HH Prahladananda Swami (2nd class)

[Guest guest]

Live from Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir!

 

March 8, 2006

Verse: Srimad Bhagavatam 2.2.34

Speaker: HH Prahladananda Swami

__

 

 

bhagavan brahma kartsnyena

trir anviksya manisaya

tad adhyavasyat kuta-stho

ratir atman yato bhavet

 

TRANSLATION: The great personality Brahma, with great attention and

concentration of the mind, studied the Vedas three times, and after

scrutinizingly examining them, he ascertained that attraction for the

Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna is the highest perfection of

religion.

 

PURPORT: Sri Sukadeva Gosvami is referring to the highest Vedic authority,

Lord Brahma, who is the qualitative incarnation of Godhead. The Vedas were

taught to Brahmaji in the beginning of the material creation. Although

Brahmaji was to hear Vedic instructions directly from the Personality of

Godhead, in order to satisfy the inquisitiveness of all prospective students

of the Vedas, Brahmaji, just like a scholar, studied the Vedas three times,

as generally done by all scholars. He studied with great attention,

concentrating on the purpose of the Vedas, and after scrutinizingly

examining the whole process, he ascertained that becoming a pure, unalloyed

devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna is the topmost

perfection of all religious principles. And this is the last instruction of

the Bhagavad-gita directly presented by the Personality of Godhead. The

Vedic conclusion is thus accepted by all acaryas, and those who are against

this conclusion are only veda-vada-ratas, as explained in the Bhagavad-gita

(2.42).

 

________

 

 

At the end of the purport, it mentions about veda-vata-ratas:

 

yam imam puspitam vacam pravadanty avipascitah

veda-vada-ratah partha nanyad astiti vadinah

kamatmanah svarga-para janma-karma-phala-pradam

kriya-visesa-bahulam bhogaisvarya-gatim prati

 

That those who are superficially studying the Vedas, they conclude that the

purpose of the Vedas is to attain svarga, the heavenly planets, resulting in

good birth, power, and so forth. They desire sense gratification and opulent

life. They say there is nothing more than this.

 

Lord Brahma was not a superficial student of the Vedas. He concluded that

the purpose of the Vedas was to focus one's attention and to give one's love

to Krsna. That is the purpose of the Krsna consciousness movement.

 

athapi te deva padambuja-dvaya

prasada-lesanugrhata eva hi

janati tattvam bhagavan-mahimno

na canya eko 'pi ciram vicinvan

 

That one gets a little speck, trace of mercy of Krsna, then he can

understand that Krsna consciousness is the purpose of our existence. It is

not that the Hare Krsna movement is some little sect of devotees that's

struggling to survive in the cruel Kali-yuga, trying to become one of the

established religions. Krsna consciousness is not a dharma in the sense of

the established religions. It is the Absolute Truth for all time because no

matter whether there is a Hare Krsna movement and Hare Krsna devotees, Krsna

consciousness is always the Absolute Truth.

 

One time, as I have mentioned before, Srila Prabhupada was speaking in

Durban at a conference and he mentioned that reincarnation, or

transmigration of the self, is a scientific principle. I don't think if you

go to MIT and you try to get a doctorate in transmigration of the soul that

you'll be accepted as a bona fide Ph.D candidate studying the soul

transmigrating from one body to another. It is not generally accepted as

science, but Srila Prabhupada said this is a science.

 

One Indian gentleman immediately objected: "Swamiji, how can you say

transmigration of the soul is a science? It is a Hindu dogma."

 

Srila Prabhupada said, "No it is not a Hindu dogma, it is a science."

 

When Krsna five thousand years ago spoke the Bhagavad-gita, he did not begin

Bhagavad-gita by telling Arjuna, "My dear Arjuna, now I will speak to you

Bhagavad-gita because I am a Hindu god. Now I will speak to you Hindu

philosophy because you are a genuine Hindu. So as all Hindus know:

 

dehino 'smin yatha dehe kaumaram yauvanam jara

tatha dehantara-praptir dhiras tatra na muhyati

 

All Hindus know that they'll have to transmigrate from one body to another.

All Hindus have to become little boys or little girls, then they have to

become youths, then they have to become old, and then, because they are

Hindus, they are going to have to leave their bodies. But don't lament

Arjuna, because luckily, because you're Hindu and all Hindus get another

body at the time of leaving this one. Self-realized Hindus are not

bewildered by these changes. [laughter]

 

This was not what Krsna was telling Arjuna. Five thousand years ago there

was no such thing as Hinduism. Krsna was not a Hindu, nor was Arjuna a Hindu

nor was Krsna speaking Hindu scripture. The fact is, everyone, whether they

be man or woman, Indian or Russian, animal or plant, everybody is changing

from boyhood to youth to old age. And then at the time of death, the soul

leaves the body and gets another body. So this is true for all time for all

people for all places. Therefore, it is a science.

 

Similarly in the Bhagavad-gita, when the Krsna declares:

 

aham sarvasya prabhavo mattah sarvah pravartate

iti matva bhajante mam budha bhava-samanvitah

 

That I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. From me the

entire creation flows. The wise who perfectly know this engage in my

devotional service and worship me with all their heart. It is not a whim on

Lord Krsna's part that he is declaring that he is the Supreme Personality of

Godhead, Bhagavan; that he is:

 

aisvaryasya samagrasya viryasya yasasah sriyah

jnana-vairagyayas caiva sannam bhaga itingana

 

That whatever beautiful things we see here in the material world, men are

attracted to women, generally, and women are attracted to men, generally,.

Kali-yuga, there are no absolute statements [laughter], but why? Because

there are some qualities: beauty or wealth or strength or knowledge or fame

or renunciation, some quality makes one attractive. But how we can conceive

that there's a person who has all the wealth, all the beauty, all the

knowledge, all the strength, all the renunciation, all the fame?

 

We can understand that someone here in the audience is the wealthiest, they

have the most rupees, but surely someone in Bengal is wealthier than they

are and surely someone in India is wealthier than the wealthiest person in

Bengal. And we go on and on and we must admit, we must accept that finally

we'll find the person who is the wealthiest.

 

In Bhagavad-gita Krsna declares that that is he. That he is the most

beautiful, the most strong, the most wealthy. And of course, the

commentators, they declare that Krsna, just like the rest of us, is a little

proud. Krsna has a big false ego like the rest of us. In Bhagavad-gita, in

many places Krsna declares that he is God:

 

mattah paratarah nanyat kincid asti dhananjaya

mayi sarvam idam protam sutre mani-gana iva

 

O conqueror of wealth, Arjuna, all things rest on me just like pearls are

strung on a thread. There is not truth superior to me, Krsna declares, but

the commentators declare that Krsna is wrong, " He wrote a good book or he

spoke a good book, he just had a few mistakes," like the basic principle is

wrong. And there were seven hundred commentators at the time Srila

Prabhupada made his commentation, and most of them, if not all of them

declared that "Krsna is a very nice person, he spoke a very nice book but he

just happens to be in illusion like the rest of us. He is also declaring

himself to be God."

 

Of course, if Krsna is wrong, then his book is useless. And if Krsna's book

is useless, then writing seven hundred commentaries on a useless book is

also useless. And anyone who reads a useless commentary on a useless book,

they are also useless.

 

Therefore, at the very beginning, one has to at least theoretically accept

that Krsna may be the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And if he is the

Supreme Personality of Godhead and we are spiritual beings and because we

are going to live forever, we must have an eternal relationship with Krsna.

It is not that that relationship is ever stopped. It is eternal.

Unfortunately, right now it is a perverted relationship.

 

bhayam dvitiyabhinivesatah syad

isad apetasya viparyayo 'smrtih

tan-mayayato budha abhajet tam

bhaktyaikayesam guru-devatatma

 

That as soon as we want to compete against Krsna, we have a very hard time.

We may be very sincere, we may try very hard, we may have gotten teachers to

instruct us how to become intelligent, wealthy, strong, whatever, we may be

trying since time immemorial to become almost as good as Krsna, but we

haven't made any progress. We've never changed from our identity as being

one-ten thousandth the size of the tip of a hair in size. In other words, no

matter how much our false ego has grown, since time immemorial we ourselves

as spiritual souls have remained exactly the same size.

 

Not only will we remain exactly the same size, but in the meantime, Krsna

has become more strong, more beautiful, more wealthy. In other words, this

competition against Krsna is just a waste of time. Sorry to disappoint

everyone here. [laughter] We don't meant to depress anyone.

 

Krsna is our good friend. He is trying to wake us up: "Jiva jago, jiva jago,

gauracandra bole, wake up sleeping soul," that we are simply living in a

dream, a nightmare, where we are ourselves making some progress. What is

that progress? It is simply focusing our attention and giving our love to so

many material concepts of life.

 

As I mentioned in my last class, we focus our attention on this body and the

subtle mind and our conception of life and imagining it to be ourselves and

imagining that as this body makes progress in this so-called dreamland that

we are making progress.

 

It is just like watching a movie and identifying with your favorite hero or

heroine and believing as the hero becomes famous or wealthy or gets his girl

then we've actually become James Bond or Tarzan or Bugs Bunny or Captain

Kangaroo [laughter], something like that. In a dream, imagining these

things. Then if someone comes to wake us up, we say, "Wait a second, wake me

up when there's a bad dream. Right now I'm having a good time. Don't spoil

the fun." So Krsna consciousness is meant to wake us up to the fact that

this material world is a place of suffering.

 

a-brahma-bhuvanal lokah punar avartino 'rjuna

mam upetya tu kaunteya punar janma na vidyate

 

>From the highest planet down to the lowest all are places of misery wherein

repeated birth and death take place, but one who attains my abode, O son of

Kunti, never takes birth again. In other words, so much advertisement in

modern society that we can enjoy in this material world, we can create

perfect illusion, we, by our effort, we can create a Vaikuntha planet. We

can have so many children as our expansions. We can have so much fame and

popularity, so much happiness in this material world. Simply you have to

work like a dog and then you'll be able to sleep like a bear. You will be

able to have sex like a pigeon. And you'll be able to defend yourself like a

tiger.

 

People believe that this is actually progress because in modern society,

people are like hogs.

 

sva-vid-varahostra-kharaih samstutah purusah pasuh

 

Modern society has put so many hog-like people,

 

sva-vid-varahostra-kharaih samstutah purusah pasuh

na yat-karna-pathopeto jatu nama gadagrajah

 

Those who are like hogs and dogs, camels and asses, they are worshiping the

bigger hogs, camels, dogs and asses. In other words, instead of following

the Vedic acaryas for bringing us back to Krsna, people are following the

hog acaryas who teach us how to become just like a hog.

 

If you go to Vrindavan - I guess many devotees will go to Vrindavan - you

will find the hog, he is the acarya in eating. He lies down in a sewer of

Vrindavan, they are the sanitation department of Vrindavan, the hogs. Their

only payment is unlimited stool. So they lie down in the sewers of

Vrindavan, they open their mouths and everything flows in and they have a

very big simile on their face. They are actually enjoying. [laughter]

 

We've never found a hog being embarrassed of his weight. There is no history

of any hog going on a diet. And no matter how fat the she-hog is, the male

hog is always in love with her. The hog can sleep anywhere. The hog does not

need an alarm clock. And the hog can have sex with anyone and anything,

male, female, even if you are walking by, if the hog winks at you, you

better be careful.

 

So the hog is the acarya, unlimited eating, unlimited sleeping, unlimited

sex life. There is no embarrassment for the hog. There is no education for

the hog. It becomes on the platform of raganuga kama, spontaneous sense

gratification practically from his birth.

 

So this is more or less the purpose of modern education. People going to

college, university, getting their MD, getting their MA, getting their Ph.D.

Why? To become a spontaneous sense gratifier like a hog and they're proud of

it.

 

But the actual acaryas, they begin by teaching us we are not the material

body. It is not a sentiment. It is not an election: "Today I think I'll be

body, and when the body is not so nice, I think I'll become a soul." There

is no choice. We are eternally souls. We can eternally suffer in the

material existence, suffer in the illusion that we are becoming God.

 

"So much is mine today and in the future I'll gain more. He is my enemy and

I've killed him! And my other enemies, they will also be killed! I am the

Lord of everything! I am perfect! I am powerful! And I am happy. I am

surrounded by rich and aristocratic relatives. I will perform some

sacrifice. I will do some charity. I will go to the heavenly planets and

kiss the apsaras. In this way I will rejoice."

 

So everyone in the material world is basically in this dream. Krsna

consciousness, the acaryas, they are meant to wake us up. We are spiritual

beings eternally. We can enjoy spiritually with Krsna through the process of

devotional service, through the process of focusing our attention and giving

our love to Krsna.

 

Why is it during kirtan, during japa our minds are wandering? Because we

have hope that somehow or other we can make an arrangement in the material

world by which we can become happy. Or we have to avoid some situation by

which we'll become unhappy. In the meantime, instead of focusing our

attention and giving our love to Krsna, we are in the past, we are in the

future, we are in so many different places.

 

But the acaryas teach us, if we simply give up this aspiration for making

progress in the material world, simply give up the lamentation over our

inability to become something we can never become, and simply admit our

actual eternal position and try to love Krsna. . . loving Krsna means

whatever energy we presently have, whether we're very big or very small, we

simply dedicate that in Krsna's service for Krsna's pleasure.

 

Not that, "Yes, Krsna is God, I have to admit. Now let me dedicate my energy

in his service. Now I have only have this much and when I dedicate my

energies to Krsna he'll give me that much in return. It's a good deal. Let

me put a dollar or a quarter in the bucket and soon it will grow to a

million for me."

 

No, let me do it, whatever I'm doing, to make Krsna happy. And if I try to

love Krsna, then the result is if Krsna is pleased by attempt to love him,

to serve him, then he will reveal his love that he has for us and then we

will actually become happy.

 

Therefore Caitanya Mahaprabhu has given us a great opportunity by the

chanting of

 

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

 

It's a great opportunity to focus the attention and give our love to Krsna,

but first of all we have to chant Hare Krsna as clearly as possible. As I

mentioned before, our tendency is that we like to get our rounds done as

quickly as possible. Because the mind is wandering here and there, it is

going everywhere, and we are going everywhere with the mind, and therefore,

it is not very enjoyable sometimes chanting Hare Krsna.

 

Therefore we sometimes we chant that famous sound vibration, that famous

mantra:

 

shnik shnik ram ram de de de de

hey kitty kitty he kitty kitty

 

or

 

hare krsna hare krsna rama rama rama rama de de de

hare rama hare rama de de de hare rama hare rama de de de

rama rama rama de de de

shnik shnik rama rama de de de

 

Indeed, our rounds go very quickly that way. And indeed our digestive power

increases. Therefore, our absorption of prasadam increases. But first we

have to chant clearly the Hare Krsna mantra:

 

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

 

Then that is not the end of the process. The next process is we have to

chant to Krsna and to Srimati Radharani asking them to engage us in their

service. It is a prayer directly to them. If we believe that they actually

exist, that they actually hear what we are saying, not that we are chanting:

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Ha. . . re. . . Ha . . . and we're bored

listening to it. Krsna will be bored also. We have to actually chant to

them, asking them to engage us in their service.

 

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

 

Then it becomes interesting because the result of chanting to Krsna, to

Srimati Radharani is that we will actually remember them. We will remember

the deity form, we will remember some description in Srila Prabhupada's

books, something about Krsna we will remember. Then if we do it

enthusiastically the chanting, lovingly, then the result is we will actually

be engaged in devotional service.

 

bhaktya mam abhijanati yavan yas casmi tattvatah

tato mam tattvato jnatva visate tad-anantaram

 

Devotional service means with love. It is not that in the beginning there is

no love. In the beginning there is sraddha, a little bit of love. That is,

as much as we are focusing our attention and trying to do our service with

care and attention, trying to do it lovingly and enthusiastically.

 

Then the result is dadami buddhi yogam tam, Krsna gives us the intelligence

how to do it more lovingly, how to do is more consistently. Then tesam

evanukampartham, that Krsna actually within our heart, he takes away all our

misconceptions that I am this body, everyone else is their body. I have

something other to achieve in this world other than love to Krsna, other

than service to Krsna.

 

All of our misconceptions are taken away and then we will realize, no matter

what happens in this world, we may have good karma, we may have bad karma,

we may have no karma, no matter what happens, I am always Krsna's servant.

And as long as I am Krsna's loving servant, then my life becomes successful.

Without that, no matter what I accomplish in this world, no matter what I

think I've accomplished, whatever I think I haven't accomplished, whatever

problems I may have, whatever glories I think I may have, these things are

simply srama eva hi kevalam, without. . . my pride is simply to please

Krsna.

 

Srila Prabhupada when he was installing the deities of Rukmini-Dvarkadisa,

actually it is Rukmini-Dvarkanatha, in New Dvaraka, California. He was

telling one story. First he started out telling about one great devotee

named Vamsi Maharaja, Vamsidasa Maharaja. Then he started telling about

Sanatana Goswami. He said Sanatana Goswami, he was hanging his deity in a

tree.

 

There is a story how Sanatana Goswami, he was visiting one brahmana's house.

While he was at the brahmana's house, that brahmana had a dream the night

before that his deity, Madanmohan, should be given to this mendicant,

Sanatana Goswami. And Sanatana Goswami also had the same dream. Therefore,

while visiting his house, this particular brahmana offered his deity to

Sanatana Goswami.

 

But Sanatana Goswami said, "My dear brahmana, I am very poor, I have no

place to put the deity, what can I do? All right, I'll take the deity

anyhow."

 

So he took Madanmohan. And Sanatana Goswami at that time, living in

Vrindavan, he had no house, no place to live. He was living underneath a

tree, therefore, he put the deity on the branch of a tree. Every day he

would offer Madanmohan some rotis. Rotis are not like we have here in

Mayapur. They were simply lumps of dough thrown into a fire - not very

delicious. Sanatana Goswami was doing madhukari. He would go house to house

and he would beg some of these rotis. And he would offer his roti to

Madanmohan.

 

Madanmohan, after some time, became very disturbed. He said, "Sanatana

Goswami, everyday you simply offering me this dry roti." He said, "Please,

can you at least give me some salt?"

 

Sanatana Goswami said, "Salt? Today you ask for salt, tomorrow for sweet.

I'm an old man, I can hardly move. Whatever I get, I am offering to you,

kindly accept it."

 

Prabhupada said, "Madanmohan, he had to accept it because Sanantana Goswami

was such a loving devotee." But then Srila Prabhupada said, "But what is

your qualification? What is the qualification of the things that you have?

It is nothing. The real thing is bhakti, that, Krsna, kindly take. I'm

rotten and I'm fallen, but I've brought these things for you. Please

accept." Then Srila Prabhupada began to cry. Then he said, "That will do,

don't be puffed up. Always remember that you're dealing with Krsna."

 

That is my advice to you. Thank you. Srila Prabhupada ki jai!

 

Any questions? Yes.

 

Question: How I increase my determination to chant attentively?

 

visaya vinivartante niraharasya dehinah

rasa-varjam raso 'py asya param drstva nivartate

 

The embodied soul may be restricted from sense enjoyment, though the taste

for sense objects remains. But, ceasing such engagements by experiencing a

higher taste, he is fixed in consciousness.

 

In other words, if we simply make an endeavour and attempt to chant

attentively, then the result is Krsna will help. Krsna is ever grateful for

our efforts. The result is, if he is pleased, he will give us an insight to

that higher taste of what it is like to associate with him directly through

the chanting of the holy names. And by experiencing that higher taste, that

is the impetus to try to get that higher taste more and more and more. Krsna

will give us the determination if we try sincerely to follow the process.

 

vyavasayatmika buddhir ekeha kuru-nandana

bahu-sakha hy anantas ca buddhayo 'vyavasayinam

 

Those who are on this path are resolute in purpose, and their aim is one. O

beloved child of the Kurus, the intelligence of those who are irresolute is

many-branched.

 

So we actually become conscious of Krsna, we actually enter into the

consciousness of remembering Krsna, it is so tasteful, it is so pleasureful,

that we'll want again and again to enter into that consciousness. The

remembrance of this conversation between Krsna and Arjuna, I'm taking

pleasure, being thrilled at every moment, remembering as well that wonderful

form of Krsna, I am being struck with wonder and I rejoice again and again.

 

Is that all right? Anything else? Yes?

 

Question: When we chant, does it matter if we chant Rama or Ram?

 

You'll have to ask Rama which he prefers. But if we're meaning Rama or Ram,

Krsna is very intelligent, he'll know who we're talking to.

 

Anything else? OK, thank you very much.

 

Grantharaja Srimad Bhagavatam ki jai! Srila Prabhupada ki jai!

Gaurapremanande haribol!