HH Romapada Swami

[Guest guest]

>From Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir

 

February 23, 2006

Verse: Srimad Bhagavatam 2.2.21

Speaker: HH Romapada Swami

__

 

tasmad bhruvor antaram unnayeta

niruddha-saptayatano 'napeksah

sthitva muhurtardham akuntha-drstir

nirbhidya murdhan visrjet param gatah

 

TRANSLATION: Thereafter the bhakti-yogi should push the life air up between

the eyebrows, and then, blocking the seven outlets of the life air, he

should maintain his aim for going back home, back to Godhead. If he is

completely free from all desires for material enjoyment, he should then

reach the cerebral hole and give up his material connections, having gone to

the Supreme.

 

PURPORT: The process of giving up all material connections and returning

home, back to Godhead, the Supreme, is recommended herein. The condition is

that one should be completely freed from desire for material enjoyment.

There are different grades of material enjoyments in respect to duration of

life and sensual gratification. The highest plane of sensual enjoyment for

the longest period of life is mentioned in the Bhagavad-gita (9.20). All are

but material enjoyments, and one should be thoroughly convinced that he has

no need of such a long duration of life, even in the Brahmaloka planet. He

must return home, back to Godhead, and must not be attracted by any amount

of material facilities. In the Bhagavad-gita (2.59) it is said that this

sort of material detachment is possible to attain when one is acquainted

with the supreme association of life. Param drstva nivartate. [ This is a

key sentence in the purport:] One cannot be freed from material attraction

unless he has complete understanding of the nature of spiritual life. [We'll

come back to that one.] The propaganda by a certain class of impersonalists

that spiritual life is void of all varieties is dangerous propaganda to

mislead the living beings into becoming more and more attracted by material

enjoyments. As such, persons with a poor fund of knowledge cannot have any

conception of the param, the Supreme; they try to stick to the varieties of

material enjoyments, although they may flatter themselves as being

Brahman-realized souls. Such less intelligent persons cannot have any

conception of the param, as mentioned in this verse, and therefore they

cannot reach the Supreme. The devotees have full knowledge of the spiritual

world, the Personality of Godhead and His transcendental association in

unlimited spiritual planets called Vaikunthalokas. Herein akuntha-drstih is

mentioned. Akuntha and vaikuntha convey the same import, and only one who

has his aim fixed upon that spiritual world and personal association with

the Godhead can give up his material connections even while living in the

material world. This param and the param dhama mentioned in several places

in the Bhagavad-gita are one and the same thing. One who goes to the param

dhama does not return to the material world. This freedom is not possible

even by reaching the topmost loka of the material world.

 

The life air passes through seven openings, namely two eyes, two nostrils,

two ears and one mouth. Generally it passes through the mouth at the time of

an ordinary man's death. But the yogi, as above mentioned, who controls the

life air in his own way, generally releases the life air by puncturing the

cerebral hole in the head. The yogi therefore blocks up all the

above-mentioned seven openings, so that the life air will naturally burst

forth through the cerebral hole. This is the sure sign of a great devotee's

leaving the material connection. [repeats the verse and translation and

chants invocatory prayers]

 

________

 

 

To understand any part of a conversation or a detailed message, it's

important to understand that in the context, so just a little background of

the context of this discussion. Beginning of the Second Canto is where

Sukadeva Goswami begins to instruct. So the First Canto is preparing for all

of that, for Sukadeva Goswami's speaking the Bhagavatam, the prelude, or the

summary, of that whole message of the whole Srimad-Bhagavatam. The Padma

Purana describes these first two cantos as the lotus feet of the literary

manifestation of the Personality of Godhead.

 

At the end of the First Canto, Sukadeva Goswami makes his entry, and after

being properly received, because receiving a sadhu is such an important

theme in the First Canto, again and again and again as a refrain, how are we

going to receive that which a sadhu can provide if the heart is not open, or

the other way, the heart must be open in order to receive what a sadhu has

to offer.

 

So Maharaja Pariksit, the glories of the recipient of this message of Srimad

Bhagavatam, chapters are dedicated to indicate his immense qualification as

the receiver of that message. Then he receives the person who is going to

deliver that message and he asks two questions. Prabhupada explains the

whole Srimad-Bhagavatam is the answer to those two questions. Many ways to

look at the Bhagavatam, that's one of them. Because he is a great king, he

is concerned about those who are his charge, his dependents, his citizens.

So he asks first for their welfare: "What is to be done? What is the duty of

life for persons in general?" Second question, specifically, "Persons like

me who are about to die, what is our duty?" Of course one can view life as

preparation for that moment, then what is the imminent, what do you do when

you know that is going to happen? So that's his question.

 

The first chapter of Second Canto has basically three parts. It is a summary

of the glories of Bhagavatam's message and the glories of Sukadeva Goswami,

who is about to speak. It is the trumpet. Tu-tut-tut-tu-tu: Here comes the

Bhagavatam, the prelude. Then there is two messages: detachment and forming

a conception of God, a personal conception of God because that's where he

begins. First step is to have a conception of God.

 

I have to be conscious of time, but I'll just share a little anecdote. When

I was at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, we held a program,

a general program. "Journey of the Soul" was the topic. Posters went up on

campus. It was a really good turnout. Out of the audience, I was very

surprised to see about eight people from China, or. . . . I don't know how

to distinguish between where they're from: Hong Kong, China, Korea, anyway,

oriental. They were very, very attentive.

 

Right after there were questions and answers. One person came forward, a

woman who was a Chinese PhD student. She said, "May I speak something?"

 

"Sure."

 

"I am from China. In China there are many good people, they do good things,

they help other people, but there isn't a conception of God. So I came to

America to do my graduate study in research, and when I came to America, I

found so many conceptions of God." She said it was like a kid being in a

candy store for the first time--look at all the candy. Then she looked at me

and said, she had like a shoulder bag, she patted her bag and said, "Inside

here there is a Bible because in my lab there are Christians.

 

I thought, "Let's introduce her to the Bible."

 

"So I went to their Bible study," she shook her head slowly and said, "but I

didn't find something that really satisfied me. When I saw 'Journey of the

Soul', I understood this is from the Eastern tradition, maybe I'll find that

there, so I came." She was just explaining all this spontaneously. She said,

"I know the happiness of research work." Then she went on the describe it: a

research worker's happiness is like this, this, this, this. "We go to

conferences and we exchange ideas, and very, very brilliant people who are

deep thinkers. I know what that happiness is, but I see in you and in these

people who are here with you, another kind of happiness. I want that."

 

I said, "Here's a Bhagavad-gita. It's a gift for you, just promise that

you'll read it."

 

She said, "I'm just finishing my PhD thesis, I really won't have time until

December, but I promise you that I'll read it.

 

I've been following up and she's reading it. So the first step is to have a

conception of God. Some persons don't have that basic conception or they

have a misconception. Like Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu once described he was

doing a program and the persons were all objecting about belief in God. He

turned it around and said, "Tell me, what is that God that you don't accept

and I probably don't accept Him also."

 

So he described his conception of God and Ravindra said, "Yeah, I rejected

that when I was just a kid. Now let me give you a conception of Krsna as the

Supreme Personality of Godhead and see if you can accept that conception."

 

The man really liked that conception but he had never heard such a

conception.

 

So Srimad Bhagavatam is providing us with, step by step, that conception.

First is just to see that God exists as a person within nature. So that is

the first chapter: forming a personal conception of God, although it is

indirect. Then the next chapter, this one, is, once again detachment. There

is a reason why it is repeated because it is so important. Then moving to

the conception that God is situated within the heart. Not just

metaphorically or imaginatively, but genuinely situated within the heart and

fixing the mind upon the Supreme is something that. . . .

 

There have been some questions why is this in Bhagavatam because ultimately

pure devotional service, change in heart, that is what is wanted, so why

this other stuff? This other stuff is there because the great kings, they

were trained in this progressive stage. Just like we know Grandfather

Bhisma, even Dhrtarastra, they were trained. Grandfather Bhisma certainly

was a devotee, but he was trained in this process. And just as Prabhupada is

translating here, "therefore the bhakti yogi". So there are persons who

perform this mechanical system that aren't devotional and there are those

who know how to perform this process that are devotional. And it is intended

ultimately to bring one closer to the position of devotion. Ultimately, the

benefit is to go back home, back to Godhead, which is the main focus that

Prabhupada places upon this purport.

 

Just yesterday I was listening to a class that Prabhupada was giving where

he was describing how the scientists are unable to understand the source of

everything although they pursue it vigorously. He was describing the verse

from the Second Chapter of First Canto, where the mode of goodness is better

than passion and passion is better than ignorance, just as wood is better

than earth, and smoke is better than wood, and fire is better than smoke,

indicating the mode of goodness.

 

In short the scientists cannot understand the source of everything because

they're not in goodness and therefore they'll say something in ignorance and

propagate ignorance and people, because that's all they hear, they buy into

ignorance. And major battles take place between those that wish to view that

there's a source, at least this whole issue that's in America, I'm surprised

that it hasn't reached India, there's this raging debate about is there a

design found in nature, and since there is a design found within nature, it

indicates a designer. But you leave out the designer, there's design.

There's Intelligent Design argument, it's called the ID argument. It's in

the courtrooms in America and America's such a cuckoo place that the judges

are going to decide that is there sufficient evidence to indicate there's

design within nature to indicate a possible explanation of how things came

about because they were designed. The judges are going to decide it. Because

the other alternative is chance and/or the laws of nature. Or Darwinian

evoloution and Big Bang cosmology.

 

Now our Vedic conception is very very simple:

 

aham sarvasya prabhavo mattah sarvam pravartate

iti matva bhajante mam budha bhava-samanvitah

 

If we can understand that everything that exists has a source of emanation

and what that source of emanation is, when one understands what that source

of emanation is, there's only one thing that you're left to do, at least a

person with integrity, will subordinate themselves and serve that source of

everything, aham sarvasya prabhavo mattah sarvam pravartate.

 

So this process that's in this chapter "The Lord in the Heart", it's

describing the form of the Supreme Lord. It's not a mechanical or

imaginative presentation. Just another anecdote:

 

I visited an Ayurvedic doctor in Bombay and while I was visiting the

Ayurvedic doctor there was one devotee who was assisting me going back and

forth to the doctor and said "My wife is getting a lot of benefit from yoga.

Would you like to go see a yoga teacher, he's like this miracle healer,

ta-da ta-da ta-da,ta-da.

 

And I, "No thank you, no thank you," finally "OK", I went. And when we

arrived there, there were like a hundred students, and because I was in

saffron so they were like "Oh, we've got a guy who we're going to guide into

our programme." That was the mood, I got the vibration very, very strongly.

Prahladananda Swami has probably experienced this hundreds of times.

 

So one person stood up and said "I had a heart problem and six doctors said

there's only one thing--surgery. And I didn't want surgery, so finally I

came here and the heart problems gone, and haribol doctor, yoga ki jai! And

then another one stood up and "I had this problem", so yoga's the. . .

living advertisement.

 

And the assistant to the main yogi couldn't resist, he said "Come over here,

I want to show you something." And on a chair they had a picture of

Paramatma and a picture of the universal form. Universal form is chapter

one, and Paramatma is chapter two. And he said "This is just for neophytes.

We teach our students to meditate on this form while they're doing their

yoga, but the reality is that behind the form is the formless." [laughter]

And his eyes got real big. And I said, "No thank you." I didn't want to tip

the guy's apple cart over because there was a whole crowd of people, so I

just politely said "Hare Krsna, Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead,

thank you."

 

But in the purport Prabhupada is saying, I'll read his language again:

 

"The propaganda by a certain class of impersonalists that spiritual life is

void of all varieties is dangerous propaganda to mislead the living beings

into becoming more and more attracted by material enjoyments."

 

The essential teaching of Caitanya Mahaprabhu includes renunciation.

Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya, after being converted from this perilous condition

of impersonalism by the association of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, in Sanskrit

composed 100 poems and one of them has endured and became a very, very

prominent verse expressing the essence of who is Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Many

of you will recognize the verse:

 

vairagya-vidya-nija-bhakti-yoga-

siksartham ekah purusah puranah

 

The essence teaching of Caitanya Mahaprabhu is this vairagya-vidya, or

knowledge leads to detachment. If knowledge doesn't lead to detachment

there's no effect. Or in the words of, Radha Gopinath shared this with me

from the Chowpatty temple, that here in India one National Education

Conference was held. And the keynote speaker said, this was like some five,

six years ago, that "Education in India today can be summarised in five

words: Information, information, information, no transformation."

 

And it's not only education in India today, it's education today and

education for a long time. Information is abundant, transformation is

scarce. Srila Prabhupada's writings, and the writings of our disciplic

succession is meant to bring about transformation. As Prabhupada would say

how translations of Bhagavad-gita have been published and how many devotees

of the Lord have been produced from those translations of Bhagavad-gita? The

knowledge of Bhagavad-gita is not information. It's information, but it's

meant to bring about transformation, and why is it bringing transformation?

Because it's expressed, in Prabhupada's own words, why are people mad after

these books in an unprecedented way? Because they're spoken from

realization. It's realized knowledge and because it's realized knowledge it

brings about transformation.

 

If I had more than five minutes, I'd launch into some examples of persons

that haven't even had. . . I'll just give one, recently happened, someone

just by receiving Prabhupada's books became a devotee. Just quickly.

 

He lives in Upper Peninsula Michigan, he might as well be in Nowheresville,

USA. On an island somewhere. He went to the Ann Arbor Book Fair. Someone

gave him a Bhagavad-gita. He went back to Upper Peninsula, Michigan, put it

on his bookshelf and it sat there. Five, six years passed. He took the book

off the shelf, read the book, and went "wow". And in the front of the book

it says if you want further information contact the Corresponding Secretary,

BBT, and he did and got some more books and "wow". Then sent away for some

beads and started chanting. He was getting transformed. No association of

devotees, just Prabhupada's books. He said, "Gee, I'd like to find where

there are some other people doing this, besides me in Upper Peninsula."

 

So he had something connected with his occupation and had to go to

Minneapolis. There was no temple in Minneapolis but he looked up in the

Yellow Pages and found "Gopal's Drop-in Center". "I'll take my chances", he

called up and it was devotees! They had a Drop-in Center. He went and met

the devotee and the devotee said "Hey, why don't you come, we're going to a

retreat in Gita Nagari. Mother Kaulini's back there. So he came to the

retreat and saw Radha-Damodara and kirtana and the devotees and he went mad.

Such a wonderful process! Now fast forward in time and now he's teaching

Bhagavad-gita in Upper Peninsula, Michigan. Just from receiving Prabhupada's

Bhagavad-gita, he became transformed.

 

And the message that we're receiving-even this is about meditation on the

form of the Lord in the heart--it's meant to bring us to that position where

we not just want to meditate and be peaceful in a neutral state in

meditation upon the Supreme Lord, but there are two words that are very,

very significant that Prabhupada points out in the purport, akuntha-drstih.

Akuntha and Vaikuntha are the same meaning. And drstih is one who has

targeted his goal to be Vaikuntha or Krsnaloka. Prabhupada on many occasions

said, at least each time he said it really resonated, very simple statement,

once you have defined the goal, it is very easy to chart a path and take the

steps to reach the goal.

 

The other way around: if you don't have a clear sense of goal, how are you

going to be determined to get there? It's like getting in a car, driving

around, going for a drive. Hope you get there. Some people think life is a

journey. A journey to where? A journey. What's the purpose? Don't ask me

that question, it's just to experience things or it means sense

gratification.

 

So if you don't clearly define the goal, I'll read this sentence again in

the purport. Actually he says it four times but I really like this one: "One

cannot be freed from material attraction unless he has complete

understanding of the nature of spiritual life."

 

The goal has to be defined. The first step is a conception of God, and then

to fix your mind on some form of the Supreme. But then to live your life in

relation to the Supreme, not just with information and nothing changes, but

when your heart changes. Then you take the steps and there is some obstacle,

you go on the other side of the obstacle because it's impeding your reaching

the goal. What is that goal? To have a loving relationship with Krsna. If

that desire is not awakened by contact with Srila Prabhupada's books, there

is a major something missing in the heart. Because that's the message

resonating from cover to cover and every bit in between.

 

Even meditation upon the Supersoul. Vaikuntha-drstih, having a clear sense

of what our objective is, what is the goal. Then the steps, "I'm ready, what

is it?" Eagerness to carry out the practical instructions of day to day life

in Krsna consciousness. Fortunately, as the classes have been describing so

wonderfully, our process is so simple. See, kirtan, deity worship, prasadam,

association of devotees--management meetings are something else--[chuckles]

but the process is so wonderful, so simple.

 

One devotee (I'll just end because of the time), one devotee was just

sharing this that they feel so protected by this process of Krsna

consciousness. When they were first introduced to Krsna consciousness, they

were suffering and their suffering has been mitigated. So then they kind of

slackened. Now they are understanding that if I can just pursue the purpose

of Krsna consciousness, whatever is going on, I'll always be sheltered and

protected by Krsna. Feeling safe and protected. It doesn't mean the material

energy stops being the material energy, or the crazy material world stops

being a crazy material world, but one's consciousness protects one from the

terrible features of harassment and torment and pain and suffering.

 

And from spiritual consciousness, the configuration of matter can even

change. That's especially when many, many persons perform the process in a

cooperative manner with one another. I know I became a devotee with this

very simple understanding, I mean living in the temple, is alone what could

I do? In concert, in coordination, in collaboration in cooperation with

others, so many things could happen that alone I couldn't do. And with that

there is some austerity, if you haven't noticed. That austerity is an

austerity that is worth it because then there can be some real change. Not

only our own lives change but it makes an impact on the world.

 

So the goal must be very clearly defined. The other term that is used here

is "param-gatah". When that param-gatah, so Prabhupada's statement once

again is that when there is a very clear understanding of what spiritual

life really is--we may not be there, we're way over here--but that's what

spiritual life really is. There is fullness of spiritual potencies.

 

Jiva Goswami teaches in his Sandarbhas there's no question of understanding

God if one does not accept that God has unlimited and inconceivable

potencies. Such a simple statement. And the other understanding is

abundantly out there: God cannot have any potencies because as soon as there

is potencies and potent then you have two. But everything has to be one, so

the potencies disappear. You just neutered God, he has no potencies, just he

exists. Now be attracted to that. It's not reality and it's not attractive

either.

 

So those who claim to be Brahman realized, like Prabhupada says they go up

the mountain to become Brahman realized and they come back down and open

churches, schools and hospitals. They involve themselves with material

nature because they're naturally servants, but they haven't taken shelter of

the Personality of Godhead who has unlimited spiritual potencies, so they

don't engage in spiritual life, they again engage in material life, being

Brahman realized. And foolish people think, "Oh a great sannyasi, a great

yogi, great this or that." Prabhupada is pulling back the veneer and saying

"Exposed, again taking shelter of the material energy."

 

So the message in the Bhagavatam--I'll end with this--the message in the

Bhagavatam is that one has to be beyond even the scent of attraction for

such enjoyments or situating oneself in the material world in any form or

fashion. In the world as a devotee but not of the world. And that's only

possible if one is fully convinced, fully transformed by spiritual knowledge

that living in a loving relationship with Krsna is our real goal of life.

And living in such a way that that way life is made available to others

simultaneously. Go back to Godhead and take as many souls as wish to go.

 

Anyway there are so many nice things to say about this subject, but I'll

end. Thank you very much, Srila Prabhupada ki jai!

 

(applause)

 

I'm past our time so I'm just going to end so we can carry on with our

schedule. Thank you, Hare Krsna.

 

END.