SB 2.7.23 – The Appearance and Activities of Lord Ramachandra

Giriraj Swami: And I will just interrupt here in the purport to read 4.7 so we know exactly what Srila Prabhupada is referring to.

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.

COMMENT

And in this verse sṛjāmy aham means that I manifest myself. It is not that the Lord takes birth, He is always there, but He descends Himself or He manifests Himself. 

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

Lord Ramachandra was ordered by His father, Maharaja Dasaratha, 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 Ayodhya. One of His younger brothers, Lakshmanji, desired to go with Him, and so also His eternal wife, Sitaji, 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 Ramachandra and Ravana, and the latter kidnapped the Lord’s wife, Sita. The quarrel ended in the vanquishing of the greatly powerful Ravana, along with all his kingdom and family.

Sita is Laksmiji, 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, Sri Ramachandra. A materialistic man like Ravana does not understand this great truth, but on the contrary he wants to snatch Sitadevi from the custody of Rama 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 Ravana. Ravana was very advanced materially, so much so that he turned his kingdom, Lanka, into pure gold, or full material wealth. But because he did not recognize the supremacy of Lord Ramachandra and defied Him by stealing His wife, Sita, Ravana was killed, and all his opulence and power were destroyed. Lord Ramachandra is a full incarnation with six opulences in full, and He is therefore mentioned in this verse as kaleśaḥ, or master of all opulence.

Hare Krishna.

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, janmādy asya yataḥ, that the Absolute Truth is that from which everything emanates, and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam begins with the same words— janmādy asya yataḥ —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, kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam, that all of the abovementioned incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord but that 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. Sri Brahma Samhita 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, they 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. 

As explained in the Vedic literature, the purpose of life is to become free from this 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 yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ, 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 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, 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. 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-ānanda-vigrahaḥ). But until our senses are completely purified and spiritualized, we cannot see the Lord in His original form. What we can see is the Lord’s energy, which is His property and 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 and they 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, an 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 instructive 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, or 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 and if 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, 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 had 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 symbolic. Although there are lessons to be learned from the pastimes, the persons and events are real. 

Giriraj Swami: So I will just conclude by adding one more point.

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.”

Sambhavāmi yuge yuge. 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 name 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) 

So by hearing the pastimes of Rama, the pastimes of Krishna, our love for Them awakens. When we chant the 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 is awakened. That is Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s mercy. 

Two full chapters in the Ninth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam are devoted to summarizing 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 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 Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

This is from Srila Prabhupada’s purport to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 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.” 

Giriraj Swami: So my dear devotees, thank you for joining us on this auspicious occasion for this auspicious discussion. According to our allotted time we have reached the end, but I suppose if the organizers feel that we can go longer, we can have some time for questions and comments. But otherwise we have reached our allotted time limit and I thank you for this opportunity to glorify and remember Lord Rama, and Lord Krishna and Lord Chaitanya by the mercy of His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja. Thank you very much. We cannot let you go like that. We have questions. We can continue, please.

Giriraj Swami: Okay, so if you have any questions.

Devotee: We are just fortunate and blessed to have you. Yes, there are some question. Parochana, Verochana, I will read it because she is saying that she cannot on YouTube, for some reason she cannot turn her video on. For those of you connected in Facebook kindly type your questions on the chat and I will be happy to read those questions for Maharaja. Everyone else, please raise your hand and you can unmute when I call you. 

First one is Bhaktin Verochana. Question is, did not Ravana service the Lord in the mood of enemy as Jay and Vijay, eternal associates of Lord Vishnu? 

Giriraj Swami: Yes. It is said that, the Lord has every propensity of the living entity. In fact, he is the origin of all of us as we discussed janmādy asya yato, He is that from which everything emanates. So the fighting propensity also exists in the Lord. But who can fight with the Lord? So Jay and Vijay, who are the Lord’s gatekeepers in Vaikuntha wanted to fulfil the Lord’s desire to fight. And so by some arrangements they obstructed the four Kumaras from entering Vaikuntha. And the four Kumaras cursed them that they must take birth either three times as demons or seven times as devotees. So they didn’t want to be away from their posts in Vaikuntha for longer, so they said, “Okay, we’ll take three births as demons.” And so they took birth as Hiranyakasipu and Hiraṇyakṣa, and as Ravana. 

So yes, in a way Ravana was serving the Lord by giving Him someone to fight with. But he was not really serving the Lord in a favorable mood. And we don’t want to try to imitate or emulate Ravana by any means whatsoever. We want to emulate Hanuman.

Devotee: Thank you Maharaja. Malati devi dasi, please unmute yourself.

Devotee: Hare Krishna, guru Maharaja. Please accept my humble obeisances. [Unintelligible] All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to your Divine Grace. Guru Maharaja, you said that we have to serve according to one’s own capacity and the Lord is pleased. But one of the lectures I heard that the more the responsibility, you said the more the mercy comes. So if we want to extract more mercy then is it that we have to go according to the capacity or we have to take responsibility beyond your reach or your comfort zone? Hare Krishna.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, our capacity is greater than what we exhibit in our comfort zone. So yes, we want to go beyond our comfort zone and serve more fully to our capacity. Yes absolutely, and we should always try to do more and try to do better; we shouldn’t be complacent.

Devotee: Thank you Guru Maharaja. Hare Krishna.

Devotee: Hare Krishna. We have Rasapreeta dasa Prabhu. Go ahead.

Devotee: Hare Krishna. I raise my hand little late and Mataji asked the same question that I was about to ask that. Hare Krishna Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

Devotee: You are muted Prabhu.

Devotee: Oh, can you hear me now?

Giriraj Swami: Yes.

Devotee: Okay. Thank you Maharaja. Please accept my humble obeisances. It was wonderful, wonderful class. My point was like Mataji had asked the same question I was about to ask that how do you determine your capacity, right? So since Maharaja you already answered I will ask, it is not a question but just the validation that Krishna originally has a four expansions: Saṅkarṣaṇa, Vasudeva, and Aniruddha and Pradyumna. So is Balarama is the expansion of Lord Saṅkarṣaṇa right? Is that the correct validation?

Giriraj Swami: More or less it is the other way that Saṅkarṣaṇa is an expansion of Balarama. But they are the same tattva. But Balarama is the original and Saṅkarṣaṇa has expanded from Him. 

Devotee: Thank you Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Okay.

Devotee: Thank you. Before I forget are there any questions from devotees at ISKCON Phoenix Temple? If there is anyone please raise your hand or actually stand up and come to the mic.

I cannot hear. I cannot see [Unintelligible 00:35:12]

Devotee: No question from the temple.

Devotee: Hare Krishna. Thank you Maharaja. Okay, now I can go back to the chat. Question from Bhaktin Rachna. 

Devotee: Other than Putana, are there any other demons in kṛṣṇa-līlā who attain Goloka Vrindavan?

Giriraj Swami: Putana is a special case because she, this is a very important point, she served Krishna like a mother although her intention was to poison Him. And Srila Prabhupada explains that it is the quality of a noble person that He sees the good in others not the bad. And Krishna is like that. He saw the good that she came to “nurse Me” like a mother. He didn’t see the bad that she came to “poison Me.” And so He elevated her to the position of a nurse in kṛṣṇa-līlā, in Goloka Vrindavan. I am not aware of any other cases like that. If any members of our esteemed audience can think of an example you can share it with us. But yes, this was a very special case, Putana.

Devotee: Thank you Maharaja. I am going to read a question from messenger before I forget. So Maharaja, Hare Krishna. Could you please expand on Saṅkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna and Aniruddha?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, They are called the quadruple expansions. And They are Vasudeva, Saṅkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. And They are extended from Krishna-Balarama and the next two. And They actually repeat. After the first quadruple expansion there is a second quadruple expansion, also the same: Vasudeva, Saṅkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. 

But the Bhāgavatam says that the expansions of the Lord are innumerable. They are like the waves in a river, the waves in an ocean. They keep coming and nobody can count them. But yes everything is [audio interrupted], it is described initially in the Bhāgavatam and elaborated very nicely in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta.

Devotee: Thank you Maharaja. Now, Lalita devi dasi, will you please commute yourself?

Devotee: Thank you very much guru Maharaja for your compassionate association. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to you. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Guru Maharaja, in several recent classes you quoted the questions Srivas Prabhu had asked Prabhupada about book distribution, and then you give the answer about chanting all sixteen rounds together from first to last. Despite best efforts sometimes just the day or the life or body may not allow you to chant all sixteen in one sitting. Could you please just give some more direction for weaker ones who can’t do all sixteen all together and still want to distribute books.

Giriraj Swami: My own policy for a long time was to do twelve straight, and then of course depending on your schedule, but I would try to complete the other before like ten in the morning. And I think Mahatma Prabhu quoted Srila Prabhupada as saying that if you don’t finish your rounds by ten in the morning there will be an anxiety for the rest of the day. But again it would depend on your schedule. But it is just my own practice was to do twelve. And then the other four by ten in the morning.

Devotee: Thank you Guru Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

Devotee: Hare Krishna. Before I go to Gaurakishore dasa Prabhu there is a question on Facebook, Tulsi Priya devi dasi,

Maharaja, Hare Krishna. What are the symptoms of faith?

Giriraj Swami: Faith! Well, faith is defined as by serving Krishna all subsidiary activities are performed without doing them separately. For example, Krishna says,

sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja

ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ

That if you just surrender to Him He will protect you from all sinful reactions. So faith means that by serving Krishna all other activities are performed. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam gives the example that by watering the root of a tree the trunk, the limbs, the branches, the twigs, the leaves are all watered. So by serving Krishna all living entities are served. And the other example is that by putting food in the stomach all the limbs of the body are nourished. So in the same way by serving Krishna all living entities are served. So when we believe that, that is faith. 

I think I can read that verse. One moment. Yes, I will read the exact verse. This is Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, Chapter- Twenty-two, Text- Sixty-two. 

‘śraddhā’-śabde — viśvāsa kahe sudṛḍha niścaya

kṛṣṇe bhakti kaile sarva-karma kṛta haya

“Śraddhā is confident, firm faith that by rendering transcendental loving service to Kṛṣṇa one automatically performs all subsidiary activities. Such faith is favorable to the discharge of devotional service.

It is what I said but this is the original. 

Devotee: Thank you very much Maharaja. Gaurakishore dasa Prabhu, please, unmute yourself.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

Devotee: Thank you very much Maharaja for your enlightening lecture. Maharaja, I had one question. As you mentioned people still remember Rama Rajya because that was the ideal and that happened just after Lord Rama re-established the dharma. So subsequently we can see Krishna also re-established the dharma using the Pandavas. But we cannot see the long term effect or it didn’t last long and we can notice in present society how the things are getting degraded very quickly. So how it didn’t last long after he re-established the dharma again five thousand years ago? Can you please throw some light Maharaja?

Giriraj Swami: Well, Srila Prabhupada says that in the material world everything is subject to deterioration. You build a house but gradually it will deteriorate. Whatever we create in the material world will deteriorate. And Srila Prabhupada says the same applies to establishing dharma, that the situation will deteriorate and the Lord will have to appear again. And therefore the Lord says, sambhavāmi yuge yuge, He appears in every Millennium to re-establish the principles of religion. But in Kali-yuga it is said, kali-kāle nāma-rūpe kṛṣṇa-avatāra, the avatar for Krishna in Kali-yuga is the holy name, kali-kāle nāma-rūpe kṛṣṇa-avatāra. And so if people take to the chanting of Hare Krishna Hare Rama, we can have that dharmic society. In a way it depends on us. But again the beauty of Krishna consciousness is that if we follow it, even if others do not follow it we can still get the benefit. Our success does not depend on others following it or not following it. So we can follow it and we will get the benefit. But still out of compassion for the fallen souls I am concerned for the human society. We want a good government following religious principles. But yes, that doesn’t seem very near at hand right now. And again I think of distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books is the best way to both influence society and influence the leaders. And as Srila Prabhupada said, we are in the age of democracy, so if the people become Krishna conscious they will now elect leaders who are Krishna conscious.

Devotee: Thank you Maharaja. I can say Ishwar Brinda dasa Prabhu, please unmute yourself.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja. Thank you so much for our wonderful class. And we have been waiting for you in Chandler. Hope somehow you come here sometime soon. Maharaja, I have a quick question that those devotees who have kind of surrendered to Krishna they have given their life for Krishna but still sometimes we see incidents like what happened in Bangladesh or recently we had incident in Juhu Temple, so what is the right mind set to look at such incidents, there are those who have been chanting, given their life. It is not just about death but the way they meet the death is not very comfortable way of leaving the body, so how we should look at these incidents Maharaja?

Giriraj Swami: I was aware of Bangladesh, something happened in the Juhu temple recently? 

Devotee: Maharaja yes. Actually there is a brahmachari, it was a Ramnavami Festival.

Giriraj Swami: Was electrocuted?

Devotee: Yes. 

Giriraj Swami: Okay. Well, Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gītā,

kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati,

O son of Kuntī, declare it boldly that My devotee never perishes.

But of course, the physical body will perish that we all know. That applies to both devotees and non-devotees. But their spiritual progress will not be lost. And that is also stated in the Bhagavad-gītā that even a little advancement on the path will save one from the most dangerous type of fear and the most dangerous type of fears that one will be degraded into lower species of life. So whatever progress they have made they will continue in the next life. If they have made 1 percent progress, in the next life there will be 2 percent; they make 10 percent they will begin from 11 percent. So there is no diminution or loss in in Krishna consciousness. And yes, there is a nice verse and purport in the Third Canto, in which in the purport Srila Prabhupada says, “One should not be dismayed after devotees suffer reversals in their lives, but to understand there was a great plan of the Lord behind such apparent reversals.”

Devotee: Sorry Mataji. If there are many devotees, others who have questions then probably I will skip my question.

Devotee: We have one or two more but you can go ahead.

Devotee: Maharaja, I was thinking when Krishna says in Bhagavad-gītā that whatever you have I will preserve and whatever you are lacking I will get that to you. So my question wasn’t from that perspective. Those devotees who are brahmachari, they are already in the right path. Probably they just need more time to do more chanting and more purification. So instead of facilitating that why Krishna just took that opportunity to the human birth. Everything is so favorable, in one sense they are brahmachari in the temple, they are doing wonderful services in Prabhupada’s Mission, It seems they are just going into the right path and then suddenly. . . but I understand what you are saying that probably we should have more faith that in the next birth also Krishna will give them even better facility in one sense.

Giriraj Swami: Yes.

Devotee: Thank you.

Devotee: Okay, so I have your youngest aspiring disciple here. Yes, unmute yourself.

Devotee: Hare Krishna guru Maharaja. Please accept my humble obeisances. Thank you for the wonderful class. It was very nice and I loved how you explains how we should serve Lord Krishna and how we should be sincere and serve to our fullest capacity. So thank you for the wonderful class. We are all waiting for you here in Phoenix so hopefully you can come soon. Thank you. Hare Krishna.

Devotee: And she is doing wonderful, very sincere in Sunday school class Maharaja, I have to report that she has been wonderful. 

Okay, and we have Mother Siddhi Lalsa devi dasi. Please unmute yourself.

[Skipped 00:55:25–01:02:16]

Giriraj Swami: 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