SB 7.5.12

Giriraj Swami: We shall read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Canto Seven, Chapter five — “Prahlada Maharaja, the Saintly Son of Hiraṇyakaśipu.”

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

TEXT 12

sa yadānuvrataḥ puṁsāṁ
paśu-buddhir vibhidyate
anya eṣa tathānyo ‘ham
iti bheda-gatāsatī

TRANSLATION

When the Supreme Personality of Godhead is pleased with the living entity because of his devotional service, one becomes a paṇḍita and does not make distinctions between enemies, friends and himself. Intelligently, he then thinks, “Every one of us is an eternal servant of God, and therefore we are not different from one another.”

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

When Prahlāda Mahārāja’s teachers and demoniac father asked him how his intelligence had been polluted, Prahlāda Mahārāja said, “As far as I am concerned, my intelligence has not been polluted. Rather, by the grace of my spiritual master and by the grace of my Lord, Kṛṣṇa, I have now learned that no one is my enemy and no one is my friend. We are all actually eternal servants of Kṛṣṇa, but under the influence of the external energy we think that we are separately situated from the Supreme Personality of Godhead as friends and enemies of one another. This mistaken idea has now been corrected, and therefore, unlike ordinary human beings, I no longer think that I am God and that others are my friends and enemies.

COMMENT

So we might not literally think we are god but our psychology is like that. My god-brother Bhurijana Prabhu said as if people are walking around and clear their throat and say “Excuse me I have a very important announcement to make, I am the center of the universe everyone should cooperate with my desires” and also said that most people envision their lives as movies or drama and in which they are the Hero or heroine and everyone else is supporting cast. So you can imagine you are thinking I am the hero and you are supporting the cast and you are thinking I am the hero. So definitely lot of tension and conflict, so here

PURPORT (continued)

I no longer think that I am God and that others are my friends and enemies.

COMMENT

So someone supports me in my desires he is my friend and if someone doesn’t support me he is my enemy

PURPORT (continued)

Now I am rightly thinking that everyone is an eternal servant of God and that our duty is to serve the supreme master, for then we shall stand on the platform of oneness as servants.”

Demons think of everyone as a friend or enemy, but Vaiṣṇavas say that since everyone is a servant of the Lord, everyone is on the same platform. Therefore a Vaiṣṇava treats other living entities neither as friends nor as enemies, but instead tries to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness, teaching everyone that we are all one as servants of the Supreme Lord but are uselessly wasting our valuable lives by creating nations, communities, and other groups of friends and enemies. Everyone should come to the platform of Kṛṣṇa consciousness and thus feel oneness as a servant of the Lord. Although there are 8,400,000 species of life, a Vaiṣṇava feels this oneness. The Īśopaniṣad advises, ekatvam anupaśyataḥ. A devotee should see the Supreme Personality of Godhead to be situated in everyone’s heart and should also see every living entity as an eternal servant of the Lord. This vision is called ekatvam, oneness. Although there is a relationship of master and servant, both master and servant are one because of their spiritual identity. This is also ekatvam. 

COMMENT

So Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has enunciated the beautiful philosophy of acintya-bheda-bheda tattva simultaneously oneness and difference. The Lord and the living entities are one in quality but they are different in quantity. The Lord is infinite and living entities are infinitesimal as Srila Prabhupada would say infinitesimal as he would say. So inconceivable simultaneously one and different. Because we are one in quality we have the potential to have [Unintelligible 00:29:25]. But because the Lord is infinite we are infinitesimal in the relationship. [Unintelligible 00:29:40].

PURPORT (continued)

Although there is a relationship of master and servant, both master and servant are one because of their spiritual identity. This is also ekatvam. Thus the conception of ekatvam for the Vaiṣṇava is different from that of the Māyāvādī.

Hiraṇyakaśipu asked Prahlāda Mahārāja how he had become antagonistic to his family. When a family member is killed by an enemy, all the members of the family would naturally be inimical to the murderer, but Hiraṇyakaśipu saw that Prahlāda had become friendly with the murderer.

COMMENT

So Hiraṇyakaśipu brother was Hiraṇyakṣa, Hiraṇyakṣa was killed by Lord Vishnu Varaha deva. So the family members like he was Hiraṇyakaśipu brother and consequently he was Prahlada uncle. One may think that Prahlada would become inimical to the murderer of his uncle on the contrary he was friendly to Vishnu.

PURPORT (continued)

Hiraṇyakaśipu asked Prahlāda Mahārāja how he had become antagonistic to his family. When a family member is killed by an enemy, all the members of the family would naturally be inimical to the murderer, but Hiraṇyakaśipu saw that Prahlāda had become friendly with the murderer.

Therefore he asked, “Who has created this kind of intelligence in you? Have you developed this consciousness by yourself? Since you are a small boy, someone must have induced you to think this way.” Prahlāda Mahārāja wanted to reply that an attitude favorable toward Viṣṇu can develop only when the Lord is favorable (sa yadānuvrataḥ). As stated in Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa is the friend of everyone (suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati). The Lord is never an enemy to any of the millions of living entities, but is always a friend to everyone. This is true understanding. If one thinks that the Lord is an enemy, his intelligence is paśu-buddhi, the intelligence of an animal. He falsely thinks, “I am different from my enemy, and my enemy is different from me. The enemy has done this, and therefore my duty is to kill him.” This misconception is described in this verse as bheda-gatāsatī. The actual fact is that everyone is a servant of the Lord, as confirmed in Caitanya-caritāmṛta by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu (jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya — kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa’). As servants of the Lord, we are one, and there can be no questions of enmity or friendship. If one actually understands that every one of us is a servant of the Lord, where is the question of enemy or friend?

Everyone should be friendly for the service of the Lord. Everyone should praise another’s service to the Lord and not be proud of his own service. This is the way of Vaiṣṇava thinking, Vaikuṇṭha thinking. There may be rivalries and apparent competition between servants in performing service, but in the Vaikuṇṭha planets the service of another servant is appreciated, not condemned. This is Vaikuṇṭha competition.

COMMENT

So Srila Prabhupada also encourages competition in book distribution in the temples. For example transcendental competition and mundane competition. Transcendental competition one recognize and acknowledges the good qualities of the service of another person and still want to excel it in order to give pleasure to Guru and Krishna that is transcendental competition, but in Mundane competition one may not recognize the good qualities of other person but denies it r decries it. Transcendental competition is okay but mundane competitions are not favorable.

PURPORT (continued)

There may be rivalries and apparent competition between servants in performing service, but in the Vaikuṇṭha planets the service of another servant is appreciated, not condemned. This is Vaikuṇṭha competition.

There is no question of enmity between servants. Everyone should be allowed to render service to the Lord to the best of his ability, and everyone should appreciate the service of others. Such are the activities of Vaikuṇṭha. Since everyone is a servant, everyone is on the same platform and is allowed to serve the Lord according to his ability. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (15.15), sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭo mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca: the Lord is situated in everyone’s heart, giving dictation according to the attitude of the servant. However, the Lord gives different dictation to the nondevotees and devotees. The nondevotees challenge the authority of the Supreme Lord, and therefore the Lord dictates in such a way that the nondevotees forget the Lord’s service, life after life, and are punished by the laws of nature. But when a devotee very sincerely wants to render service to the Lord, the Lord dictates in a different way. As the Lord says in Bhagavad-gītā (10.10):

teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ
bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam
dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ
yena mām upayānti te

“To those who are constantly devoted and worship Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.” Everyone is actually a servant, not an enemy or friend, and everyone is working under different directions from the Lord, who directs each living entity according to his mentality.

COMMENT

Because we are all individuals although we are servants of the Lord but we are all individuals we have our own way of serving the Lord and Lord within the heart is dictating how to serve him according to our nature and desire. And so we are one in a sense we are all servants and also we are individuals so therefore we have our own individual ways to serve the Lord. Not by concoction but by guru, sadhu, and sastra. [Unintelligible 00:43:09]. That is our instruction. And along with making an effort you should develop Vaishnava thinking. We should also purify our hearts especially through the process of chanting and hearing ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam. By chanting the holy name we cleansed from our anarthas and Srila Prabhupada says first [Unintelligible 00:44:02]. So this is the solution to all problems [Unintelligible 00:44:40]. And whenever we have time we chant Hare Krishna, as Srila Prabhupada often says [Unintelligible 00:45:18] if you got time chant Hare Krishna, don’t speak nonsense, if you got time chant Hare Krishna [Unintelligible 00:45:30].

If there is any question, comments, reflection you want to share?

Devotee 1: Thank you Maharaja for very nice kathā, one of the things mentioned in purport and also while you said was that in transcendental competition mentality we recognize the good in others service while also trying to supersede to give even more pleasure to guru and Krishna. Whereas in material consciousness we minimize the good of others in order to pull ourselves good in us. So if we find ourselves in this materialistic competition mentality towards other devotees how can we rectify that. How do we overcome that? And potentiality of committing offenses towards others.

Giriraj Swami: Oh, we should work on that as devotees. First offense is sādhu-nindā, blaspheming a devotee or criticizing a devotee. Bhaktivinoda Thakura in his hari-nāma cintāmaṇi discusses the ten offenses and in that first offense is sādhu-nindā. He says that the same tongue that you used to blaspheme the devotee should be used to glorify the devotee. So I would say if you find yourself minimizing the good qualities of other devotees, make a conscious effort to change it [Unintelligible 00:48:00].

Devotee 2: Maharaja I always have trouble in understanding that Krishna says in Bhagavad-gītā that He is equal to everyone, no one is special, He doesn’t envy anyone and yet one who is devoted to Him they are in Him and they are His. And I always think Krishna is attracted to pure devotional service and if we want to serve Him we have to know what He likes and what He doesn’t like, what He wants, so how He is equal in that sense. We know he likes tulasi leaves, when we offer Him bhoga if we don’t put tulasi leaves He doesn’t like that, so how is He neutral in that sense?

Giriraj Swami: Well he is the Supreme Father of the living entity, so He loves all His parts and parcels. [Unintelligible 00:49:40].