HH Devamrta Swami

[Guest guest]

Live from Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir!

 

February 15, 2007

Verse: Srimad Bhagavatam 3.1.16

Speaker: HH Devamrta Swami

__

 

svayam dhanur dvari nidhaya mayam

gata-vyatho 'yad uru manayanah

sa ittham atyulbana-karna-banair

bhratuh puro marmasu tadito 'pi

 

TRANSLATION: Thus being pierced by arrows through his ears and afflicted to

the core of his heart, Vidura placed his bow on the door and quit his

brother's palace. He was not sorry, for he considered the acts of the

external energy to be supreme.

 

PURPORT: A pure devotee of the Lord is never perturbed by an awkward

position created by the external energy of the Lord. In Bhagavad-gita (3.27)

it is stated:

 

prakrteh kriyamanani gunaih karmani sarvasah

ahankara-vimudhatma kartaham iti manyate

 

A conditioned soul is absorbed in material existence under the influence of

different modes of external energy. Absorbed in the false ego, he thinks

that he is doing everything by himself. The external energy of the Lord, the

material nature, is fully under the control of the Supreme Lord, and the

conditioned soul is fully under the grip of the external energy. Therefore,

the conditioned soul is fully under the control of the law of the Lord. But,

due to illusion only, he thinks himself independent in his activities.

Duryodhana was acting under such influence of the external nature, by which

he would be vanquished at the ultimate end. He could not accept the sound

advice of Vidura, but on the contrary he insulted that great soul, who was

the well-wisher of his whole family. Vidura could understand this because he

was a pure devotee of the Lord. In spite of being very strongly insulted by

Duryodhana's words, Vidura could see that Duryodhana, under the influence of

maya, the external energy, was making progress on the path toward his own

ruination. He therefore considered the acts of the external energy to be

supreme, yet he also saw how the internal energy of the Lord helped him in

that particular situation. A devotee is always in a renounced temperament

because the worldly attractions can never satisfy him. Vidura was never

attracted by the royal palace of his brother. He was always ready to leave

the place and devote himself completely to the transcendental loving service

of the Lord. Now he got the opportunity by the grace of Duryodhana, and

instead of being sorry at the strong words of insult, he thanked him from

within because it gave him the chance to live alone in a holy place and

fully engage in the devotional service of the Lord. The word gata-vyathah

(without being sorry) is significant here because Vidura was relieved from

the tribulations which trouble every man entangled in material activities.

He therefore thought that there was no need to defend his brother with his

bow because his brother was meant for ruination. Thus he left the palace

before Duryodhana could act. Maya the supreme energy of the Lord, acted here

both internally and externally. [End of purport]

 

(Invocatory prayers)

 

 

Devamrta Swami: An essential understanding of the material and spiritual

reality is that there are two different types of illusion. There is the

maha-maya and there is the yoga-maya. In this departure of Vidura from his

brother's palace, you will see the different realities that are available to

the living entity because of his choice how to relate to Krsna, how to

become absorbed. "Shall I be under the shelter of the internal energy, or

shall be under the shelter of the external energy?" You have under the same

scene persons who are of the same family, but they are of different

shelters. This point is being made from the very beginning of the chapter.

 

When you hear about this momentous incident of Vidura's sudden departure you

have to balance or switch or see both together: the workings of the internal

energy of the Lord and the workings of the external energy.

 

The chapter begins with this point, Vidura quitting the prosperous home of

his family, tyaktva sva-grham. Why go away from a prosperous home? Why

should he do that? Then, besides looking at the material prosperity, the

opulence and the refined orderliness of a Vedic home, we have to understand

the home of Vidura, being the home of the Pandavas, is so dear to the Lord.

That is the next point. How can Vidura go away from a house that is

particularly favoured by the Supreme Lord? Of course Vidura is related to

both Dhrtarastra's side and the Pandavas' side. He had access to both homes.

Seeing that he had that access, why would he go away from such a situation?

 

Let us look at the reality of the Pandavas' home. The Lord himself

considered that that home is identical with me. The Lord would function as a

minister in that home of the Pandavas. He showed partiality toward the

Pandavas' house, yet he showed no such favourable partiality to the home of

Duryodhana. Therefore, why would Vidura want to leave such a house or such

an opportunity to be in a place, to visit a place that the Lord considered

as dear to him as his own self?

 

Naturally, Pariksit Maharaja is eager to hear about all this. We must always

identify that dynamic of eagerness in the Bhagavatam. And indeed, that

eagerness in the audience of the Bhagavatam is what allows understanding.

 

This is a point that is very difficult for a mundane rationalist to

understand. How it is that subjective factors such as eagerness and your

pleasing the speaker of the Bhagavatam have to do with understanding? After

all, you have your rational, cognitive faculties. You have your ability to

partake of an academic education to exercise your brain to its limit. Some

brains are smaller, some brains are bigger. Some intellects are fortunate,

some intellects are unfortunate. Isn't that all that has to be taken into

account? How can you handle this Bhagavatam approach in which subjective

factors are all important in understanding the topmost science?

 

We're going to hear that Sukadeva Goswami is pleased, "pritatma", by

Pariksit Maharaja. Therefore, he is going to deliver the goods, so to speak.

Sukadeva Goswami is "subahu-vit, he is completely expert at everything.

Srila Prabhupada once commented how does a devotee become expert in

everything? Because he knows Krsna, who is the source of everything. And in

the process of serving Krsna, the devotee develops so many abilities.

Because of Pariksit Maharaja having pleased Sukadeva Goswami, and because of

Pariksit Maharaja's eagerness, this Bhagavatam history is being presented.

 

Amidst the glories of the Pandavas' residence, which the Lord identified as

his own, in fact, in the purport Srila Prabhupada mentions that the home of

the Pandavas' was as good as Vrndavana. This is a general statement of the

Supreme Absolute Truth. Of course we know that if you penetrate into the

varieties of the spiritual world then Vrndavana is special. Nevertheless the

general point is made that Vidura is in one reality; Dhrtarastra, Duryodhana

is in one reality even though they're in the same scene. This kind of vision

is impossible for a materialist. That is why Krsna says in Bhagavad-gita:

 

yesam tv anta gatam-papam jananam punya-karmanam

 

Only those who have made a complete stop to sinful activity and who have

some kind of fund of pious activities can take to devotional service and

stick to it. It is not that by some kind of material qualification you can

approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

 

This taboo is difficult for mundaners to understand. They are thinking,

"What does my attitude have to do with what I can understand? You are just

throwing in our path religious taboos which confuse people and block the

natural development of human progress through the great application of our

intellect. As soon as you say there is a Supreme Lord, as soon as you say

there is a spiritual reality, the spiritual energy, you have stopped all

human inquiry because there is no way that with the human intelligence the

spiritual reality can be verified. Therefore as soon as you talk about the

spiritual reality, you have stopped human progress." This all makes sense,

yes? [chuckles]

 

Now those who are bhaktas, devotees of the Lord, are intrigued by Krsna's

energies. You cannot be a personalist without accepting the potencies of the

Lord. Because the Supreme Personality of Godhead has potencies, therefore he

is a person. Please think about that. You are a limited person; you have

various energies, you have various abilities. Similarly the Supreme Lord has

unlimited potencies. The devotee tries to understand the various potencies

of the Lord, how they are acting and in that way the devotee verifies the

personal existence of the Lord. He connects the potencies to the person.

 

In this way the devotee is not confused by the actions of the external

energy, the actions of the internal energy. All the energies are harmonized

in their source, in Krsna, and because the devotee is doing devotional

service, he can see those energies and their interplay. Otherwise, existence

is very bewildering.

 

Just take this situation that Vidura is in. The verse today describes, he is

pierced by arrows through his ears. Please visualize that, this very vivid

language of the Bhagavatam. You just try to see someone shooting arrows into

your ears. Naturally you are afflicted to the core of your heart. So Vidura

concluded, "Duryodhana is speaking like this; there is no point in me

sticking around." He quit the palace and he was not sorry. He understood,

"This is all the workings of the external energy for Duryodhana, but for me,

I see a silver lining in the cloud. I see a chance to get away from palace

intrigues and travel exclusively depending on the Supreme Lord."

 

Now you may say, but you just spoke out the Pandava scene was so fortunate,

the Lord considered their house his own. Why would Vidura leave that area

where he had access to the Pandavas' house? Why is he talking about palace

intrigues? Why, you're going to find out in the future, Vidura considers

himself impious and unfortunate because he is related to Duryodhana and

Dhrtarastra. He feels by their bad association he has lost the qualification

to associate with Krsna. Therefore when he leaves the palace and goes on

pilgrimage, he will not seek out Krsna directly because he considers himself

unfortunate and impious.

 

Once again we have the interplay of the material and spiritual energies,

interplay according to where you are situated, how you are seeing the

reality of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. A devotee is skillful. This

is the highest technology, to see these energies of the Lord acting.

Otherwise you can say, "Vidura, he has gone through a horrible situation. He

is spoken to in such horrible words. He has to suddenly leave. What is the

good of this?" Without superior vision, we cannot understand anything.

 

Even in material life, so called good luck, so called bad luck, who can say?

The material energy is difficult to understand without a spiritual person

giving you insight and the spiritual energy is also even more difficult to

understand without your doing devotional service and a spiritual person

giving you insight.

 

I will give you an example from my own family history about how something

that materially looked very bad turned out to have limited material good. It

is an amusing story, but it shows you how the potencies of the Lord act in

various ways. In this case, it's certainly the external energy of the Lord.

 

My father told me this story. This is back in the 40's near the end of World

War II. He had just finished high school and he decided he was going to be

an army pilot because in those days the Air Force was part of the army. So

he took a test and he came out number one in New York City. Being a young

guy, 18 years old, it was going to be an exciting life flying in planes,

combat, "I'll develop valuable skills and when the war is over I'll be a

pilot for a commercial airline."

 

He had all these big dreams. The army gathered all the top scorers on the

test for pilot and they brought them to one place. They took every one of

the pilot candidates aside onto a bus and sent them off to the pilot

training school. My father was sitting there. "What's going on? I'm ready

for action, I'm ready to fight for the country, the glory of being a pilot.

.. . ." And so he went and asked the commanding officer, "When am I being

deployed? When's my bus coming?" They looked at him and said, [clears throat

several times] "Err, we don't have any more room in the army right now for

pilots of your colour. [laughs] But we do have many opportunities to be a

cook." [laughter]

 

My father was eighteen years old, he was quite feisty. Naturally he was very

angry, "What do you mean? I was told I was number one in the whole city on

the test!"

 

Again the commanders looked at him, "You don't understand, we just don't

have any need for pilots of your background." So my father asked to speak to

the number one army person. He went and in and said, "You know, I think I'd

rather go fight for the Germans." [laughter] Naturally the American army

officers were horrified, "How could you say such a thing?"

 

"Yes, I would rather fight for Hitler." This was like maha-aparadha to say

such a thing. [laughter] They asked why. He said at least the Nazis are

honest.

 

So he was sent to be a cook, and the others of the right material

designation were sent to pilot school. One year later, after the war ended,

my father found out all those pilot candidates were suddenly pressed into

the infantry because the Battle of the Bulge had broken out, the Germans had

made a counteroffensive. They never made it to pilot school. They had to go

to the infantry and 98% of them never came back from the war.

 

So good luck, bad luck, these are the workings of the external energy. How

can we try to understand the spiritual energy with our tiny brains when even

the way the material energy works is bewildering. Generally when there are

upsetting or confusing material events materialists say this is the proof

there is no God. Even my father said he had that attitude: "Why did God let

this happen to me? My parents raised me as a God-fearing Christian. Just

see, I was number one in the whole city and I was discriminated against." So

he used that as a reason not to accept the existence of God.

 

What you find today is that in the so-called wealthy nations of the world--

of course that list is changing due to the ascendancy of China and India--

but in these traditional wealthy nations, there is a big upsurge this last

year of propaganda that religion is ruining the world. The reason given is

"Look at the situation in the Middle East. You have people who fanatically

pursue religion to such an extent that they crash planes into buildings,

there are suicide bombers. Now it's time for every thinking person to wake

up and see that religious faith is the greatest factor for disturbance

individually and socially in this world."

 

So much propaganda has been released this past year making this point. There

are top selling books are making this point: religious faith is a hazard.

And if you find yourself to have some kind of religious sentiment, the media

is now offering you a plausible alternative: "You want to be religious? Just

accept that God is a mystery, no one can know him. Therefore, everyone is

just looking at this mystery in different ways. So they should all just

agree that God is a mystery and leave it at that. It is not so much

important what your scriptures say. What is important is acceptance of the

mystery. What is important is the meaning that acceptance of the mystery

gives to your life and the sense of community and love you get by sharing in

the mystery. This is the best it can get for all you religious believers.

But beyond that, how can you push religion to any deeper goal? It's not

possible and by your doing that you are disturbing the whole peace of and

economic development of the world."

 

This is what is going on. We should be aware. We can make an environmental

scan and this is what is happening right now. Just like Vidura is giving

advice before he was thrown out of the palace. He gave advice based on what

was around him and what was going on within his own camp. He said, "Around

you don't you see there is Bhima breathing heavily like a snake, so angry,

ready to take action to get revenge? There is Yudhisthira, he has no enemy,

yet he's been mistreated in such a way. Then, who is the deva of the

Pandavas and their friends and family? It is Krsna himself. Who can defeat

Krsna? So we scan the environment, what do we see, Dhrtarastra? We see a

very inauspicious situation for you to continue on this path. Now let's do

an organizational scan of what is happening within your own house. You are

maintaining offence personified, you are maintaining this Duryodhana. He is

going to destroy everything. Looking within your own organization, your own

camp, you've got to toss him out before it is too late."

 

But of course we know Dhrtarastra is blinded by his unlawful desires. He was

treating his son like he was infallible even though his son is envious of

Krsna. "What's the big deal," a person today might say, "Just because

Duryodhana is envious of Krsna why does this whole war of Kuruksetra have to

be just because Krsna is partial to one camp and not the other?"

 

That question actually involves is the Absolute Truth personal or

impersonal? If you are just going to have religion and theology about the

"mystery", just recognize the mystery and your life will have meaning,

you'll never be able to understand the so-called partiality and impartiality

of the Supreme Lord. Once you accept the Supreme Absolute Truth is personal,

that means the Lord favours his own--but everyone has the chance to be his

own. He makes that point clear in Bhagavad-gita. Because there is no

understanding of God and no understanding of the Lord's energies, therefore

materialistic persons, immediately, when there is a great catastrophe, they

say "Just see, where was God?"

 

One quite famous spokesperson of neo-atheism, he says, "Look at New Orleans.

A whole city wiped out, a million people homeless, so many people killed.

Why didn't God warn them?"

 

A poll has shown that 80% of the survivors of New Orleans say the

catastrophe increased their faith in God. The atheistic preachers say this

is a symptom of madness in the nation. "Who warned them that the storm was

coming? It was science. Did God come and say 'Hurricane Katrina is coming'?

No. And why did God let elderly people drown, babies drown? Just the fact

that one baby drowned shows that there is no God."

 

Yet, they claim, the madness of religion goes so deep, that even after being

wiped out, losing all their possessions, people say their faith in God has

increased and they refuse to look at all those who lost their lives. "Where

is God for the ones who lost their lives?" That is their so-called

challenge. They say because they cannot understand there is an external

energy and an internal energy.

 

But bewilderment is a fact of life both in the material world, and even in

the topmost region in Goloka Vrndavana. This bewilderment caused by the

different energies of the Lord reminds me of what happened when Nanda

Maharaja came back from the kingdom of Varuna. He had seen Varuna worshiping

his son, glorifying his son. Nanda Maharaja had also seen the wondrous

opulence of Varuna's kingdom. When Krsna came out of the water back onto

land, Nanda Maharaja began talking with the Brijabasis, the cowherd men,

telling them what happened: "Varunadeva was glorifying my son, worshiping my

son. I've seen such opulence!"

 

Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur says that actually Nanda Maharaja, because he

is under the influence of yogamaya, he is considering himself an ordinary

person. He was thinking, "I have seen opulence such as I have never seen

before. I have seen majesty that is superior to Vrndavana." He's feeling

that way while thinking "Why was Varuna glorifying my son in that way?" In

other words, Nanda Maharaja never took leave of thinking Krsna is his son.

 

But by the influence of the lila-sakti, the cowherd men, the gopas, began to

speculate, "Maybe Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead! Nanda

Maharaja, you told us before that Garga Rsi said you have a son who would be

like Narayana. It could be that your son is Narayana! It just could be and

if that is so he should give us a benediction because after all in this

village we're all related. So since Krsna's your son and we're all friends,

and we're related in a village relationship, a family relationship, we're

all tight with you, your Krsna should give us a benediction."

 

They made a list of what they wanted. [laughter] One said, "I want mukti!"

[laughs] Another said, "I want Vaikuntha, I want to see what it's like to be

a resident of Vaikuntha."

 

Krsna is watching all this and he's thinking very deeply. First of all Krsna

is always eager to reveal the glories of the spiritual world. That eagerness

is for all his parts and parcels. But especially, of course, it's for his

pure devotees, and certainly it's for his most beloved devotees in

Vrndavana. Krsna is thinking deeply, "They, by their very position in

Vrndavana, are far beyond mukti, they are far beyond Vaikuntha. They know

this inherently by their very position, but still I see they want some

direct experience of mukti, impersonal Brahman. They want some direct

experience of Vaikuntha. All right, I should fulfill their desires in such a

way that they will taste the supreme sweetness of Vrndavana Dham and they'll

know there is nothing sweeter than that." Krsna is thinking to himself and

speaks a very interesting verse which points out the interplay, the dual

existence of the material and spiritual energies:

 

jano vai loka etasminn avidya-kama-karmabhih

 

People wander around in life through various superior and inferior stations.

They have no knowledge, they are driven by kama and therefore they perform

so many activities.

 

This is Krsna speaking beautiful perfect double talk. He's referring to the

conditioned souls and his own Brijabasis. What is the nature of material

nature? Queen Kunti also spoke a similar verse:

 

bhave 'smin klisyamananam avidya-kama-karmabhih

 

Prabhupada said those two words "bhave 'smin" and then "kama-karmabhih",

those two lines contain the whole history of human existence. Within this

material world what's going on, just a struggle, and what powers that

struggle? Kama, nescience, ignorance, lusty desire, therefore there are so

many activities. Once on a morning walk when Srila Prabhupada was repeatedly

quoting this verse and elaborating on it, His Holiness Sripad Bhaktisvarupa

Damodara Swami turned to Srila Prabhupada and said, "You know, Srila

Prabhupada, it's quite obvious that scientific advancement simply means

increasing bodily demands." A very powerful point for those who have a

mistaken understanding of what is progress. Krsna is saying, "People are

wandering through various stations in life. They don't know their

destination."

 

How can you live life without understanding where you are going? How many of

you flew here with no knowledge of your destination, you just got on a plane

and you happened to come to Mayapur? Yet we are living in a world where

people are performing so many activities and they don't know their future

destination. This is a great tragedy and this wrenches the heart of a

Vaisnava. How can you live without knowing what your destination is?

 

I heard Srila Prabhupada speaking a very interesting psychological point

that a great mistake is to equate changes of the body with betterment. When

you are little you think when I am older, things will be better, when I

become I teenager I'll be free. When you are a teenager, you think when I am

in my twenties, I'll be free. Then you have to work so hard and you think

when I'm in my fifties or sixties I'll retire. Then things will be better.

Then what happens when you retire? Your body is racked by so much pain, old

age is there, what do you think? Then you think if I could just die, that

will be better. [laughter]

 

Throughout all the bodily phases, there is the conditioned psychology of

thinking the next change of the body will be better Like Queen Kunti says,

"bhave 'smin klisyamananam", there's always going to be a struggle. Progress

is only when you stop the change of body.

 

Krsna is speaking about that illusion for materialists, but he's also

talking about the yogamaya illusion of his own Brijabasis. "They are here

with me in Vrndavana. They are not aware of the unsurpassable nature of

their position. All right, I'll show them."

 

First Krsna momentarily separated the cowherd men from Vrndavana and merged

them into Brahman. Generally, in Brahman, you've lost your identity, how do

you get out? Krsna by his own personal power put them into Brahman and then

pulled them out. Next he took them to Vaikuntha. He showed them Vaikuntha

and again by his personal power he then pulled them out of Vaikuntha and

then he showed them Maha Vaikuntha, Goloka Vrndavana. The cowherd men were

overjoyed upon seeing Goloka Vrndavana. What gave them pleasure ? "Look,

Krsna is showing us Goloka Vrndavana, the topmost planet of the spiritual

world! It looks just like our home! [laughter] It looks so familiar! Wow,

just think about that!"

 

Then Krsna also showed them some things just to create some flavour for the

pastime. He showed himself in Maha Vaikuntha surrounded by the personified

Vedas offering prayers. So what did the cowherd men think about that?

Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur says the cowherd men went, "Who are these

strange effulgent beings? That is Krsna but he is not approaching us like

our friend, he's not coming towards us, embracing us. In fact, he doesn't

even seen hungry and thirsty. How can Mother Yasoda live without feeding

him?"

 

And then again Krsna employed his yogamaya and brought them back to Bhauma

Vrndavana. In this way the Lord clearly established Brahman is dependent

upon him, Vaikuntha is dependent upon him, but Krsna becomes dependent on

the premis. He becomes dependent on those who have pure love for him.

 

In this way Krsna shows you there is illusion in the spiritual world. There

is illusion in the material world. Your job is not to become all-knowing,

your job is simply to become dependent on Krsna. This is what Vidura will

realize as he's wandering through the holy places of pilgrimage. He is going

to conclude that this dependency on Krsna is greater freedom than so-called

freedom within the material energy. Thus we can clearly see how the Lord's

energies interact, how his different devotees respond to those energies, we

can see the sorrowful plight of those suffering under the material nature.

 

Now such organized atheistic propaganda is going on: "Or if you can't handle

that, then religion is just embracing the ultimate mystery. Just be

satisfied with that. Then there will finally be peace in the world, there'll

be no more religious warfare, there'll be no more strife caused by so much

sectarianism. In this way, economic development and sense gratification can

proceed smoothly."

 

That is the whole point: bhave 'smin klisyamananam avidya-kama-karmabhih.

How can we have peace to enjoy our senses? There will never be any peace.

Vidura understood that "My brother is condemned. He is facing ruination

because of his activities. There is no point in me sticking around."

 

As devotees of the Lord in the line of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, we must have

this realization. There is no point in our thinking progress comes from

material activities. We quit that understanding and we are endeavouring to

live in this world in such a way that our spiritual realization is

maximized. We don't want religious belief. We want actual experience of the

Supreme Personality of Godhead and his spiritual energies. Through Lord

Caitanya, that experience is made available. We don't have to say, "Oh, it

is just a mystery that is giving my life meaning. It's just all about

communal love while we're experiencing the great mystery." We don't have to

say all that. Through disciplic succession, because of the pleasing

activities of devotional service, the devotee of Lord Krsna, worshipping

Krsna through Caitanya Mahaprabhu, actually gets experience of the spiritual

reality and can understand how all the different energies of the Lord

operate.

 

We'll stop here. Thank you very much. Hare Krsna.

 

[Applause]