Spiritual Master
Book:
Canto:
Chapter:
Verse:
Location:
Date:
Srimad Bhagavatam
4
20
7
Austin, TX, USA
21 March 2023
Sankarshan Das: Today we are reading Srimad Bhagavatam, 4th Canto, Chapter 20, Text number 7.
ekah suddhah svayam-jyotir
nirguno ‘sau gunasrayah
sarva-go ‘navrtah saksi
niratmatmanah parah
ekah-one; suddha-pure; svayam-self; jyotih-effulgent; nirgunah-without material qualifications; asau-that; guna-asrayah- the reservoir of good qualities; sarva-gah- able to go everywhere; anavrtah- without being covered by matter; saksi-witness; niratma-without another self; atma-atmanah- to the body and mind; parah- transcendental.
Sankarshan Das:Translation and Purport by His Divine Grace Om Vishnu-pada paramahamsa parivrajakacharya ashtottara-shata Shri Srimad A.C. Bhaktivedanta Tridandi Goswami Maharaj, Prabhupada, my beloved Guru Maharaj.
Translation: The individual soul is one, pure, non-material and self-effulgent. He is the reservoir of all good qualities and He is all-pervading, He is without material covering, and He is the witness of all activities. He is completely distinguished from other living entities, and He is transcendental to all embodied souls.
Sankarshan Das: Let us see how Prabhupada explains all pervading. We know that the unity is in one place. Let's see what Prabhupada says in the Purport. He envisions all as all pervading. And that's an interesting statement. Let's see what Prabhupada says.
Purport: In the previous verse two significant words are used: asamsaktah, meaning “without attachment”, and budhah, meaning “fully cognizant of everything”. By full cognizance it is meant that one should know about his own constitutional position as well as the position of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. According to Sri Visvanatha Chakravarti Thakura, in this verse Lord Visnu is describing Himself, or the Paramatma. The Paramatma is always distinguished from the embodied soul as well as the material world. Therefore, He has been described as para. That para, or Supreme Personality of Godhead is eka, meaning “one”. The Lord is one, whereas the conditioned soul embodied within the material world exists in many varieties of form. There are demigods, human beings, animals, trees, birds, bees, and so forth. Thus, the living entities are not eka but many. As confirmed in the Vedas: nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam. The living entities, who are many and who are entangled in this material world are not pure. However, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is pure and detached. Due to being covered by the material body, the living entities are not self-effulgent, but the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Paramatma, is self-effulgent. The living entities, being contaminated by the modes of material nature are called saguna, whereas Paramatma, the Supreme Personality of God, is nirguna, not being under the influence of the material modes. The living entities, being encaged in material qualities, are gunasrita, whereas the Supreme Personality of Godhead is gunasraya. The conditioned soul's vision is covered by material contamination; therefore, he cannot see the cause of his actions and he cannot see his past lives. The Supreme Personality of Godhead not being covered by a material body, is the witness of all the activities of the living entity. But both of them, the living entity and the Paramatma, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, are atma, or spirit. They are one in quality, yet they are different in so many ways, especially in regard to the six opulences of the Supreme Personality of Godhead has in full. Full knowledge means that the jiva-atma, the living entity, must know both his position and the Supreme's position. That is full knowledge.
Vande ham sri-guroh sri-yuta-pada-kamalam sri-gurun vaishnavams ca sri-rupam sagrajatam saha-gana-raghunathanvitam tam sa jivam sadvaitam savadhutam parijana–sahitam krishna-caitanya-devam sri-radha-krishna-padan saha-gana-lalita-sri-visakhanvitams ca
nama om vishnu-padaya krishna-preshthaya bhu-tale
srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine
namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine
nirvisesha-sunyavadi-pascatya-desa-tarine
Sankarshan Das: So, Prabhupada didn't answer it, but I will answer it. He is all-pervading. That means in one sense that there are living entities everywhere, in the material world and the spiritual world. The jivas are everywhere, in both the spiritual world and the material world. There is an infinite number of them and they are everywhere. In that sense the individual soul is all-pervading. Not that one individual soul is all-pervading, but the individual souls are all-pervading. So, what can we derive? What understanding can we derive from this? It is very important we derive understanding from the scripture because now we are deluded by the modes of material nature. We are caught up in the grips of mayadevi. That's why we're caught up here in the cycle of birth and death, going through the 8,400,000 species again and again and again. Mayadevi has us tightly in her grip. But by hearing from the revealed scriptures, by hearing from the bonafide spiritual masters, we can become then liberated from this hellish nightmare of material existence and come back to our original natural position –
jivera svarupa hoi
krsnera nitya das
– the constitutional position of a living entity is the eternal servant of Krishna. So, the scriptures and the spiritual masters teach us the science of Bhakti Yoga, how to become pure devotees of the Lord. The difficulty is we are so conditioned to being rascals, it is hard for us to give up our rascal mentality immediately. We hold on to this rascal mentality. Lord Caitanya said,
trnad api sunicena
taror api sahishnuna
amanina manadena
kirtaniya sadahari
Won't you be more tolerant than a tree, offering all respect to others without expecting any respect from oneself. In such a state of mind one can go on chanting Hare Krishna mantra 24*7. Why are we not able to do that? Because we haven't mastered the art of tolerance yet. We have our limits. I can tolerate so much and beyond that I can't handle it. That's why we can't taste the full nature of the holy name. We have some limit in our tolerance; therefore, we have some limit on what we can naturally taste in Krishna consciousness. So, one of the most important things we learn in the pathway of bhakti yoga is tolerance. Pure devotee can tolerate unlimitedly, but the neophyte can only tolerate so much. So, we have to come out of this neophyte platform of only tolerating so much and come to the pure devotee platform of having unlimited power of tolerance to be able to take anything. Whatever Krishna gives me, that's all right. Not that, why did you give this to me, Krishna? Why did you put me in this difficulty? Don't you understand who I am? So, we have to learn the process of bhakti yoga given by our beloved Srila Prabhupada. He very carefully and deliberately... Can you imagine how much effort Prabhupada went into writing all these books? Volume after volume after volume of books. He was so dedicated to giving up his sleep to write these books. So, we would have this opportunity to get out of this hellish nightmare we are in right now of thinking I am the Lord of all, I survive, everything has to be the way I want it. We have to instead of thinking what I want, what does my spiritual master want, what does Krishna want? That's how we have to live our lives. That's how we have to Mold our consciousness. And What is it called Krishna consciousness. How does Krishna want me to think? How does Krishna want me to speak? How does Krishna want me to act? Well, we don't have to guess. If we carefully study the Bhagavad Gita, we can see exactly how Krishna wants us to think, speak and act in all time, places and circumstances. Actually, Arjuna didn't really need to hear the Bhagavad Gita but he played the role of a conditioned soul. He played the role of being one like us, he is a Maya. So, Krishna could give this knowledge what actually we need to hear. So, this Bhagavad Gita is the most important book.
raja-vidhya raja-guhyam
pavitram idam uttamam
pratyaksavagamam dharmyam
su-sukham kartum avyayam
This knowledge is the king of all education, it's the most secret of all secrets, it's the purest knowledge and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization it is the perfection of religion, it is everlasting and what else? Su-sukham, the joys of the performance. This material world is always up and down, happiness and distress, happiness and distress, happiness and distress. But if we lock ourselves 100% into following the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita, Su-sukham will always be happy, will never be disturbed in any situation. Because we are not doing that, we are not fully plugged in the teachings of Bagavat gita. I follow Krishna to a certain extent; I follow my own mental whims to a certain extent. That's the difficulty. We take the mind as our guru. That's the big problem we have. The mind is a very false bogus guru. We take the bogus guru of our mind as a great authority. My mind thinks this. My dear mind. Therefore, the great Vaishnava acharyas they sing, bajahahu re mana, sri- nanda-nandana abhaya caranaravinda re. my dear mind, See, how kind he is, my dear mind, actually he is my rascal mind, but I say my dear mind, I am pacifying him a little bit, my dear mind, you rascal, my dear mind, please, now engage yourself in the loving devotional service of the Divine son of Nanda Maharaj. bajahahu re, sri- nanda- nandana. As Nanda and Nanda Nandana, the beloved son of Nanda Maharaj. You see how Krishna is always in relationship. He likes to be named after His devotees. Of course He has His own name, Krishna, but He really values being named after His disciple Yasoda nandana, Nanda nandana. Krishna likes to be associated with the devotees. That's his great ecstasy. Even up here, He's a son. He's in spite of all the little baby boy. So, Nanda just started carrying the slipper of Nanda Maharaj, the slippers of Nanda Maharaj on His head to take them to him. Struggling to pick up the heavy slippers to carry them to Nanda Maharaj. Even though He is the Supreme Lord, He can lift a whole mountain, He can lift the whole universe, but still, He struggles to lift the slippers of His father and His ecstasy of loving relationship with His devotees. So, we have to learn also how to relish loving relationship with the devotees. Not to be impersonalists. That I touch no one and no one touches me. I am a rock; I am an island. It shouldn't be separatist. We have to learn how to learn in the loving relationship with the Vaishnavas. The scriptures describe six kinds of loving exchange with devotees. We have to learn how to enter these loving relationships with the Vaishnavas. It is very important to give up our intolerant natures and learn how to have loving relationships with the Vaishnavas. This will actually liberate us. The more we can love the devotees, the more we can love Krishna. We can't love Krishna separate from loving His devotees. That's why He tells us,
tad viddhi pranipatena
paripraśnena sevayā
upadekṣyanti te jñānam
jñāninas tattva-dārṣinah
Just try to learn the truth by approaching the spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively, render service unto him, the self-realized soul can impart knowledge unto you. Why? Because they've seen the truth. They've seen the truth by hearing. Seeing by hearing? What is this crazy thing? Actually, that is the most powerful way of seeing, by hearing. Seeing by the eyes is secondary. We may not properly see; we may not properly see. We may think something as something else. When you hear, it is very clear, it is stated clearly. Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is the source of all existence. Everything emanates from Him and we are all His eternal servants. So, we hear, hear, hear from the spiritual master, from the Vaishnavas, from the scripture. That's why we study every day the Srimad Bhagavatam. We might hear, hear, hear, take a deep, deep, deep in our heart, drive away all the illusion and confusion, the dwelling and confusion since time immemorial in our hearts, carrying us from one animal body to a plant body to a germ body to a worm body, a demigod body, sometimes a human body. See, human is better than demigod. Demigods are carried away by material opulence. The human being has enough austerity to consider, why am I suffering like this? Why am I suffering? I don't want to suffer. Why am I being forced to suffer against my desire again and again and again? What's going wrong here? So that he can inquire, he can approach a bonfide authority, a bona fide spiritual master, inquire and learn what is the actual purpose of my existence, what is the perfection of my existence. So, if we take this process seriously our lives will be unlimitedly sublime. The difficulty is if we don't take it seriously. That's the problem. We want to remain on the material platform, a little bhakti, a little sense enjoyment, a little bhakti, a little sense enjoyment. That's the difficulty. We don't take it with full seriousness, we don't take it with full sobriety.
dehino ‘smin yatha dehe
kaumaram yauvanam jara
tatha dehantara-praptir
dhiras tatra na muhyati.
As the embodied soul continually passes in this body from boyhood to youth to old age to suffering, and so the same way we pass another body at the time of death, the sober person is no longer bitter by such a change. If we are not sober, that is the problem. If we are not sober, then we are not bitter. Why am I getting old? Why am I getting sick? Why do I have this pain in my leg? Why do I have this problem in my neck? Or whatever it may be, we begin to be bewildered. Because we keep misidentifying with this body. It's not very intelligent, we keep doing it. Keep thinking I'm so many years old. I'm this gender or that gender. Now the popular thing is transgender. But they think it means switching genders. But the real meaning of transgender is transcendental to gender. I'm not a man or I'm not a woman. I'm transgender. I'm transcendental to gender. So, the Hare Krishna devotees are the real transgender people. We are the real transgender. We are transcendental gender. To identify as a male is an illusion. To think I am a male is an illusion. To think I don't have a feeling of being a male so I will be a female instead. No. You have understood you are not really a male. That is very good. But now you have to understand that you're not a female either, you're not this body. This gender idea is like half way there, you know. I'm not a male or I'm not a female. So, I must be the opposite gender. The first understanding is correct. I'm not a male, I'm not a female. But the second understanding is misinterpreted. Therefore, I must be the other sex. If I understood properly, I am not a male, I am not a female, but they misunderstand therefore I am the opposite sex. But that is why Krishna Consciousness movement is so important. We can say, okay, we admit you are not a male or female because actually you are a spirit soul. The perfection of transgender is realized in
jivera svarupa hoi
krsnera nitya das
I am eternal spiritual being. So that is why this book distribution is very important. We can educate all these transgenders how to actually be transgender. Not just another misidentification. So, this whole world is going on in a crazy madhouse right now. Crazy, crazy place. śva-viḍ-varāhoṣṭra-kharaiḥ saṁstutaḥ puruṣaḥ paśuḥ na yat-karṇa-pathopeto jātu nāma gadāgrajaḥ Those men who are like dogs, hogs, camels and asses, they praise those men who do not listen to the transcendental pastimes of who? Lord Sri Krishna. What is His characteristic? He is the liver of all evils. So, these are the people running our countries, running our corporations, running our organizations. Dogs, dogs, camels and asses are leading the world right now. It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world. That's the reality. So, our mission is to bring sanity back. They've lost the centre. It's like having a nice machine but it's not plugged in. It doesn't work. You try to get some utilization from it but it's not plugged in. So, what are you going to do? When you plug it in and flip on the switch it runs naturally. So, we want to plug this lost, confused human society back into the source, back into the power source, Krishna. The ultimate power source of everything. He is empowering everything. He is within everything. Everything is under His energy. Everything is working. So, if you disconnect from the energy source, you're going to have difficulties. I tried to get an artificial energy source, but it doesn't work. It's like right now, a huge society built on petroleum. Can you imagine how much petroleum is burning, how many billions of gallons of petroleum is being burned at every nanosecond right now on this planet? All the cars, the airplanes, it’s just unbelievable how much petrol they're burning at every minute. And it's running out. It's going to go down to 0. What are they going to do when there's no more petrol? You see, they will invent something new. Huh? Electric cars. But how do they run the powerhouse if they charge the electricity? I mean the whole thing is based on the point, my point is this, my dear listeners. My point is that artificial civilization is meant to be developed, the whole economic development is meant to be on the land of the cows. That's a natural Vedic culture based on land and cows, that's a natural environment that doesn't deplete over time. Because the cows, the whole thing perpetuates a thousand and millions of years. You take the cow dung and you fertilize the soil, you keep growing crops on the soil. But because they are basing it on a whole artificial thing, and this thing and that thing, they are temporary, the whole thing is going to fall down, all of them are going to go into complete chaos. It's going to be like cannibals in the jungle eventually, the way things are heading. The whole thing is going to completely break down. No more electricity, no more this, no more that, no more grocery stores, no more internet, the whole thing is going to fall apart. The whole thing is completely fall apart. So, the only solution is this Krishna consciousness movement. This is why we want to take a leadership role on this planet. Because this movement can actually solve the problem. This Krishna consciousness movement, Prabhupada's teachings can actually solve the problem. So, this is why we have to stick closely to Prabhupada's teachings and not mix in other ideas like they are trying to do nowadays in this country, mixing other ideas to change what Prabhupada actually said. We have to keep it precisely as Prabhupada gave it to us and not water it down with any sense gratification or mental speculation. Even if one person can strictly follow exactly what the Prabhupada is saying with no deviation, that one person can lead the whole world. The Prabhupada says this in its purport. It says, if one chants the holy name of the Lord without offense, he becomes Jagadguru and that influenced the whole world to chant Hare Krishna. Even if one person, the trouble is none of us are there yet, that's the problem. We are intolerant, we can't chant Hare Krishna 24 hours a day because of our intolerance. The problem is none of us are there yet. That's the problem. But even if one of us can get out of maya, become a fully enlightened soul, that one devotee can lead the whole world. So, we are trying to, that's why we are trying to, each one of us should endeavor to become pure devotees, completely pure devotees.
premanjana-cchurita- bhakti -vilocanena
santah sadaiva hrdayesu vilokayanti
yam syamasundaram acintya-guna-svarupam
govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami,
I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is Syamasundara, Krishna Himself with inconceivable and innumerable attributes and the pure devotees see in their heart of hearts with the eye of devotion tinged with the salve of love, you see. And we come to that point where our eyes become purely, fully tinged with the salve of love we can see Krishna everywhere, See Krishna within everything and everything within Krishna. Come to that point. Always being Krishna within everything. Krishna makes it easy in so many ways. He says, I am the light of the sun and the moon. We can look up in the moonlit sky, all there is Krishna. You see how Krishna is manifest as the moon. When the sun comes up in the morning, you see how Krishna is manifest as the sun. Krishna says, I am the healing herb. If you have some herb that is healing you from your sickness, all that, that healing herb is Krishna. He says, I am the healing herb. So, Krishna is manifest in so many ways. We have to learn how to experience Krishna everywhere. By seeing through the eyes of the scripture, on the taste of water, on the sound of ether. Even the sound is like we hear the sounds now over there of Gurumataji putting the garlands in the bag. You can hear the sound as she's putting the garlands in the bag. That sound is Krishna. So, in this way we have to, through the scripture, we have to experience Krishna more and more and more and more and more and everything. Every minute always connecting with Krishna. In this way when you connect with Krishna there is no anxiety, there is no illusion, there is no confusion. And when disconnected from Krishna we become completely bewildered and confused and in a state of lamentation of not connecting with Krishna.
So, anybody have any questions or any arguments? Gurumataji you want to make some corrections or additions. Nothing from that side. Any questions?
Local Devotee: You were describing how the petroleum is going to run out and then at some point everything is going to crash. So, I'm wondering why I feel like I don't hear so much push towards going, like building many farms in this country. Rather I feel like you are building a preaching centre.
Sankarshan Das: We are dealing with people in the cities. Our program is to administer the people. So, we are mostly in the cities because we want to minister to the people. We have a few farms; we have some farm communities like Nitai Chandra and Gaurachandra in Bulgaria they have that farm. That should be very much encouraged.
Srimati Vishnupriya Gurumataji: One farm cannot maintain the whole world.
Sankarshan Das: That farm doesn't maintain those two boys?
Local Devotee: She said it can't maintain the whole world.
Sankarshan Das: Those boys are setting a good example. How many people are even willing to get out and be farmers? Live on the land? We are so conditioned to city life. We are so conditioned to city life that very few devotees are inclined to be farmers. Cow protectors, milking the cow, killing the man. How many devotees were not trained in that way, were not inclined to do that? So, any devotees who are inclined should be encouraged very much, supported to do that. Very few devotees are doing that. Very very limited number of people, number of devotees who are actually engaged in cow protection.Very very limited. Prabhupada very much encouraged it and we have not developed it as much as we should have.
Any other questions?
Local Devotee: Are we doing something wrong by not doing that? Because what if everything crashes and we have these beautiful temples and things but no electricity or water or food even?
Sankarshan Das: It's not going to crash immediately. The most important thing is actually the massive education. Book distribution. Prabhupada emphasizes the most important thing is the book distribution. We have to get this knowledge out there as much as we possibly can. We emphasize book distribution more than farming. We have to educate the people. Most important thing is this, mass education, getting the books out there. Even more important than temples are the books.
Anything else? Nothing else coming in here? Nothing else from you? Nothing else from anyone else? We can... Somebody wants to speak... Ask a question by speaking. We can put it on the unmute option. Anybody wants to ask a question by speaking? You can unmute yourself.
Local Devotee: Hare Krishna, Srila Gurudev. Please accept my humble obeisances. As you were telling in the class, Gurudev, to maintain the relationships properly with the devotees, now what if the devotees are, I mean, someone who is taking undue advantages of devotees, misbehaving, misconduct and I mean…
Sankarshan Das: Somebody is misbehaving, they should be corrected. That's loving service to them. They correct them if they're doing something wrong. They should be corrected. That's loving service to them. Correcting them.
Local Devotee: Okay, correcting them.
Sankarshan Das: Yeah, that's loving reciprocation.
Local Devotee: Because everyone is afraid, you know, if we correct someone who is doing a mistake, oh, we will lose this person, he may go away from service, or he may go away from the temple etc. Etc.
Sankarshan Das: Then he's already lost he's committing mistakes doing everything wrong he's already lost so try to save him.
Local Devotee: He's already lost.
Sankarshan Das: He's very merciful in times. Not to be cruel, in a very loving way. Just like Prabhupada corrected in a very loving way.
Local Devotee: How to learn that, Gurudev? Like correcting someone with a loving way? How to understand that, Gurudev?
Sankarshan Das: You have to have a genuine compassion to want to help this person.
Local Devotee: Hm,okay.
Sankarshan Das: Then you study Lord Caitanya's mood. Look how he, because he was being so rascally, but wanted to stop the Sankirtan. So, he made a big protest. Thousands of people were pressed on his house. He was in great anxiety. Then Lord Sri Caitanya had a very nice conversation with him. And He changed his mind. He said, from now on, no one should ever, none of my descendants should ever construct China on their own. So, it's been going on ever since. 500 years. That instruction of the cause has always been followed. So, every time that happened, even though it was a Muslim rule. So, we have to, the devotees took up a strong protest. So, we, but at the same time, Lord Sri Caitanya had very nice conversation with them. So, we have to see that taking a strong decision at the same time being merciful. You can't be merciful at the same time as you take a strong decision. The best thing is to be merciful and take a strong decision. He had to be very strong. He made us give up our illicit sex, meat eating, gambling. He said, you can't do this. You can't have illicit sex, meat eating, intoxication, gambling. You have to stop these things. At the same time, he gave us the Krishna. This is Prabhupada, do this and don't do that. We had to have that in the mood too. Do this and don't do that. Both things. Not to just do this. No, we have to say don't do that also. Don't do this as well. Prabhupada corrected us and we loved him because he was so kind of us and so merciful. So, we have to be like Prabhupada. Do this and don't do that. Both sides of that. Prabhupada said, well, if I tell them to no illicit sex, intoxication, gambling, I may lose them. No, Prabhupada said if I can make at least one devotee that is properly fixed not that I want to have thousands of followers, but I can't tell them not to give up these sinful activities. No, no. Better to have one person strictly following and have a thousand people who are only halfway following these sinful activities.
Local Devotee: Yes, yes, Gurudev. My only concern is when someone, a leader is tricked to the people, you know, people run away rather than understanding. In case of Srila Prabhupada, I can't comment because I wasn't there at that time, but still people have taken and we are seeing the results.
Sankarshan Das: They were completely addicted to illicit sex life. Prabhupada said no. They were completely addicted to intoxication. Prabhupada said no. He gave them Hare Krishna; he gave them Hare Krishna Kirtan instead and they loved it. So, this is better than illicit sex and intoxication. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare. So, we have to be like Prabhupada. We have to be like Prabhupada. If somebody is doing something wrong, we have to correct them. At the same time, we have to give them the wonderful option of Hare Krishna Kirtan.
Local Devotee: Sure, Gurudev. Thank you so much.
Any other questions typed in or spoken? If there's nothing else, we can stop here. Thank you everybody for tuning in.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.