HH Jayadvaita Swami

[Guest guest]

>From Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir!

 

February 24, 2006

Verse: Srimad Bhagavatam 2.2.22

Speaker: HH Jayadvaita Swami

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yadi prayasyan nrpa paramesthyam

vaihayasanam uta yad viharam

astadhipatyam guna-sannivaye

sahaiva gacchen manasendriyais ca

 

TRANSLATION: However, O King, if a yogi maintains a desire for improved

material enjoyments, like transference to the topmost planet, Brahmaloka, or

the achievement of the eightfold perfections, travel in outer space with the

Vaihayasas, or a situation in one of the millions of planets, then he has to

take away with him the materially molded mind and senses.

 

PURPORT: "In the upper status of the planetary systems there are facilities

thousands and thousands of times greater for material enjoyments than in the

lower planetary systems. The topmost planetary systems consist of planets

like Brahmaloka and Dhruvaloka (the polestar), and all of them are situated

beyond Maharloka. The inhabitants of those planets are empowered with

eightfold achievements of mystic perfection. They do not have to learn and

practice the mystic processes of yoga perfection and achieve the power of

becoming small like a particle (anima-siddhi), or lighter than a soft

feather (laghima-siddhi). They do not have to get anything and everything

from anywhere and everywhere (prapti-siddhi), to become heavier than the

heaviest (mahima-siddhi), to act freely even to create something wonderful

or to annihilate anything at will (isitva-siddhi), to control all material

elements (vasitva-siddhi), to possess such power as will never be frustrated

in any desire (prakamya-siddhi), or to assume any shape or form one may even

whimsically desire (kamavasayita-siddhi). All these expediencies are as

common as natural gifts for the inhabitants of those higher planets. They do

not require any mechanical help to travel in outer space, and they can move

and travel at will from one planet to any other planet within no time. The

inhabitants of the earth cannot move even to the nearest planet except by

mechanical vehicles like spacecraft, but the highly talented inhabitants of

such higher planets can do everything very easily."

 

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(om ajnana, etc.)

 

No more photographs please. In the previous verses we were hearing from

Romapada Maharaja, from Bhakti Charu Maharaja and others about the

transcendentalists who attain liberation by going back home back to Godhead.

Immediately they leave this material body and they go back to Godhead.

 

Now we're hearing about a different group, these are also

transcendentalists, but they don't immediately relinquish their connection

with this material world. Rather they gradually attain liberation. First

they spend some extra time in the higher regions of the material world as

cosmo tourists. They want to see something, they've heard about these higher

planets and they want to see:

 

 

[continues purport] "Since a materialist is generally inquisitive to

experience what is actually in such planetary systems, he wants to see

everything personally. As inquisitive persons tour all over the world to

gain direct local experience, the less intelligent transcendentalist

similarly desires to have some experience of those planets about which he

has heard so many wonderful things. The yogi can, however, easily fulfill

his desire by going there with the present materialistic mind and senses.

The prime inclination of the materialistic mind is to lord it over the

material world, and all the siddhis mentioned above are features of

domination over the world. The devotees of the Lord are not ambitious to

dominate a false and temporary phenomenon. On the contrary, a devotee wants

to be dominated by the supreme predominator, the Lord. A desire to serve the

Lord, the supreme predominator, is spiritual or transcendental, and one has

to attain this purification of the mind and the senses to get admission into

the spiritual kingdom. With the materialistic mind one can reach the best

planet in the universe, but no one can enter into the kingdom of God. Senses

are called spiritually purified when they are not involved in sense

gratification. Senses require engagements, and when the senses are engaged

totally in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, they have no

chance to become contaminated by material infections." [end of purport]

______________________________

 

 

Note that the desires here are very subtle. We're not talking here about

Indraloka, dallying with the Apsaras and enjoying the Nandana-kanana

gardens. We're talking about Mahar-loka and the planets above that. The

engagements there are sacrifice, meditation, samadhi. The inhabitants of

those very high planets are not interested even in heavenly the sense

gratification of Indraloka, what to speak planets like this one, which are

slums.

 

They have very refined consciousness, they're engaged in serving the Lord.

You don't get to the higher planets without service, especially these most

elevated planets. One has to be engaged in service to go there. To attain

the post of Brahma one has to live one hundred lifetimes free from all sins

and perfectly executing the duties of varnasrama. So what kind of elevated

situation are we talking about, very exalted. But still this is the material

world, abrahma bhuvanal loka punar avartinah, still the world of birth and

death.

 

And the great sages and saintly persons who are going to these planets are

going there because they still have some material attachments. Srila

Prabhupada pinpoints that material attachment as being the spirit of wanting

to control, to dominate, to master. Paramesthyam, means the abode of. . .

asta-adhipatyam means lording it over. Adhipatya means control, na ca

suranam cadhipatyam Bhagavad-gita: "I wouldn't be happy even if I got an

unrivalled kingdom and control over everything."

 

So we're talking about control, asta-adhipatyam, eight kinds of mystic

powers. "I can do this, I can do that. I have this kind of control, I have

that kind of control." The whole theme is my power, my power to do this or

my power to do that. And of course the great sages are not simply focused on

these things, they, as we have ordinary facilities that we enjoy, they

automatically enjoy these eight-fold mystic powers. They're just part of

every day life up there. It's part of every day life. But this attachment is

there, "Let me control my mind, let me control my senses, let me control the

powers of material nature." The issue is still control. Up to the point of

Brahma, "Let me be in control of the universe."

 

Because these material desires are there these great sages are still

residents of the material world. Anyabhilasita sunyam, they're not perfectly

pure devotees. Pure devotional service is defined by Srila Rupa Goswami as

"anyabhilasita sunyam." Anya, everything else, other than what? Other than

being predominated by Krsna. The whole mood is "I surrender, you do whatever

you want with me." Not even "Here's what I want to do and I'd to do it for

you." It's not dovetailing our material propensities or material desires,

it's completely "Whatever you want. You are in charge, I'm your servant, you

do with me as you like. I'm constitutionally not a predominator:

 

purusah prakrti-stho hi bhunkte prakrti-jan gunan

karanam guna-sango 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu

 

Bhagavad-gita. Why are we in this material world? Because we are purusus, or

rather we imagine ourselves to be purusas, enjoyers. And because we are

purusa, what is the business of purusa, to enjoy prarktri. What is prakrti,

the product of maya, the illusory energy. So now I can be the purusa, the

enjoyer, I can manipulate the prakrti and enjoy it in different ways. Isvaro

'ham aham bhogi siddho ham, I have these achievements, these perfections, I

can control, I can enjoy. Karanam guna-sango 'sya. . . By connection with

material nature, because I'm trying to enjoy the material nature or control

the material nature, I'm now connected with the material nature and sad asad

yoni janmasu, therefore I have to take birth in different bodies according

to the modes I acquire.

 

So pure devotional service means sunya, no other business but anukulyena

krsnanusilanam, to do whatever will be favourable for the satisfaction of

Krsna. It may or may not be pleasing to me, it may or may not be satisfying

to me, it may be or may not be in accord with what I think I ought to have

or ought to get or ought to deserve, but it's in accordance with what will

please Krsna, that's all. And everything else, sunya zero.

 

Sarvopadhi vinirmuktam, to give up all false designations "I am this, I am

this, I am this, I am this." Savopadhi vinirmuktam tat paratvena nirmalam,

to be situated in pure consciousness, "I am purusa. I am also prarkrti. I am

the energy provided for the enjoyment of Krsna. My business is to act in

that constitutional position - jivera svarupa haya krsnera nitya dasa. I am

Krsna's servant, I have to try to serve Krsna and not try to get anything

for my own enjoyment, whether it's here or up there or anywhere. My whole

business is Krsna service, hrsikesa hrsikena sevanam, I just have to use my

senses to please the senses of Krsna. It's a very exalted position. It's not

such a cheap thing. The spontaneous activities of devotional service that we

find in Vrindavan are going on on that platform. They're not being performed

by exalted materialists who want to please Krsna and still retain some

desire to enjoy sense gratification. The Vrindavan activities are performed

by pure devotees who are on that platform, anybhilasita sunyam, no material

desires, no separate interest, nothing but pleasing Krsna. That is

Vrindavan, that is Vrindavan. Therefore Narottam Das Thakur says:

 

visaya chadiya kabe suddha habe mana

 

When will I give up all material desires for sense enjoyment so my mind will

actually become pure. Pure means no other interest than Krsna. Then I'll be

able to appreciate Vrindavan, then I'll be able to relish what is Krsna

consciousness, what is praharsayisyami sanatha-jivitam, then I'll have the

real happiness, not of anything else but of being completely dedicated to

the service of the Lord.

 

All right, Hare Krsna. Are there some questions or comments. Hari Vilasa

Prabhu?

 

Hari Vilasa Das: When such a yogi takes with him - that's what I understand

- takes with him the materially moulded mind and senses, is there any hope

for them to become purified in the higher planets?

 

Maharaja: Yes, that we're going to read in the coming verses, that he has

the opportunity to associate with such great devotees as Lord Brahma, and

the path is there. He's actually destined for liberation, he's destined for

going back to Godhead, but he's taking his time about it. He's taking his

time about it, he's still loitering in this material world with some idea

that there's something worth sticking around for. Otherwise he could be like

the devotees mentioned in the previous verses who just go. But they have

some idea that something is still here so they're loitering. But we'll find

in coming verses that they'll go because they're engaged in devotional

service so gradually gradually they'll attain perfection, aneka

janma-samsiddhim, after so many births they'll finally attain perfection

and they'll also leave. Is that all right? Yes?

 

Question: If everyone in those planets has the eight-fold mystic powers,

then how are you special? Like everyone here can walk and talk so we don't

think it special, but if someone could fly. . . without a jet then. . . ?

 

Maharaja: If everyone has the eight mystic powers there, then what's so

special? It's not a big deal. This is just common. Just like in America

everyone has a car. So it's not such a great thing, but you have to have a

car, of course. So the upper planers are like that, everybody has the eight

mystic perfections, it doesn't make you a hot shot. It's just like living in

a high class neighbourhood. You may not be living in a greater standard of

living than everybody else there, but nobody else lives in that

neighbourhood except us.

 

Badrinarayana Das: We see these yogis, they have some tinge of desire, they

wanted to see this or that, still they were guaranteed, as you say,

ultimately they will be successful and liberated. And yet we always have

this add-on, we're being admonished, not a pinch of material desire. Why

can't we follow these guy's course: "I'm engaged in devotional service, but

I've got some desires along the way; it's all going to work out, it worked

out for them, why not for me?

 

Maharaja: Why can't we follow their course? We can also. . . .

 

Badrinarayana: Sounds good, sign me up!

 

Maharaja: That's the problem! [laughter] Hey, if I can live in the

first-class prison cell, the one with the gold shackles, you know, sign me

up for a couple of hundred years. They're still thinking it's not so bad,

there's something to enjoy here. We can also do that, we can kick around,

assuming that we're so fortunate that we might actually make it to these

higher planets, which is no mean assumption, but if we were to achieve that,

we can also take that path.

 

One thing is that these higher planets are achieved by tapasya, tapasya, and

more tapasya. These planets are not achieved cheaply. Even to get there with

the idea of staying around and then attaining liberation is not such a cheap

thing. The only opportunity that I see for us, is we that we have to just

surrender at the lotus feet of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and say, "I'm a mess, do

something." Patita-pavana hetu tava avatara, we were hearing the other day,

"You're the uplifter of the most fallen, do something. I'm just at your

mercy. Because by my own powers. . . . "

 

These sages from previous days, what capability they had that just actually

by their high exalted powers or capabilities or consciousness they were able

to elevate themselves step by step by step by step. We were reading even

those who attain liberation, who go directly, how do they do it? They block

all the evacuation hole and they block all the possible exit doors in the

higher part of the body and they direct the prana and push it out-capable

people. What are we going to do?

 

So we are hopeless of achieving anything by our own capability, especially

anything like this. We're not going to go to upar upar planets, higher

higher planets. Who are we kidding? Yes, such little qualifications even to

be in this movement, what to speak of Mahar-loka, Jana-loka, Tapo-loka, so

our only hope is to present ourselves as mercy cases before Caitanya

Mahaprabhu, chant Hare Krsna, depend on his mercy and the mercy of Srila

Prabhupada and the acaryas and beg to be engaged in devotional service.

Otherwise presenting yourself before Caitanya Mahaprabhu and begging,

"Please, please, please get me to Mahar-loka [laughter] so I can make

further advancement. He's not interested, he didn't come for that purpose.

 

Bhakti Charu Swami: Jayadvaita Maharaja, I have a question. Brhad

Bhagavatamrta, second part, which you know very well because you edited it,

actually describes that Gopakumar goes all the way to Brahmaloka, even

becomes Brahma, but then comes back to Vrindavan to get out of the material

nature. So does that imply that to get out of the material universe we have

to come back to the earth planet and then go out of this?

 

Maharaja: Well, the way it's described here in Bhagavatam one can go

directly from the higher planets to the spiritual world. It's described that

Lord Brahma, at the time of annihilation he goes along with the sages. So it

may not be that everyone has to follow the same path that Gopakumara did,

but Sanatana Goswami is pointing out to us the glories of Vrindavan. That

after going all the way to Brahmaloka, Gopakumara goes to a still higher

place, Vrindavan on earth, because that Vrindavan and the Vrindavan in the

spiritual world are only superficially different, but factually identical.

And by the mercy of the Goswamis and the mercy of Srila Prabhupada, we are

brought to Vrindavan, we are brought to Mayapur, we are given the

opportunity to perform devotional service.

 

Even what to speak of Vrindavan, it's mentioned in Bhagavatam that just the

earth itself is so glorious that the inhabitants of Svarga-loka are praying

that, "At the end of our privileged time here, if we have any fragment of

pious activities left, please let us take birth on the earth planet where

there's the opportunity for making progress in devotional service.

 

Of course Bhaktivinoda Thakur goes through that analysis that among the

different planets, the earth is glorious; among the places on earth, India

is glorious; then Navadvipa is glorious; finally Mayapur is glorious. So

such good fortune is being offered to us, but as Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu

said the other day, durdaivam idrsam ihajani nanuragah, we are low on

appreciation. So that appreciation we have to cultivate in the association

of devotees that how fortunate, .what good fortune is being offered to us.

Yes? Whoever, just make a decision. But slow.

 

Visuddha Sattva Das: Hare Krsna, you quoted the famous verse of Rupa

Goswami:

 

anyabhilasita-sunyam jnana-karmady-anavrtam

anukulyena krsnanu-silanam bhaktir uttama

 

So this bhakti uttama is supposed to be uttama-adhikari platform. So any

recommendation how to achieve this pure uttama-bhakti?

 

Maharaja: Is there any clue how to achieve this uttama-adhikari platform?

Sure. Chant Hare Krsna:

 

hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare

hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare

 

And avoid ten offences.

 

Question: You were speaking about the elevated situation of these great

yogis in the upper planetary system, so if a person is on the earth planet

and he is a pure devotee of the Lord, is he more elevated than the persons.

.. . .

 

Maharaja: Oh yes, a person anywhere in the universe who is a pure devotee of

the Lord is more elevated, is more rare than any of the sages and great

yogis in the higher planetary systems. He is described as, what is that,

karmana manasa gira nikhilasyapyavasthasu, jivan-mukta sa ucyate, those

sages are still among the conditioned souls, but iha yasya harer dasye,

anyone even here on earth who is engaged in the service of the Lord, karmana

manasa gira, with his body, mind and words, nikhilasyapyavasthasu, a person

who's completely engaged in that way, jivan-mukta, he's a liberated soul

even in this body. And there's a quote (I don't remember) that it's more

rare to find such a pure devotee than to find such persons as Brahma. Yes?

 

Questioner: Maharaja, it is said that one has to achieve the stage of

sarvopadhi vinirmuktam, tat paratvena nirmalam in order to get out of this

material world. You mentioned like the residents of Vrindavan but it appears

to be impossible, because even in Srimad-Bhagavatam there is the verse that

by rendering service to the pure devotee, hearing Srimad-Bhagavatam every

day, all the troubles in the heart are almost destroyed. It doesn't matter

how much you get purified, there's always some sarvopadhi, some anartha

there.. . .

 

Maharaja: No, it's not that no matter how much devotional service you do,

how much you're engaged, there's always some anartha. By sitting in

Bhagavatam class simply hearing, chanting, practically most of the garbage

is thrown out. Just a little more work you have to do by engaging in

devotional service and you can throw out the rest also. It's not that you

keep maybe two percent, three percent anarthas. No, there's actually a

stage, unknown to us, of pure consciousness in which none of it is left.

That's the Vrindavan stage, that's what's going on in Goloka Vrindavan. It's

not that it's populated with pure devotees who are 97, 98 or 99.5 purified.

They are 100 percent purified. How does one achieve such a situation? Step

by step. You can't fake it, you can't jump, you can't do a somersault and

wind up in Goloka Vrindavan, you have to follow the process, step by step by

patient step, and expect the Lord's mercy. If we try to jump to a higher

position than we're entitled to by our purity of heart, we'll crash.

 

Questioner: What I was told is that little bit of upadhi remaining in the

heart is actually the independence, I don't know. . . .

 

Maharaja: That little bit of upadhi in the heart is actually your

independence. I don't know, I've never heard that.

 

Questioner: I heard from Bhakti Caru Swami

 

Maharaja: Well, what can I say? [laughter] And he just walked out so I can't

ask him what he meant! [more laughter] Well,I'm sure Maharaja knows what

he's talking about, and probably from his perspective it must be completely

true, but our little independence consists of not what we're holding back,

but what we're dedicating. Just like the mother loves the child, she's

dedicating herself, so she has independence, she can toss the child, she can

ignore the child, forget the child, but she doesn't do that. She willingly

dedicates herself, very spontaneously dedicates herself to the child,

although she has the independence not to.

 

Or Prabhupada gave the example, brahmacari, a brahmacari has the capability

for having sex, but he chooses not to use it. So every living entity, every

jiva, has a falldown potency. He has the capability of falling down, but he

doesn't use it. Instead of exercising the capability to pursue his own

interests, he chooses instead of dedicating his full energy to Krsna's

interest, and therefore, he never falls down. So he has identity, he has

individuality, but it's not this false identity, this false individuality.

He doesn't hold back. He just dedicates everything for the service of Krsna

and that's as much as I've understood, I'm sure there's much. . . or as much

as I've heard. I'm sure there is another angle. The acaryas sometimes

explain from different points of view. but when we find Bhakti Caru Maharaja

we can ask him what he had in mind there.

 

Thank you all very much. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

 

Srila Prabhupada ki jai! Samaveta bhakta vrnda ki jai.