BG 3.10

Giriraj Swami: I will begin by singing the maṅgalācaraṇa prayers and leading a short kirtan. And then I will speak from Bhagavad-gītā. And then I will read an excerpt from my book, I’ll Build You a Temple, The Juhu Story, about our dear Mahaprabhu dasa.

[Prayers and kirtan.]

Hare Krishna my dear devotees. We will read one verse 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.”

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

Srila Prabhupada said, we will not say that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead in one purport, we will say that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead in every purport, and he is true to his word.

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, this verse is very significant, kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ. So, varṇaṁ has two meanings; one is to describe and the other is category, the varnashrama. So, kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ is in the same category as Krishna, and He is Krishna. And kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ means that he is always describing Krishna, glorifying Krishna; tviṣākṛṣṇaṁ but his complexion is not dark like Krishna’s; sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam, he is accompanied by his associates; yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ—and those who are very intelligent, they worship the Lord by performance of saṅkīrtana-yajña. If anyone accused you of being unintelligent, you can say, no, according to shastra, I am highly intelligent because I perform saṅkīrtana-yajña. And in the Bhagavad-gītā, the opposite word, alpha-medhasaḥ, less intelligence is also mentioned to describe those who worship the demigods. Those who worship the demigods are alpha-medhasaḥ, less intelligence, and those who worship the Supreme Lords, specifically, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, by performance of saṅkīrtana-yajña, are su-medhasaḥ, highly intelligent.

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

We will read that also.

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

So this verse describes mahatma. For a while, Srila Prabhupada stayed at Seaface Park. It was arranged by Kharikeya Mahadeviya, but Srila Prabhupada stayed in the vacant flat of Kharikeya Mahadeviya’s brother, Kumudchandra Mahadeviya. And in the evening, he would give talks to the devotees on The Nectar of Devotion. But occasionally, if someone heard that Srila Prabhupada was speaking and came to join the meeting, Srila Prabhupada would change the level of discourse from The Nectar of Devotion to the Bhagavad-gītā. So one evening a big Hindu, named B. M. Kamadar, joined and he asked Srila Prabhupada that, “India is a land of mahatmas, yet still India has so many problems. How is that?” The implication being that in the presence of so many mahatmas, India should not have so many problems. And Srila Prabhupada replied, “The reason India has so many problems is because you cannot distinguish who is a mahatma and who is not a mahatma.” And then he went on to explain what are the symptoms of a mahatma, as described here in these two verses, previous verse also.

Bg. 9.13

mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha
daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ
bhajanty ananya-manaso
jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam

TRANSLATION

O son of Pṛthā, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible.

COMMENT

That is mahatma, and it continues,

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

So this is saṅkīrtana-yajña, which is recommended in Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and especially for the present age of Kali-yuga.

So before I go on to reading about Mahaprabhu dasa, I will give you a chance if you want to ask any questions or make any comments, share any reflections. So this is describing the grand opening of the Juhu Temple.

READING from I’ll Build You a Temple—The Juhu Story

One of the first-time visitors, a lawyer, R. K. Maheshwari (later initiated as Mahaprabhu dasa), later remembered hearing about the opening day: “I was playing cards at Khar Gymkhana, a well-known club in this area, and all of a sudden I saw a newspaper with a full-page advertisement about the Hare Krishna temple opening that day. So I thought, How much money do these people have? A full-page advertisement in The Times of India! Being a Marwari, I always thought of everything in terms of money.

“Then I decided, ‘Let me see what this place is,” and I immediately drove to the Juhu temple. At the gate they asked me, ‘Have you got a pass or invitation card? Vaijayanti Mala is giving a dance performance, and the hall is booked, and Raj Narain, union minister, and Patwari, governor, are coming for the inauguration, so there is a big crowd and only important people are invited today.’

“ ‘Is this a temple or what?’ I asked. ‘Well, today is inauguration day,’ the devotee replied. So, I approached another devotee, an Indian—Rama Tulasi. He was telling a group of visitors that, like fish out of water, in the material world nobody is happy. You are searching happiness in the wrong atmosphere. The Gītā has confirmed that this material world is duḥkhālayam, a place of misery.

“The visitors were asking about the temple, why these foreigners were so much interested in Indian culture. ‘We are having some doubt,’ one said, ‘because when the British came to India. . . Now most of the people here are American. They are coming in the guise of religion and teaching us our sanātana-dharma. We cannot understand all this. We know Krishna very well.’

“But Rama Tulasi was speaking philosophy. ‘If you want to be happy,’ he told them, ‘connect yourself with Lord Krishna by chanting the holy name of the Lord. That is the connection. And if you chant the holy name of the Lord, wherever you may be, whatever situation, you will be blissful. I am not talking happiness—you may be happy; you may not be happy—but blissful is something different. I cannot explain to you what is spiritual bliss. You have to experience it.’ So, yes, that much I understood.

“I wanted to know more; I wanted to go inside. So I found some stairs, and I got to the second floor and saw the program. I spent the whole day in the temple, and the next day too, and I came regularly thereafter. I could see that these people were genuine, and I made up my mind that I wanted to get involved in their institution and become a life member. My membership card was signed by the temple president: ‘Giriraj dasa Brahmachari.’ I was keen to get his association, and once I met him, that changed the lifestyle of this practicing lawyer of the Bombay High Court.

“For me, that was a total change. I had been so much involved in material things that when my wife would go to a temple, I would sit in the car. I was never interested to go to any temple because my impression of temples was that they were all cheats, fooling people and making money and not following any rules or regulations or properly guiding people—just making a business. But all that changed with my first visit to Hare Krishna Land, on the day of the grand opening.”

Sri Radha-Rasabihari ki jaya!

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Mahaprabhu dasa ki jaya!

What is next? Yes, question.

Devotee: As you mentioned, Srila Prabhupada said that the problem is because we are not able to distinguish between who is a mahatma and who is not. Can you elaborate on that?

Giriraj Swami: Yes. In that conversation, Srila Prabhupada spoke about Mahatma Gandhi because he was called Mahatma, but he didn’t really fit the definition of a mahatma, as given in the Bhagavad-gītā. And by following him, of course, he had his mission to drive the British out of India, but spiritually, he didn’t have that much to offer. And a real mahatma is Srila Prabhupada, could really offer people what they needed to be happy and to solve all their problems, solve all the problems in India. So yes, to the extent that people in India do follow Srila Prabhupada, to that extent they will be happy and satisfied and all their problems will be solved.

[Unintelligible 00:47:34] Maharaja, would you like to say anything?

Host: Before someone else makes a comment or ask a question, I would like to thank all of you in particular for coming over because the Friday program team consists of Sahadeva Prabhu, Vishwarupa Prabhu, Radha Damodara Prabhu, and Prabhu because we have been trying to carry on this program. This is more a varishta program and a nourishing program for devotees who have been practicing for twenty to twenty-five-years rather than a program which cultivates brand new people. So this year happens to be the forty-five years, this started in November of 1979. So we had this desire that we would invite you because you actually were the creator of the program. And after my father’s departure, I was talking to His Holiness Radhanath Maharaja and I was telling him that Giriraj Maharaja was the creator of the program and Radhanath Maharaja actually was the maintainer of the program because this program went through many ups and downs and my father actually two or three times went to Radhanath Maharaja and said that it is not sustainable and he has a desire that maybe we should shut the program.” And Maharaja said that, “No, this program should never shut down.” Actually, Maharaja then gave him a pointed instruction and said, “Until you are alive, ensure that this program never shuts.”

So it is because of both of you that this somehow, now of course because of Sahadev Prabhu and others, that somehow this program is going on. Sri Sri Radha-Vrindavan are here and it is always our desire that more and more devotees come here. The deities will feel that, why should we be here if nobody comes here to meet us here. So, maybe you can share some of your memories because when Mahaprabhu Prabhu was there and I was age one at that time and you and Sridhra Maharaja started this thing. What I remember is when Sridhra Maharaja came here during the court case, Sridhra Maharaja and few other devotees would actually sleep here in the night because the police was after them. So they would spend couple of days here, they used to rest here. So this was a car garage and when the shutter opened, Sridhra Maharaja saw the big TT table, table tennis table, lying there. And he said, “What is this table doing here? Remove this table and let’s do a preaching program here.” And that is how it started. And then the table went to Radha-Rasabihari temple. And until recently it was lying there in the lobby as the security table. So, that was one memory that my mother shared. And that is how Sridhra Maharaja started.

But on 14th of November 1979, it was Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance day as per English calendar. You came here and started this program. Of course, I also have a secret to share that while we were arranging this program, I happened to meet His Holiness Radhanath Maharaja at the drama festival and I informed him about this program. And he was looking at me and he was a little tense. So I realized it was a stressful look so I said, “Maharaja, I know you are going under a treatment, Ayurvedic treatment, and you are not in Mumbai, so in November when you are here maybe we will do a better program which will be closer to the Andheri.” And then he was very happy and he gave us all the blessings.

So, this is the background and Maharaja, if you don’t mind, please share some of your memories because everybody who is here, even many of your disciples, they got introduced to Krishna consciousness through various means but this center was a nourishing center; Friday program was a nourishing program for them for a couple of years. Thank you.

Giriraj Swami: That is true. Hemamalini, would you like to speak about your experience here? Give her the microphone.

[Devotees speaks their experiences about Friday program]

Devotee: Please share some memories of 1978, 1979, 1980.

Giriraj Swami: Memories and connection with what?

Devotee: With your preaching here because you used to come here a couple of times a week in the Friday program or anything else that you want to share?

Giriraj Swami: I would always look forward to coming here and preaching. We did get new people. It was always exciting to preach to them and see them, begin to take interest and then get more and more involved. And yes, this center here has been of so much service to so many people. Forty-five years and still going strong. So yes, it is like a holy place. I am blessed by so many saintly persons and so many wonderful programs. Once I also came here because they were rumors that the enemies that were waiting for me outside the Juhu temple. So I spent almost the whole night here, then maybe around 2:00 in the morning I figured, it would be safe to go back now. But Mahaprabhu, of course, he helped us with so many legal matters. And he would bring new people to the temple, but he said, some were afraid to come because they said that it is a one-way street, and once you start going down this path, you can’t turn back. A few of them were afraid to come, but yes, he did so much service as a lawyer and a preacher.

Mahaprabhu dasa Prabhu ki jaya!

Khar satsaṅga saṅkīrtana ki jaya!

Gaura-bhakta-vṛnda ki jaya!

Devotee: His Holiness Sri Giriraj Swami Maharaja ki jaya!

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Host: Thank you everybody for coming over. I am really grateful that all of you could make it because so many people are traveling. I ended up inviting a hundred and ten people and sixty-five confirmed because all the others were actually either they are traveling or have some other meetings. So I am really grateful. And we hope and pray that all of you keep coming here again and again and keep us in your service. Thank you very much.

So, all the devotees who haven’t had prasāda, please come for prasāda. This was also very interesting because just two days back we realized that some devotees out of ten million seemed to come for prasāda only. So we arranged it that way. And now I remember that the original Friday program that started was actually prasāda first. Everybody would come at 7:00 o’clock and have prasāda and then the program would start something like 8:30 or even 9:00 o’clock. And then in the mid-80s, late 80s, it got changed. So this generally happens for the convenience of the devotees and it is matching with the initial conceptualization of the program. So thank you very much.

Hare Krishna.