BG 3.10

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

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

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.”

COMMENT

So, who wants to live happily? Everyone. And who wants to achieve liberation? So, this is the way.

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. 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.

COMMENT

This reminds me that Srila Prabhupada said that we will not say that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead in one purport; we will say Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead in every purport. And here we have it.

PURPORT (continued)

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. 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. 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 sumedhasaḥ means highly intelligent, as opposed to sumedhasaḥ, which is alpa-medhasaḥ means less intelligent. And in the Bhagavad-gītā, those who worship the demigods are described as alpa-medhasaḥ, but those who perform saṅkīrtana-yajña are described as sumedhasaḥ, highly intelligent. So if anyone accuses you of being unintelligent or less intelligent, you can say, “No, it is right here in the shastra that I am sumedhasaḥ, I am highly intelligent because I am performing saṅkīrtana-yajña.”

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 just read that:

Bg 9.14

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

The previous verse mentioned mahatma, and in this verse, the mahatmas are described as, satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ, always chanting the glories of Krishna. And Lord Krishna gives the same instruction in His Śikṣāṣṭakam, kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ, that one should always chant the holy names of the Lord. But how to always chant the holy names of the Lord?

tṛṇād api su-nīcena
 taror iva sahiṣṇunā
 amāninā māna-dena
 kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ

“One who is more humble than the grass, more tolerant than the tree, ready to offer all respects to others, and not demanding any respect for oneself, can easily always chant the holy names.”

So that should be our endeavor: that whenever we get time, we should chant. In one talk in Los Angeles, Srila Prabhupada said, “If you have time, chant Hare Krishna. Don’t speak nonsense, don’t waste time, chant Hare Krishna.” And so, as many of you know, we have two methods of chanting: japa, we chant on our beads quietly, mainly for our own selves to hear; and then kirtan, which we perform with other devotees, usually accompanied by musical instruments. And that chanting, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam, the chanting cleanses the dust from the mirror of the mind. Just like if you have a mirror and it is covered with dust, you cannot see your reflection very well. But if you cleanse the dust from the mirror, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam, then you can see who you are. And so, by chanting the holy names of the Lord, saṅkīrtana, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam, we cleanse the dust from the mirror of the mind, and we can see who we are. We are not the body, but we are the spirit soul. And what is the function of the spirit soul? Lord Chaitanya explains, jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya — kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa,’ that the svarūpa,’ constitutional position of the jiva, of the living entity is, kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa,’ he is the eternal servant of Krishna.

So we can realize our spiritual identities as eternal servants of Krishna by chanting the holy names and also by hearing from the Vedic literatures. Srila Rupa Gosvami, in his Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, enumerates sixty-four items of devotional service, and he says that of these sixty-four items, five are most potent. And by even a little association with any one of the five, one can awaken dormant love for Krishna. So what are the five? So, sādhu-saṅga, associating with advanced devotees; nāma-kīrtana, chanting the holy names; bhāgavata-śravaṇa, hearing Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, mathurā-vāsa, residing in a holy place such as Mathura, Vrindavan, Mayapur, or even a temple where the deity of Vishnu or Krishna is worshiped; and mūrtira śraddhāya sevana, worshiping the deity with faith and veneration. So by even a slight association with any one of these five items, one can awaken dormant love for Krishna.

So, what is the actual definition of sādhu-saṅga? Rupa Gosvami says, Sajātīyāśaye snigdhe sādhau saṅga svato vare. So, sajātīyā, in a literal sense means belonging to the same caste or community, and in our case, it would mean followers of Srila Prabhupada. snigdhe means affectionate. So the sadhu should be affectionate to you. And svato vare, he should be more advanced than you are. That is sādha-saṅga. And so, these five items are most potent. Once I was in Mauritius with His Holiness Gaura Govinda Swami Maharaja, and we had a program together at the ISKCON Vedic Farm in Bonai. Somehow, after the program, I was mentioning to him about these five most potent forms of devotional service. And when I mentioned mathurā-vāsa, he looked me in the eyes and said, “Kamsa also resided in Mathura.” [Laughter] So, it is potent, residing in Mathura, Vrindavan in the right consciousness and in the right mood.

My dear devotees, we do have some time, and if any of you have any questions or comments, any reflections you would like to share, you can raise your hands. Yes.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja. Thank you so much, and thank you for being here. Maharaja, it is really an honor to be in your association. Maharaja, you talked about that the way of going about and chanting the holy name constantly is through the mood of humility, and you quoted the verse from Śikṣāṣṭakam, tṛṇād api su-nīcena. So, it seems that what Mahaprabhu is talking about is that mood will only come about when we reach that stage of humility. But during the course of our practice of the sādhana-bhakti, could you give us some practical steps on how do we start to develop or invite that quality of humility? Or is it something we would only experience once we have kind of got there, or is it something an ongoing process that every day we can try to work on it Maharaja?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, it is an ongoing process. Srila Prabhupada said, practice makes perfect, even in spiritual life. So we practice being humble, we practice being tolerant, we practice offering respects to others, and not demanding or expecting respect for ourselves. Srila Prabhupada taught us to address one another as “prabhu.” Prabhu means master, and so if the other person is the prabhu, the master, that means we are the servant, and that is our actual identity. Gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ, Lord Chaitanya described himself as the servant of the servant of the servants of Krishna, the maintainer of the gopīs. So we should have that mood that the others are our prabhus, and we are their servants. As Srila Prabhupada said, we shouldn’t say, “Oh, prabhu, can you bring me my slippers?” That is not the meaning of prabhu. [Laughter] Prabhu means, “No, you are the master; I am the servant.” So we can practice this now, and as we go along, practice makes perfect.

Once, I was with His Holiness Radhanath Swami Maharaja in his room at Chowpatty, and someone asked him how he became so humble. And he replied that he practiced, that it didn’t come naturally at first, but he practiced, and then it became natural. So yes, practice makes perfect. Yes.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja. Just continuing on that theme. You were talking about how to treat others with respect, and I was just wondering if you could talk a little bit more about this point of tolerance. Sometimes we might be in situations where we may see something inappropriate or wrong, and especially it may seem as though we expect better from those who are senior to us, and I think it is not right for us to say anything to them to correct them. But how do we tolerate it when we see that this isn’t correct, what they are doing, especially if it is chastisement towards us, or they are asking us to do something, or somehow, it is impacting us? How do we tolerate it?

Giriraj Swami: So, you are saying that some superior will give you an instruction?

Devotee: No quite instruction, or they might be saying something to us, or they may be, for lack of that word, argue with us, or making a point we disagree with them, but at the same time because they are senior to us.

Giriraj Swami: Oh, you don’t agree with them, okay. Well, Srila Prabhupada answered that question, and he gave the example that someone is driving the car, and you are a passenger in the car, and the driver has an idea of the best way to reach the destination, but you have another idea of what the best way is to reach the destination. So you can present your idea to the driver, but ultimately, because the driver is in the driver’s seat, the driver is the authority. So the driver will go the way he thinks is the best way, but you can still harbor within yourself the conviction that your idea was better than the driver’s idea. Srila Prabhupada said that is not wrong; you can still harbor the conviction that your way was better, but because you weren’t in the driver’s seat, you didn’t get to make the decision. Yes.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja, have you got any advice for somebody who doesn’t live among devotees and who has to practice Krishna consciousness on their own; who doesn’t get to say Krishna’s name out loud because they have no one to say it to?

Giriraj Swami: So, I assume you are speaking about yourself, and so you are not staying with devotees. Are you staying alone, or are you staying with non-devotees?

Devotee: Non-devotees. Where I live, nobody is a devotee, not family, not friends, nobody.

Giriraj Swami: Okay, well, yes, the holy name; one devotee prayed, “My dear Lord, you are so kind that as your holy name, you are my constant companion.” So yes, you should. . . But you came here.

Devotee: So, I live about two hours away, but I come here for a week.

Giriraj Swami: Only? Well, that is good, that is good. Yes, well, can you influence any person around you to become a chanter?

Devotee: I am trying. I just, yes, I take an extra lunch when I go to work, and it is. . .

Giriraj Swami: Yes, good, yes. Srila Prabhupada said prasādam is our secret weapon, so that is good. So, you will influence people to chant and give you good association, or support you in your spiritual practices. What time do you get up in the morning?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:29:15]

Giriraj Swami: Oh, we will take your word, you get up for that, okay, that is pretty good. So yes, chanting early in the morning during brāhma-muhūrta, that is the most effective time. And do you have a tulasi plant?

Devotee: No, I don’t have. [Unintelligible 00:29:35]

Giriraj Swami: Okay, you can chant in your temple. It is good to chant in front of Tulasi. Haridasa Thakura chanted in front of Tulasi, he is the nāmācārya. So try to have a tulasi; that will help your chanting also. Hare Krishna,

Devotee: Hare Krishna. It seems quite a painful, lengthy process to reach that destination, having go through the process to become humble and reach the destination we are striving for. And on the other hand, [Unintelligible 00:30:40] Prabhupada said, “Well, it can take a minute to get there.” Can we not cheated and strive for the minute because it is a lot easier so much? I am just saying the process is not only lengthy, it is quite a struggle. It is like going through a lot of rituals and making sure you reach all of them, or cover all of them.

Giriraj Swami: Well, as I mentioned, Rupa Gosvami lists sixty-four items of devotional service, but he says five are most potent. And by even a little association with any one of them, one can awaken dormant love for Krishna. And those five are quite pleasing activities. As Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gītā, they are joyfully performed. So, you should be happy along the way. Many times, Srila Prabhupada said a devotee should be jolly. So yes, just chant and be happy. And when the time comes, when you are ready, Krishna will call you. But you should enjoy your practice along the way.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja. Thank you so much for your class. I was wondering if you could share your memory with Srila Prabhupada that really stayed in your heart, very deeply in your heart.

Giriraj Swami: Probably, my first meeting with him. I was a student at Brandeis University near Boston, and Srila Prabhupada came and gave a talk there. And I will have to summarize it because time is short, but the next night I went to the temple to meet him, and I asked him a question that was burning in my heart, that, “There are so many swamis and gurus and each recommend different methods, and each says his is the best. So how do I know which is best?” And Srila Prabhupada’s answer was brilliant. He answered with another question, “What is your goal? Do you want to serve God, or do you want to become God?” Because I was asking, “What is the best means?” But then, the best means to what end? He said, “If you want to become God, that means you are not God now. And how can ‘not God’ become God?” He said, “Krishna is always God. He is God when He is playing on the lap of Mother Yasoda. He is God when He is speaking the Bhagavad-gītā to Arjuna. He is always God. He doesn’t have to become God by yoga or meditation.” So, he said, “If you sow the seed of service to God and water it with chanting, God will provide the sunlight and all the favorable conditions to make it grow. But if you want to become God, you are only cheating yourself. Because why should God help the competition?”

So, at that time, I felt that Srila Prabhupada was seeing straight through me, into my apartment, into my bathroom where I had inscribed in my own hand, in very ornate colorful lettering, “You are God,” to remind me in case I forgot. So Srila Prabhupada said, “So, what do you think? You want to serve God, or you want to become God?” So I said, “I want to serve God,” but I knew I couldn’t cheat Srila Prabhupada. So I said, “I want to serve God,” but actually, I wanted to become God. And Srila Prabhupada said, “Yes.” So then I knew I had met my perfect spiritual master, and I bowed my head on the floor in obeisance, and I kept it down for a long time, mainly in surrender, but I was also afraid to come up because I thought everyone would be glaring at me, “Oh, he wanted to become God, he wanted to become God.” So I stayed down for quite a while, but then I heard sounds that indicated that food was being served. So I thought, well, now was probably a good time. So I came up, and everyone was smiling and happy. No one was staring at me or glaring at me. And so I got this plate of prasāda, and the first item I tried was a cauliflower pakora. And it was such an explosion of taste in my mouth. Every item, I had never tasted any food like it.

So yes, I was convinced everything about Krishna consciousness was perfect: the guru, the philosophy, the chanting, the food. Yes, everything was perfect. And from then on, my whole goal in life was just to bring people to Srila Prabhupada, which is still my goal.

Devotee: I just want to quote from Mother Narayani, actually. And she told me, when I first came here, I was preparing the breakfast prasādam, getting everything ready—plates there, cups, and everything. And then the service, we started to serve, and she then said after, “Peter Prabhu, you are doing very nicely. This preparation is all in the mode of goodness.” But then she said, “But you must learn to serve with love and kindness.”

Giriraj Swami: Nice, wonderful, beautiful. Yes, yes. His Holiness Tamal Krishna Goswami said that Krishna was going to call Mother Kolanga to Goloka Vrindavan just so she could make sweets for Him.

So now we have a couple of announcements. Thank you very much for listening so patiently and attentively. Hare Krishna.