SB 1.3.40--HH Jayapataka Swami

[Guest guest]

Live from Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir!

 

March 4, 2004

Verse: Srimad Bhagavatam 1.3.40

Speaker: HH Jayapataka Swami

__

 

 

(invocatory prayers)

 

idam bhagavatam nama

puranam brahma-sammitam

uttama-sloka-caritam

cakara bhagavan rsih

nihsreyasaya lokasya

dhanyam svasty-ayanam mahat

 

TRANSLATION: This Srimad-Bhagavatam is the literary incarnation of God, and

it is compiled by Srila Vyasadeva, the incarnation of God. It is meant for

the ultimate good of all people, and it is all-successful, all-blissful and

all-perfect.

 

PURPORT: Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu declared that Srimad-Bhagavatam is the

spotless sound representation of all Vedic knowledge and history. There are

selected histories of great devotees who are in direct contact with the

Personality of Godhead. Srimad-Bhagavatam is the literary incarnation of

Lord Sri Krsna and is therefore nondifferent from Him. Srimad-Bhagavatam

should be worshiped as respectfully as we worship the Lord. Thereby we can

derive the ultimate blessings of the Lord through its careful and patient

study. As God is all light, all bliss and all perfection, so also is

Srimad-Bhagavatam. We can have all the transcendental light of the Supreme

Brahman, Sri Krsna, from the recitation of Srimad-Bhagavatam, provided it is

received through the medium of the transparent spiritual master. Lord

Caitanya's private secretary Srila Svarupa Damodara Gosvami advised all

intending visitors who came to see the Lord at Puri to make a study of the

Bhagavatam from the person Bhagavatam. Person Bhagavatam is the

self-realized bona fide spiritual master, and through him only can one

understand the lessons of Bhagavatam in order to receive the desired result.

One can derive from the study of the Bhagavatam all benefits that are

possible to be derived from the personal presence of the Lord. It carries

with it all the transcendental blessings of Lord Sri Krsna that we can

expect from His personal contact.

 

 

 

Harih Om. The Srimad-Bhagavatam 'carries with it all the transcendental

blessings of Lord Sri Krsna that we can expect from His personal contact'.

 

This was Srimad-Bhagavatam First Canto, Third Chapter, Text 40, Krsna is the

Source of All Incarnations.

 

So here's another incarnation. Which incarnation is this? The literary

incarnation, book incarnation. In the Bhagavata-mahatmya it says that if you

keep the Bhagavatam in your house all the devas come and pay their

obeisances every day. In Assam, there's a preacher called Sankardeva. Some

historians say he was initiated by Advaita Acarya, but it's not for sure.

Some say like that. But he preached Bhagavatam and chanting the holy names.

At that time because there was a problem that non-brahmanas couldn't worship

deities, so he made temples to the Srimad-Bhagavatam called namgars(?) where

the deity was the Srimad-Bhagavatam and the method of worship was chanting

the holy names and performing dramas from the Srimad-Bhagavatam. And he

actually made the whole state 500 years ago, the vast majority, all

Vaisnavas.

 

We know on some of our altars we keep the Srimad-Bhagavatam on Bhadra

Purnima. It's a special day on which to worship the Srimad-Bhagavatam. How

many perform Bhagavatam worship on the Bhadra Purnima? . . . Rohini Suta

Prabhu performs every year, he was our former book distribution minister

some generations ago.

 

The Srimad-Bhagavatam is so powerful. In the Padma Purana it explains how

Narada Muni was travelling all over the world and he went to Vrndavana and

there he saw there a beautiful young lady with two old men. And he was

curious that 'Who are you?' She said, 'Well, I was born in Karnataka, for a

while I lived in Maharastra, I was in different places in India, I went to

Gujarat.' She said there she got emaciated and she was almost at the point

of dying when she came back to Vrndavana and she recovered. But her two sons

didn't. She said, 'Who am I?'

 

So then Narada Muni said 'I can understand you are Bhaktidevi, very dear to

Lord Visnu. Visnu has created you to encourage the devotees. Because

Vrndavana is the land of bhakti by coming here you have become rejuvenated,

but your sons Jnana and Vairagya they didn't recover. So she said, 'Can you

kindly do something to help my sons?' So he called them in their ears

'Vairagya, Jnana!' They kind of 'Eeh, aww, no. . .'. 'Come on, get up, eat

something!' (snoring noise) Crashed out again.

 

Narada was unsuccessful so he was travelling around the universe trying to

find out and somehow he met the four Kumaras who are normally all residing

in Vaikuntha, and they explained to him the secret cure: that in Kali-yuga

Jnana and Vairagya don't work on their own, nothing works, even Mukti ran

away and she is hiding in Vaikuntha. The only thing that works in Kali-yuga

is bhakti. Even someone may be somewhat sinful but if their heart is full of

bhakti they can easily get delivered. So then they revealed that actually

the Srimad-Bhagavatam, the litereary incarnation of Lord Krsna, if that is

chanted then Bhakti is nurtured and Jnana and Vairagya also become healthy.

 

The problem is that there are many professional reciters of

Srimad-Bhagavatam who just want money so it doesn't have the same effect.

Here Prabhupada also stressed we have to hear the Srimad-Bhagavatam from a

transparent spiritual master. The Srimad-Bhagavatam has to be heard from

devotees whose only purpose is bhakti. Then knowledge, renunciation, all

kinds of things happen, jnana. Normally jnana and vairagya are very dry.

They are not able to deliver us in Kali-yuga. We need bhakti, and

Srimad-Bhagavatam is what drives away all these agents of Kali just like the

darkness is driven away by a light. If you regularly study and read it then

this contamination in Kali-yuga gets driven away. You know the Bhagavatam

says 'bhagavata nitya-sevaya', should be regularly read.

 

I remember when I was a new devotee somehow we made time to read, Prabhupada

stressed it. As we get older then sometimes the last priority is reading the

Srimad-Bhagavatam. I remember on a parikrama, someone brought up about

reading the Caitanya-bhagavat, that somebody had told Bhaktisiddhanta

Sarasvati Thakur . . . he said 'Have you read it'? He said, 'Oh yes I have

read it'. 'How many times?' 'Oh I have read it' . . . I forget how many

times, but Prabhupada said 'Read it again, I have read it 100 times!'

Caitanya-bhagavat, Srimad-Bhagavatam, there's no limit to how many times we

can read. I remember going up to Srila Prabhupada's room and he was reading

Bhagavad-gita. We think 'Bhagavad-gita, that's a primary book'. But Srila

Prabhupada said 'No no, I regularly read Bhagavad-gita, it's essential for

preachers. We have to always read the Bhagavad-Gita'.

 

Lord Caitanya gave three orders:

 

suno suno nityananda, suno haridas

sarvatra amar ajna koroho prakas

 

prati ghare ghare giya koro ei bhiksa

bolo 'krsna', bhajo krsna, koro krsna-siksa

 

'I wanted to beg three things'. He told 'Listen Haridas, listen Nityananda,

I want you to go door to door and beg from the people that they should chant

Hare Krsna, they should worship Krsna, and they should study Krsna's

teachings'. And Prabhupada would say that Krsna's teachings mean

Bhagavad-gita spoken by Krsna and Srimad-Bhagavatam spoken about Krsna.

 

Srimad-Bhagavatam is so special because it's directly glorifying Krsna,

glorifying great devotees who are directly in contact with Krsna. Because of

that it's a literary incarnation, we get direct contact with Krsna through

the recitation, the hearing. Here Prabhupada also stresses about hearing

from a transparent spiritual master. We know in the Srimad-Bhagavatam

Yudhisthira described Vidura as a 'walking holy place'. Also in the Padma

Purana there is a history where there was one wise sage in the from of a

parrot called Kanjula. He was answering questions for Cyavana. So one of the

things that Kanjula also said was that a pure devotee spiritual master is a

walking holy place.

 

We've heard so many devotees comment that wherever Prabhupada went it became

like Vrndavan. You came in his presence you felt you were in Vrndavana. That

isn't just a feeling it is actually a fact. Several scriptures are

confirming this that a spiritual master who is travellling is a travelling

holy place. That's one of the reasons that Srila Prabhupada travelled, to

bring the Holy Dham, to bring the transcendental presence wherever he went.

Just by going there people became inspired, they became enlivened, awakened.

 

It's interesting that Kanjula was asked how it was that you became a parrot.

He said 'Well, in my previous life I was a devotee and somebody gave me a

parrot, a baby parrot. And this parrot learned how to speak very nicely. So

the parrot would tell me "Time to read your sastra! [laughter] Time to do

your puja! Time to take prasada!"' Like you have these walking alarm clocks,

the parrot would tell him throughout the day whenever it was time to do his

duties. So he became very attached to this parrot, it was so cute, it spoke

in such a nice little voice: 'Wake up, mangala-arati!' (laughter)

 

Then one of the neighbour's cats jumped on the parrot and ate it. And he was

lamenting, missing, that 'Who's going to be with me, I'm all alone. I had a

such a nice parrot, it would tell me when I had to do my duties. That rascal

cat. . .' But he was mainly thinking about the parrot that 'Poor parrot, how

am I going to live. . .' and it just so happened that that was the end of

his life. And he died thinking of his parrot. But also he was thinking of

knowledge, so while he was in the womb of his parrot mother he got

realization. Unusual circumstance. He was born a very wise parrot,

[scattered laughter] a liberated kind of parrot. It's another version. . .

we know Jada Bharata, who was a deer. Sometimes you see devotees with these

pets, be careful! [laughter] Even great sages have made slips.

 

We were on the parikrama and we were chanting 'Gauranga' and there was one

dog who went 'Gauranga' [laughter] Not so clearly but it seemed to be very

much. . . I think he lives by the Goshalla.

 

 

(Unclear section): Huh? That's the brownie, this is the gold one it goes

'Ruhruh!' [laughter] His name is brownie, not goldie. ???

 

 

Anyway, people came to find out the Absolute Truth to holy places. Sometimes

in holy places there are all sorts of unscrupulous people. Now as it comes

close to the Gaura Purnima there's more pickpockets, more thieves, more

blackmarket kind of dealers; you have to be very careful. Of course we have

our security watching out, but one lady told me a couple of days ago that

she lost her bag.(?) So this is why bhakti in the holy places, you go to

holy places, it's hard to find, sometimes people come to India. . .(?) I was

going to go to India. . . when I was in California, I couldn't find a guru.

I was looking at all different kinds of gurus and none of them. . . 'I'm

going to have to go to India to find a guru'. But fortunately I met

Prabhupada. I went to see Prabhupada and he said 'What was your plan?' 'I

was planning to go to India.' And he said 'You stay with me and I will

personally train you.' [applause and 'Haribols'] But then he said 'But later

I will send you to India'. [laughter]

 

So I had the causeless mercy of Prabhupada's training to some extent, it's

not finished yet. And he did send me to India. When you think of poor

tourists who are going to come. . . we meet people who come for some

spiritual retreat but in the holy dhamas they find intoxication and all

kinds of other things. So we'd like to at least have our ISKCON places in

the holy dhams pure to give people what they're really looking for. We want

all of our preachers to come here and study Srimad-Bhagavatam in this holy

dham, and Caitanya-bhagavat, Caitanya-caritamrta. They become so much

purified that when they travel they become travelling holy places just like

Srila Prabhupada was. We need lots of holy places around the world. This is

very important. Prabhupada says the devotees should become so pure, that

people, by serving the devotees they will get spiritual benefit. He wanted

his representatives to be pure and thus purify and benefit others.

 

We see Kali is progressing so much. But then I remember Srila Prabhupada, he

was watching a play 'Age of Kali' and in that play it showed Kali getting

sick when he hears the followers of Lord Caitanya chanting the holy name.

And when he was getting sick Prabhupada became very excited like a child and

he was hitting his knees: 'Chant louder, chant louder!' [laughter] Srila

Prabhupada ki!

 

Devotees: JAI!

 

Just like we heard that a saintly persons likes, that even they authorise to

kill a snake because it's so envious. This is like the monitor. If you are

doing good, then Kali should be feeling sick. The sicker he gets the better

you're doing. Chanting the holy names, spreading the message of Gita and

Bhagavata, and lots of bhakti, training people to have devotion--these are

things that Kali doesn't have weapons for. Rather these are the cures for

Kali. Of course Kali will try to distract us, not to chant, not to read, not

to do devotional activities. And this is why we have to be very very

careful. Until we are in the cowherd groves or wherever our eternal lila is

to be, we shouldn't stop, and when we are there we are not going to be

stopping either. In other words we're never going to stop chanting, we'll

never stop hearing the glories of Krsna, these are our eternal activities.

 

It's not that now I'm an older devotee I don't need to read, I don't need to

chant. That means a person is becoing Kali fodder, going to be chewed up by

Kali, famous last words. Bhaktisiddhanta is saying I read 100 times the

Caitanya-bhagavat, how many times he read the Srimad-Bhagavata, who knows.

So we should read and read and read. And I'm not one to say because I really

feel a lack of reading, but I am just aceping in all humility that yes,

definitely this is what we all need to do. If we just read these verses of

Bhagavatam the writing is on the wall, this is how we are going to purify

our consciousness, this is how we gradually weed out all the contamination

that creeps in from the Kali. We have to take LC's word for it. How it

works, how it is possible, we have to take Lord Caitanya's word for it, we

take the expert.

 

There was one devotee in a place called Varahanagar. And Lord Caitanya on

His way to Puri passed there and He heard and sat down and listened to his

Bhagavatam class. And he gave such a nice pure bhakti Bhagavatam class that

Lord Caitanya got up and embraced him and said 'From now on you are

bhagavat-acarya. [Devotees: Haribol!] Your duty is simply every day to read

Srimad-Bhagavatam. That's your seva. You simply give Bhagavatam class. By

that you will purify so many people.'

 

Just like there was a namacarya there was also a bhagavata-acarya. So we

need to have devotees who are regularly reading Srimad-Bhagavatam,

Bhagavad-gita. Many temples don't have Bhagavad-gita classes anymore in the

evening. But we go out sometimes and I find now many nama-hattas have

Srimad-Bhagavatam class at that time. Anyway, we've got to keep out that

vibration, keep it flowing and keep Kali sick. This is like, you know, AIDS

SARS, there are so many epidemics going around, Asian Flu, whatever, this is

the disease for Kali. When Kali hears Srimad-Bhagavatam chanted by

transparent devotees, devotees who are doing it because they want to please

Krsna, he immediately gets sick. If you regularly hear Srimad-Bhagavatam

that's going to bring all the difference.

 

Prabhupada said we don't want to only distribute the books, we want to also

read it, our book distributors, our devotees ?? read my literatures. Now we

know why Lord Caitanya stressed so much, at so many different times. He

didn't write any books, Prabhupada stressed this point, He didn't write, He

only wrote the Siksastaka. He didn't write books, He said you don't need

them(?) He said we have the Srimad-Bhagavatam and the Bhagavad-gita. Books

are already there. What He would tell His followers? Read these books.

 

When Srinivasa Acarya went to see Lord Caitanya and he found that He had

already disappeared and he was rolling on the ground ready to commit suicide

'Who's going to teach me Bhagavatam?', Lord Caitanya came to him in a dream,

vision, and told him 'You go to see Gadadhara Pandit'. He went to see

Gadadhara Pandit and paid his prostrate obeisances. Gadadhara was not seeing

anybody after the disappearance of Lord Caitanya, he was devastated in

separation. But when he heard Srinivasa Acarya's name he said it's OK

because he knew this devotee is going to distribute the books.

 

In those days book distribution was reading the books out loud and

convincing somebody that this was the right philosophy. Then they could buy

the book, and the price was your life. Becoming a disciple and surrendering

and then you could get a copy of the book. So that book distribution was

very. . . quality book distribution. Can you imagine at the airport: 'Sir,

would you like to buy a book? Just give your life.' [laughter] So we're

giving it very cheap, only ten dollars donation.

 

But then he said 'I want to learn from you the Srimad-Bhagavatam'. Gadadhara

said 'Look, here's my Srimad-Bhagavatam'. It was all written out on palm

leaves. He said because of regularly reading, wherever we read the

Srimad-Bhagavatam in all the Cantos, the whole Bhagavatam was there, it was

all wiped out by tears. Gadadhara would read these beautiful verse of

Bhagavatam and he would cry in ecstasy so the verses--they didn't have

permanent ink I guess in those days--so the teardrops would hit the soluble

ink and it would become illegible. So he looked through the book and there

wasn't a Canto he could find legible. He had to go back to Navadvipa to get

a whole new Bhagavatam written. That means all these acaryas, associates,

Pancatattva, they are regularly reading the Srimad-Bhagavatam. There are a

lot of different books available but we should keep on reading our

Srimad-Bhagavatam. Regulary read the Bhagavat and Caitanya literature.

 

So thank you all very much. Maybe one or two quick questions. We've got

seminars starting. Any comments from our Bhagavatam. . .???

 

Umapati Swami: I see sometimes people are willing to read everything except

Srimad-Bhagavatam because we do have a lot of books and they don't see these

books as corollaries to Bhagavatam but they see them as substitutes for

Srimad-Bhagavatam. So you'll find these devotees, they've read everything

but Srimad-Bhagavatam and everything but Bhagavad-gita. ??? Do you have

something to say about that?

 

Answer: I remember when I wanted to ask for initiation, then Prabhupada told

me if you want initiation then you have to read the Bhagavad-gita ten times

and the Srimad-Bhagavatam three times. The First Canto, in those days we

only had the First Canto. Prabhupada very much stressed that we have to

read. Maybe if every spiritual master makes a requirement like that, that

their disciples before getting initiation should read the Bhagavad-gita so

many times, or the Bhagavatam so many. . .or least the First Canto which

contains so much information. I have a standard like that. Prabhupada

stressed that but I find many people don't read. What is Danavir Maharaja's

experience? He's teaching many students in colleges.

 

Danavir Goswami: Devotees sometimes ask about reading other books and I

suggest to them that first they should read Prabhupada's books and then read

other books.

 

Jayapataka Swami: Read Prabhupada's books first and then read other books,

Danavir Maharaja's suggestion.

 

Question: Which month is the Bhadra month?

 

Answer: Bhadra month, it's in the rainy season, Asadha, Sravana, Bhadra,

Asvina, Karttika. It's the second month of the Caturmasya, that's the month

we don't take yoghurt, not supposed to take.

 

Someone asked me to explain a little about Ramacandra Kaviraja. I'm giving a

Caitanya-lila class upstairs and I can tell you in that class who Ramacandra

Kaviraja is, but I don't see how it relates with this class.

 

Thank you very much.

 

Grantharaja Srimad-Bhagavatam ki jai!

Literary incarnation of Krsna ki jai!

Light of the bhagavat ki jai!

Liberate the whole world and drive away Kali's influence ki jai!

SRIMAD-BHAGAVATAM ki jai!

Bhaktidevi ki jai!

 

END.