SB 2.3.23 – Giriraj Swami at Sri Sri Gaura Nitai Mandir

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna my dear devotees. I will begin by singing the maṅgala-ācaraṇa prayers and lead a short kirtan and then I will speak on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

[Prayers and kirtan]

We will read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Two, Chapter Three, “Pure Devotional Service,” Text Twenty-three.

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya,

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya,

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

TEXT 23

jīvañ chavo bhāgavatāṅghri-reṇuṁ
na jātu martyo ‘bhilabheta yas tu
śrī-viṣṇu-padyā manujas tulasyāḥ
śvasañ chavo yas tu na veda gandham

TRANSLATION

The person who has not at any time received the dust of the feet of the Lord’s pure devotee upon his head is certainly a dead body. And the person who has never experienced the aroma of the tulasī leaves from the lotus feet of the Lord is also a dead body, although breathing.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

According to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, the breathing dead body is a ghost. When a man dies, he is called dead, but when he again appears in a subtle form not visible to our present vision and yet acts, such a dead body is called a ghost. Ghosts are always very bad elements, always creating a fearful situation for others.

COMMENT

So, if a person commits suicide, he generally gets the body of a ghost, because in effect, by committing suicide, he is saying that he doesn’t want to have a gross body, he doesn’t have physical body. But why would a person commit suicide? Generally, because the person has strong material desires, which are frustrating. And being disappointed in the frustration of his material desires, he commits suicide. So ghosts have gross material desires, but they don’t have a gross physical body to fulfill their desires. And thus, they often try to possess the body of another person to fulfill their desires for the other person’s body.

There was once a movie called Ghost. And His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja opined that the persons who wrote the script for the movie must have read Srila Prabhupada’s books because they had quite a clear idea of ghost. There is one scene in the movie where the ghost is at a vending machine and he wants to get some cigarettes. But he doesn’t have any money and he in a ghost body, so he is begging on the vending machine trying to get some cigarettes so that he can smoke. So yes, one can become a ghost by committing suicide, as usual. Another way is if one is very attached to one’s mansion or palace or castle, and one dies thinking of one’s castle, one can’t take birth as a castle, but one can take birth as a ghost in the castle. And therefore, many castles or palaces or mansions are haunted by the ghost. And generally, those buildings are sold at a much lower rate because people don’t want to buy a haunted house. And Srila Prabhupada said that we can buy these buildings at a lower rate. And then we can perform hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana and the ghosts will go away. And we get a good building for the temple at a lesser rate.

PURPORT (continued)

Similarly, the ghostlike nondevotees who have no respect for the pure devotees, nor for the Viṣṇu Deity in the temples, create a fearful situation for the devotees at all times. The Lord never accepts any offering by such impure ghosts. There is a common saying that one should first love the dog of the beloved before one shows any loving sentiments for the beloved.

COMMENT

“Love me, love my dog”

PURPORT (continued)

The stage of pure devotion is attained by sincerely serving a pure devotee of the Lord. The first condition of devotional service to the Lord is therefore to be a servant of a pure devotee, and this condition is fulfilled by the statement “reception of the dust of the lotus feet of a pure devotee who has also served another pure devotee.” That is the way of pure disciplic succession, or devotional paramparā.

COMMENT

So yes, one must serve the lotus feet of a pure devotee, who has in turn served the lotus feet of a pure devotee or his spiritual master, who in turn has served the lotus feet of another pure devotee, his spiritual master. And in this way, the service goes back to Krishna. And Srila Prabhupada says that this is the system of paramparā.

PURPORT (continued)

Mahārāja Rahūgaṇa inquired from the great saint Jaḍa Bharata as to how he had attained such a liberated stage of a paramahaṁsa, and in answer the great saint replied as follows (Bhāg. 5.12.12):

rahūgaṇaitat tapasā na yāti
na cejyayā nirvapaṇād gṛhād vā
na cchandasā naiva jalāgni-sūryair
vinā mahat-pāda-rajo-’bhiṣekam

“O King Rahūgaṇa, the perfectional stage of devotional service, or the paramahaṁsa stage of life, cannot be attained unless one is blessed by the dust of the feet of great devotees. It is never attained by tapasya [austerity], the Vedic worshiping process, acceptance of the renounced order of life, the discharge of the duties of household life, the chanting of the Vedic hymns, or the performance of penances in the hot sun, within cold water or before the blazing fire.”

COMMENT

So, this phrase, mahat-pāda-rajo-’bhiṣekam. mahat means great soul, great devotee. pāda-rajo means the dust of the lotus feet, and abhiṣekam means to bathe oneself in the dust of the lotus feet, the pure devotee. That is how one can attain the perfectional stage of devotional service.

PURPORT (continued)

In other words, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the property of His pure, unconditional devotees, and as such only the devotees can deliver Kṛṣṇa to another devotee; Kṛṣṇa is never obtainable directly. Lord Caitanya therefore designated Himself as gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ, or “the most obedient servant of the servants of the Lord, who maintains the gopī damsels at Vṛndāvana.”

COMMENT

Yes, Lord Chaitanya said, “I am not a brahmachari, I am not a grihastha, I am not a vanaprastha, I am not a sannyasi, I am not a brahman, I am not a kshatriya, I am not a vaishya, I am not a sudra. And what are you? I am gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ, or “the most obedient servant of the servants of the Lord, who maintains the gopī damsels at Vṛndāvana.”

A little after Srila Prabhupada left this world, I asked his disciple Pradyumna dasa, who was knowledgeable in Sanskrit, Srila Prabhupada affectionately call him Panditji. So I asked him that everything that exists in the material world, exists originally in the spiritual world in its pure form. So what is pride in the spiritual world? And Pradyumna Prabhu replied that in the spiritual world, the devotee is proud of being āsa-dāsānudāsaḥ, the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant, the last one in the line, which means that he has the most masters to serve. So generally, in the material world, people don’t want to be servants, they want to be masters. Of course, they can never really be master, Krishna is the master. But that is the material disease that one wants to be master. But when one is cured from the disease, one comes to his rightful position of being a servant. Lord Chaitanya has stated, jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya — kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa’, the constitutional position of the living entity is, he is the eternal servant of Krishna. But as we are learning here, he is not directly the servant of Krishna but gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ, servant of the servant of the servant of Krishna.

PURPORT (continued)

A pure devotee therefore never approaches the Lord directly, but tries to please the servant of the Lord’s servants, and thus the Lord becomes pleased, and only then can the devotee relish the taste of the tulasī leaves stuck to His lotus feet. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is said that the Lord is never to be found by becoming a great scholar of the Vedic literatures, but He is very easily approachable through His pure devotee.

COMMENT

Vedeṣu durlabha adurlabha ātma-bhaktau

PURPORT (continued)

In Vṛndāvana all the pure devotees pray for the mercy of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, the pleasure potency of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is a tenderhearted feminine counterpart of the supreme whole, resembling the perfectional stage of the worldly feminine nature.

COMMENT

The Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu or The Nectar of Devotion, gives sixty-four qualities of Krishna. And one of them is compassion, being compassionate. There, Srila Prabhupada writes that Krishna’s compassionate nature is represented by Srimati Radharani, and therefore devotees can take advantage of Krishna’s compassionate nature.

PURPORT (continued)

Therefore, the mercy of Rādhārāṇī is available very readily to the sincere devotees, and once She recommends such a devotee to Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Lord at once accepts the devotee’s admittance into His association.

COMMENT

Yes, they say in Varshana, whatever Radha does, Krishna likes. And whatever Radha likes, Krishna does. So, when Radharani recommends a devotee, Krishna accepts.

PURPORT (continued)

The conclusion is, therefore, that one should be more serious about seeking the mercy of the devotee than that of the Lord directly, and by one’s doing so (by the good will of the devotee) the natural attraction for the service of the Lord will be revived.

COMMENT

I will read that again as it is conclusion of the purport. “One should be more serious about seeking the mercy of the devotee than that of the Lord directly. And by one’s doing so, by the goodwill of the devotee, a natural attraction for the service of the Lord.”

So, my dear devotees, thank you for listening so patiently and attentively. Now, any of you have any questions or comments, any reflections, you can raise your hand.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja. Thank you very much. I remember His Holiness Radhanath Swami Maharaja story what he said, I wrote a letter to my mother. Maharaja was in India and he was staying in a cave somewhere. So he wrote the letter and at the end he wrote. . . your most fallen servant, to his mother. And when the mother was reading that, she was upset. What? This is what I made you? Spend so much money for your education to make you the most fallen servant? And yes, that was one time. Another time one devotee was telling Prabhupada that, “I am the most following servant.” And Prabhupada, he was not so happy because he was not even qualified to say that, “I am the most fallen servant.” And Prabhupada, he said, “You are not the most of anything.” Can we say Maharaja that I am proud to be humble?

Giriraj Swami: Well, in a way you can say that, because the pride is not in ourselves, in our own ability or our spiritual growth. Krishna and Srila Prabhupada or paramparā that they have bestowed their mercy upon us to make us humble. We can proud of to be humble then we are not humble.

Any other questions or comments? Yes.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja. Thank you very much for a nice lecture. One question was coming to my mind when you were speaking about ghosts. So often times, devotees also encounter ghost problems. They are possessed also. So we are told that we should be taking shelter of the Lord. So when devotees encounter ghost problems, should they take recourse of ghost removers, or they depend on the Lord?

Giriraj Swami: Well, it happens to devotees that they are attacked by ghost. Srila Prabhupada said, if you chant the holy names, ghost will go away. I know some devotees who remove the ghost. I personally would just prefer to take shelter of the holy name. I will not condemn or criticize someone who went for removing the ghost. Like seriously and repeatedly troubled by ghost, I wouldn’t do that to myself.

Devotee: Thank you. The spiritual master Jada Bharat, he said that unless we get the dust smelt in our body, mahat-pāda-rajo-’bhiṣekam. Jada Bharat, who is his spiritual master?

Giriraj Swami: Oh! I don’t think it is mentioned.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 01:11:00]

Giriraj Swami: Yes. Prahlada Maharaja has similar prayer. His father asked him how he had become such a great devotee, and he replied, [Unintelligible 01:11:50]. And in effect, he was telling his father that, you don’t have to worry about becoming a pure devotee because you are a so much puffed up. You will never bow down to the lotus feet of a pure devotee and give up that eventuality.

naiṣāṁ matis tāvad urukramāṅghriṁ
spṛśaty anarthāpagamo yad arthaḥ
mahīyasāṁ pāda-rajo-’bhiṣekaṁ
niṣkiñcanānāṁ na vṛṇīta yāvat

This is the secret of success. And to receive the dust of the lotus feet of a pure devotee in a way, I would say in the primary sense, it means to follow the instructions of the pure devotee. In the process of devotion service outlined by Srila Rupa Gosvami in the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, the first item is ādau guru-pāda-āśraya, take the shelter of lotus feet of guru. śikṣyeti, we should take instruction from him. dīkṣyeti, you take the initiation. And it is a sad-dharma-pṛcchā, to inquire him. And inquire is very much a part of one’s relationship with one’s spiritual master. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā 4.34, tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā, enquiring with faith. [Unintelligible 01:14:40] advertising themselves and calling for the same to come.

Any other question or comments? Yes.

Devotee: Hare Krishna guru Maharaja. We often hear that Lord Shiva is always surrounded by ghosts. Can you please enlighten us on this significance, guru Maharaja?

Giriraj Swami: He is call Bhutanath, the master of ghosts. He is very compassionate and give his mercy to one and all.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

We will request all devotees to thank His Holiness Giriraj Maharaja by chanting three times Haribol.

His Holiness Giriraj Maharaja ki jaya!

Haribol! Haribol! Haribol!

Hare Krishna. So we are very thankful to Giriraj Swami Maharaja for mercifully blessing us at Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai Mandir and also we are very thankful to all the Vaishnavas present here, especially we have His Holiness Bhakti Brihad-Bhagavat Maharaja.

Haribol! Haribol! Haribol!

Also, His Holiness Sundar Chaitanya Maharaja. And also we have many senior Vaishnavas here present. And many leaders of ISKCON, saṅkīrtana leaders and all the Vaishnavas, Vaishnavis. So we are very thankful to you all. We have this very beautiful book, The Dancing White Elephant. It is a new book of His Holiness Giriraj Swami Maharaja. And devotees who have not yet gotten this book, please take this book. We have very limited copies because since Maharaja is here, we have been distributing this book. So, first come first serve and those who are taking this book, His Holiness Giriraj Maharaja will sign personally in this book. So, this will be very memorable, if it was a year 2024. Okay. So Dancing White Elephant is here, the table. It is a book. So Dancing White Elephant is here, the table.

So, I thank everybody. Yes, and the price also is very reasonable price for Mauritius is only five hundred rupees. So five hundred rupees is not so much because when people go to drive, five hundred rupees with petrol, finish. Two hours travelling finished, but this knowledge, this realization which Maharaja has, while travelling to Srila Prabhupada in India, will bring us to our destination, reach our destination back home, back to Godhead.

Jaya!

Bhakti Brihad-Bhagavat Maharaja: [Unintelligible 01:21:00]

Host: So we again thank all devotees who have come here and we have prasādam for all devotees, those who have taken before program and those who want to take after program also, full of prasādam, so please take prasādam. Thank you.