Sri suka uvaca
Iti danava daiteya
Navindann amrtam nrpa
yuktah karmani yattas ca
Vasudeva paranmukhah
Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: O King, the demons and Daityas all engaged with full attention and effort in churning the ocean, but because they were not devotees of Vāsudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna, they were not able to drink the nectar..
Sadhayitvamrtam rajan
payayitva svakan suran
pasyatam sarva bhutanam
yayan garuda vahanah
O king, after the Supreme Personality of Godhead had brought to completion the affairs of churning the ocean and feeding the nectar to the demigods, who are His dear devotees, He left the presence of them all and was carried by Garuda to His own abode.
Sapatnanam param rddhim
drstva te diti-nandanah,
amrsyamana utpetur
devan pratyudyatayudhah
Seeing the victory of the demigods, the demons became intolerant of their superior opulence. Thus they began to march toward the demigods with raised weapons.
tatah sura-ganah sarve
sudhaya pitayaidhitah
pratisamyuyudhuh sastrair
narayana padasrayah
Thereafter, being enlivened because of drinking the nectar, the demigods, who are always at the shelter of the lotus feet of Narayana, used their various weapons to counterattack the demons in fighting spirit.
tatra daivasuro nama
ranah parama-darunah
rodhasy udanvato rajams
tumulo roma-harsanah
O King, a fierce battle on the beach of the ocean of milk ensued between the demigods and the demons. The fighting was so terrible that simply hearing about it would make the hair on one’s body stand on end.
tatranyonyam sapatnas te
samrabdha-manaso rane
samasadyasibhir banair
nijaghnur vividhayudhaih
Both parties in that fight were extremely angry at heart, and in enmity they beat one another with swords, arrows and varieties of other weapons.
Purport
There are always two kinds of men in this universe, not only on this planet but also in higher planetary systems. All the kings dominating planets like the sun and moon also have enemies like Rahu. It is because of occasional attacks upon the sun and moon by Rahu that eclipses take place. The fighting between the demons and demigods is perpetual; it cannot be stopped unless intelligent persons from both sides take to Krishna consciousness.
Krishna – The Supreme Enjoyer
There is one Supreme God that is Krishna. And peace within this world can only come about when we accept this simple fact ‘Bhoktaram yajya tapasam sarva lok maheshvram, In the 5th chapter of Bhagvad Gita Krishna explains that this is the peace formula that He is the one Supreme Lord, proprietor of everything and everything is meant for His enjoyment. He is our friend. That faith is the basic principle of peace. Without that faith, without putting this into action, there is no possibility of peace.
Proprietorship- Cause of ALL Conflicts
We find in this world, not only in this world but world of upper and lower planets, that there is always conflict and enmity within the same family. Amongst children there is never peace. Children are always thinking this is mine. No no this is mine. I want to do this, I want to do that. Whether India, America, I traveled all over world many times, and one thing I found was very consistent that brother and sister are always fighting. Husband and wife are always fighting. Friends and friends potentially they are anytime fighting. What to speak of competitors, people of different religions, people of different isms. Look at the war today practically everyone is fighting. In Middle East there is so much fighting. In South East Asia there is so much fighting. In America there is so much fighting. In Africa there is so much fighting. In Russia there is so much fighting. In china there is so much fighting. In India there is so much fighting. Is there any place in the world where there is no such fighting? Can you think of anywhere? Doesn’t exist! Because everyone wants to be the enjoyer. Everyone wants to be the controller. Everyone wants to be the proprietor. Therefore, the only solution is to surrender to the fact that I am simply the servant. Krishna is the proprietor of every thing. That is Krishna Consciousness. Krishna Consciousness is very simple. Krishna Consciousness means to admit and accept that everything belongs to Krishna, and every thing is meant for His satisfaction. Nothing is mine – nirmam. As soon as we claim proprietorship over any thing we create potential conflict in our lives with other living entities. That is why Krishna says in Bhagvad Gita that one who is detached from material enjoyment and attached to the service of His lotus feet, he is the friend of every ne and everyone is his friend. But we see even amongst devotees this conflict takes place. Amongst neophyte devotees, even amongst apparently very advanced devotees. This material existence is a place of conflict. And unless we become extremely transcendental, extremely selfless, it is very difficult to be aloof from the greed of this world.
Here we are finding Srila Prabhupada is explaining that there are always two classes of men. There are always the demons and there are always the devotees. In the spiritual world demons do not exist. But in material world from the highest planet to the lowest planet there is always the conflict between demons and devotees. Sometimes we are thinking, when the war will end, when will be some relief. The war will never end until you are out of this material world altogether. There may be some retreat of the enemy for some time. But you should know that when the enemy is retreating – Maya is the enemy – she is simply remobilizing her forces for bigger and better attack.
Always Remember Krsna- Never Forget Krsna
Some time we think everything is alright now. Just see there is no problem, very nice, I am Krishna Consciousness. Now the demons have subside their attack so I can live peacefully. Do not fall in this illusion. It may appear peaceful now but that only means Maya is figuring out a better way to attack. Just like the demons and demigods. Whenever the demigods conquer demon, demons are always in the back somewhere invisible where they are planning of bigger and better attack. And this been going on from the beginning of creation and doesn’t end until the destruction of entire universe by Lord Siva. Even look at the Pandavas, even after they defeated kurus in the battlefield of Kurukshetra, they had such massive victory; Yudhishter was coronated as king and everyone was very happy and thinking that alas, finally everything is alright. And then Ashvatthama throws brahmashtra to kill the only surviving heir of the throne, Maharaj Parikshit, another attack even after their victory. So you see victory in Krishna consciousness means not that the war ends. Victory in Krishna consciousness means that moment after moment we are turning to Krishna. Moment after moment we are surrendering our lives to the will of our spiritual master, that is victory.
Greatest Enemy- Complacency
The greatest illusion is to think that we are safe, to think that everything is alright. Srila Prabhupada, He explains that a goat who is eating grasses but he is on his way to slaughter house thinking that everything is nice but he doesn’t know that nice green grasses are leading him closer and closer to death. So the pleasures of world are like that, only leading us closer and closer to pain, misery and suffering. So therefore devotee never becomes complacent, that is our worst enemy. Krishna tells Arjuna in the 3rd chapter of Bhagvad Gita “give up this lethargy and fight”. One of the greatest enemies for Krishna consciousness is complacency. To think that things are alright and then we become very casual in our relationship with Krishna. Yes Krishna you are very nice. You are very kind. You are giving me so many nice things. So many time people come to me and tell “Krishna is so kind to me, He gives everything I like. But Krishna says ‘Yasyaham……..
Urgency to Become Serious
If you really want to see how kind I can be, wait till I take every thing away. Then you will really understand my kindness. Now you do not understand what my kindness is. Because this is the tendency of every conditioned soul. The tendency is I want to be enjoyer. Even in Krishna consciousness we want to say yes, everything is pretty good now, now I can enjoy. Sometime we see devotees, when everything is going pretty well, they take undue advantage of their god brothers and god sisters. In complacency sometimes even they criticize. They find fault. They are not so enthusiastic to surrender and obey the authority. But they just feel, Krishna Conscious – I know who Krishna is, I know the books, I will do what I like to do. My authority is telling me to do this, but I know what it means to be Krishna conscious. I do what I want to do. I will go where I want to go. It is not such an important thing to surrender. After all I am pretty happy; I am stable in my spiritual life. But then when some disaster, when some crises come into one’s life, and it’s beyond our control, there is pain, there is suffering, some thing dear to us is taken away, and then we become very serious. Then we understand that I can not make it on my own. Like a leaf being separated from the tree and simply being pushed by the strong wind of the material energy this way and that way. So in such a situation, although pain in the heart is there, we become very serious. I want to surrender. I want to obey. I want to glorify and serve my god brothers and god sisters. So this great conflict we are reading about in the pages of Srimad Bhagvatam this morning. The demigods they had just gone through great great sacrifice. The painful efforts of churning the ocean of milk and the goal of churning the ocean of milk are to get nectar, because with that nectar they will become very powerful and very happy. So they were victorious. They churned the ocean and by the mystical arrangement of Mohini Murty – the incarnation of Godhead – She gave all the nectar to them not to demons. So the demigods were celebrating, how wonderful. But that celebration did not last longer. Almost immediately after the demons marched upon them with all their raised weapons. And it is described; very severe war took place. And it is described here, such a war, if any body hears about it his hair stand on end. So the demigods’ celebration did not last for long. But because they drank the nectar they are going to win this war. And they can get their whole kingdom back and they are going to enjoy like anything. But we are going to read little later in Bhagvatam about how Bali Maharaj performed great sacrifice, and he pleases the Brahmans and in this way he gets tremendous potency. And then march again on demigods and conquer them and take everything away. And again demigods were without any thing. There is always back and forth, there is always this conflict, there is always this war. So do not pray for the war to end. Pray that we may end the war within our own hearts. We may make peace with God within our own hearts. We may be the messenger of peace within this world. That is all important. You cannot change the world but you can change yourself. You can change the individual of this world, as did Prabhupada, as did Sri Caitanya Mahäprabhu. But the principle of the nature of this world of the demons and devotees conflict can never be changed. Material existence is eternal in its principle of conflict. And you can change your own heart and out of great compassion on behalf of Gurudev you can reach out to change the hearts of others. And victory in life simply means to surrender to this principle alone. In preaching Krishna consciousness whether you are successful or not successful, you are successful. Victory is simply in the attempt, victory is in the effort, and victory is in the devotion not the result. So we must become very sincere and understand that real battle is internal battle with our own lathery and our own pride. Pride that we are the enjoyers and the laziness, the complacence is such a strong force within us. Therefore, the devotee must work very very hard, day and night, this is the battle. Real battle is to always engage in Krishna’s service. If you are always engaged in Gurudev’s service/Krishna’s service, then you are victorious, moment after moment for your whole life through. Just like
Real Victory in Krsna Consciousness
Socrates, when they caught Socrates, they apprehended him. They imprisoned him. They made a special poison portion out of hemlock leaves. And they told him, you drink this and very soon you will die. He said “before you can kill me first you have to catch me”. Looking at him – what is this crazy – catch me – you are imprisoned in our chain, what are your talking of catching. Because he understood ‘I am not this body’. You cannot catch the soul. The soul cannot be cut into pieces by any weapon, cannot be withered by the wind, moistened by water. The soul is transcendental. So the real battle is the battle between the bodily conception and the spiritual conception. This is the battle within our own heart. The battles between the senses saying ‘serve me’ and Krishna saying ‘serve Me’. And Krishna speaks through Guru, Sadhu and Shastra. Through the spiritual master, through the sadhu and through the scriptures He is saying “this is how you should serve Me”. And our mind and senses are saying no, no, no, like this. If you always engage faithfully in Krishna’s service, in Spiritual Master’s services then you are always victorious. Whatever happens externally is not so important. The real important thing is that our faith in our devotion – always loyal to Krishna – that is the real victory. That is why it is said ‘die to live’. We must put aside every other conception of life. We must forget about changing the world, waiting for the world to change. And we must be very aggressive, very enthusiastic to change our own lives. To change our own hearts, and to help our spiritual master to change the hearts of each and every individual we come in contact with. That is victory. Ultimately you have to die. Does that mean that you have been concurred? ‘Die to live’ means if you are in this consciousness – we are speaking Krishna Consciousness – then dieing means entering into eternal life. If you are not into Krishna Consciousness, dieing means the ultimate defeat in the hands of material nature. Therefore let us take advantage and let us take shelter of the Supreme Personality of God Head, who is the Paramatma seated within our heart. Who is the witness, knower and friend. Who is arranging our life in such a way that through happiness, distress, honor, dishonor, pleasure, pain, we are always given the perfect opportunity to be victorious by remembering Him and enthusiastically engaged in His loving service. So let us take shelter of the Lord. Let us take shelter of His devotees. Let us create a Vaikuntha atmosphere, avoiding by all means, the potential conflict that is between us. This is what it means to be the humble servant that when conflicting forces of Maya come between god brothers or god sisters, we are willing to say ‘I am your servant’. You are right I am wrong. Let us continue for the sake of our guru’s pleasure. Can you do that? That is what we mean by ‘die to live’. We have to let our ego die. With great great enthusiasm we must work very hard for our spiritual master’s mission. That is our victory.
Victory means to never give up our enthusiasm and determination in serving our Guru. This is real victory. Victory over Maya. Victory over illusion. Sometimes we become very successful and we win over our opponents in devotional service, and we become proud, then we become complacent that just see I have done very good. That means you have won the battle but lost the war. Better to lose the battle and win the war. All our discriminations in this world we have to keep in front our little battles (29). Ultimate war is whether we will be enthusiastic in the service of Krishna under all circumstances. Then we have won the war against Maya. Do not see things superficially. Do not see things externally. We must always keep our minds and our vision focused on the essence – My dear spiritual master how can I serve you now. If we live according to that principle we are always with guru and always with Krishna. As Sanjaya said “wherever there is Krishna, wherever there is Arjuna, there is certain to be victory”.
Thank you very much.
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