SB 2.7.23–24 – Sri Rama-navami

Giriraj Swami: We have gathered on the most auspicious occasion of Sri Ram Navami. And I will read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Two, Chapter Seven: “Scheduled Incarnations.” Text Twenty-three.

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

Again, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Two, Chapter Seven, “Scheduled Incarnations.”

TEXT 23

asmat-prasāda-sumukhaḥ kalayā kaleśa

ikṣvāku-vaṁśa avatīrya guror nideśe

tiṣṭhan vanaṁ sa-dayitānuja āviveśa

yasmin virudhya daśa-kandhara ārtim ārcchat

TRANSLATION

Due to His causeless mercy upon all living entities within the universe, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, along with His plenary extensions, appeared in the family of Mahārāja Ikṣvāku as the Lord of His internal potency, Sītā. Under the order of His father, Mahārāja Daśaratha, He entered the forest and lived there for considerable years with His wife and younger brother. Rāvaṇa, who was very materially powerful, with ten heads on his shoulders, committed a great offense against Him and was thus ultimately vanquished.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Lord Rāma is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and His brothers, namely Bharata, Lakṣmaṇa and Śatrughna, are His plenary expansions. All four brothers are viṣṇu-tattva and were never ordinary human beings. There are many unscrupulous and ignorant commentators on Rāmāyaṇa who present the younger brothers of Lord Rāmacandra as ordinary living entities. But here in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the most authentic scripture on the science of Godhead, it is clearly stated that His brothers were His plenary expansions. Originally Lord Rāmacandra is the incarnation of Vāsudeva, Lakṣmaṇa is the incarnation of Saṅkarṣaṇa, Bharata is the incarnation of Pradyumna, and Śatrughna is the incarnation of Aniruddha, expansions of the Personality of Godhead. Lakṣmījī Sītā is the internal potency of the Lord and is neither an ordinary woman nor the external potency incarnation of Durgā. Durgā is the external potency of the Lord, and she is associated with Lord Śiva.

As stated in the Bhagavad-gītā (4.7), the Lord appears when there are discrepancies in the discharge of factual religion.

COMMENT

Can you hand me the shloka book? So I will read that verse, Bhagavad-gītā (4.7).

yadā yadā hi dharmasya

glānir bhavati bhārata

abhyutthānam adharmasya

tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham

“Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion – at that time I descend Myself.”

And as Srila Prabhupada explains in the purport, the word sṛjāmi - manifests himself, is very significant. He doesn’t take birth and come into existence, he always exists. But sṛjāmy aham means that he manifests himself. So

PURPORT (continued)

As stated in the Bhagavad-gītā (4.7), the Lord appears when there are discrepancies in the discharge of factual religion. Lord Rāmacandra also appeared under the same circumstances, accompanied by His brothers, who are expansions of the Lord’s internal potency, and by Lakṣmījī Sītādevī.

Lord Rāmacandra was ordered by His father, Mahārāja Daśaratha, to leave home for the forest under awkward circumstances, and the Lord, as the ideal son of His father, carried out the order, even on the occasion of His being declared the King of Ayodhyā. One of His younger brothers, Lakṣmaṇajī, desired to go with Him, and so also His eternal wife, Sītājī, desired to go with Him. The Lord agreed to both of them, and all together they entered the Daṇḍakāraṇya Forest, to live there for fourteen years. During their stay in the forest, there was some quarrel between Rāmacandra and Rāvaṇa, and the latter kidnapped the Lord’s wife, Sītā. The quarrel ended in the vanquishing of the greatly powerful Rāvaṇa, along with all his kingdom and family.

Sītā is Lakṣmījī, or the goddess of fortune, but she is never to be enjoyed by any living being. She is meant for being worshiped by the living being along with her husband, Śrī Rāmacandra. A materialistic man like Rāvaṇa does not understand this great truth, but on the contrary he wants to snatch Sītādevī from the custody of Rāma and thus incurs great miseries. The materialists, who are after opulence and material prosperity, may take lessons from the Rāmāyaṇa that the policy of exploiting the nature of the Lord without acknowledging the supremacy of the Supreme Lord is the policy of Rāvaṇa. Rāvaṇa was very advanced materially, so much so that he turned his kingdom, Laṅkā, into pure gold, or full material wealth. But because he did not recognize the supremacy of Lord Rāmacandra and defied Him by stealing His wife, Sītā, Rāvaṇa was killed, and all his opulence and power were destroyed.

Lord Rāmacandra is a full incarnation with six opulences in full, and He is therefore mentioned in this verse as kaleśaḥ, or master of all opulence.

COMMENT

So Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the supreme scripture or book of knowledge in the science of God. It explains the Absolute Truth in detail. The Vedānta-sūtra says, janmady asya yatah, that the Absolute Truth is that from which everything emanates, and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam begins with the same words—janmady asya yatah—and proceeds to explain that the Absolute Truth is a person, the Supreme Person, Krishna. Krishna expands Himself into various plenary portions and portions of plenary portions, and the Bhāgavatam, after listing so many incarnations of Godhead, says, krsnas tu bhagavan svayam, that all of the abovementioned incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord but that Lord Krishna is the original Supreme Personality of Godhead.

So Lord Rama is an expansion of Krishna. There are so many expansions of Krishna mentioned in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, but Rama is an expansion of Vasudeva, who is an expansion of Krishna. Lakshman is an expansion of Balarama, who is the first expansion of Krishna. Bharata and Satrughna are also direct expansions in the category of viṣṇu-tattva. They are all God but manifest in different forms. Śrī Brahma-saṁhitā gives the example that from one candle you can light a second, from the second you can light a third, from the third you can light a fourth, and so on. All the flames are the same fire, and all have the same strength, but still, there is one original candle, and that is Krishna. Still Rama, Lakshman, Bharata, and Satrughna, are all God. They are all the same as Krishna, but they descend into the world for different pastimes. The verse says, avatīrya. Avatar means—one who descends. They descend from the spiritual world into the material world out of mercy—prasāda—for the conditioned souls, to deliver the conditioned souls from the quagmire of material existence. 

All of us here, from Lord Brahma to the insignificant ant, have somehow or other fallen into the material world and thus are forced to suffer. We are being attacked at every moment by some sort of misery, big or small, gross or subtle. Certain major sufferings, major miseries, afflict all of us, and they are mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā; janma-mrtyu-jara-vyadhi—birth, death, old age, and disease. None of us wants these miseries, but they are forced upon us. Once we come into the material world and accept a material body, we are forced to suffer repeated birth, disease, old age, and death—and rebirth. 

As explained in The Vedic literature, the purpose of life is to become free from the repetition of birth and death. And the way to become free is to become God conscious, Krishna conscious. In the Bhagavad-gītā Lord Krishna says, yam yam vapi smaran bhavam, that in whatever state one leaves one’s physical body, one attains the same state in the next life. 

yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajaty ante kalevaram

taṁ tam evaiti kaunteya sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ

“Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, O son of Kuntī, that state he will attain without fail.” (Bg 8.6) 

The Bhagavad-gītā further states that if one thinks of Krishna at the time of death one will go to Krishna, back home, back to Godhead. 

anta-kāle ca mām eva smaran muktvā kalevaram

yaḥ prayāti sa mad-bhāvaṁ yāti nāsty atra saṁśayaḥ

“And whoever, at the end of his life, quits his body remembering Me alone at once attains My nature. Of this there is no doubt.” (Bg 8.5) 

The Lord descends into the material world to show us who He is. Everyone speculates about God. They know that God is the oldest, so sometimes they imagine that God must be an old man with a beard and gray hair. They know that God is the ruler of the universe, so they imagine that He must sit on a throne. Therefore God Himself descends into the material world to show us who He is, and He does so in His original form as Krishna as well as in the form of Lord Ramachandra, who has the same, full potency as Krishna. Thus Ramachandra is described here as kaleśa; He is foreign or opulence. The Lord displays His pastimes to attract the fallen conditioned souls to Him to engage in His service. The pastimes of Krishna and those of Rama are very attractive.

The history of Lord Rama, summarized in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and elaborated on in the Rāmāyaṇa (in particular, we accept the authoritative version of the Rāmāyaṇa by Valmiki), has existed for thousands of years, and people still read it, hear it, recite it, and stage dramatic performances of it. It is ever fresh, as the Lord is ever fresh. We never tire of hearing the pastimes of the Lord. The ordinary news of the conditioned souls is not so attractive or fresh. Once when a newspaper reporter from The New York Times came to meet Srila Prabhupada, Srila Prabhupada held up the Bhagavad-gītā (it could just as well have been Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam) and said, “Every day your employer prints so many newspapers. Especially on Sunday, the paper is so big that one can hardly carry it. But after reading it an hour, people throw it away. Here is the Bhagavad-gītā. People keep it and read it for a lifetime, and in this way it has been read for the past five thousand years.” The newspaper reporter acknowledged the truth of what Srila Prabhupada had said. 

So these descriptions of the pastimes of the Lord are ever fresh. We relish them year after year. We relish them day after day, moment by moment. The pastimes of Lord Ramachandra and Lord Krishna can be discussed eternally, and to cover even the basic history would take many days and hours. So in the limited time we have today we can’t really discuss in detail, but I will comment on this one point that is mentioned in the verse. That the great demon Ravana, who was very materially powerful, kidnapped Sita and that in the end he was killed by Lord Ramachandra and his entire dynasty and opulence were destroyed. 

Sita is the energy of the Lord. In fact, everything we see is the energy of the Lord. In the Bhagavad-gītā Lord Krishna says that He has two energies—the spiritual energy, which includes the living entities, and the material energy, which we experience as earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence, and ego.

bhūmir āpo ‘nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca

ahaṅkāra itīyaṁ me bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā

“Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego – all together these eight constitute My separated material energies.”

apareyam itas tv anyāṁ prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām
jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat

“Besides these, O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is another, superior energy of Mine, which comprises the living entities who are exploiting the resources of this material, inferior nature.”

Those two verses are Gita 7—4 and 5.

Basically, whatever we see is the energy of the Lord—either the material energy or a combination of the material and spiritual energies. The Lord Himself is fully spiritual (sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah). But until our senses are completely purified and spiritualized, we cannot see Him in His original form. What we can see is the Lord’s energy, which is His property and is meant to be engaged in His service. If you go into someone’s house, whatever is there is meant for the pleasure of the proprietor of the house. Of course, if the proprietor is a devotee, he knows that Krishna is the true proprietor and therefore everything is meant for His pleasure. In any case, you can’t take the property for yourself or use it for yourself—at least not without permission.

Sita is the internal potency of the Lord, His pleasure potency, and Ravana made the grave mistake of coveting her, lusting after her, to the extent that he abducted her, which was a great insult not only to her chastity but also to the dynasty of Lord Ramachandra. 

It is a long story but ultimately Lord Rama, who on the order of His father was in exile in the forest, gathered together a band of monkeys and bears who marched on Lanka armed basically with trees and boulders. They didn’t have any other weapons. Ravana had a massive army with very sophisticated weapons. When Rama and His forces reached the southern tip of India, they had to cross the ocean to reach Lanka. And at that stage Rama glanced over Lanka with red-hot angry eyes, as described in the next verse: 

yasmā adād udadhir ūḍha-bhayāṅga-vepo

mārgaṁ sapady ari-puraṁ haravad didhakṣoḥ

dūre suhṛn-mathita-roṣa-suśoṇa-dṛṣṭyā

tātapyamāna-makaroraga-nakra-cakraḥ

“The Personality of Godhead Rāmacandra, being aggrieved for His distant intimate friend [Sītā], glanced over the city of the enemy Rāvaṇa with red-hot eyes like those of Hara [who wanted to burn the kingdom of heaven]. The great ocean, trembling in fear, gave Him His way because its family members, the aquatics like the sharks, snakes and crocodiles, were being burnt by the heat of the angry red-hot eyes of the Lord.” (SB 2.7.24)

There at the ocean, a small incident took place that is very instructive in terms of bhakti. After Rama cast His glance, the ocean personified came before the Lord and said, “You may use my water as You like. Indeed, You may cross it and go to the abode of Ravana, who is a great source of disturbance. Please go kill him and regain Your wife, Sita. Please construct a bridge over my waters and spread Your transcendental fame.” So Lord Rama’s soldiers, chanting Rama’s name, started to hurl into the ocean great stones, all of which floated, and thus they constructed a bridge over which Rama and His army could pass. There at the shore a small squirrel was putting little grains of sand in the ocean, to contribute to the effort, and Hanuman, the mighty servant of Rama, chastised the squirrel, “What are you accomplishing with your little grains of sand? Can’t you see that I am throwing these huge boulders? Get out of my way.” And the squirrel replied, “But I want to serve Lord Rama too.”

Lord Rama overheard this exchange and rebuked Hanuman, “This squirrel wants to serve me, just like you. And he is serving to his capacity, just as you are. So in My eyes you both are the same. And besides, I am the one who is making all the boulders float. Ultimately, I am the one who is doing everything.” 

This is a very important point. The qualification to engage in devotional service is simply one’s sincere desire. One’s material qualification doesn’t matter. The Lord does not require anyone’s service. He just wants to see our mood of devotion. If one has the sincere desire to serve, that is enough. Whether one is an insignificant ant or spider or squirrel—or a great monkey like Hanuman, a powerful human being, or Lord Brahma himself—what the Lord sees is the living entity’s sincere desire to serve. That is what He considers—whether we are sincerely serving to our full capacity—however great or small that capacity may be. It is said that the Lord sees not what we give but what we hold back. If a poor man can afford only ten dollars and if he gives ten dollars, the Lord will see that he has given to his capacity. And if a rich man can afford ten million but he gives ten thousand, the Lord will see, “Oh, he gave Me ten thousand, but he is keeping $9,990,000 for himself.” 

The essence of bhakti is the desire to serve the Lord fully, to one’s capacity, and the opposite of bhakti is the desire to exploit the Lord or the Lord’s energy, as exemplified by Ravana. He didn’t want to serve the Lord. He wanted to steal the Lord’s energy, to enjoy the Lord’s property, in opposition to the Lord, in defiance of the Lord, and that is demonic. Sita, the Lord’s energy, is Lakshmi, who is associated with wealth, opulence, good fortune. Generally conditioned souls, who are materialistic, want Lakshmi—they want to engage Lakshmi in their service. But Lakshmi is meant to be engaged in the service of her husband, the Lord, Narayana. As devotees, we worship the Lord and His energy together as the complete whole, as Radha-Krishna, Sita-Rama, Lakshmi-Narayana, Lakshmi-Nṛsiṁha, and that satisfies both the Lord and us. But if we, like Ravana, try to enjoy the Lord’s energy independent of the Lord, we will never be satisfied, and in the end we will be vanquished and all that we have will be lost.

The pastimes of the Lord are not mythological stories. They are factual—recorded in authentic books such as the Rāmāyaṇa and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam—not imaginary or merely symbolic. Although there are lessons to be learned from the pastimes, the persons and events are real. Rama is real, Sita is real, Lakshman is real, Hanuman is real, Ravana is real, Lanka is real— they are all real. And we can learn from these historical accounts. By hearing the pastimes of the Lord we can learn that the Lord’s energy is meant to be engaged in the Lord’s service. We can learn from the example of Hanuman, who jumped over the ocean to Lanka to find Sita and discovered her in an Asoka grove. His purpose was not to exploit her, enjoy her, or keep her for himself. His purpose was to find her for the sake of Rama, so that she could be reunited with Him to serve and please Him. The Lord’s energy is meant to be engaged in the Lord’s service. 

Once, a devotee told me that Srila Prabhupada had said that all of our service here in the material world is meant to bring Radha and Krishna together in the spiritual world. I wasn’t sure about that statement, so I asked Srila Prabhupada. He replied that materialists are like Ravana and that they have kidnapped Sita, or Lakshmi. And we, as devotees, act as Hanuman to get Lakshmi back from Ravana and return her to Rama, or Narayana, by engaging materialist’s money in the service of the Lord. Of course, Rama is an expansion of Krishna, and Sita, or Lakshmi, is an expansion of Radha. Transcendentally, accepting money from the materialists and engaging it in the Lord’ service is reuniting Radha and Krishna. 

The Personality of Godhead appears in different ages. As Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gītā (4.8), 

paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām

dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya sambhavāmi yuge yuge

“To deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I Myself appear, millennium after millennium.”

He says, paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ—to deliver the devotees; vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām—to destroy the miscreants; and dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya—to establish the principles of religion; sambhavāmi yuge yuge—I appear in every millennium. Yuge yuge means “in every age, or millennium.” In Treta-yuga He appeared as Lord Rama, some two million years ago. In Dvapara-yuga He appeared as Lord Krishna, some five thousand years ago. And yuge yuge suggests that He also appears in Kali-yuga; in Kali-yuga He appeared as Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. 

kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣākṛṣṇaṁ sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam

yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ

“In the Age of Kali, intelligent persons perform congregational chanting to worship the incarnation of Godhead who constantly sings the names of Kṛṣṇa. Although His complexion is not blackish, He is Kṛṣṇa Himself. He is accompanied by His associates, servants, weapons and confidential companions.” (SB 11.5.32) 

Krsna-varnam means that He is in the same category as Krishna, which means that He is Krishna, because no one else can be in the same category as Krishna other than Krishna, and is always singing the glories of Krishna. Still tviṣākṛṣṇaṁ—His color is not blackish like Krishna’s in Dvapara-yuga; as described in shastra, it is golden. sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam—He is accompanied by His associates. Every incarnation descends with eternal associates—Rama with Sita, Lakshman, Bharata, Satrughna, and others; Krishna with Nanda, Yasoda, Balarama, Radharani, and others; and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu with Nityananda Prabhu and others. Yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair—in Kali-yuga intelligent people (sumedhasaḥ), people who have good intelligence, will worship (yajanti) the Lord by saṅkīrtana-yajña, by the chanting of the holy names of the Lord. And that is the method by which the heart is cleansed (ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam), the demonic mentality of Ravana is vanquished, and the devotional mood of Sita, Lakshman, Bharata, Satrughna, Hanuman, and others—even the squirrel—is manifest. 

nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-prema ‘sādhya’ kabhu naya

śravaṇādi-śuddha-citte karaye udaya

“Pure love for Kṛṣṇa is eternally established in the hearts of the living entities. It is not something to be gained from another source. When the heart is purified by hearing and chanting, this love naturally awakens.” (Cc Madhya 22.107) 

Nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-prema —pure love of Godhead exists eternally within the heart. ‘sādhya’ kabhu naya —it is not to be gotten from any other source. Śravaṇādi-śuddha-citte —by hearing and chanting the glories of the Lord our consciousness is purified, and karaye udaya —that eternal love is awakened.  

This is our goal. By hearing the pastimes of Rama, the pastimes of Krishna, our love for Them awakens. When we chant Hare Krishna maha-mantra

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

Our love for Radha-Krishna, Sita-Rama, and Gaura-Nitai awakens. That is Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s mercy. 

Two full chapters in the Ninth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam are devoted to summarize the Rāmāyaṇa. Srila Prabhupada remarks that everyone wants rāma-rājya, the ideal kingdom that existed during the reign of Lord Ramachandra. Lord Rama cared for the citizens exactly like a father, and the citizens, accepting Him as their father, loved and obeyed Him. Although He became king during Treta-yuga, because of His good government the age was like Satya-yuga, and everyone was fully religious and happy. Srila Prabhupada states that the same conditions can be evoked even now by the chanting of the Lord’s holy names, which have been made available to us by Lord Chaitanya—by Lord Ramachandra, who has so kindly appeared in the present age as Caitanya-candra. 

This is from Srila Prabhupada’s purport to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Chapter- 9.10.51. 

“If people take to this saṅkīrtana movement of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Rāma, they will certainly be freed from the contamination of Kali-yuga, and the people of this age will be happy, as people were in Satya-yuga, the golden age. Anyone, anywhere, can easily take to this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement; one need only chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, observe the rules and regulations, and stay free from the contamination of sinful life. Even if one is sinful and cannot give up sinful life immediately, if he chants the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra with devotion and faith he will certainly be freed from all sinful activities, and his life will be successful. Paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam. This is the blessing of Lord Rāmacandra, who has appeared in this Age of Kali as Lord Gaurasundara.” (SB 9.10.51 purport)

So we should take advantage of the mercy of the Lord. Out of His causeless mercy upon all living entities (asmat-prasāda) He appears in every age (yuge yuge)—as Rama, as Krishna, and in the present age as Krishna Chaitanya. And we should take advantage of the special mercy that They give us in the form of the saṅkīrtana movement, which teaches people to engage in the chanting of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra and in the entire process of devotional service.

So we should take advantage of this wonderful opportunity that has been given to us by Lord Rama, who has appeared as Lord Gaurasundara, and which has been presented to us in the most pleasant and accessible way by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada. Even the smallest effort—by anyone—can bring the greatest result, as demonstrated in the pastimes of Lord Ramachandra. He engaged even monkeys and other creatures of the forest in His service, and in the end He took all the residents of Ayodhya back home, back to Godhead.

Hanuman says,

na janma nūnaṁ mahato na saubhagaṁ

na vāṅ na buddhir nākṛtis toṣa-hetuḥ

tair yad visṛṣṭān api no vanaukasaś

cakāra sakhye bata lakṣmaṇāgrajaḥ

[Sri Hanuman says:]

“One cannot establish a friendship with the Supreme Lord Rāmacandra on the basis of material qualities such as one’s birth in an aristocratic family, one’s personal beauty, one’s eloquence, one’s sharp intelligence or one’s superior race or nation. None of these qualifications is actually a prerequisite for friendship with Lord Śrī Rāmacandra. Otherwise how is it possible that although we uncivilized inhabitants of the forest have not taken noble births, although we have no physical beauty and although we cannot speak like gentlemen, Lord Rāmacandra has nevertheless accepted us as friends?”

And then the next verse,

suro ‘suro vāpy atha vānaro naraḥ

sarvātmanā yaḥ sukṛtajñam uttamam

bhajeta rāmaṁ manujākṛtiṁ hariṁ

ya uttarān anayat kosalān divam iti

“Therefore, whether one is a demigod or a demon, a man or a creature other than man, such as a beast or bird, everyone should worship Lord Rāmacandra, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who appears on this earth just like a human being. There is no need of great austerities or penances to worship the Lord, for He accepts even a small service offered by His devotee. Thus He is satisfied, and as soon as He is satisfied, the devotee is successful. Indeed, Lord Śrī Rāmacandra brought all the devotees of Ayodhyā back home, back to Godhead.” (SB 5.19.7–8) 

So thank you very much. Sri Ramachandra Bhagavān ki jaya! Sri Ram Navami Maha-mahotsav ki jaya! 

Now, if any of you have any questions or reflections you can raise your hand; your physical hand or your virtual hand, and we will discuss.

Hema Gauri dasi. 

Devotee: Hare Krishna Guru Maharaja, daṇḍavat-praṇāmās. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. Thank you so much for giving us such a beautiful explanation about chanting the holy name and about Lord Ramachandra. The holy name consisting of sixteen words, out of which eight words are Hare and four times Rama and four times Krishna, so which means Lord Chaitanya was telling us that Lord Rama and Krishna are not different, they are equally powerful. But I have read in some scriptures where it says one thousand names of Vishnu is equal to one name of Rama and three times the names of Rama is equivalent to one time the name of Krishna. So if that is the case then why do we have the same amount of times we say in the maha-mantra, four times Rama and four times Krishna?

Giriraj Swami: Well, the maha-mantra is revealed, it is mentioned Kali-santaraṇa Upanishad, and there is a deep meaning to the maha-mantra. If you want to chant more names of Krishna then you can chant more maha-mantras. But we don’t want to avoid the name of Rama. And also that name of Rama is also a name of Krishna because He is Radha Raman. So in that sense that name of Rama is also a name of Krishna. So we get three times the benefit of chanting the holy name of Rama, if we are chanting the holy name of Rama which indicates Lord Ramachandra. But yes, we should accept the maha-mantra as it is; as it is revealed in scriptures, as it was chanted by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and as it has come down to us through paramparā.

Devotee: Thank you, thank you so much Guru Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. Shyam Vallabh Prabhu.

Devotee: Haribol Guru Maharaja. Very nice lecture today, class on Ram Navami. One of the things that I guess I get to have a comment, the thing that struck up to me the most today was how even a spider, a small insect can assist. And that is what is telling us that no matter how small the service that we are performing, Krishna sees it. As long as we are serving as much as we can, our offering is the most that we can do. So I think that is wonderful. I think about that in relation to Trishani, sometimes she will come, just remind me, “Hey Dad, let us chant. Let us go get some flowers for Srimati Radharani.” And it is like that small thing that she will do. She reminds me sometimes, “Let us go do this.” And she is excited about it. So I think that is wonderful. It is a reminder that any service that we can perform for Krishna, however small it might seem, He appreciates it. So that is what that stood out to me today. So thank you.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, children, little children they may not be able to do much but they have a desire to serve and they are serving according to their capacity. And so we appreciate their service, the Lord appreciates their service.

Alright, my dear devotees, if they are no more. . . Oh, Sakshi’s hand is up.

Devotee: Balabhadra dasa Prabhu is there Maharaja.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Guru Maharaja. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and you. So guru Maharaja my question is that when we believe that the Lord is always existing and we say it is His appearance day not His birthday, so He just appears on the planet on a certain day but He is still there before that, then why do we fast till His time of birth or appearance on that day? I don’t mind fasting, it is okay. Srila Prabhupada says that is good. I am not being lazy but I just want to understand how to understand God in this context? Thank you, Guru Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Well we fast; it decreases the time that we spend on eating obviously and gives us more time to chant and hear the glories of the Lord and remember the pastimes of the Lord. And although from the Lord’s point of view there is no appearance or disappearance, from our point of view He does appear and disappear. And for us his appearance is very significant and so we honor his appearance by fasting and then feasting.

Devotee: Okay. Thank you so much guru Maharaja. Thank you, Guru Maharaja. Hare Krishna.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

Devotee: Balabhadra dasa Prabhu, you can ask your question.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Guru Maharaja. Please accept my respectful obeisances at your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. I also wanted to appreciate that point that Shyama Vallabha reiterated, was the idea that even the smallest person or efforts can yield the same results. I wanted to comment that in the theatre, when I studied theatre, there was a saying, “There is no small parts, only small actors.” And there was that any part that you got into production there was potential to make it a big part. And then the other comment that I wanted to add was about in the maha-mantra we say Rama and I remember reading a room conversation with Srila Prabhupada, there were two devotees that were arguing about whether Rama in the maha-mantra was referring to Balarama or to Lord Ramachandra. And Prabhupada said it was either, it could be either one.

Giriraj Swami: Correct.

Devotee: So thank you very much for a wonderful lecture. I really appreciate your darshan today too. Thank you. Hare Krishna.

Giriraj Swami: Thank you for joining.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Guru Maharaja. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to you. Guru Maharaja I have another question. May I ask?

Giriraj Swami: Yes.

Devotee: I had this question that we had this Navratri Festival going on recently and today was supposed to be the last day. And a lot of devotees, because of their family obligations, they had to take part in some of the customs of that too. And I felt that one of the ten offenses the maha-mantra was to also worship other demigods but then at the same time we are always told to not give up, we have to maintain peace and harmony in our family for our devotional service. So I wanted to understand how correct is it to still go ahead with these customs even though we are worshiping Krishna now?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, what do you mean by your family? I thought your family are all Krishna conscious.

Devotee: Not my family Guru Maharaja, other mataji’s. They were saying they were struggling to keep up with so many things that they had to do. I was feeling bad that they still have to do all those traditions even though they are Krishna conscious now, just to maintain the family peace and harmony. So maybe I am thinking on my level as a child, it may be a little shallow but I wanted to understand; is it correct?

Giriraj Swami: It would be better to avoid it. If some of the family is going to be upset and offended then I guess they could participate to a small extent but from the spiritual point of view, it is really not very important. 

Devotee: Okay, thank you so much Guru Maharaja. Hare Krishna.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. Are there any other questions or comments? Alright, if not then we can conclude by offering Vaishnava praṇāma.

Let us offer our respectful obeisances unto the Vaishnava devotees of the Lord. They are just like desire trees and can fulfill the desires of everyone, and they are full of compassion for the fallen conditioned souls.

vāñchā-kalpa-tarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca

patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ

Ananta-koti Vaishnava vrnda ki jaya!
Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!
Sri Ram Navami mahā-mahotsava ki jaya!
Nitai-Gaura premānande Hari Haribol!
H.H. Giriraj Swami Maharaja ki jaya!