HG Makhanlal Prabhu

[Guest guest]

>From Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir!

 

March 2, 2006

Verse: Srimad Bhagavatam 2.2.28

Speaker: HG Makhanlal Prabhu

__

 

 

tato visesam pratipadya nirbhayas

tenatmanapo 'nala-murtir atvaran

jyotirmayo vayum upetya kale

vayv-atmana kham brhad atma-lingam

 

TRANSLATION: After reaching Satyaloka, the devotee is specifically able to

be incorporated fearlessly by the subtle body in an identity similar to that

of the gross body, and one after another he gradually attains stages of

existence from earthly to watery, fiery, glowing and airy, until he reaches

the ethereal stage.

 

PURPORT: Anyone who can reach Brahmaloka, or Satyaloka, by dint of spiritual

perfection and practice is qualified to attain three different types of

perfection. One who has attained a specific planet by dint of pious

activities attains places in terms of his comparative pious activities. One

who has attained the place by dint of virat or Hiranyagarbha worship is

liberated along with the liberation of Brahma. But one who attains the place

by dint of devotional service is specifically mentioned here, in relation to

how he can penetrate into the different coverings of the universe and thus

ultimately disclose his spiritual identity in the absolute atmosphere of

supreme existence.

 

According to Srila Jiva Gosvami, all the universes are clustered together up

and down, and each and every one of them is separately sevenfold-covered.

The watery portion is beyond the sevenfold coverings, and each covering is

ten times more expansive than the previous covering. The Personality of

Godhead who creates all such universes by His breathing period lies above

the cluster of the universes. The water of the Causal Ocean is differently

situated than the covering water of the universe. The water that serves as

covering for the universe is material, whereas the water of the Causal Ocean

is spiritual. As such, the watery covering mentioned herein is considered to

be the false egoistic covering of all living entities, and the gradual

process of liberation from the material coverings, one after another, as

mentioned herein, is the gradual process of being liberated from false

egoistic conceptions of the material gross body, and then being absorbed in

the identification of the subtle body till the attainment of the pure

spiritual body in the absolute realm of the kingdom of God.

 

Srila Sridhara Svami confirms that a part of the material nature, after

being initiated by the Lord, is known as the mahat-tattva. A fractional

portion of the mahat-tattva is called the false ego. A portion of the ego is

the vibration of sound, and a portion of sound is atmospheric air. A portion

of the airy atmosphere is turned into forms, and the forms constitute the

power of electricity or heat. Heat produces the smell of the aroma of the

earth, and the gross earth is produced by such aroma. And all these combined

together constitute the cosmic phenomenon. The extent of the cosmic

phenomenon is calculated to be diametrically (both ways) four billion miles.

Then the coverings of the universe begin. The first stratum of the covering

is calculated to extend eighty million miles, and the subsequent coverings

of the universe are respectively of fire, effulgence, air and ether, one

after another, each extending ten times further than the previous. The

fearless devotee of the Lord penetrates each one of them and ultimately

reaches the absolute atmosphere where everything is of one and the same

spiritual identity. Then the devotee enters one of the Vaikuntha planets,

where he assumes exactly the same form as the Lord and engages in the loving

transcendental service of the Lord. That is the highest perfection of

devotional life. Beyond this there is nothing to be desired or achieved by

the perfect yogi. [end of purport]

 

 

(nama om. . . ., namaste. . . . , om ajnana. . . .)

 

 

So this description of the science of how the devotional yogi enters into

the higher realms of the universe and gradually penetrating and shedding all

material coverings, this description is continued. We have heard some very

wonderful classes this week, descriptions of the process of purification and

yoga.

 

So here we see how the soul is shedding these different coverings or

penetrating through them. As we have heard in previous classes, this is true

science. Devamrta's class was very wonderful in this regard. This is

science, this is hard core science. In fact it is much more substantial

science than what is pawned off or sold in the marketplace today. (Jai

Nrsimhadeva Bhagavan ki jai!) Here's a simple challenge to everyone who has

absolute faith in modern science as it's taught by the professors in the

universities, the Nobel Laureates and all these big, big personalities,

here's a simple test that we can challenge in this way. (Jai Sri Sri Radha

Madhava, asta-sakhi ki jai!, Giriraja Govardhan ki jai!) [Deities' curtains

opening]

 

They're always speaking in terms of new theories: "Well, we just discovered,

we used to believe but now we know." This kind of language. "I think,

perhaps, maybe," this is how modern science is operating. "Perhaps, we

believe." OK, so you believe in your speculations, we believe in Krsna. You

just said "We believe", that means your faith lies on that side, on the

fallible side, our faith lies on the infallible side, our faith lies with

Krsna, our faith lies with the revealed scripture that is descending from

the very source of the creation.

 

Now if we look at a building, a large building, which is going to be the

better source of information, to stand there and just observe and say "I

think it has bricks, I think it has cement, I think it has electrical wiring

and some chandeliers and this and that." You can perceive something with

your eyes but other things you can't see, you can't see exactly how the

plumbing is going in the building because it's hidden, there are other

things you don't know exactly everything about the building, so then you get

into speculation about it. You make some rough idea of the whole thing, how

it's put together. You can perceive only part of how it's put together.

 

However, if you actually want knowledge of how a building is constructed,

if you want scientific knowledge of how the building is constructed, then

you go to the architect and you study the plans. And the plans designed by

the architect, he is the authority, he designed it.

 

So here Prabhupada is mentioning how the Lord is creating these universes by

his will. Simply by the potency of his will alone. So if we want to learn

about the actual nature of the creation, it is beyond the purview of the

senses. We can't see with our limited eyeballs and we can't hear with our

limited ears. If we want to actually know then we have to hear from the

source, from the creator, Krsna. This is Vedic knowledge.

 

This is recorded by the Supreme Lord in the form of Vyasadeva, empowered

Vyasadeva, Srimad Bhagavata Purana, as brilliant as the sun, has arisen in

this dark age of Kali just so we can get light out of it. So if we want

knowledge we go to the source of the creation, not that to that source which

says "Perhaps, maybe, we think, I believe." You see. Because they area

always changing what they believe.

 

My challenge is to say, in America, some of you may know, there's a very

famous, world famous scientific magazine. All the universities publish in

it, professors and scientists they publish in it, it's called Scientific

Amercian. How many of you have heard of it? Just a few. Anyway, it's a world

famous magazine, it's accepted as state-of-the-art authority in the

scientific world. People publish their articles and their theories and they

become famous.

 

My challenge is pick up a thirty-year old copy of Scientific American and go

through it. You'll find how many of the theories are now obsolete, "Oh

well, we don't believe that any more, now we know that actually, well that

wasn't accurate actually, now we know something else."

 

But the Srimad-Bhagavatam is not like that. The Srimad-Bhagavatam is

infallible, it doesn't change every year, every two years, every five years,

every twenty years, no. It is recorded 5000 years ago but it is actually

sanatana-dharma, it's actually eternal knowledge, it's not something new,

something man-made. Some people think perhaps the scripture, atheists think

perhaps the scripture was written down by ordinary men. No, it is descending

knowledge from govindam adi purusam, from Krsna himself, the very source of

creation.

 

So this is incredible science, how the universe is put together and Srila

Prabhupada is elaborating in the purport most amazing knowledge of how the

universe is created, and structured, and he's citing the authority of Srila

Jiva Goswami, how of course. . . many times throughout the Bhagavatam the

process of creation and the structures of the universes are described, at

least three-four times or more the process of creation is described, and the

structure of the universe, how the universes are in the stem of the lotus

flower that is going up to, that Lord Brahma is seated on for example. So

therefore Prabhupada used the word here, or is quoting Jiva Goswami, saying

"clustered" because they are apparently clustered within the stem of the

lotus. And each one of them is separately seven-fold covered.

 

So in understanding the coverings of the universe, a crude example would be

a coconut. Like out here we go these dobs, right these green dobs. So if we

want to have a crude conception of how the universe is created, consider a

dob. First you have that green pulp on the outside. Then you take the knife

and chop away at that and you get down, then there's the hard shell, then

inside the hard shell you have some harder pulp and some softer pulp and

finally on the very inside of the coconut, it's half full of water. It

sounds like the universe, doesn't it? But in this case we see that the green

covering of the outside of the dob is very thick.

 

What Prabhupada is describing here is he's recapping other areas from the

Srimad-Bhagavatam that have described all of these coverings and how they

work. Each one of them is seven-fold covered, so these are like the

coverings of the coconut only much, much thicker and the watery portion is

beyond the seven-fold coverings. Each covering is ten times more expansive,

it's thicker than the others. So ten times, it would be hard to, even if we

drew a cartoon of this concept, if you started at the altar with a section

showing the diameter, and each time you make it ten times wider. And even if

you started with a cartoon of the universe that was only this size, if each

time you make it ten times wider, it would stretch across the whole temple

room. That's just to give you an idea. And each layer is so thick inside of

that with these different substances.

 

The purpose of these coverings are to keep souls within the prison house of

the material nature. Durga with a long a, Durgaa means prison house.

Actually we are all in jail, therefore when we take up Krsna consciousness

we are actually jail-breakers. Srila Prabhupada has come and he has got

these empowered assistants, and Prabhupada is pulling us out, he is

jail-breaking us. That's why maya resists because we're breaking the laws of

material nature so to speak.

 

Here the process of going though the yogic process we have heard in the past

verses, but actually the process for the devotee is basically jail-breaking,

getting out through all these coverings. Many of you have probably seen that

illustration of a devotee sailing through the covering of the universe. It

shows the universe with a blue sky and all the clouds, have you seen that?

Iit shows very graphically a devotee is poking through the covering of the

universe and is reaching towards the spiritual world. That is the business,

this is described here that the devotee is penetrating through all these

coverings and attaining to Vaikuntha. Of course we're interested in Goloka

Vrindavan, or Vraja Dham most specifically.

 

So we are jail-breaking, Prabhupada is taking us out, He is, you could say,

breaking the laws of material nature because he is pulling us straight out

through all these coverings. We don't have to go through all this complex

process of mystic yoga. We are just chanting:

 

hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare

hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare

 

No, if you want to cut through the layers of material nature you're going to

have to chant much louder:

 

hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare

hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare [louder]

 

That's just like taking a knife and cutting straight through all these

layers, you don't have to do these astanga-yoga, the types of sitting

postures like Hiranyakasipu, even what Dhruva Maharaja was doing, we don't

have to do any of these things. That is the mercy of Gauranga Mahaprabhu:

 

Gauranga, Nityananda! [Devotees repeat]

 

That wasn't loud enough!

 

GAURANGA, NITYANANDA! [three times]

 

So Srila Prabhupada is saktyavesa-avatara, fully empowered by Nityananda

Rama, Gauranga Mahaprabhu, coming and pulling us out. It is such a simple

process. That's why the sages were looking forward to Kali-yuga.

 

It's hard to appreciate when we can't breath the air and a bus goes by and a

cloud of smoke comes in your face, you have big rings on your eyes - it's

hard to appreciate. You might think to yourself, "How could the sages have

been looking forward to Kali-yuga?

 

But the answer to this is there's never been any simpler process for going

back to home, back to Godhead. Never was there been any simpler process than

what Srila Prabhupada has introduced for cutting through all these layers.

But we have to take that process, we have to take it. We have to carefully

observe the guru-parampara, we have take shelter of the Vaisnavas. As we see

here such an ecstatic chanting of the holy name, that's very nice, but we

have to learn, always remember to do things Prabhupada's way because he is

the one pulling us out and his disciples are assisting him.

 

That is actually the meaning of that sloka, "nikunja yuno rati-keli

siddhyai," the spiritual master is making tasteful arrangements on behalf of

Sri Sri Radha Krsna, and the disciples of such a fully self-realised soul,

they are assisting him. In this way we are all being brought into the

spiritual world. And as was previously pointed out, there will be another

ISKCON in the spiritual sky. That doesn't mean that you should look for the

oval-shaped lotus sign saying "ISKCON devotees this way," it won't be like

that, it's just automatically we will be routed into that family. Someone

said we're going to be together for a long time so we should learn how to

cooperate together and not quarrel and so forth because we're going to be

together for a long time, this is family, this is Prabhupada's family.

 

We are eternally under his supervision and it's important you understand

that point. There's a hierarchy in the spiritual world. Do you know that?

Radhika is the boss, she is in charge of all the devotees. Nothing happens,

no devotional service happens, that internal potency of Radhika is so

powerful that she is patrolling every detail of devotional service and every

aspect of the pleasure of Krsna. And all the devotees throughout the entire

creation they are existing exclusively for the pleasure of Krsna, that's the

only reason that devotees exist: to increase the pleasure. So who is the

pleasure potency? Radhika. She is giving the potency of all devotional

service through devotees and through every means. Krsna can't even move an

eyebrow without her influence. That's her power. Therefore Srila Prabhupada

said, describing Srimati Radharani he says, "Your Krsna." She owns Krsna,

you see.

 

We have got this full potency, internal potency, this is the cutting, this

is what takes us through, the internal potency:

 

sri krsna caitanya, radha krsna nahe anya

 

Everyone say:

 

sri krsna caitanya, radha krsna nahe anya [Devotees join in]

 

Again with more gusto:

 

SRI KRSNA CAITANYA RADHA KRSNA NAHE ANYA

 

So this Radha and Krsna, Radha Madhava, they have descended as Caitanya

Mahaprabhu.

 

Today is the anniversary of the installation of the Panca Tattva, it was two

years ago. How many of you were here for the installation of the Panca

Tattva. Oh, of course there are many more who are out at the yoga-pith [on

the Navadvipa Mandala Parikrama adhivasa] right now, but that was something

extraordinary. One Prabhu asked me to say something about that advent of the

Panca Tattva.

 

This Krsna consciousness movement as introduced by Srila Prabhupada, it is

not some ordinary thing. This is a lila, try to understand, this is a

pastime, we are all inside a pastime, nitya-lila, gaura-lila, we are inside

of a pastime. ISKCON is the body of Srila Prabhupada, it is the body of Sri

Caitanya Mahaprabhu. When the Panca Tattva advented, it was not some

ordinary thing.

 

I've been practicing Krsna consciousness in this lifetime for 37 years, but

two years ago at the installation I never saw. . . I've been to plenty of

ratha yatras, I have seen lots of dancing and chanting, I have seen lots of

big, big kirtans with thousands of devotees - I've seen lots of enthusiastic

kirtana - but at that installation. . . never did I see the devotees go mad.

That was the first time I've seen, "Oh my god, they've lost it, they've gone

mad!" [Laughs] That's what is described in the sastra. It's real, that is

what Prabhupada is giving. The devotees were chanting:

 

Nityananda Gauranga, Nityananda Gauranga!

 

Chant!

 

Devotees: Nityananda Gauranga, Nityananda Gauranga!

 

Louder!

 

Nityananda Gauranga, Nityananda Gauranga!

 

Much louder!

 

NITYANANDA GAURANGA NITYANANDA GAURANGA!

NITYANANDA GAURANGA NITYANANDA GAURANGA!

 

The Panca Tattva hall was completely enmassed with devotees. I felt like all

sanity had left the room. They were in the ocean, it felt like - of course

we are not qualified, we don't have that level of spiritual vision, ceto

darpana marjanam, bhava maha-davagni nirvapanam. We must first of all purify

the mirror of the heart. We must cleanse the heart first by this chanting

process then we can be qualified to see Krsna and how he is manifest. We

can't see but we can feel!

 

That much Krsna, out of his mercy, and Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Nityananda and

Panca Tattva, they are present, revealing their presence. We can feel their

presence. We can't see how they are moving around, but they're not just

standing on the altar, they are dancing. And I'm not just referring to that

wonderful little small set of Gaura Nitais that goes spinning around in the

kirtana either. I'm talking about the big ones that appear to be standing on

the altar.

 

But especially at the installation, many devotees felt that they were not on

the altar. I mean, they were still standing there, but they were circulating

among the crowd because of the level of absorption in the holy name. This is

like prakata-lila. There's aprakata which is unmanifest and there is prakata

which means manifest.

 

Then when all parties of the different parikrama parties united, something

like more than 5000 devotees down at the Yoga-pitha. Bhaktisiddhanta road is

a very small road, so the crowds were crushing and I was meditating on the

Caitanya Caritamrta how sometimes the crowds were so crushing they were

knocking buildings down. I was smashed up against the wall and I was

thinking, "Well OK, if I get smashed into a pulp, OK, [laughs] at least

everybody is chanting the holy name, I'll leave my body in a great ocean of

the Holy Name. Very ecstatic and it thoroughly seemed like more than just

the Gaura Nitais being carried on the palanquin, it felt like the giant

Gaura Nitai were moving amongst us.

 

So that kind of potency, that kind of feeling, "My God this Krsna

consciousness movement is spreading all over the world." Because Prabhupada

described this temple that we are building, this grand temple, it is like a

beacon, like a lighthouse broadcasting all over the world.

 

Jayapataka Swami mentioned this morning how the parikrama has spread its

spiritual potency all over the planet. That is the internal potency. That is

the superior energy. The inferior energy can't do that. Radio waves are

inferior energy, they have limited jurisdiction. Radio wave, crackling

starts and then it fizzles out. But superior energy is not like that,

internal potency. This chanting of Hare Krsna is under the internal potency.

Thus it is not subject to the limitations of time and space.

 

If you could see the planet, how much chanting is going on. Twenty-four

hours a day, three hundred sixty-five days a year, all over the world

devotees are chanting Hare Krsna. And if you could see how that sound is

travelling all over the planet through the ether. We see how sound is

carried in ether. If you could see that, let's say you were to do it with

computer graphics, it would be like a ball of golden twine winding all

around, effulgent golden twine. Because the sound keep going because it is

not subject to limitations of time and space. So it keeps traveling. Thus

the ether is purified.

 

All the bad vibrations of sinful life, [makes harsh sounds] the rock 'n roll

music, all this nonsense contaminates the ether, but the chanting of the

holy name is purifying like anything. That is spreading all over the planet,

not only planet but actually tribhuvana, bhur bhuva svaha, upper, middle,

lower planetary systems also, it is traveling without restriction, the sound

that is generated by this sankirtana movement:

 

Nitai Gauranga! [Devotees repeat]

 

Ah, you're catching on.

 

Nitai Gauranga! (x 4, with devotees repeating]

 

This travels all over the three worlds, not only all over this planet, all

over the three worlds.

 

So we should try, we must, if we want to be fully successful in this Krsna

consciousness movement, we must carefully adhere to the guru-parampara. We

must not concoct anything. We must stick with the Founder-Acarya Srila

Prabhupada's programme carefully. We must dance the way Prabhupada wants us

to dance, we must sing the way Prabhupada wants us to sing. Of course, like

the guru-puja, Maharaja's kirtana was ecstatic, melodious, very sweet, very

nice kirtana. Kirtana should always be melodious. It should not be "Hare

Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare" [very fast] Sometimes we hear things

[repeats very fast], does that sound melodious to you? These are deviations.

We need to know that.

 

If we want to get this full benefit, if we want to get out of this material

world, we must be careful not to deviate from the way Prabhupada has taught.

Because those of us who took direct initiation from Srila Prabhupada, we're

getting old. And after some time we will all leave the planet also,

therefore the standards that Prabhupada has given, how to dance, like this.

But I see more and more concoctions entering into ISKCON, this is dangerous.

 

The other night in the Panca Tattva hall there were a bunch of devotees, a

bunch of men, they held hands somewhere down on the floor. They were holding

hands in a circle, sort of a flower-like formation and then they started

spinning around in a circle. And they were not chanting Hare Krsna. This is

forbidden by Prabhupada. This kind of concoction is forbidden. What were

they doing? Polishing the floor with their rear ends. Ask any disciple of

Prabhupada whether that would be tolerated in his physical presence, ask any

sannyasi, guru, ask whether such a thing would be tolerated in the physical

presence of Prabhupada.

 

Once I was present in Chicago, Illinois, US, the central US, deity

installation, Kisora-Kisori. And there were at least five hundred devotees.

In those days, 1975, five hundred devotees was still a lot of devotees to

gather in one place. Maybe it was more, maybe it was 800 devotees. It was a

large temple room, at least this size and it was completely full. So it may

have been more than 500 from all over the United States and other places in

the world.

 

A huge roaring kirtana was going on, but Prabhupada stopped the kirtana

because the devotees, the brahmacaris, it was the Radha Damodara Party, all

the buses of the Radha Damodara party had come together. Tamal Krsna

Maharaja's idea was offering 108 shaved heads for Prabhupada, initiation. Of

course some of them blooped days later. But the whole idea was it was a big,

big thing that the Radha Damodara parties had gathered from all over America

and big, big kirtan. But they were dancing weird, like boxing or something.

And Prabhupada stopped, he gave the order and stopped the kirtana which was

like stopping ten thousand freight trains. Prabhupada stopped it, he said

no, then he imitated the devotees, not like this, like this. And he made the

devotees go back to the way he trained the devotees in 1966. And he made

them go back to that in 1975. But it didn't last very long, why, because of

the passion, they wanted to do all these things. The men started, then the

ladies imitate.

 

You should dance parampara, you should meditate on being inside of the

pastimes of Gauranga Mahaprabhu. You should meditate, that's Vaisnava. While

you're chanting you should think about Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu, you

should think about the sankirtana party. Even while you are chanting you

should meditate that you are part of this nitya-lila. That is Vaisnava

meditation and dance for the pleasure of the deities, for the pleasure of

Krsna, not for your sense gratifications. If you dance for the pleasure of

the Deities, then automatically your senses will be satisfied. That is

watering the root of the tree, automatically there's no suffering in this

world.

 

[Two pigeons are jostling in the chandelier] Some fighting is going on it

looks like. [laughter] When you come, we should not be like that. We should

not be like that. They are in Krsna's temple and they are fighting or

something, no, no worse yet.

 

Anyways, we should be careful. We come to Krsna consciousness and then we

should not be like these pigeons. We should do things properly in Krsna's

temple. We should learn how to do everything. . . otherwise, you can come

back and take birth as a pigeon in Krsna's temple. That risk is there, that

risk is there. Listen carefully, execute Krsna consciousness very carefully

and always chanting with enthusiasm and dancing in a way that is pleasing to

Srila Prabhupada and the previous acaryas.

 

hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare

hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare

 

hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare

hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare

 

OK, thank you very much, anyone have any questions? OK. Srila Prabhupada ki

jai! Jagad-guru Srila Prabhupada ki jai! Grantha-raja Srimad Bhagavatam ki

jai! Gaura premanande, haribol!