About Rama Navami
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Delhi · 2022
Chapters
Invocational prayers and opening mantras
Oh Madhyana Dimirandasya, Gyanam Jana Shalakaya Chaksurun Miritamy, Tasmai Shriguradama, Mano, Bishta, mej, butal, Swaamrupa, Da datiwapadantikam
Vandeham Sri Guru, Sri Yudapadakamam, Sri Guru Vaisnavam Cha, Sri Rupam Sagraja Sahagana Ragunatam Vitam Sajam Sadvaitam Sadotam Parijana Sahitam Krishna Chaitanya Dewam Shri Rada Krishna Pada, Sahaganita Shri Visaka Vidamscha E Krishna Karuna Sindho Deenabandhu Jagatpate, Gopesha, Gopikakanta, Radakantamastute, Tapta Kanchanagurangi, Rade Vrindavanishwari Vrishavanu Sute Devi Pranamami Haripri,
Mancha Papatarubish, Kripasindu Bevacha, Patitanampavaneby, Vaisnavy Ramha Sri Krishna Chaitana Prabhuetananda Sri Dwithara, Srivassadigura
Bhapta Brinda Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Ajanu Lambita pujoka nakavada Hare Krishna. So Srila Prabhupada in his lecture made a very important point.
He said that our life is meant for training. The human life is not for enjoyment. Human body is useless for enjoyment. So many diseases are there, so many problems are there.
You know, animal forms of life are much better suitable for enjoyment. Pig has such a beautiful body, it can enjoy even stool. You know, if you try to enjoy stool, it will not work.
So human life is meant for something else. So what is the meaning of human life? What is the essence of human life? Humans have developed brain, developed intelligence, and the main purpose of human life is to be trained.
To be trained as, as Prabhupada said, as vaiśya, kṣatriya or Brahmana, and ultimately to be trained in Krishna consciousness. And people they are very confused. They take education.
Everyone takes education, school education, college education, university education, courses, this and that.
But they think that education is ultimately meant for me to facilitate my enjoyment. I get education now and then I will enjoy. No. You get education now and then you will get education more and more and more.
Because that's the ultimate purpose of human life: to learn how to be real human. As Prabhupāda said, from janma, from your birth you're just a Shudra. And Shudra means enjoyment.
That's the idea of the śūdras, and because kalau śūdra-sambhavaḥ, everyone is born as a śūdra in this age of Kali, everyone has this idea that the life is meant for my enjoyment because that's the idea of the śūdra.
This is the idea which is widely propagated everywhere.
The Lord as the supreme teacher
This is the idea everyone thinks, you know, and everyone in the modern... But uh uh we see that the Lord comes and
the purpose of His coming to this world because we are you know approaching the Ramnavami on Sunday will be celebration of Rāmanavamī. So we're meditating for this on this topic.
And the main purpose of Lord to come is to teach us something. He's the main teacher, He is the ādi-guru, He is the original guru. It's like sometimes the Prime Minister he reserves some portfolio for himself.
Like when Modi was the first elected, he reserved the portfolio of the foreign minister for himself.
Because it was so important to establish foreign relationship of India and therefore the Prime Minister said, there will be no separate minister, I will be the foreign minister, I will do these affairs.
So God is the supreme, but he keeps the portfolio of educational minister for himself. That's his main purpose. When he comes to this world, he keeps because this is the most important.
His function in this world, when he comes to this world, he is teaching us something very important.
And we know that this three great incarnations of the Supreme Lord, Lord Rāmacandra who came in Tretā-yuga, Lord Krishna who came in Dvāpara-yuga, and Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who came in Kali-yuga, they all came for a specific purpose to teach something very important.
Lord Rāmacandra is called Maryādā-puruṣottama. And his main essence of this incarnation, what is he teaching in this incarnation?
In this incarnation of Maryādā-puruṣottama Rāma, He teaches how to follow maryādā, how to follow discipline.
He is the Supreme Person, but He is teaching by His own example what it means to be the human being and what it means to follow the certain discipline in the human life. That's the foundation of human life.
Like just few days ago we celebrated the beginning of the year. According to Vedic calculation, according to astrological calculation, the beginning of the year starts in Amavasya of this month.
So, Lord Incarnation, Lord Ramachandra's Incarnation is the first incarnation, it's the first festival of the year. If the year starts on Amavasya, then nine days,
only nine days after that, Lord Ramachandra's appearance, and it basically it means that the teachings of Lord Ramachandra are the foundational for the human life. We are followers of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
And we give the great importance to Lord Krishna and his pastimes, and ultimately we want to develop love to Lord Krishna. But we will not be able to do this unless we understand the message of Lord Ramachandra.
He is the first one.
He comes the first one in Treta Yuga to give us this essential understanding that for us to live our life properly and to know the more elevated and more subtle teachings of Lord Krishna and what to speak about Lord Chaitanya, we first have to understand what it means to be the human.
To be the human means to follow discipline. That's what the word śiṣya means from the Sanskrit root shas. Shas means discipline and rule. We are being ruled. We are not rulers.
Sometimes we rule something, sometimes we are temple commander or temple, I don't know, kitchen in charge or whatever. But ultimately, even this is to teach us how to follow certain discipline.
And this is the most important teaching which we have to imbibe, which we have to really understand that if we want to live our life properly, we have to live it according to the discipline of Dharma, according to the rules of Dharma, according to the rules of the Supreme Lord.
And if we follow these rules of the Supreme Lord, then only we will be able to understand the teachings of Lord Krishna. Lord Krishna is coming, he is līlā-puruṣottama.
Maryādā-puruṣottama, Lord Rāma, you know, he has daṇḍa is in his hand. He is teaching by punishing. Because discipline means daṇḍa. You know, daṇḍa. That's why sannyāsīs they have daṇḍa.
And around sannyas there are some brahmacharis. So Brahmacharis they should be punished. I mean we all have to be punished. And if we don't want to be punished voluntarily, we will get some other way of punishment.
Krishna gets a lot of ways to punish us. Karma is there to punish us. Only for this purpose to teach us how to live this life properly, how to follow the rules which we have to follow.
Like Prabhupāda said that we have to follow these four regulative principles. That's punishment. Because you want to not follow these four regulative principles. Following four regulative principles is a punishment.
It's Mariada, it's the discipline.
Facing difficulties through adherence to dharma
But it's a nice discipline because if we learn how to follow these rules of human life, the result will be that we will be able to overcome all the difficulties.
Lord Rāmacandra is showing us He is the Supreme Lord Himself. He is coming to this world and He doesn't have to suffer. He is the supreme enjoyer. He can just enjoy with Sītā Devi.
But what happens in his life, he is suffering from beginning till end. His life is very difficult. Why the Supreme Lord comes here and his life, his pastimes showing so much difficulties.
You know, he was about to be coronated. And the day before his coronation he was sent to uh to the forest. Sounds familiar, isn't it? You know.
Something good is about to happen and then instead of something good to happen, something bad is happening. It's happening with our life all the time. You know.
He's showing by his example what the life is all about. He doesn't hide anything. As Krishna he says, Duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam, this world is full of miseries. And it will never be differently.
This world doesn't mean for our enjoyment.
Once Prabhupāda was asked, you know, he was giving the class, and one new man came and he raised his hand and he said, Śrījī, why God has created this world? For what purpose does God have created this world?
And Prabhupada looked at him and said, For enjoyment. And this man was very pleased. And when he started smiling, Śrīla Prabhupāda said, not your enjoyment, for his own enjoyment.
You saw that the world is meant for your enjoyment. But no, the world is not meant for enjoyment. It's duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam and Kṛṣṇa created this world for us to learn something. And therefore, this life is so difficult.
And therefore, even when he himself comes here, his life is also difficult. But he teaches us how to overcome all these difficulties. The difficulties will come. They will come in everyone's life.
If you think you know I am a devotee now and therefore my life should be easy, forget about it. Your life will not be easy. Your life will be very difficult. Everyone's life will be difficult. You know.
You think brahmacārī life is very difficult, you know, you go for gṛhastha. Gṛhastha's life they all enjoy. You know, you go for it, no problem. You will see how enjoyable it is. The life is difficult.
Everyone's life is difficult. But the teachings of Lord Ramachandra is that if you follow Dharma, you will be able to overcome all the difficulties and ultimately you will be able to be victorious.
That's uh that's his teachings.
Following superior orders without hesitation
That's what he is teaching us. He says it's better if you voluntarily accept the difficulties of your life. Like Lord Ramachandra, it was amazing when Daśaratha Mahārāja told him that you should go to forest.
You know, of course Ramachandra Daśaratha Mahārāja couldn't even say this. It was too difficult for him. He was sitting there, he was half conscious you know he was crying
all the time and Kaikeyī was next to him and when Lord Rāmacandra came in front of Daśaratha and asked, my father, you wanted me to know something, what is your order? Please tell me.
Daśaratha couldn't say anything to Lord Ramachandra. So Kaikeyī said he wants to mean to say to you that you should go to forest for 14 years. You know, just yesterday night you were about to be coronated.
The whole city is celebrating your future coronation. Everyone is rejoicing.
You know, in the morning you are called to your father, and your father, who is half conscious, tells you through the mother that you should go to forest for 14 years.
In Ramayana Valmiki Muni says, then when Lord Ramachandra heard this order, which is very difficult to hear, not even one muscle changed his position in the face. He smiled.
He said, Yes, my dear father, whatever you will tell me, I will do it. Not a trace of a doubt, not a shadow of a doubt crossed his mind at that point. If you say to me this, I will do it.
Because the order of the superior everything for me. It's my life and soul. It's the best. That's discipline. Discipline means somebody tells you you do this.
And if you have this training, then you're well equipped to overcome any difficulties in your life.
If you still have this independent nature and if you think that you know I know better what is best for me, if you still have this stupid idea that I know how to live my life, you know then Krishna will take care of you, no problem.
He will show you in many, many instances in your life that you are stupid. And then you suffer. But Lord Ramachandra, that's the foundation of discipline. Is Maryada Purushotama? What is he teaching us?
You know, you accept the order of your superior on your head and go through your life with the order of your superior and do what your superior does. Prabhupada is an example.
During the first meeting with his Guru Maharaj, his Guru Maharaj told him, you preach this message of Lord Chaitanya in the Western world and the English speaking world. His whole life he was meditating on this order.
Not one second of his life he deviated from this order. He knew at one point he had some immediate responsibilities, this and that, but ultimately he fulfilled the order and therefore he was victorious.
Because this is the power of the order of the superior. And that's the foundation of Mariada. And that's the foundation of the teachings of Lord Ramachandra.
He comes here and he says: if you live your life in this way, there will be no difficulties with you. The difficulties will be there, but you will be able to overcome all the difficulties, whatever uh difficulties you will meet.
But if you uh still have this whimsical nature and we all have whimsical nature and the foundation of this whimsical nature, I know better what is best for me. Who thinks like this? Please raise your hand.
So we all think like this.
Discipline as foundation for divine love
We all have this independent nature. And therefore, you know, we have to understand that this is the spirit of Ramnavani, the first festival of the year.
And if we understand this spirit, only after that we will be able to understand līlā puruṣottama. Līlā puruṣottama means Krishna comes here and he says, uh now I I will have my līlā and you enjoy your līlā. You come to me.
But you will be able to join Krishna's līlā. Who wants to join Krishna's līlā? It's so blissful, right?
You just, you know, frolic in Vrindavan, you just take some prasāda on the bank of Yamuna and you do some mischief with the gopīs. Very nice.
But But the entrance into this Krishna līlā, into this līlā puruṣottama, it's very important. We ultimately have to enter to this līlā, that's our highest destination. But you only will be able to join Krishna's līlā if you're first trained by Lord Ramachandra, by his teachings as maryādā puruṣottama. And then you will be able to understand uh Lord Caitanya's teachings.
Lord Caitanya's teachings is again uh he is prema-puruṣottama, his teachings is extremely important. He teaches us how to develop this love of Krishna.
But he is again coming and saying, you know, for that you have to follow discipline. Lord Chaitanya himself, he was so disciplined. He was so extremely disciplined. And he was teaching his followers discipline.
When Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī in Caitanya-caritāmṛta explains that when this līlā with Choṭa Haridāsa happened, and when Lord Caitanya became upset with Choṭa Haridāsa, uh all the followers of Lord Chaitanya became so afraid that they were afraid to see women even in their dreams. They even in a dream if if the image of a woman would would appear they would turn their face. I don't know how they would do it in a dream but it was so strongly
imbibed in their uh you know heart. Uh again, why? Because because of maryādā.
You know, we sometimes have this idea that Mariada may not be necessary. It's such a burden, but no, this is the most beautiful thing which we have to learn from the very beginning.
By following the orders of our superior, by following the orders of guru, by following the orders of our authorities. If we learn to do this, our life will be successful.
If we don't learn this ABC of human life, if we don't learn how to follow the orders of our superiors, our life will be failure. It will be a big failure.
Importance of becoming a sincere disciple
And we will be regretting that we failed so royally in our life. So that's uh that's what basically what Śrīla Prabhupāda is also explaining in his lecture when he's saying that uh this is the essence of human life.
The essence of human life is uh is to be trained. And the essence of training is to follow the discipline and and to to become śiṣya. Ultimately that's that's what we should uh that's what we should become.
We should become a guru. Sometimes we want to become guru. Guru is very nice. But that's envious position. We should become śiṣya. And if we become śiṣya we can teach others.
Because if you are if you are not disciple yourself, what will you teach others?
You know that's that's again that's the essence of what we should learn and that's the essence of uh Lord Ramachandra's pastimes. And he shows how to overcome difficulties by following the discipline.
So that's few things which I wanted to say after listening to this class of Śrīla Prabhupāda that's what we should prepare ourselves.
I'm sorry for bringing such a bad news to you that life is not meant for enjoyment, that life is meant for discipline, but actually it's a very good news. So thank you very much, Hare Kṛṣṇa.