arjuna uvāca
kathaḿ bhīṣmam ahaḿ sańkhye
droṇaḿ ca madhusūdana
iṣubhiḥ pratiyotsyāmi
pūjārhāv ari-sūdana
Translation
Arjuna said: O killer of enemies, O killer of Madhu, how can I counterattack with arrows in battle men like Bhishma and Drona, who are worthy of my worship?
Purport
Respectable superiors like Bhishma the grandfather and Dronācārya the teacher are always worshipable. Even if they attack, they should not be counterattacked. It is general etiquette that superiors are not to be offered even a verbal fight. Even if they are sometimes harsh in behavior, they should not be harshly treated. Then, how is it possible for Arjuna to counterattack them? Would Krishna ever attack His own grandfather, Ugrasena, or His teacher, Sāndīpani Muni? These were some of the arguments offered by Arjuna to Krishna.
It would be better to live in this world by begging than to live at the cost of the lives of great souls who are my teachers. Even though desiring worldly gain, they are superiors. If they are killed, everything we enjoy will be tainted with blood.
Nor do we know which is better — conquering them or being conquered by them. If we killed the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, we should not care to live. Yet they are now standing before us on the battlefield.
Now I am confused about my duty and have lost all composure because of miserly weakness. In this condition I am asking You to tell me for certain what is best for me. Now I am Your disciple, and a soul surrendered unto You. Please instruct me.
Radhanath Swami on World of Dualities and Our Responsibility
In this world of dualities, there is always a conflict that can be taking place within our minds, because, the nature of the mind is – sometimes to accept and sometimes to reject. The nature of the mind is to be influenced by the three modes of material nature and the various dualities that are created by the three modes of nature and thus leads to a great indecision.
But we should know that we have responsibility for everything we do and everything we say. So, we must be very thoughtful and always must seek guidance to make sure we are really doing is the right thing. Because we will good intentions, if they are not the right thing to do, we have to suffer the reaction. This is the nature of the laws of karma. Arjuna was in a great dilemma. He did not know what to do. Because the idea of fighting appeared to be so unpalatable to him, he decided in his own mind, to take up the life of peace of non violence thinking that this would be the highest service to the Lord. But Lord Krishna told him that for a just cause we must fight. In order to not have our life defeated by illusion we must fight. This is not non violent world. This is the world where we have to fight and if you do not, you will be defeated and in that defeat you will lose all of your virtues.
Jiva Goswami’s Life
Srila Rupa, Sanatana and Sri Vallabha Meeting Lord Chaitanya
There is a beautiful story of the life of Jiva Goswami.
Jiva Goswami, the son of Vallabha, was the nephew of Rupa and Sanatana Goswami. And in his earliest childhood, he had such natural devotion to lord Krishna. In fact it is described when he was a very very young child hardly more than a baby, his father and his uncles were living in the kingdom of Nawab Husain Shah. They were his Prime ministers and had tremendous wealth. They were great devotees of Krishna. But out of social pressure, they were literally forced to take the occupation of the ministers for a very cruel hearted and deceitful king. When Lord Caitanya came to Ramakeli enroot to Brindavan, Rupa, Sanatana and Sri Vallabha (their names were then: Dabir Khas and Sakkar Malik) came secretly at night to meet the Lord. And they first met Nityananda Prabhu and Sri Haridas Thakur, who brought them to lotus feet of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. And although, Dabir Khas and Sakar Mailk and Sri Vallabha, were very very very great scholars, they had mastered the scriptures they had such pure devotion to Krishna even when they were little children, they always played games about Krishna and they were always praying to Krishna to deliver them so they could engage whole heartedly in His service for the betterment of mankind. When they came before Lord Caitanya, they bowed down with prostrated obeisances, tears flowing from their eyes. They were so humble that Lord Caitanya himself had to pick them up with His own arms and they began to offer beautiful prayers and explaining that they were most fallen, most undeserving of His mercy, more sinful than Jagai and Madhai, but yet, they only had one hope, and that was He would be merciful to them and he was Patita Pavan. He had come to deliver the most fallen. So, Caitanya Mahaprabhu accepted them as His servants and embraced them and gave them the names: Rupa, Sanatan, and Anupam.
Great Lesson to Parents of Children of All Ages – True Love
Little Jiva, who was a tiny child, from a not too distance place was watching this whole wonderful exchange and listening to the conversation. By seeing the humility of his father and uncles in surrendering to God, and by seeing Lord Caitanya’s beauty and mercy, his entire life was completely transformed in pure unalloyed devotion. This is a great lesson, a greatest lesson to parents of children of whatever age they may be. Just see the effect of the exposure that the parents reveal before their children. Parents are so much looked up to by the child. When a child is a baby they do not know what is God. They see their parents like God. You have created me you are maintaining me and if you don’t maintain me you will destroy me. So the parents are Brahma, Vishnu, and Maheswara for the child. The parents wants to get angry, the child think – “He will destroy me.” The parents just leaves, oh, mother will maintain me. So how much the child is influenced and when the child sees parents sincerely surrendering the life at the lotus feet of the lord, there will be nothing that will have a greater more beneficial impression in their lives. The Children’s hearts can understand ‘what is reality’. Their intelligence is not working so properly but in one sense this is good. Because, with our intellectual, conceptual invasions of everything we see, we are sometimes right and sometimes wrong. But children, their hearts are simply open to absorb and receive without the filtration of the intelligence. And if give them the right thing they receive it. So Jiva Goswami understood how sincerely his father and his uncle, they were weeping and crying and presenting themselves as so fallen and so lonely and they totally surrendered themselves in such a helpless dependence at the lotus feet of the Lord and the Lord accepted them. At that very moment he surrendered his life at the lotus feet of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
If you wish to take the responsibility of having children or if you have already taken up responsibility of having children, my humble request is, you should be a parent like a Sri Vallabha and show real love to your child. Not the bogus love of this material world. The love of this world is the love of the animals. Eating, sleeping, mating and defending. The birds: mother and father bird brings: the mother bird lays eggs, and the father bird brings worms to feed when they were born. Simply to have a nest and to have food and to person’s education, so they can in turn have a nest and food and feed their little children and have nest and food for them – this is not love. This is ignorance. Human civilization is deteriorating to such a degree, especially in India, where people are coming to great illusion that material prosperity is the sign of advancement. That living like big animals is great thing. But it is unfortunate. The parent’s only real duty is to behave in such a way by being such perfect surrendered devotees of the Lord that the children want nothing else in life – that is love. One can perform ones worldly responsibilities. They are also there. But they are not very important because they come and they go. You do what you have to do. You do your business, you take care of your house, you do it. That is svadharma by material calculation: that is not very important, don’t put your heart and soul in that nonsense. Put your heart and soul into the truth. Raise your children to think this is the aim of life. Simply eating, sleeping, mating, and defending making all the nice arrangements for that purpose. Let the children see what is love of God, what is surrender to the Supreme. Let them never have to suffer birth and death again. That is love.
Radhanath Swami speaks on Jiva Goswami as a Child
So, Jiva Goswami, from that point on, he had such devotion to Krishna that he would make little deities of Krishna and Balaram. And all day long they would just serve those deities while all his other friends were playing all sorts of games. He would be pick flowers and offer them. He would be presenting aarti. He would be getting food and offering them. He would be dressing them and decorating them. He will be singing for them and dancing for them. And trying to induce his other friends to also come and perform seva with him. And how blissful he was! But then, by divine arrangement, his father died on the banks of Ganges. And after hearing this, he was thinking, what is the use of this material world? My uncles Rupa and Sanatan are in Vrindavan. I should be with them. So after sometime, he went to Navadwip and Lord Nityananda Prabhu took him on a whole tour of Lord Chaitanya’s abode – the holy dham. On Nov 4th we will be going to Navadwip and we will be following basically the same route that Nityananda Prabhu took Jiva Goswami on. And Bhakti Vinod Thakur has given a very nice narration in this regard. And then, he went to Varnasi. When he was in Varanasi on the instruction of Nityananada Prabhu, he studied under a very very great scholar Madhusudhan Vidyavachaspathi and he became the greatest scholar in all of Kasi although he was a young child not even 20 years old. He was able to defect in argument and logic even the greatest pandits of Varanasi and establish the highest truth. And then he went to Brindavan. And when he went to Brindavan, he surrendered at the lotus feet of his two uncles.
Jiva Goswami as a Disciple
And he asked for Sanatan Goswami for initiation and Srila Sanatan Goswami told him that he should accept Rupa Goswami as your diksha guru. This was humility of SG. So, when he approached Rupa Goswami, Rupa Goswami wanted to train him properly, although he was coming from such a high birth, Jiva Goswami, saraswat Brahman community, and although he was a greatest scholar of the day, and although he had such an enthusiasm for service, Rupa Goswami wanted to teach him and thru him teach the whole world that bhakti means humility. Without humility, whatever else you do, it has no sense of value in the heart of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So he had them engage in the most simple service. He would clean the rooms of Rupa Goswami and other vaishnavas. Simple cleaning. And sometimes he would collect water for them from Jamuna and put them in pots if they need. And sometimes he would pick flowers for their puja. Other times, he would cook for them, other times he would massage their legs and massage their feet. Other times, he would do research them, by looking up various slokas from different scriptures. Sometimes he would go out in forest to get palm leaves and prepare them to be proper type of paper in which Rupa Goswami would use for his writings. In this way, by cleaning and cooking and sometimes fanning his gurus he spent many many months doing nothing but this.
Radhanath Swami explains Result of Material Opulence without Humility
One day, very very proud and very learned person – his name is Rupa Narayan — he was a great expert at debate. He came to Vrindavan. He had already travelled to all the provinces of India. And he defeated everyone in his argumentation. All useless arguments, it would be based on scriptures, but no conclusion. The only conclusion is to prove that he was greatest scholar. But somehow due to his past karma he has such incredible intelligence but unfortunately, his pride and ego excelled his intelligence. Because this is the tendency when you have something very very great materially: whether it be education or wealth or beauty or high birth. Then we become very proud and we start thinking – I am very great and I am better than everyone else. And then if somebody starts to become almost as educated or wealthy or beautiful as ourselves then we take them to be competitors. We want to defect. So, he defeated everyone everywhere and he had a certificate, of vijaya patra and anyone who defeated, he made them sign. He had so many signatures of all scholars in India. But everywhere he goes, he hear about Rupa and Sanatan Goswami’s in Vrindavan, they are the greatest. After everywhere else, he came to Vrindavan and he approached Rupa and Sanatan. And he said – “I have heard you are very great scholars. I challenge you to debate.” Rupa and Sanatan Goswamis said we are not concerned with having a debate with you. And he said – “Oh, such hypocrites you are! You present yourself as such great scholars and why would you not debate with me? You are afraid of losing. You are afraid of losing your reputation. If you are actually scholars you will accept my debate. And Rupa and Sanatan, very humble, they were not at slightest disturbed. They said – “actually, we are not fit to debate with you. We are not worthy. You are a great great scholar. We are very simple people. Somehow our well wishers have made propaganda and created this illusion that we are great scholars and great souls, but we are nothing, you shouldn’t waste your time with us. So Rupa Narayan was very happy to hear this. If this is what you really feel and you sign – “I have been defeated by Rupa Narayan.” Rupa and Sanatan immediately took their writing instruments and signed – “Yes Rupa Goswami and Sanatan Goswami.” He was very happy.
Radhanath Swami explains Jiva Goswami’s Humility
But then what happened is when he heard that Jiva Goswami the nephew although very young – he is only 20 years old he has just come to Vrindavan. He is still acting as a very menial servant of Rupa and Sanatan and he is becoming a very great scholar also. Then he was thinking – “I should defeat him.” Because, once I defeat him, then how ever great he becomes, I can show the world that I have defeated him. So, he went to Jiva Goswami and challenged him for debate. And then he showed him the certificate that “I have defeated your uncles Rupa and Sanatan” and now I have come to defeat you. When Jiva Goswami saw that Rupa and Sanatan out of humility signed it and now he was blaspheming them and blaspheming the whole cult of bhakti, he was thinking just to save the reputation of my uncles Rupa and Sanatan Goswami, I must defeat this man. So he said, yes, I’ll debate with you. For 7 days, they had a debate on the bank of the river Jamuna and on the 7th day, Jiva Goswami completely destroyed all the arguments of Rupa Narayan and this great digvijaya pandit was defeated. And he was in so much ashamed so much embarrassed so much humiliated. By being defeated by such a young boy, he left Vrindavan never to return again. So Jiva Goswami came back to Rupa Goswami to tell him the good news. When Rupa Goswami heard this – what is this – you entered in to debate with this person. Why you wanted to defeat him and you have defeated him? Why are you so attached to your false pride? Why do you want to cause harm and defeat to others? Vrindavan is only a place for those who have no sense of false pride. It is the place for those who are most humble. This is the teachings of Chaitanya Maha Prabhu. Therefore you should not live here any longer because you have transgressed the principle of humility and for your own prestige; you adventured in to a useless mundane debate with another. So, Jiva Goswami had to leave Vrindavan. And he went to a place near Mathura and there he lived in a very, very, very simple place and he was fasting and he became very ill. He was practically eating nothing. He was just weeping and crying day and night, chanting the holy names of the Lord due to the thought that he had made this offence of being proud. After sometime, Sanatan Goswami was travelling in that area and he found poor Jiva in such a situation! And he came back to Rupa Goswami and he said that you are not following one of the principles of Lord Chaitanya. And Rupa Goswami was so humble. He didn’t say – what do u mean? Why you are saying this? He said: Oh, Which principle Am I not following? Please tell me please help me to follow it. These devotees are so humble. Sanatan Goswmai said, you name the main teachings of Lord Chaitanya and I’ll reveal to you which one you are not following. So He began to narrate all the different important teachings of Lord Chaitanya and then he came to the teaching of ‘Jiva Doya – kindness to Jivas.’ When he said this Sanatan looked at him such a way that Rupa Goswami understood that I am not being kind to jiva, Jiva Goswami. So he called him back and embraced him.
We should learn from this story many wonderful things:
Although, Jiva Goswami was very renounced and completely detached and humble than blade of grass, to defend the dignity of the vaishanva culture and to protect the dignity of his guru and his siksha guru and diksha guru, he was willing to fight. He didn’t care for his own prestige, but he was fighting as service to lord and that fight is necessary, it was essential. As Arjuna was willing to fight to protect dharma, Jiva Goswami was also fighting to protect dharma. Because of this rascal Rupa Narayan was going around the world, saying that Rupa Goswami, Sanatana Goswami were defeated by me, who would read the teachings of Rupa Goswami, Sanatana Goswami. And therefore, dharma would be destroyed from the world. So, he was doing out of selfless devotion and compassion. But even though, there was absolutely no fault of his own, Rupa Goswami wanted to show the world the greatness of Jiva Goswami. And how did he do so? By completely appear to misunderstand his intensions, chastised him and banished him from Vridnavan.
Because, if Jiva Goswami would have tried to explain – “Guruji, you don’t understand, you are saying like this, but You do not understand!!! I am better than you think I am.” Most disciples are like this. Anyways, I am also like that…We are always thinking of defending ourselves, our ego is very much on guard at all times and even on the guard against our Guru and Guru’s position is to destroy the ego – the false ego – and purify it to make it real. So, Jiva Goswami, his intensions were perfect. What he did was perfect. Everything was perfect and Rupa Goswami chastised him and completely misunderstood him – externally and said what you did was non sense and you did out of false ego and you break the principles of dharma. And Jiva Goswami humbled himself, Guru Maharaj you are correct, I am sorry. And he didn’t just say it but he felt it. He was so humble he felt that what he did was completely wrong. Because of guru maharaj says ‘it must be’ If he is saying it to humble me then how humble I should be? How more humble I should become? Whatever he is saying is for my good. So he began to fast and perform such severe austerities that his body was under the verge of death to atonement for his offense although he made no offence. This is a very inconceivable thing. But spiritual life is very inconceivable. The heart of vaishnav is something wonderful. So, in this way, Rupa Goswami wanted to show the whole world, for all the times, what kind of person Jiva Goswami is – the greatest, the most humble, the most submissive, the most fearless.
Guidance of Superior Vaishnava in Life
But at the same time, we must understand, that our activities must always, be very carefully and thoughtfully considered with a guidance of superior vaishnavas. Because, in this kali yuga, maya is always trying to trap us. She is always trying to put us and put us in situations, that we do something wrong and then we have to take the reaction. There are many examples to warn us of this of acting without guidance and thoughtfulness. Srila Prabhupada was very, very, very strong on this point that you must be Krishna Conscious, must be conscious of everything you are doing and never act out of lust, you should never act out of anger, you should never act out of pride, you should never act out of greed, you should never act out of envy or illusion, and you should never speak because you are induced by these feelings. Although these types of experiences are coming to us we should never speak or act according we must use our intelligence. We must take proper guidance because, as soon as you act, reactions will come.
Example Stories from Panchatantra
There is a story the famous book panchatantra.
A man’s wife is going to have a baby and he was praising how glorious and fortunate this son would be although she was still pregnant. And she said you should be very careful and thoughtful about what you say and do. The wife was very wise. So she told a series of stories. She said a story about a brahmacari. This brahmacari was out begging alms and he had a pot of rice. As he is carrying the rice rather than thinking of Krishna he let his mind wander. Don’t let your mind wander for this is what happens. And he was thinking this is very nice rice, if I sell this rice, I can get a goat, and if I get a goat then the goat will have babies. Then I will get two more little baby goats. Then, I’ll have 3 goats. Once I have three goats. Once I have three goats, I can exchange for a cow. And once I have a cow, the cow will have calves. Once, I have a cow and calves, then I can get enough milk and I can buy some land and I can have nice paddy fields and the old house that I am now living in renovated. Then when I will have nice land, nice crop and a nice house then I will get married. Because, why does a brahmacari needs all these things for? Srila Prabhupada said – a house needs a wife. You have a house you should have a wife in your house. You should not be a brahmacari with a house. Everyone agree??
And then I’ll have a house, then, I’ll have a son and he already thought the name of his son, my son will be named and he said I’ll go out and I’ll enjoy like anything and my wife will take care of the cows, my wife will take care of the son and sometimes she goes to milk the cows and she is going to leave my son alone and I’ll come and I’ll hit her with a stick. When he was thinking like that he hit the stick against the pot of rice and it broke and fell to the ground. And he had noting, all his dreams broke with the rice.
So after a few days of telling the story, the wife had a son, and a beautiful son, and the father was very, very happy. But the wife was telling him you have to be careful and thoughtful of what you do and how you do it. Do not act instinctively.
One day the wife went to take a bath in a river and she said to husband – can you take care of the child who is just a baby. So the husband said – Oh I will be very happy to take care of this child, my beloved child. He took the child and the wife went to the river.
As he was playing with child, the soldiers came and said the King wants you to come immediately. But he was thinking – now what do I do? My wife is gone. It’s either going to the king and leaving my son or not going to the king that’s very dangerous. So, he had a servant, a pet mongoose, at home. Do you all know a mongoose? The mongoose was a very dedicated servant; the mongoose was taking a nice care of son. But then a big, big cobra came to attack the child, and when mongoose saw the cobra coming, the mongoose willing to risk its life and jumped and fought with the cobra to protect the poor and innocent child. And after a long fight, somehow the mongoose killed the cobra. But in this process its whole body was covered with blood. And when the husband came to home right at the door way, mongoose came to greet him and saw the mongoose was covered with blood and he was immediately thinking that this mongoose has eaten my son. So he picked up a stick and beat the mongoose to death and when he came inside and saw the son very happily playing and next to the son was a dead cobra killed by the mongoose. So he realized – “I have made a mistake.” Then his wife came back and said – “you see, I told you, you should not act without thinking.” This is the nature of this world – Mind always trying to trap us. We must be very, very thoughtful!
And then, she told another story. She said: One time, there was a very poor Brahman, and he had a dream, and the dream was that 3 beggars are going to come to you right at 12’O clock noon tomorrow and you should kill them and if you kill them and they will become into 3 treasure chests with great wealth. So he was thinking this is very nice! In his house a barber came to shave his head, and as his head was being shaved, right at 12’O clock 3 beggars came. So, this Brahman got up from his seat and immediately killed them and all three turned into treasure chests and so much wealth gold and jewels and everything else. And he gave something to the barber. The barber was thinking – this is a very wonderful arrangement. When will three beggars come to my house? And he was waiting for this day when the three beggars would come to his house. And one day three beggars came to his house. He picked up stick and started beating them and they ran away. And they went to the king and said this man was crazy man, he beat us we are just coming for alms and he beat us. The King arrested this barber and have him killed. So the wife of this man told these stories to explain that we must be very, very conscientious of what we speak and what we say and what we do in this world.
Radhanath Swami on Overcoming World of Dualities
Because this is the world where we are is a battle field, there is always illusion and there is always truth. And if we peruse the path of truth, illusion is always going to try to take us away. And we are on the path of illusion there is always struggle between the modes of ignorance, passion and goodness and we are always indeed being impelled to act in certain ways where we have to suffer so many terrible karmic reactions.
This is the cause of all suffering. Suffering is simply a karmic reaction for the non devotees. For the devotees suffering is purification to teach you to never engage in those activities again. Bhagavad Gita was spoken by Lord Krishna to Arjuna to give us the proper intelligence which is always be directing and guiding us of how to act, how to speak and especially how to think in such a way that we progress in life and we will never ever, ever fall victim to the trappings of the material energy. That is why, Srila Prabhupada, He cautioned us on so many occasions – you must read my books very carefully, you must understand them and you must discuss them amongst devotees. And of course Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu instructed through Rupa Goswami all the world that of all activities, vaishanva aparadha is most harmful for a devotee. Because, for the lord the devotees are so dear to Him. It is the nature of Krishna that he loves his devotee more than he loves His own life. It is the eternal rasa to be subordinate to those servants and the love of His devotees. And if you offend Krishna, then you will be a reaction. But if you offend Krishna’s devotees there will be a greater reaction. Exactly when it comes and how it comes that is by the will of the lord. But it will come! We must be very careful. And this is the responsibility of human form of life. It doesn’t mean we should be fearful all the time. Devotees should be blissful not fearful. But within that bliss should be that perfection we are afraid of offense, we are afraid of falling to sinful activities, and we must cultivate a strong intelligence by which we can discriminate between what is wrong and what is right. And that is why it is so essential that we hear. We hear the truth from the lips of the vaishnavas and from the scriptures everyday. When we chant Krishna’s holy names carefully every day and hear his words every day that would give us the weapons by which we can fight the war everyday. Because we have to fight everyday there is no question. Mahatma Gandi, he was the great advocate of non violence. But his whole life was fighting wars. Because he declared war – he declared war against the British. He was constantly fighting against them may be by not physically hurting them. But they would have been a lot happier if he physically hurts them. It would have pained them much less than the way he did it. Because he completely demoralized their abilities to control this Nation. So, whether you are physically violent or non violent depending on the particular need, Arjuna was told by Krishna you fight with your Gandiva bow and you kill them, because that was the need and that is the duty of a Kshatriya. But the message to all of us, we don’t have our Gandiva bows, we are not Kshatriya like Arjuna, we are not in military services most of us. The war that Krishna is telling us to fight is the war against lust and anger and envy and greed and pride and illusion that is within our own hearts. And to help also fight that war to help others. And Krishna tells the greatest weapon to destroy ignorance is knowledge and if you are armed with the weapon of knowledge you are undefeatable. Why? Because knowledge is to understand that we are completely dependent on Krishna, and we are completely controlled by Krishna, and we must act in service of Krishna.
Sarva dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja
Aham tvam sarva papebhyo moksha ishyami ma sucaha
This is knowledge. To humbly accept Krishna as our Lord, and act under his direction, and be the servant of servant of His servants. Krishna has given us in kaliyuga His holy name. If you take name of Krishna, you will be undefeatable. All the power of Krishna is within his name and there is no greater weapon. Caitanya Mahaprabhu came to this world only 500 years ago. In His previous avatars, he killed the sources of the ignorance in the form of demons with his various weapons as varaha deva, with His tusks, he pierced the body of Hiranyaksha and He punched him and not even punched, He touched with his hood and pierced him with His tusks and he was dead. Lord Narasimaha Deva, his weapon was His nails. How wonderful! Guru Maharaj explained that these nails were harder than thunder bolts for Hiranyakashipu. But the same nails, they were like petals on the lotus of the hand of Lord Narasimha Deva to Prahlada Maharaj. When Narasimha Deva touched Prahalda on the head, he gave the ultimate ecstasy of transcendental love to Prahlad to feel the soft, gentle touch of the lord. This is the difference between one who approached the lord with enmity and one who approaches with humility and devotion. Both Hiranyakashipu and Prahlada were touched by the hands of the Lord.
Ye yethamam prapadyante tamstahiava bhajamyaham
Krishna explains in Gita: as you approach me I will reward you accordingly. Krishna reveals Himself according to the nature of our consciousness. Some people when they see the deity of the lord, tears of love come in to their eyes and other people come and they see the deity – what is all this? Why there are doing like this? Why you are worshipping stone? Krishna is revealing himself according to our devotion. Hiranyakasipu hated Vishnu. Why did he hate Vishnu? Because he wanted to be the controller, he wanted to be the Lord. Everything is the property of Vishnu. So, he was trying to compete with Vishnu. So the lord came: Oh you want to compete with me? and he tore him apart. No competition! He was like a little fly. Scriptures say – like a wasp. He is like a little wasp. And Narasimha deva just tore him to pieces effortlessly with his nails. But then that same hand that tore Hiranyakasipu to pieces and was source of great fear and death when it touched Prahlad it was softer than a lotus and filled his heart with ecstatic love. And when the lord appeared as Lord Sri Rama Chandra with his bow and arrow, he destroyed Ravana with ten heads. He pierced that arrow in his heart and Ravana‘s ten heads started vomiting blood. Very beautiful sight! And you need a higher taste, to understand this beautiful sight.
But Hanuman and all these monkeys, they were so happy seeing the ten heads vomit blood, they were just dancing in ecstasy saying Jai Rama! Jai Rama! Jai Rama!. And when Krishna appeared, when he lived in Brindavan, He dint use any weapons because in his original form, He doesn’t do that. Putana he just…and Aghasura, he just grew. Kesi, he made his hand grow. And Vatsasura, he just picked him and threw him. Trinavartha, he just sat there. He didn’t do anything, he just sat there. He just became heavy like a mountain. In this way the Lord killed so many demons.
But, when he left Brindavan then he started using so many weapons like Sudarshan Chakra. Sishupal’s head fell to ground. But Caitanya Mahaprabhu, he understood in this age of Kaliyuga he is coming to give Srimati Radha Rani’s love to everyone and to destroy the demonic tendencies in every one’s hearts. Not to chop people body like in previous incarnations and give liberation. But to destroy the demonic tendencies in people’s hearts with a supreme most powerful of all weapons – the chanting of the Hare Krishna Mahamantra.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama hare Hare
And if you chant, Hare Krishna mahamantra, you can destroy all the evil tendencies within us. But at the same time, in order to continue chanting and in order to avoid offenses while we are chanting, and in order to not be like the elephant that takes his bath in the lake or in the river and then comes out and rolls in the ground. You don’t have many elephants in Bombay, but have many buffaloes. They do the same thing. Have u seen? I have seen. I am always looking for these confirmations. The other day we were driving and we saw buffalo completely covered with mud and she was very happy, she was smiling. I could see, the other buffaloes had some mud but not so thoroughly coated. She was looking at them – Ha! Ha! I am better than you. This way there is always competition amongst various species of life. So they come, they nicely clean in fresh water and they just roll in the mud, roll in the dirt. Similarly, when we are chanting the holy names of the lord and if we act according to our lower tendencies, it counteracts effects of our spiritual opportunity for progress. So therefore it is very essential that we read such wonderful books by Srila Prabhupada, has given us every day and regularly we come to discourses. Every Sunday, we have these nice classes at Sri Sri Radh Gopinath Temple and every morning Srimad Bhagavatam class at 7:45. It is very important that we come and hear and read to fortify our intelligence so that we always know how to properly live and how to properly utilize this weapon of holy name that Krishna has given us to bring light in to our own life and to give light to the hearts of others. And the most important principle for chanting the holy names has been revealed in that beautiful story of Jiva Goswami.
Trinadapi sunicena taror api sahishnuna
Amanina mandena kirtaneeya sada harih
In that narration of Jiva Goswami, we find, perfect humility. Although he was humbler than blade of grass, he was willing to be bold to stand up and fight for truth and fight for justice, fight for Krishna, with absolutely no pride in his heart, simply as the humble servant of the servant of the servant. Through the lives of these great personalities, the conclusion of the truth of Bhagavad Gita is revealed to all of us. There are so many commentaries on Bhagavad Gita and so many interpretations, explanations speculations concoctions, distortions, everywhere. But Chaitanya Mahaprabhu explained that the real truth of the scriptures is revealed by the character and lives of those great vaishnav devotees, who have surrendered to the lotus feet of the lord. The conclusion of the scriptures you will not find by reading the scriptures. They are there! But you will not see them. You will see them in the life of those devotees who are surrendered to the Lord. And through their lives and through their words you will be able to just understand what is the essence of the holy scriptures – Bhagavad Gita, Srimad Bhagavatam. Not through word jugglery, not through scholarship, but through sincere devotion. Jiva Goswami, he wrote 200,000 Sanskrit slokas. Can you imagine how much that is? The whole Srimad Bhagavatam is 18,000 slokas. The whole Bhagavad Gita is approximately 700 slokas. He had written over 200,000 Sanskrit slokas in his many books. That, practically as much or more than all the Puranas. Such an empowered soul! And in his books he has established the highest truths on the basis of logic, on the basis of realization and on the basis of scriptural evidence. And yet, see the character of this person! See why he has empowered to be such a scholar! If you read his books, or books of those like Srila Prabhupada that are inspired by His writings, you will go to the spiritual world. Because he didn’t write simply out of scholarship. His scholarship was used as a tool but his heart was that of the most humble, sincere, menial servant of the servant of the servant of the Lord. He simply wanted to live out of compassion and love for the benefit of other living beings and for the pleasure of Krishna. So let us follow this line. And in whatever occupation whatever ashram we may be in our life, let us keep our focus always. So whatever we do, whatever we speak should be pleasing to Krishna. Should be pleasing his devotees and should be for the benefit of ourselves and for the benefit of all others. And if we are all conscientious in this way, if we are all respectful in this way then gradually spontaneous love of Krishna will come into our heart. Srila Prabhupada said the safest place in this entire material existence is where the devotees are together and with their arms raised, loudly chanting the holy names.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Because, when the kirtan is loud, even if you feel like blaspheming other devotee, no one will hear you! So you won’t even try. If the kirtan is so loud and so high that all can you do is your mouth is simply praising the holy name and the functions of every limb of your body are only glorifying the holy name through dancing, so what harm can you do? What offence can you make? It can only become purified. So in this way this loud chanting of kirtan is the safest place in all the worlds. So we should take shelter of the congregational chanting of the holy name.
It is our refuge. And we should live our life in such a way that we are always conscious of being the servant of the servant of Krishna.
Thank you very much.
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