pretty good at collecting. And more people attended the pandal program in Calcutta than in Bombay, although both were very well attended. But on the big days in Bombay we had 20,000 people, and on the big days in Calcutta we had 30,000. So yes, it was really good.

But at the time Calcutta was under the influence of Naxalites or communists and so we had a press conference just before the pandal program. And one of the reporters challenged Srila Prabhupada that, “You are spending so much money on this pandal program, couldn’t you better use the money to feed hungry people? What’s the point of spending all this money on the pandal program? What’s the purpose?” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “The purpose is to give people a chance to hear- śravaṇam, to give people a chance to hear.” And he said, “Because these young boys and girls heard me, all this has come about.” 

So hearing is so important- śravaṇam. And in the Bhagavad-gītā Krishna says, tac chṛṇu, just hear from me. So that is our endeavor, we want to give people a chance to hear. And if they hear nicely (śravaṇam) then they will repeat what they heard, and that is kīrtanam. 

Srila Prabhupada commented that his Guru Maharaja said of him, of Srila Prabhupada, that he hears nicely. Sometimes the other disciples would go away but he would not go away, he would stay and hear. And Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura noted that in Srila Prabhupada, that he likes to hear. There was one occasion on which they were doing Vraja-mandala parikramā. And Srila Bhaktisiddhanta sent the disciples who wanted to go on parikramā to one of the holy places, and most of the disciples went but Srila Prabhupada didn’t go. He stayed back to hear from his guru Maharaja, he and a few others, they stayed back to hear from Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. So yes that hearing is so important and it is the beginning of everything.

So I think we are out of time, Prem Swarup Prabhu? 

Devotee: You can continue for five more minutes.

Giriraj Swami: Okay. So thank you all very much. We have five minutes, so if any of you have any questions or comments please raise your hand. 

Hare Krishna.

Devotee: Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Yes?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:50:52–51:06] original rasa with Krishna. We learned that we cannot approach Krishna without the spiritual master, so we see ourselves as the eternal servant of our guru. But at the same time how do we understand that we also have one of the five rasas with Sri Krishna? Does that question make sense?

Giriraj Swami: Could you rephrase it? Well, you are saying we have an eternal relationship with Krishna, which is true. And as stated in Caitanya-caritāmṛta,

nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-prema ‘sādhya’ kabhu naya

That eternal love for Krishna is situated in the heart. It is not something to be derived from some other source. And, śuddha-citte karaye udaya, by associating with good devotees and hearing from them, that love is awakened. But it is true, we also have an eternal relationship with our spiritual master. But it is not necessary that our spiritual master be in the same rasa that we are in because we may be serving Radha and Krishna in the same rasa as our spiritual master but not necessarily so. But still our relationship with our spiritual master is eternal and we will meet him in the spiritual world, and we will recognize him and he will recognize us and he will encourage us in our service to Krishna whatever our rasa is.

Hare Krishna!