BG 3.10 – Living Happily and Achieving Liberation

Giriraj Swami: We will read from Bhagavad-gītā As It Is Chapter Three, “Karma-yoga,”

TEXT 10

saha-yajñāḥ prajāḥ sṛṣṭvā
purovāca prajāpatiḥ
anena prasaviṣyadhvam
eṣa vo ‘stv iṣṭa-kāma-dhuk

TRANSLATION

In the beginning of creation, the Lord of all creatures sent forth generations of men and demigods, along with sacrifices for Viṣṇu, and blessed them by saying, “Be thou happy by this yajña [sacrifice] because its performance will bestow upon you everything desirable for living happily and achieving liberation.”

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

The material creation by the Lord of creatures (Viṣṇu) is a chance offered to the conditioned souls to come back home – back to Godhead.

COMMENT

That is the purpose of creation.

PURPORT (continued)

The material creation by the Lord of creatures (Viṣṇu) is a chance offered to the conditioned souls to come back home – back to Godhead. All living entities within the material creation are conditioned by material nature because of their forgetfulness of their relationship to Viṣṇu, or Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Vedic principles are to help us understand this eternal relation, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ. The Lord says that the purpose of the Vedas is to understand Him. In the Vedic hymns it is said: patiṁ viśvasyātmeśvaram. Therefore, the Lord of the living entities is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣṇu. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam also (2.4.20) Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī describes the Lord as pati in so many ways:

śriyaḥ patir yajña-patiḥ prajā-patir
dhiyāṁ patir loka-patir dharā-patiḥ
patir gatiś cāndhaka-vṛṣṇi-sātvatāṁ
prasīdatāṁ me bhagavān satāṁ patiḥ

The prajā-pati is Lord Viṣṇu, and He is the Lord of all living creatures, all worlds, and all beauties, and the protector of everyone. The Lord created this material world to enable the conditioned souls to learn how to perform yajñas (sacrifices) for the satisfaction of Viṣṇu, so that while in the material world they can live very comfortably without anxiety, and after finishing the present material body they can enter into the kingdom of God.

COMMENT

So this is the perfect program, and it can be achieved or realized by performance of yajña or sacrifice. I will read it again, it is beautiful.

PURPORT (continued)

The Lord created this material world to enable the conditioned souls to learn how to perform yajñas (sacrifices) for the satisfaction of Viṣṇu, so that while in the material world they can live very comfortably without anxiety,

COMMENT

Who wants to live very comfortably without anxiety? We all do.

PURPORT (continued)

and after finishing the present material body they can enter into the kingdom of God.

COMMENT

Who wants to enter into the kingdom of God? We all do.

PURPORT (continued)

That is the whole program for the conditioned soul. By performance of yajña, the conditioned souls gradually become Kṛṣṇa conscious and become godly in all respects. In the Age of Kali, the saṅkīrtana-yajña (the chanting of the names of God) is recommended by the Vedic scriptures, and this transcendental system was introduced by Lord Caitanya for the deliverance of all men in this age.

COMMENT

So in previous ages the performance of yajña was a very costly and complicated affair, but in the present age of Kali-yuga the process of yajña has been made simple and sublime, especially by the grace of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

PURPORT (continued)

In the Age of Kali, the saṅkīrtana-yajña (the chanting of the names of God) is recommended by the Vedic scriptures, and this transcendental system was introduced by Lord Caitanya for the deliverance of all men in this age. Saṅkīrtana-yajña and Kṛṣṇa consciousness go well together. Lord Kṛṣṇa in His devotional form (as Lord Caitanya) is mentioned in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.5.32) as follows, with special reference to the saṅkīrtana-yajña:

kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣākṛṣṇaṁ
sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam
yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair
yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ

“In this Age of Kali, people who are endowed with sufficient intelligence will worship the Lord, who is accompanied by His associates, by performance of saṅkīrtana-yajña.”

COMMENT

So this word “sumedhasaḥ” means very intelligent. If anyone challenges you, “Are you intelligent?” You can say, “I am very intelligent because I am performing the saṅkīrtana-yajña.” In opposition to the word sumedhasaḥ, which means very intelligent, is the word alpamedhasah which means less intelligent. And the Bhagavad-gītā uses that word alpamedhasah to describe people who worship demigods, but we are worshiping the Supreme Lord and specifically through the performance of saṅkīrtana-yajña in Kali-yuga.

PURPORT (continued)

Other yajñas prescribed in the Vedic literatures are not easy to perform in this Age of Kali, but the saṅkīrtana-yajña is easy and sublime for all purposes, as recommended in Bhagavad-gītā also (9.14).

COMMENT

And I will read Bhagavad-gītā 9.14, so we can get the full purport to Srila Prabhupada’s purport.

satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ
yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ
namasyantaś ca māṁ bhaktyā
nitya-yuktā upāsate

TRANSLATION

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

COMMENT

I will read just the first paragraph of the purport.

PURPORT

The mahatma cannot be manufactured by rubber-stamping an ordinary man. His symptoms are described here: a mahatma is always engaged in chanting the glories of the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead.

COMMENT

So this satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ; satataṁ means always and kīrtayanto means chanting or glorifying, and this verse runs parallel to the Śikṣāṣṭakam verse – kīrtanīyā sadā hari.

PURPORT (continued)

The mahatma cannot be manufactured by rubber-stamping an ordinary man. His symptoms are described here: a mahatma 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; therefore a mahatma is attached to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

COMMENT

So I will just read the translation again and then, I will open the floor to questions and comments in the few minutes we have left. So again the translation:

“In the beginning of creation, the Lord of all creatures sent forth generations of men and demigods, along with sacrifices for Viṣṇu, and blessed them by saying, “‘Be thou happy by this yajña [sacrifice] because its performance will bestow upon you everything desirable for living happily and achieving liberation.’”

Hare Krishna. So my dear devotees, do you have any comments or questions, reflections?

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna Gopal.

Devotee: Welcome to Texas. Good to see you.

Giriraj Swami: Thank you.

Devotee: So Maharaja, in the translation Srila Prabhupada links the word Vishnu, but the word Vishnu [Unintelligible 00:30:48], why Vishnu is mentioned here.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, the word Vishnu does not appear in the verse but Srila Prabhupada knows that Prajapati, the Lord of all creatures, is Vishnu and so he is just making it clear for us. So we know that as it said yajña is Vishnu, the purpose of all sacrifices is Vishnu to please Vishnu. So it is Srila Prabhupada’s mercy that he included the holy name of Vishnu so that we are very clear who that Prajapati is; who the Lord of all creatures is. Hare Krishna. Yes.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja. Thank you for the class. I have a question from the line you read that “The Lord created this material to enable the conditioned souls to learn how to perform yajña (sacrifices) for the satisfaction of Vishnu. I find that especially, [Unintelligible 00:32:10].

Giriraj Swami: What do you find? Can you speak a little slower?

Devotee: I think people that are not mainly familiar with Krishna consciousness and they are just familiar with other religions, they might perceive sacrifice as something negative or it has a negative connotation. Usually it means we have to suffer but you are saying that by us sacrificing, Vishnu will be pleased. How would you explain this to someone who is not a devotee?

Giriraj Swami: Of course the Bhagavad-gītā is meant for devotees. Krishna tells Arjuna, Bhakto ‘si me sakhā ceti. I am explaining the science to you because you are My devotee. Sacrifice is always required. We make sacrifices for a higher gain. Nobody can say that they don’t make sacrifices whether they are devotees or not. Even businessmen, they perform austerities to make money and parents make sacrifices for their children. So sacrifice is not a bad thing; it shouldn’t have any negative connotations but it is a necessary thing and the real question is, to whom should we sacrifice for the ultimate benefit? And the verse and the Purport Bhagavad-gītā explains that we should make the sacrifices for Vishnu or Krishna. And when Krishna is satisfied then we will automatically be satisfied.

The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam gives the example that if you water the root of a tree, the trunk, the limbs, the branches, the leaves will all be nourished. And if you feed food to the stomach, all the different parts of the body will be nourished. So by serving Krishna, all living entities will benefit. And that is our purpose; both for our own benefit and for the benefit of others, to serve Krishna; and we will be happy and other people will be happy. And we serve Krishna by chanting the holy names, by performing saṅkīrtana-yajña. And saṅkīrtana also means, especially in context to ISKCON, we use the word saṅkīrtana to indicate not only hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana, chanting, but also book distribution; that is also saṅkīrtana. And when we give people Srila Prabhupada’s books, they get the full saṅkīrtana, the full glorification of Krishna. So we should do both; we should chant the holy names, relish Krishna consciousness, and share Krishna consciousness with others by giving them the holy names and giving them Srila Prabhupada’s books. And then Srila Prabhupada and Krishna will be happy, and we will be happy. Yes, Sunder Gopal Prabhu.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja. Thank you very much for the nice class. In the verse, Bhagavad-gītā [Unintelligible 00:36:41] Srila Prabhupada talks about going back to Godhead. So in that regard my question is, Krishna says in Eighth Chapter that once you come back me, won’t come back to this world [Unintelligible 00:36:51] again and but living in it is called marginal you know it can exist in spiritual realm or in real realm. So how do we reconcile that? Why is it called marginal realm? [Unintelligible 00:37:10]

Giriraj Swami: Someone asked Srila Prabhupada this question in Bombay, and Srila Prabhupada said that we may make the mistake once and come into the material world, but when we go back to Krishna we don’t come back again because we have learned from our mistake and we won’t make the same mistake again.

Devotee: You briefly mentioned a third verse Śikṣāṣṭakam, and I am wondering if you could provide some more insight on that verse; what it means.

Giriraj Swami: Provide more insight on the verse and. . .

Devotee: Just what it means.

Giriraj Swami: Oh, what it means. So in this purport Srila Prabhupada referred to Bhagavad-gītā 9.14 which begins, satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ, which as I said runs parallel to the third verse of the Śikṣāṣṭakam which says kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ, one should always engage in kirtan, one should always chant the holy names. But to be able to do so one has to have the proper attitude, and that is described, tṛṇād api su-nīcena, one should be more humble than a blade of grass, taror iva sahiṣṇunā, one should be more tolerant than a tree, amāninā māna-dena, one should be free from all sense of false prestige and ready to offer all respects to others, kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ, in such a state of mind one can chant the holy names of the Lord constantly.

So that verse, Srila Krishnadasa Kavirāja Gosvami in Caitanya-caritāmṛta says that all Vaishnavas and Gaudiya Vaishnavas should put that verse in a locket and wear it around their necks. In other words, you should always be conscious of that verse, and that verse should be the motto of our life. Yes.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja. In the purport of the Bhagavad-gītā verse, Prabhupada says, saṅkīrtana-yajña is easy and sublime, and I was wondering because you can see when Prabhupada goes out to preach he went through many trials and many things that most people consider are not easy. So I was wondering what did Prabhupada mean?

Giriraj Swami: What Prabhupada went out to preach he. . .

Devotee: He went through a lot of trials and he had heart attacks and stuff. What would you say Prabhupada meant when he said that saṅkīrtana-yajña is easy?

Giriraj Swami: Well, chanting is easy and sublime but it doesn’t mean that when we ask others to take to the saṅkīrtana-yajña that they will take very easily, because they are conditioned souls and they are in ignorance. But if they hear the chanting of the holy names they will get benefit, even if they don’t immediately chant themselves. In the early days of ISKCON, sometimes the devotees were stopped by the police for their hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana and Srila Prabhupada wrote a letter explaining what the saṅkīrtana is to the authorities. And in that letter he wrote that the sound vibration of the holy name will knock on the doors to the hearts of the people. So yes, people get so much benefit by hearing the holy names, even if they don’t chant. And it is a beginning; they hear and then they get purified and we give them prasāda, then they get more benefit and become more purified, so the whole process; chanting, dancing, feasting, and philosophy.

Once one of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples was giving a talk in Srila Prabhupada’s presence, and he said that Krishna consciousness is chanting, dancing, feasting, and philosophy. That was Srila Prabhupada’s phrase; chanting, dancing, feasting, and philosophy, and a little bit of work. And Srila Prabhupada interrupted and said, “No! No work.” So then the disciple began again, “Krishna consciousness is chanting, dancing, feasting, and philosophy, and a little, little, little bit of work.” And again Prabhupada interrupted and said, “No, no work.” Because it is not work; it is not karma, it is sevā, it is bhakti.

Yes, Gopal Prabhu.

Devotee: It is not a related question Maharaja, but if we have time I would just like to hear how any devotee’s, you travel Maharaja to many countries, many places, may you describe any devotee’s life which can be very inspirational for all of us; someone might gain Krishna consciousness like that.

Giriraj Swami: Well, we have Srila Prabhupada’s life, and I wrote a book called Many Moons about nine, well six are Srila Prabhupada’s direct disciples and three are grand disciples, I chose these nine because they had passed away. Of course there are many examples who are still with us, and by reading about their lives, the nine as I recall, first is Jayananda Prabhu and His Holiness Tamal Krishna Goswami, His Holiness Sridhara Swami, His Holiness Bhakti Tirtha Swami, His Holiness Gour Govinda Swami Maharaja, and then grand disciples there was Tamal Krishna Goswami’s disciple Kirtida dasi and Radhanath Swami’s disciple Abhiram Thakura, and my disciple Mother Arca Vigraha. You can get so much inspiration from their lives; and they are like our contemporaries, they are living in the same context that we are living and we can understand a lot.

And I think of Jayananda Prabhu, he loved service. If someone who was assigned some duty didn’t show up, he would say, “Guess what Prabhus, good news! So and so didn’t come up for his service, so there is more service for us, Haribol. He wasn’t being sarcastic; he really meant it. And recently I read that someone asked Jayananda Prabhu, “How did you become so advanced in Krishna consciousness?” And he replied, “I don’t know, I never thought about it. I was always too busy doing service.” Yes.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja. When you mentioned that Prabhupada said no work, what would that entail? No work [Unintelligible 00:47:23] I will give an practical example, if somebody has to work to support family back home, like this handicap family member, what do you say [Unintelligible 00:47:43].

Giriraj Swami: If we take the word work, translated into Sanskrit is karma. So in that sense there is no work, there is no karma, because it is all sevā or devotional service or bhakti. But the first three words of Krishna consciousness are chanting, dancing, feasting, philosophy, and no work. So that is what Krishna consciousness is. Now, we might be involved in doing work in some lesser degree of Krishna consciousness, but if we are a fully in Krishna consciousness then it is not really work, because everything we are doing is for Krishna ultimately; for maintaining our Krishna conscious lifestyle and we have duties as parents, as wives, but the central point should be Krishna, and then it is not karma; it is not work.

Devotee: So it is hard to be Krishna conscious twenty-four hours in the material world. If you have a job it can be hard thinking about Krishna all the time or relating with colleagues, for example. What do you suggest [Unintelligible 00:50:15]?

Giriraj Swami: You are saying it is hard to be Krishna conscious all the time if you have to work?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:50:28]

Giriraj Swami: Well, you are working to earn money and you need the money to support your Krishna conscious lifestyle, so ultimately your work is for Krishna consciousness and the more you are conscious of it the happier you will be. But it is certainly in the back of your mind while you are working that you are earning money or doing a job, you are earning money so you can support your Krishna conscious lifestyle, but if you are more conscious of that then you will be happier at work.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja. Thank you very much. I have a question regarding how reading I am reading your book about the Juhu temple and one of the things that I always find challenging is, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says, be humble like blade of grass, as you mentioned earlier, but Prabhupada actually faced a lot of difficulties and you also faced a lot of difficulties during the building of the Juhu temple. And Prabhupada also said you have to be smart.

Giriraj Swami: Prabhupada, also said what?

Devotee: You have to be smart, you have to be a good businessman. How do you reconcile these two seemingly different attitudes?

Giriraj Swami: Well, being humble and being smart are not opposed to each other. I think of one incident after the semi-permanent temple was destroyed. So we had to stay up all night and rebuild it, and Satsvarupa Maharaja, who was my first temple president in Boston, had just passed through Bombay and he struck me as being very humble and I liked that demeanor of his. So somehow when Tamal Krishna Goswami told me to stay up all night and make sure the work got done, I mentioned Satsvarupa Maharaja and how humble he was, and Tamal Krishna Goswami with his controlled intensity he said, “Your humility will be to stay up all night and make sure that this temple gets rebuilt.” And I thought about it and yes, where is the humility if I am not ready to do the needful for Srila Prabhupada’s service, Radharasa Bihari’s service.

Srila Prabhupada quote, I think a Chanakya [Unintelligible 00:54:56] maxim that if someone is very upright and straightforward with you, you should be most upright and straightforward with them. But if someone is very cunning with you, you should be even more cunning with them. Srila Prabhupada had to deal with some very cunning people. And another thing Srila Prabhupada said is that after people deal with us, they should tell their friends, “Those Hare Krishna people may look like fools but actually they are very smart, don’t mess with them.”