Shrimad-Bhagavatam 7.15.45
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Muscat · 2019
Chapters
Auspicious occasions and remembering Lord Nityananda
So today is ekādaśī and tomorrow is Varāha dvādaśī and today after tomorrow is Nityānanda trayodaśī and it's appropriate to remember Lord Nityananda today, because the day after tomorrow you might not remember him, being busy in your work.
So I will read a verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam where Śrīla Prabhupāda explains in the purport the mercy of Lord Nityananda and his significance for our spiritual life and uh we'll say afterwards a few words about this subject matter.
Om namo bhagavate vāsudevāya.
Omnamo Bhagavate Vasudeva, Omnamo Bhavate, Sudeva, Sudevaya, Omnamo Bhagavatevaya, Bhagavate Sudevaya, Narayanamaskritya, Naramcheva narotamam cheva narotamam, devim saraswatiasam, devim saraswati yasam, tatujamudiray, Nach the prayer swa Dr. E tem Bhagava Swaya, Syva, Bhagawa Tju. Bhakti Bhavati Nashtiki. Bhakti Bhavati Nastiki. Yamprabra Jantamanupetamapetakrityam. Dvapayanavi Rahakatarajubam, Putretitamayatay, Travobinidus, Damsarva Bhu tahriam, Muni Tosmi, Yavan, Yavan Nrikayam Garista, Charana, archanaya, nisatam, jnana, asim, asim, Atyutabalaha, Dadh, Ashtashatruhu, Ashtashatru, Svananda, Tusta Upassanta Idam Vijaya, Ya van rika ratha matma vaso pakalpam, show papalpam, ya vanri kaya ratha so pakalpam, date garista charana charanarcha chanayanisatam, istayasam, datega ristacharanarchanayanisatam, dadekarishamata Dyanasi machyuta baloda datatasta. Sutta Balodadashtashatru Balodabasu. Svanandatushtopasantaidam vijahyatushta Svanandatustopa samtaidam vijaya, santamid, Vanrikayaratma shopakalpam, vandrija matma sopa, da tega ristačara narchanajan isatam Jana si mačju tabalo, dachtahu. Svananda Tushtaw Passandaidam Vijaya.
Sananda Tushtapassantaidam Vidana. Okay. Ya vat as long as nrikaya this human form of body considered to be a chariot. Atmavasha dependent upon one's own control. Opakalpam. In which there are many other subordinate parts.
Dhate one possesses. Garishta Charana. The lotus feet of the superiors, namely the spiritual master and his predecessors, namely the spiritual master and his predecessors, Archanaya by serving, Nishatam
Nisatam Sharpened, Jnanasim, the sword or weapon of knowledge, Atyuta Balaha by the transcendental strength of Krishna. Dadha holding. Ashtashatruhu Until the enemy is defeated. Sva Anandatushta.
Being fully self-satisfied by transcendental bliss. Upashantaha. The consciousness being cleansed of all material contamination. Hidam this body vijahyat one should give up.
Translation and purport of the verse
Translation and purports by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
As long as one has to accept the material body with its different parts and paraphernalia, which are not fully under one's control, one must have the lotus feet of his superiors, namely his spiritual master and the spiritual master's predecessors.
By their mercy, one can sharpen the sword of knowledge, and with the power of the Supreme Personality of God His mercy, one must them conquer the enemies mentioned above.
In this way the devotee should be able to merge into his own transcendental bliss and then he may give up his body and resume his spiritual identity.
Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote a beautiful and very long purport, but we will read it all and study. It's very beautiful.
In this purport he quotes two times this Jan Makarma Chamediam verse saying how important it is, stressing this. So, in one sense, our three lectures are on the same topic.
In Bhagavad-gītā, the Lord says, janma karma ca me divyam evam yo vetti tattvataḥ tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti māṁ eti so 'rjuna. Akvadeham Punarjanmana Tima Meti Sorjunam.
One who knows the transcendental nature of my appearance and activities does not upon leaving the body takes his birth again in this material world, but attains my eternal abode origin. This is the highest perfection of life, and the human body is meant for this purpose.
It is said in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: Nṛ-dehaṁ mādyṁ sulabhaṁ sudurlabhaṁ plavaṁ sukalpaṁ guru-karṇa-dhāram μαιvānukūleṉa nabhasvateritān pumān bhavābdhiṁ na taret sa ātma-hā. This human form of body is most valuable.
And the spiritual master is the captain, Guru Karnadharam, the guide to guide the boat in plying across the ocean of nations. The instruction of Krishna is a favorable breeze.
One must use all these facilities to cross over the ocean of nations,
since the spiritual master is the captain, one must serve the spiritual master very sincerely, so that by the mercy, by his mercy, one will be able to get the mercy of the Supreme Lord.
A significant word here is Achuta Balaha.
The spiritual master is certainly very merciful to his disciples, and consequently, by satisfying him, a devotee gets strength from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore says, guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja.
Lata Bij. One must first please the spiritual master and then one automatically pleases Krishna and gets the strength with which to cross the ocean of nescience.
If one seriously desires to return home back to Godhead, one must therefore become strong enough by pleasing the spiritual master and thus one gets the weapon with which to conquer the enemy and one also gets the grace of Krishna.
Simply getting the weapon of jñāna is insufficient. One must sharpen the weapon by serving the spiritual master and adhering to his instructions.
When the candidate will get the mercy of the Supreme Personality of God. Then the candidate will get the mercy of the Supreme Personality of God.
In general warfare, one must take help from his chariot and horses in order to conquer his enemy and after conquering his enemies he may give up the chariot and its paraphernalia.
Similarly, as long as one has a human body, one should fully use it to obtain the highest perfection of life, namely going back home, back to Godhead.
The perfection of knowledge is certainly to become transcendentally situated, brahma-bhūtaḥ. As the Lord says in Bhagavad-gītā, brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu mad-bhaktir labhate param.
One who is transcendentally situated at once realizes the Supreme Brahman and becomes fully joyful. He never laments, nor desires to have anything. He is equally disposed towards all living entities. And in that state, he attains pure devotional service.
Simply by cultivating knowledge, as the impersonalists do, one cannot get out of the clutches of Maya. One must attain the platform of bhakti.
Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ tato māṁ tattvato jñātvā viśate tadanantaram. Vishate Tad Anantaram. One can understand the Supreme Personality as he is only by devotional service.
And when one is in full consciousness of the Supreme Lord, by such devotion He can enter into the kingdom of God. Yaman Yas Chasmi Tattvataha, Tatamam Tattva Togiatva, Tattva Ta. Again, the same word, Tvatataha.
Fully in truth. Unless one has attained the stage of devotional service and the mercy of the spiritual master and Krishna, there is a possibility that one may fall down and again accept a material body.
Therefore, Krishna stresses in Bhagavad Gita, Janma Karmacha medi vihame, vam yoveti tatvatahatyak tvadeam Punar janma Naitima Medi Sor Juna.
One who knows the transcendental nature of my appearance and activities, does not upon leaving the body take his birth again in this material world, but attains my eternal abode of Krishna or Krishna or Arjun.
The word Tattvataha, meaning in reality, is very important. Tattama Tattvatog.
Unless one understands Krishna intrudes by the mercy of spiritual master, one is not free to give up his material body. One is bound to take material body again.
It is said Aruchya Krishena Parampadam Tatah Patatya donadritius if one neglects this to serve the lotus feet of Krishna, one cannot become free from material clutches simply by knowledge.
Arukya Krishena, Parampadam Tadak, Patatyada Nadhrity Yoshmanangraya, Yene Ravindaksivi Muktamaninas. Even if one attains the stage of Brahmapadam, merging the Brahman, without bhakti, he is prone to fall down.
One must be very careful in regard to the danger of falling down again into material bondage. The only insurance is to come to the stage of bhakti from which one is sure not fall, not to fall.
Then one is free from the activities of the material world.
In summary, as stated by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, one must get in touch with Bona fide spiritual master, coming into Parampara of Krishna consciousness, for by his mercy and instructions, one is able to get strength from Krishna.
Thus, one engages in devotional service and attains the ultimate goal of life, the lotus feed of Vishnu. Significant in this verse are the words Jnanasim Atyutabalah, Jnā Asim, the sword of knowledge, is given by Krishna.
And when one serves the Guru and Krishna in order to hold the sword of Krishna, of Krishna's instruction, Balaram gives one strength. Balaram is Nityananda. Vrajendranandana Yay, such is This
Bala Balaram comes with Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and both of them are so merciful that in this age of Kali one may very easily take shelter of their lotus feet. They come especially to deliver fallen souls of this age,
Papitapi Yatachila Harinami Udharila, their weapon is Sankirtana Harinam. Thus, one should accept the sword of knowledge from Krishna and be strong with the mercy of Balaram.
We are therefore worshiping Krishna Balaram in Vrindavan. In Mundako Upanishad, it is said, Nayamatma Balahine Labya, Nachabramad tapas Vapjalingat Eter Upir Yat Yatate Yastu Vidams Tasaiva Atma Vishati Brahmadham.
One cannot attain the goal of life without the mercy of Balaram. Srinarotam das Takur therefore says nitayera karuna Hobhi Vrajarada Krishna Pabi.
When one receives the mercy of Balaram, Nityananda, one can attain the lotus feet of Radha and Krishna very easily. Sesambana Nahiyar, Brittajan Magela Tar, Vidya Kuli Nakari Nakari Bitar.
If one has no connection with Nitai Balaram, then even though one is a very learned scholar or Gnani or has taken birth in a very respectable family, these assets will not help him.
We must therefore conquer the enemies of Krishna consciousness with the strengths received from Balaram. Shila Prabhupada Gija. It's a beautiful verse and purport.
Let's read it again and Yavanri Kayaratamatma Vasopakalpam Date Garistacharanarchanaya Nishatam Gyanasi Machuta Baloda Dasta Sat As
long as one has to accept the material body which is with its different parts and paraphernalia, which are not fully under one's control, one must have the lotus feet of his superiors, namely his spiritual master and the spiritual master's predecessors. By their mercy, one can sharpen the sword of knowledge, and with the power of the Supreme Personality of God His mercy, one must then conquer the enemies mentioned above.
In this way the devotee should be able to merge into his own transcendental bliss and then he may give up his body and resume his spiritual identity,
Nama Vishnu Padaya Krishna pristaya Bhuta Srimati Bhaktividanta Swami nitinaminana Mastes Saraswati Devi Gurawani Prachari Nirvi Sha Sunyavali Paschatya Sitari Sri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhanianda Sy Dwight Agda Hara Sivasa de Guru Bhakti Vrinda Hare
Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Ramahare Hare, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Ram Ramahare Hare Ajana Lambita Bujokanak Sankirtanaya Pitaroka
Malaya taksa, Vishwam Barod Vija Ruyuga Dharma Palamandei Ja Gat Priya Karow Karunavatara, Yandah pra visha Mamavachi Mamam Prasupta, Sanji Vaya de Kila shakti darakswadamna, anjamcha hasta charana sravanat vaga
di prananda mo Bhagavat epurusai dya. Hare Krishna.
Controlling internal enemies and the mind
So let's try to meditate on the instructions of this verse, which is very important for us to be successful in spiritual life. Ultimately, Krishna wants us our success, and therefore, He makes sure
that we get ample instructions. But there are internal enemies, chatrus. Unfortunately, everyone has due to long contact with the material energy, one develops a lot of obstacles inside, internal enemies.
And these enemies are very active. It's actually the programs which we developed, the protective programs. These programs are nothing but some protective mechanisms for us to exist in this material world. What is anger?
Anger is a very good protective mechanism. One cannot live in this world without anger. One has to fight enemies, one has to use it, and one has to overcome all this material envy of other people and so on and so forth.
But the problem with all these good things is that they become bad things. Why do they become bad things? Because they take control over us. Anger is not bad. Anger itself is not bad.
The problem becomes when not we control the anger, but the anger controls us. And unfortunately, that happens with all these protective mechanisms, with all these anartas.
These anarthas are so difficult to give up because they are, in one sense, arthas. For us, subjectively, they are useful. If they were completely useless, we would give them up. Completely.
But subjectively, we all understand we need this to survive. We develop these programs and this anartha early in our life and of course, in previous lives, and there are so many of them. The greed. Greed is good.
You need greed. You need to be a little stingy to survive. You need to be, you know, you cannot be just a pure devotee. Well you can but but uh you know to
survive in this world you need some greed you need some anger you need some little lust, you need this and that. But again, the main problem with these things is that we do not control them.
Therefore, Srila Prabhupada very beautifully he translated this vaśa-ukalpam. Vaśa means, literally means, under the control.
This ratha which we have, this material body which we have, it's supposed to be under our control. But Srila Prabhupada says, which is not completely under our control. Why he translates like this, ukalpam?
Because it has many different parts. Our material body has many different parts, and therefore, sometimes they are not completely under our control. If we were made out of one piece, it would be very easy.
We would be fully under control. But because we are composed, we are not we are a very complex entity, it's very difficult to control completely,
you know, because all these parts they have some sort of independence. Little independence is there, and therefore we cannot really control the body. What to speak of controlling the mind.
The problem again is the mind is not one piece. We have so many different forces and different elements in our mind.
The buddhi is there, and the emotional mind is there, and the emotional mind says, go for it, do it, it will be good for you. And the buddhi says, no, don't do it. And then there is a conflict inside.
And as I said, all these things, you know, there are so many different programs which are there. And we are not fully controlling them. In fact, we have very little control.
It's actually an overstatement when Prabhupada says which are not completely under our control. It's completely out of our control in reality. It's very little we have control. Over the body, yes, maybe.
Over the mind, forget it. When the mind thinks something, we just wonder, you know, why he's thinking this nonsense. And we cannot stop him thinking this, you know, it goes into this direction. So that's the problem.
Spiritual master as the essential guide
Even though it is stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, nṛdeham sulabhaṁ sudurlabhaṁ plavaṁ sukalpaṁ gurukarṇa-dhāram, you know, and sulabhaṁ sudurlabhaṁ, plavaṁ sukalpaṁ, and nṛdeham ādyam sulabhaṁ sudurlabhaṁ, plavaṁ sukalpaṁ, guru-karṇa-dhāram. Sudurlabam, Plavam Sukalpam, Guru Karna Dara.
So therefore, in this verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which Śrīla Prabhupāda quotes here, Plavam Sukhalpam, it's a very nice boat, Plavam. It's boat which is definitely capable of us to bring us to the other uh shore of this material existence, of the oceans of material existence.
Sukalpam, perfectly, perfectly arranged. Plavam Sukalpam. Yet, and uh, you know, uh svatāritam, uh there is a favorable wind of Krishna's instructions. There is no doubt about it.
Krishna gives so many instructions. The wind is blowing in the right direction. Don't go this, you know, the wind is there, it's pushing us. Still, Guru Karnadharam. We need Guru. And Guru is called Karnadhara in Sanskrit.
It's a very funny word. Karna means ear, and dhara means the one who holds the ear.
And we know you know when a little child does something wrong what the what his guru does, what his guru Jan does keeps his ear, you know, and twist his ear.
You know, you're you're wrong. You're going in the wrong direction, you know. So Guru is the one who is supposed to twist your ear. You fool. You're going in the wrong direction.
So it's a very interesting thing because you know why do we need a guru? The instructions of Krishna are there. They're blowing, blowing in the right direction. But still need.
We need a guru because it's so easy to get confused. Again, because of this problem, internal chathrus.
You know, we're trying to fight with these internal enemies, but what are the instruments for us to fight with these internal enemies? Sometimes people want to get rid of their bad habits.
But how they can get rid of the bad habits? With the mind which is full of bad habits. You know, when people are trying to correct themselves, to get the perfection themselves.
It's the same as this famous liar who said that he once was drowning and then he saved himself by pulling his sheca, his hairs. You know, it's a lie.
If you are drowning, you cannot save yourself yourself. You cannot save yourself by pulling yourself by hairs, you know. You cannot do this. You need somebody else to pull you by your hair.
Somebody else has to catch your hair and pull. Somebody else has to catch your ear and pull you out of this of this material existence. So we need guru, otherwise we will get lost for sure. We will quote Krishna.
We will quote Bhagavad-gītā. We will know Bhagavad-gītā back and forth.
Śrīla Prabhupāda says you may be a great pandit. You may quote so many verses and you and you still will be the full number one, you will be bewildered.
Because you are ultimately under the guidance of your own mind, which is full of your own enemies. And you cannot do anything with these enemies unless you take seriously the service of Guru, unless
you completely put your mind under the control of the superior's mind. And this is what is said in this verse, again in a very beautiful way. It is said: if you have this Garista Charanarchanaya.
You have to do archana to the charana, to the lotus feet of garista. Arista means superiors.
Therefore, specifically Śrīla Prabhupāda says not only guru, but the predecessors of the guru, the whole line, all gariṣṭha, all the all these people who really try their best to make sure that we are not bewildered, that we are not confused, that we are really are on track.
So, that again arcanaya niṣṭham. What happens in this case? Niṣṭham, it's a very important word in this verse. Niṣṭham means sharpening the sword. The knowledge is given.
The sword of knowledge is given by Acyuta himself. All the śāstras are coming from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But the sword may not be so sharp. You really need because you don't know which instruction to follow.
You know, you have this ocean of material existence which is difficult to cross, and then you have the ocean of śāstra, which is even more difficult to cross.
How do you figure out what śāstra is all about? There are so many statements in the śāstra.
Do this and do this, this vrata and this fast and and this ritual and this yajña. And you will become and chant this mantra and that mantra. You know, there's one book.
Very famous book which is called Mantranava, The Ocean of Mantras. So, how can you cross this material ocean with the other ocean. It's very difficult. You know, which mantra do you chant? There is ocean of mantras. So many.
You go to an astrologer and go say, oh, I will tell you very good mantra. This parasuram mantra, very good mantra, or ahur mantra, om rah ave namaha, secret mantra.
You will be able to cross all the obstacles which is, you know, forget it. Forget it. You will get lost completely. You have to sharpen the sword of knowledge, the sharpening sword of knowledge by which?
By this process of serving charana archanaya.
By this archanaya, archanaya is in this, in this case, in the dative case, you know to to whom by by doing this oh sorry archanaya anyway uh yeah uh garishtacharanarchana nishatam jnanasin achyuta baloddhata. So Śrīla
Prabhupāda again and again says discriminates these two things: you get the jñāna from Krishna.
Receiving spiritual strength through Balarama
Krishna is actually the deity of jñāna. He is giving jñāna. He is uh in charge of Chit Shakti. Radharani is in charge of Ananda Shakti, Chladini Shakti. Krishna is in charge of Samvit Shakti.
And Balaram is in charge of what? Of which Shakti? Chladini Samvit? Sandini Shakti. And Sandini Shakti is the Shakti which gives you bala. So Krishna gives you jñāna. Rādhārāṇī gives you ānanda.
But first of all, you have to take, you have to get, you have to obtain bala or strength from Balaram. So these three things are necessary for the ultimate victory which we have to obtain.
These three things are extremely necessary. Balaram. We cannot we cannot get but the beginning step, the first step is Balaram.
The first step is to get the strength because the sword may be there. It may even be sharpened, but you don't have the strength to lift it. You know it's it's a heavy, heavy sword. Jñānāsin is not an easy sword.
It's difficult to follow these instructions.
It's difficult to follow four regulative principles even in Kali-yuga. It's difficult to abstain from sex because lust is so strong, anger is so strong. All these enemies are very strong. They completely possess us.
We are completely obsessed by all these anarthas which are there, it's very strong. So we need strength to fight with them. Where do we get the strengths?
Therefore, Prabhupāda, he quotes this verse from Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad, it says: Nāyam ātmā pravacanena labhyo na medhayā na bahunā śrutena. Yam evaiṣa vṛṇute tena labhyas tasyaiṣa ātmā vivṛṇute tanūṁ svām. You cannot get ātmā, you cannot understand God, you cannot understand spirit, you cannot understand your own soul, your own service, your own position in the spiritual world.
Nāyam ātmā bala-hīnena labhyaḥ without balam. Without strength. You need spiritual strength. Where to get spiritual strength? Bala does not mean material strength.
You know, some people have a lot of bala, you know, they're balawan. Bahlawan.
But you need spiritual strength, Balarāma, he gives this spiritual strength. It's actually, sorry, not Sīndīpanī Muni, Garga Muni's explanation when he gave names to Krishna and Balaram, he said, Balaram means spiritual strengths, the one who gets, who has the spiritual strengths and his Ram because he's so pleasing. He gives so much joy.
And this is exactly what we are experiencing when we get in contact with the spiritual master in a proper way. When there is a proper connection or proper relationship with the spiritual master,
we immediately feel that we absorb strength. We become spiritually more strong to overcome these enemies or these obstacles, internal obstacles which are there, and we become joyful as well.
We get enthusiasm by serving spiritual master and we get strength. Śrīla Prabhupāda again and again explains this.
He says that by serving spiritual master only you will be able to follow even regulative principles, even simple regulative principles.
Because otherwise you will be you will be pulled away by the strong forces of lust and greed and anger and whatnot and pride. You know, even if if you're not driven by gross lust,
you will still have this pratiṣṭhā, you will still have this envy inside. You know, I I know it. I'm I'm you know I'm confessing to you. This is my confession in front of you. You may not have uh you know gross problems.
You still have subtle problems. You envy somebody, oh he's giving lecture better than you. He knows shastras better than you. Ah my goodness, how is that possible? You should be the first one, number one.
Or you know, pride, you become proud and you look down and you say, Oh, look at me. So this is enemies. This six enemies, ṣaṭ-śatru, which we have. You know, kāma, krodha, lobha, mada, mātsarya, moha. It's all there.
And that's so difficult. So difficult. We are really attached to them. We're really attached to them. They're not an archenemy for us. They are archives. We keep them. We need them. You know, little envy we need. Right?
And a lot of lust to be happy in this world. No. So how to fight them? You need joy and enthusiasm and strengths which come from the genuine relationship with spiritual master.
If you serve, uh genuinely put the lotus feet of your spiritual master upon your head.
It is actually said, uh Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī, he explained this in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa. He says, the first thing which you do in the morning, he says, the first meditation which you do before chanting the holy name, before doing anything else, you chant the mantra of your Guru Maharaj and you put his lotus feet upon your head.
And then the rest of the day you walk around with the lotus feet of your spiritual master. Then you're protected. You are under the shelter. You are you're secure. You're protected.
It means basically the first thought which should be there when you wake up, I'm a servant. I am not an independent enjoyer. I'm not the best one. I am not, you know, this false ego is just cheating. It's a bluff.
All these false ego games is bluff. So what happens I and I will explain it a little later, but let me how to how to go about it because I wanted to say so many things but I I don't know.
I I don't want to keep you too long. Too so yeah, let's do it like this.
Overcoming false ego and material attachments
As I said yesterday, the false ego creates all kinds of negative emotions. Creates stress, constant stress. And false ego keeps all these attachments. False ego is very attached. False ego is like a leech.
It's just sucking our blood. False ego is a very strong thing. And you cannot get real spiritual experience unless and until you
get rid of this false identity, false, very strong false identity. So you will never be able to feel Krishna's presence. It will be just imagination, or Krishna is there, or whatever, you know.
Sometimes sentimentally we may feel this, but it's not real. The real protection, the real security you will not feel. So, how to do this? Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura in connection with this.
As I said there, we will never be able, janma karma ca me divyam evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ, yaṁ vetti tattvataḥ, we will never be able to understand in truth. You know, the līlās of Krishna will never open to us.
We will not have taste for them. Real taste.
You know, those people who have real taste, they can listen to this Krishna-kathā day and night forgetting, eating and sleeping, like Mahārāja Parīkṣit. Mahārāja Parīkṣit, he was not eating, he was not sleeping, he was not drinking.
He is the only thing which he was drinking was the nectar of Krishna-kathā coming from Śukadeva Gosvāmī. Why we don't have this experience?
If the lecture goes too long, you know, you look in the watch and you look at the lecturer and you look at the watch until he notices what you're doing it. You know, because we don't have taste.
We need to eat something, not just Krishna Katha, something more substantial. And of course, sleeping we do during the lecture, that's also very conducive. Just some extra sleeping during the lecture is always nice.
Anyway, so uh we don't have taste. We our soul is still quite quite in a deep sleep. Krishna Katha no no taste is there. And therefore Krishna says, evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ, you have to know janma karma
Chame Divyame Vam Yaveti Tattvataha. Tattvataha means you listen about it and your hair stand on end and your tears are flowing, you know. Krishna is so amazing. It's Krishna, that's him is doing it. So, how to get it?
The point is, the real point of how to get this taste.
And this taste you can only get by serving your spiritual master sincerely, who is the representative of Lord Nityānanda and who is the representative of Lord Balaram.
And this is what Bhaktivinoda explains very beautifully in a couple of his books in Sri Krishna Samhita and in specifically in Sri Chaitanya Sriksamrit. He explains a very interesting thing.
Please listen very carefully because it is important for us to understand. He explains that all this internal enemies which are there can easily be conquered just by listening about Krishna.
Allegorical lessons from Dhenukasura and Pralambasura
Just by listening this Krishna līlā reading Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, especially reading the 10th can of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. He says, however, there are two demons in Krishna līlā.
Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura specifically says there are different demons in Krishna līlā. And just by reading about them, just by reading Kali līlā, you will get rid of your envy. Because who is Kali?
Kali is nothing but this envy which is poisoning our consciousness and which ultimately wants to strangle Krishna. And you know he wants to be this many hooded you know enemy is living in the lake of our heart.
And if you read how Krishna easily was dancing in the hoods, if you read and you absorbed in this and if you listen how it is, you will feel I'm free from envy. There is no need for me to poison my consciousness.
So Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says: all the demons which are being killed or subdued by Krishna very easily can be gotten rid of by reading about them.
He says still there are two demons which are not which are difficult to get rid of. And first you have to get rid of them. Only after that you will be able to deal with everyone else.
He says: these are two demons which are killed by Balarāma. Who are these two demons which are killed by Balarāma?
Dhenukāsura? Dhenukāsura, yes, exactly. Dhenukāsura, Balarāma killed it in a very peculiar way by you know by swirling him And another one is Prahlamba Sura, yes. There's two demons. And there is a secret, what it means.
This. These two demons, and Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says: these two demons you have to kill yourself with the help of your spiritual master. The spiritual master if you are humble if you are trying
to serve him sincerely he will teach you how to get rid of these two demons Who are these two demons? These two demons are two aspects of our false ego, of our ahaṅkāra.
Who is the Dhenukāsura? Dhenukāsura is an ass. You know, and our uh ego, ahaṅkāra is like an ass. It's always braying. How the asses are braying, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Aye, aye, aye, aye, aye, aye, aye.
This, you know, I am, I am, I am. Look, look, look, look at me, I am the best. So this is an as is very gross, right?
And, you know, like the Dhenukāsura, he was keeping the fruits, these tall fruits, for himself, even though he cannot enjoy the fruits. The asses are so dull, you know. And still he was guarding these fruits.
So, this gross manifestation of false ego is our desire to enjoy the fruits of our actions. I am doing it, and everything which I did belongs to me. Nothing belongs to us. We will die. And we will leave everything.
There is a little joke about this. There is a funeral going on. A friend left his body and two friends are talking about it, and one is asking, what did he leave behind? And he said, he left behind everything.
You know, he left everything. You know, we cannot take even a needle with with ourselves to other place. And still we're so attached, you know. Let me, let me possess. It's all, all of it in the mind. It's all a mind game.
It's not really, that doesn't belong to us. Today it belongs to us. Tomorrow Śani-deva will be very merciful to us and he will look us with some attention and we will lose everything. We don't know how. We will lose.
So it doesn't belong to us. It. But we have to have this consciousness. It doesn't belong to me. I'm not of this world. It's not mine. So the false ego says, no, it's yours. No, it's yours. The gross aspect of false ego is mama,
mind. It's all mine. It belongs to me. I am the legitimate enjoyer of everything which belongs to me of all my surveyor of all my possession. I'm the enjoyer of my wife. Try it. You will get a nice kick. But still, we're trying.
We got so much suffering because of this possessiveness, because of this mentality. There is nothing wrong with possessing something. The mentality that I am the possessor, this is wrong. You know, I'm using it
in Krishna's service. It's given to me. You know, it's like Prabhupada says, it's a thief mentality. It's not mine. Krishna gave it. It's Krishna's energy. It's God's energy. So this is gross manifestation.
This is the Dhenukasura. Denukasura again is very gross. Gross manifestation. I want to enjoy the fruits of my action. I want to do this, you know, whatever it is, is mine. There is subtle manifestation of false ego.
This is I am. You know, I may become little, you know, this I and mine, uh, aham mama is two aspects of false ego. Uh, mine is gross, I is more subtle. I am so knowledgeable. And I am so, you know, I'm so nice.
And I am so good. And I am so proud. And I am so this and I am so that. So this is called Pralambāsura. What is the meaning of Pralambāsura? Pralamba means you must know. Those who know Hindi must know. Lamba means long.
Pra-lamba means very long. You know, this very long route, the feeling of independence. I am independent of the Lord. I am an independent enjoyer. And it may be subtle, the enjoyment may be subtle.
You know, the Dhenukasura, he's in a gross way. He's enjoying in a gross way. Pralambāsura is enjoying in a very subtle way. I am very special. I am independent of the Lord, and, you know, I'm serving the Lord.
Pralambāsura came in nick of time, a cowherd boy. And he's playing in the same side as Krishna is playing. He's pretending to be his servant. This cheating mentality, which even manifests when
we're so-called serving, we're trying to serve. And, uh, but, uh, in reality, we're cheating. We just want to enjoy, uh, in a very subtle way, uh, this facility of fame, you know. fame, you know.
We become a big sannyāsī, big guru, you know, I am so, and you know, I'm very humble. Forget it, it's all cheating. It's all this Pralambāsura, which has deep roots. Deep roots.
So what Balarām has to do, Balarām sits down on his shoulders and smashes him on the head. Just, and even Balarām at one point was bewildered when Pralambāsura Sura started running. Balarām didn't know what to do.
And Krishna called him and said, "Just kill him, you are God. Don't forget about this.
So, so, you know, it's actually very important sometimes even our spiritual master may become bewildered by our by our demonic ability and stuff like
stuff like this, you know, but ultimately he's supposed to smash us. By our head, you know, smash. This is all cheating. This is all you came here, you says you are the servant.
Ultimately, you have this desire to enjoy even by this in a very subtle way. You have to become servant.
So basically, these two things, these two aspects of false ego have to be removed in our relationship with the spiritual master.
If this relationship is genuine, then through this genuine desire to serve and genuine service attitude and whatever it is, we will be able to overcome this. Not otherwise.
Developing a genuine relationship with guru
Not otherwise. If it's just formal relationship, if we just formally accept initiation from spiritual master, it doesn't help. There has to be relationship.
It means that I have to be established in this in this consciousness. I'm the servant. I'm the servant of whom. Sometimes people say Ritvik, we are servant of Śrīla Prabhupāda. It doesn't work. It doesn't really work.
Why it doesn't work? You know, S. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu himself explained this. He says, he says, why do we need spiritual master, jīve uh uh uh sākṣād-dhari, tṛṣṇā guru-kṛṣṇa-rūpa.
Uh jīva doesn't have the direct access to caitya-rūpa, to Guru. Guru is there in our heart. Original Guru, Balarāma is there in our heart. Nityānanda Prabhu is there in our heart. Caitya-rūpa.
They all, you know, the Paramātmā, a supersoul, is the expansion of ultimately Nityānanda Prabhu. It's the expansion of Saṅkarṣaṇa, Ādi Saṅkarṣaṇa, and Ādi Saṅkarṣaṇa gives re Saṅkarṣaṇa is Balarāma.
Saṅkarṣaṇa is coming from Balarāma. From Saṅkarṣaṇa is coming Mahā-Viṣṇu. From Mahā-Viṣṇu is coming Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu.
From Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, from Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, who is Paramātmā.
So the original Guru is there, Saṅkarṣaṇa is there, Balarāma is there, Ādi Balarāma, I mean his expansion of expansion of expansion of expansion is in our heart. Jīve sākṣād-nahi. We cannot hear him directly.
Tate uh Guru Chaityarub uh you cannot listen guru in a form of Chaityarub, therefore he comes Mahantas He comes in the form of a living, of a living devotee. Therefore, Guru comes in direct form to tell you what to do.
Otherwise, you will get bewildered, you know.
And what is the difference between saying that Prabhupāda, my guru, or, you know, Nityānanda Prabhu is my guru, or, you know, you can pick and choose anyone, Rūpa Gosvāmī is my guru, no problem. You don't have sākṣāt access to him, you don't have the direct access to him. Sākṣāt kāra is not there.
So what is the use? You need, for to become genuine, to get rid of false ego, you need genuine relationships, somebody should tell you, here is your ahaṅkāra. My dear sir, you're very nice. Very nice.
But false ego is still there, you know. In this genuine relationship, only when you become servant in a real sense, not just in an imaginary sense, not just in some, you know, in your dreams, you know, not just a
dream svapna-dāsa, you know. Servant in a dream. In real sense, you you get rid of this false ego, false identity. And then and then you get strengths, then you get strengths. Because again, please listen very carefully.
All these programs they suck out our strengths. We feed them with strengths. Anger, does anger take our strengths? You know, when when we have this anger feed, do we become completely, you know, totally finished after that.
You know, lust does it take our strengths. Envy takes a lot of our strength, of our of our Our real strengths, you know, spiritual strengths which we need. So, how do we get how to return our strengths?
We gave the strengths to all us our enemies. This their strength is our strength. We gave them. And now we have this problem inside. They're very strong, very powerful. It's very difficult to fight with them.
How to fight with them, there is only one way is to redirect our energy to the service of the spiritual master, to the service of Prabhupāda. Predecessor spiritual masters is there. There's no doubt about it.
You know, this Ritvik philosophy is so foolish. Who is the hindrance for you to serve Śrīla Prabhupāda? You can serve Śrīla Prabhupāda. Serve Śrīla Prabhupāda to your heart's content.
But it doesn't preclude you, doesn't mean that you don't need anyone else. You need somebody else with some relationship who will help you to understand what Prabhupāda wants from you.
In which way he wants Prabhupāda wants you to serve. Otherwise it's your mind says, I want to do this, I want to steal something from Wiskon and serve Prabhupāda in this way. You know, what kind of service it is?
You're destroying Prabhupāda's movement, and you say that you are his servant. And you're fighting with it, and you're going to court and spending money in court, and you're servant of Prabhupāda.
And Prabhupāda is my guru. What nonsense it is, you know. How one can reconcile this? I never can understand this.
But anyway, the point is very simple: that in this genuine relationship you get strength as it is beautifully said in this verse. From Acyuta, jñāna and bala from Balarāma, from Nityānanda.
And for that you need to enter the relationship with guru because both Balarāma and Nityānanda is original guru. Now we come, this was the uh preface to my lecture.
Because we never didn't say anything about Nityananda Prabhu and we're supposed to speak about him. But anyway, time is over.
Service mood shown by Lord Nityananda
So I'll speak a little bit about Nityānanda Prabhu. But it's important for us to understand what it is, how we get, how we get the strengths from the spiritual master, from relationship of spiritual master.
First of all, and this is the most important, we see how he serves his spiritual master.
We need to have living example of somebody who is completely oblivious of his own interest and who is serving his spiritual master and at the same time completely happy.
It's not a question of serving, you know, you may serve and become miserable. You know, I'm serving. And you don't want.
You know, Nityānanda, he's Nityānanda. He's always experiencing this bliss and joy and ānanda, he's Nityānanda.
What he's doing, he's always, you know, it's Vṛndāvana dāsa Ṭhākura says when he came to Jagannātha Purī, he first lived in Jagannātha Purī with Caitanya Mahāprabhu before Caitanya Mahāprabhu sent him away. Mahaprabhu before Chaitanya Mahaprabhu sent him away. And I will tell this story a little later.
But Vṛndāvana dāsa Ṭhākura says when Nityānanda Prabhu was living in Jagannātha Purī, he was roaming in this little town, in this holy place, and he was always saying Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya.
He is Nityānanda himself. He has tremendous power. He always remembers: I have a master. He is my master. He's serving his mood. You know what is important? What does service to guru mean?
Service to guru does not mean gross service. If you can serve vapu of your guru, it's nice. If you cannot do it, service to guru means vāṇī-sevā. You try to see his mood and you serve his mood. You really admire his mood.
This is exactly what Nityānanda Prabhu is doing while living in Jagannātha Purī. He's roaming and he's saying, Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya. He's feeling love of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya reflected in his heart.
And he is overwhelmed. He is experiencing all these rasas, all these emotions of love which are there in the heart of Lord Caitanya. Because he is the servant. What is service?
Service is just a channel by which we can get the moods and the emotions of those whom we serve. When we serve envious people, we get their emotions. No doubt about it. Easily. Through the channel of our service.
Service is a channel which connects one heart to another heart.
If you do it, this relationship, if you do this, if you start serving somebody else genuinely you will get his moods, his emotions, his his his thoughts even.
You will be able to think the way he thinks, you will be able to see the world, the way he thinks, he sees the world and everything else.
So Nityānanda Prabhu, he is doing this and he's showing us, like Balarāma also, he's serving Kṛṣṇa in all capacities, in all rasas. He's serving him in sakhya-rasa, he's serving him in dāsya-rasa, he's serving him in śānta-rasa, he's serving him in vātsalya-rasa, he's even serving him in mādhurya-rasa, and all rasas he's trying to serve. This mood of service.
Therefore, Prabhupāda explains in different places that there is sevaka bhagavān and sevya bhagavān. Who is Nityananda Prabhu, he is sevaka bhagavan. There is sevya bhagavan, that's Krishna.
He's the object of the service. And there is Sevaka Bhagavan, the supreme personality of servitor Godhead. The highest manifestation of this mood of service which gives joy. Why he is Nityananda?
Because if you have this mood of service in your heart, you become joyful. Because that's natural. You know, if you surf, we know this.
Sometimes we surf and we become so happy, and then we forget about it and we start doing, thinking you, know, who will serve me and how I will enjoy, and immediately we become morose. Immediately.
Immediately, the moment we think, you know, how about me, we will become in grief, we will become morose. But when we surf and we see how others are happy, we become happy in a very natural way, spontaneous way.
It's so simple. But it's so difficult because of this false ego which is there, which is the hindrance.
And therefore, Nityananda Prabhu, he shows us, you know, in his example, for him, you know, it was Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Not even Krishna. Not even Krishna. Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Prabhu Nityānanda Oh, sorry.
Sri Krishna Chaitanya. Sri Krishna Chaitanya. And it is said, Śrīla Prabhupāda explains here, we can only get to Krishna, we can only understand what it means to serve Krishna through Nityananda Prabhu.
How we can serve Krishna? We are so gross. How? Please tell me how you can serve Krishna. With all our gross emotions and gross envy and gross things which are there, you know, we cannot serve Krishna. Krishna is very subtle.
Krishna is extremely subtle. How we can please Krishna? We cannot please Krishna. You know, how you cannot joke with Krishna. Our jokes are so gross. We cannot please him in any way, you know. We cannot.
How we can learn how to serve Krishna? How we can get access to Krishna? What to speak about, you know, the relationship between Krishna and Rādhārāṇī? How we can get access to this?
Through Nityānanda Prabhu, Śrīla Prabhupāda explained this. How? Through this mood of unreserved service. I'm the servant, I'm the servant. I don't need anything else. I'm happy. I am happy just by serving.
And it's interesting, this is what I wanted to tell you.
I very briefly I will tell you these two pastimes of Lord Nityānanda because if we were to start describing His pastimes, you know, we will need not one day, at least a few days we need, even briefly describing His pastimes.
But his pastimes are lessons. When we hear about the pastimes of great personalities, we have to see what are the lessons for us in these stories. They may be funny stories, nice stories.
But if we don't understand what by this story he is telling us to do, then we will never understand in reality the message which he sends to us.
So I wanted just to tell uh just a couple of stories from Lord Nityananda's life. Recently I was listening to a lecture of my Guru Maharaj, of Śrīla Radhanath Swami Maharaj. About Nityānanda.
And it's sometimes he gives long classes, you know, three hours or six hours sometimes. Sometimes he tells. And then he usually uh asks people uh do you want to hear more?
And in this lecture, he, you know, it was a long lecture, and then by the end of the lecture he again can ask, "Do you want to hear more?"
And people say, yeah, not very enthusiastically, but they say just politely they say yes. And Maharaj told a very funny story. He says, I will always remember this.
You know, once I asked during the lecture, shall I finish now? And people, all the people being under social pressure, they say, no, no, Maharaj. And one child, very enthusiastically had, "Yes, yes, finish."
So this is this is all the preachers know, sometimes they carry the way, but this, anyway, I am hungry myself, so I will finish it quickly. So just wanted to tell these two little stories, because in my opinion—I never heard it from anyone else.
But in my opinion, uh as I said, there are these two pastimes of Lord Balaram by killing these two demons, the Nukasura and Prahlambasura, which tells us what we are supposed to do in relationship with our spiritual master.
As Bhaktivinoda Thakura puts it, it's a secret of bhajana. To enter into the bhajan, into the service of the Supreme Lord in the land of Vrindavan, in the spiritual world of Vrindavan, we have to know this secret.
That's the entrance point. That's the actually, uh the guard is there, you know. Somebody is there checking our identity. And uh if you say I'm such and such, he will not let you.
If you say I'm, you know, such and such dasa of this, dasa, dasa, dasa, nu dasa. Through this channel of uh, this is the password, through the channel of
succession, I'm the servant of my master, who is the servant of Śrīla Prabhupāda, who is the servant of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī, who is the servant of Gaura Kisora dasa babaji, who is the servant of and so on and so forth i if we are uh going through this channel then uh we may uh get uh to this uh uh destination as it is said there you know garistyaa, Charanar Charanaya, Charanar Chanaya.
So in my opinion, these two pastimes in uh Lord Nityānanda's life are somewhat paralleled to the pastimes, two pastimes in Lord Balaram's life. And one, of course, is, you know, there is a very encounter
of Lord Nityananda with a very gross mentality.
Deliverance of Jagai and Madai
That is what? When Lord Nityananda was fighting with a very gross sort of enjoying mentality in his līlā, in his Caitanya līlā. That's Jagai and Madai līlā, definitely.
You know in my humble opinion again uh this is my sp well speculation, but it's it's nice speculation. It's not bad speculation because it gives you some idea.
Jagai and Madai, it's the same as Dhenukāsura in one sense in Kṛṣṇa līlā.
Because as much as Dhenukāsura has this gross, represents this gross mentality of ours, Jagai and Madai also in one sense represents general population in Kali-yuga.
Because the Kali-yuga, the spirit of enjoyment is becoming progressively more and more gross.
The people are drinking, and you know, and that's of course Jagai and Madai līlā. That's their nitya-līlā. That's their eternal pastime.
They drink and become drunk and you know and when they drank they pull each other by their beards or hairs. This whole pastime is very humorously depicted by Vrindavan Dāmodara and Chaitanya Bhāgavata when Lord
Chaitanya at one point gave an order and he said to Lord Nityānanda and Advaita and Haridāsa Ṭhākura.
You go on the streets of Navadvīpa and you preach the glory of the holy name. You come to everyone and you say, please chant the Holy Name.
Hare Кришна, Hare Кришна, Кришна, Кришна, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Hare Hare. Hare. And these two drunkards, Nitāi and Haridāsa, they're completely drunk of love of God.
You know, Lord Nityananda, he's just he cannot walk straight, he's just, you know, he's he's going with this, he's intoxicated inside by this bliss of the ānanda, of spiritual love.
He's always in contact with the spiritual energy and Haridāsa Ṭhākura is much more sober, but still behind him, you know.
And they're going and they're approaching everyone and asking everyone, please chant the Holy Name, please chant the Holy Name. And some people become very moved and touched by this.
And they say, yeah, please come to our home and please bless our home and please take some prasāda. And some people become very angry. Most of the people in this world they have very strong demonic mentality.
You tell them, please chant the holy name. And you will listen what they think about you. You know, and they will tell you not nice things, you know, sacked. You're brainwashed. Go and do some job.
And this is, you know, not the worst thing which you may hear. So even Lord Nityānanda, when he was roaming throughout Navadvīpa and he would come to somebody's house and he would beg somebody, please chant.
Lord Caitanya came to give us the holy name. And through holy name you can get something which you will not get anywhere else. You will get something which is most valuable. And he's freely giving it to you.
You will be completely happy. And people will say, you are thief. Get out of here. I know you are just looking for our riches which we have in our homes. And sometimes they would kick him.
You know, that's uh preaching is not an easy job. So and you encounter with these people and at one point they saw a very funny scene in Navadvīpa, they saw two big, heavy built
Brāhmaṇas, because Jagāi and Madhāi were brāhmaṇas by birth, completely drunk, pulling each other and you know using foul language and you know having the bottles with some I don't know, it's probably palm liquor.
You know, still in Nawadvip you can see all these people who are using the bait tree juice. You know, date tree juice is a very nice thing because it becomes sour very quickly.
You need just a couple of hours and then it becomes completely intoxicating. You know, very quickly it becomes uh intoxicating with alcohol.
And um so and uh there is a crowd of people as usually in India. Everywhere you go crowd is there.
And uh crowd of people watching, no matter what, uh there's always some people who who don't have anything to do but just to watch what's happening. So the people were watching this Jagai and Madai from a distance.
And Nityānanda Prabhu asked, who are they? Tell me who are they? And because he was not the local uh resident. He came from Ekachakra and he was roaming. He didn't know everyone.
And they said this is Jagai and Madai, this is the the worst uh rogues and they are they're complete nonsense. They they kill people.
They get drunk, they are completely uncontrolled and they're doing all kinds of nonsense. They sometimes they rape girls and you know they do all kinds of sinful activities.
And Lord Nityānanda said to Haridās, we have to convert them. If we are to, and we know in Caitanya-līlā demons are not being killed. Only demonic mentality is being destroyed.
This demonic mentality which is there, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, his merciful avatāra. He doesn't kill the body. What is the use of killing the body? You kill the body, and mentality is the same.
And you get another body to exercise the same mentality. So Nityānanda Prabhu he said let's destroy their enjoying spirit.
And when you come to somebody who is enjoying and try to destroy their enjoying spirit, what will they tell you? They will tell you, get lost. This is the last thing they want to hear from you.
Somebody is enjoying and drinking, and you're coming to him and says, drinking is not good. It's bad for your health. He will tell you what he thinks about all these health freaks and anything. I'm enjoying. Let me enjoy.
So Nityānanda Prabhu got himself in trouble, you know. When he approached Jagai and Madai and said, please chant the Holy Name, they became outraged.
Because they know if you chant the Holy Name, your enjoyed spirit goes down down and and down and down and down and how you live without it. How you enjoy. So and the first day they had to run away
and Jagai and Madai were running after them, and Nityananda Prabhu and Haridasa Thakura were saying, You are crazy, you are mad men. He was saying to Nityananda Prabhu, I told you: you shouldn't. You're not supposed to go to them. Only mad men can get us into trouble.
Anyway, they ran away. Next day was this drama which took place. You probably know the whole story. I don't want to explain the whole story in details. But you know how ultimately
the enjoyment spirit of this Jagai and Madai was destroyed or killed by Nityananda Prabhu by his humility, by his genuine desire to serve even these two completely fallen souls.
You know, Madai threw the earthen pot, mud pot unto Lord Nityananda, and blood started oozing from his head. And it was heavy. I mean really you you get smashed, you know, the mud
pot on your head, it's, it's dangerous, you know. He smashed the pot. And Lord Nityananda still was there completely blissful and saying, please chant the holy name, please chant the holy name.
And this beauty of humility and this this suffering which the great soul is ready to undergo for you touched the heart of Madai. And Madai begged forgiveness.
Of course Lord Lord Chaitanya came there, wanted to punish them.
But the the uh lesson here is that you know uh when we see the humility of Srila Prabhupada, let's take Srila Prabhupada, or let's take Jayapataka Maharaja and see what he undergoes, what sufferings he undergoes.
Just to give some spiritual knowledge or you know strengths to all these rogues and thieves. You know, it's completely it's blowing my mind. I cannot understand. If I was in his place, I would be dead long ago.
I would say no, it's too much. I cannot take it any longer. It's too much. What he does? He undergoes all these sufferings for whom? For all these people who are suffering. To give them the chance, to touch their hearts.
And still these people are not touched, you know.
I recently heard some, you know, some so-called devotee was saying some nasty things about Jayapataka Maharaj. People cannot understand this because they're so hard-hearted, so cruel hearted. The spirit of enjoyment makes us very cruel-hearted.
So the, uh, and when we see the genuine humility of Prabhupada or Jayapataka Maharaj or his servants, Prabhupada's servants, you know, and if our heart is not touched, we are hopeless.
They're coming everything to give us a little drop of mercy. There is another life, there is another way of living, there is another dimension. The way you live is not, is not giving you anything.
So this is, this is how Nityananda Prabhu dealt with this case, he didn't take them by the hind legs, you know, and didn't swirl them. He just kneeled in front of them. Please chant the holy name.
Please chant the holy name. Please chant the holy name.
And ultimately Mādhai and Jagāi, they, they, they bowed down to Nityananda Prabhu because, uh, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu told them, you know, you can be forgiven only if Nityananda Prabhu forgives you.
Otherwise I will destroy you. I, I don't care what people will tell about me. I will destroy you. So, this is one thing.
So, how to get rid of our gross false ego by coming in contact with such a personality and seeing what sacrifices they're doing. Srila Prabhupada sacrificed everything. He was 69 years old when he entered the ship.
And he had 40 rupees in his pocket. Are you ready to go to America with 40 rupees in your pocket? By cargo ship. For whom? For hippies. Whom you don't know. He goes there.
And if, if you're not touched by this, if you're not really, if your, your heart is not transformed by this, if you, if you still try to maintain your ego, you know, I uh yeah, I will enjoy, you know, I don't care.
You know, Prabhupada did this to show us what is the way to live. What how you — we may not be Prabhupada, we are not Prabhupada, we definitely not Prabhupada,
but still, you know, this this this spirit is very important for us to understand. And who is Prabhupada? Prabhupada is the representative of Nityānanda Prabhu. He is. He is Nityānanda-veśa. He has the portion of his energy.
Otherwise, he would not be able to do what he did. Nityananda entered his body. And you know and therefore he could you know really go through all these hardships, impossible hardships. For whom? For us.
For us, fallen souls completely lost in this world. And then this second pastime about Pralamba Sura. It's interesting because it's more subtle. You know, this is gross.
The gross mentality of independent enjoyment spirit, it's very easy to depict and very easy to recognize.
Story of the converted dacoits
The other pastime which is very beautiful, and again unfortunately I don't have time and energy even to describe it in all details.
It's the pastime of Lord Nityānanda in Navadvīpa with these robbers, with the thieves, with the gang of dacoids. The leader of this gang of dacoids, I will tell you very quickly this story.
The leader of this gang of dacoids was a brāhmaṇa. As much as uh Jagai and Madai by the way. So it's it's important because uh because this deviant mentality, I mean, it has a spiritual nature.
Brahmanas are supposed to be spiritual. But as much as they are supposed to be spiritual guides of the society, there is a chance for them to deviate even more.
So this particular Brahmana was was was a leader of dacoids, and he was robbing people. And Nityānanda Prabhu, because he's Nityānanda and he is avadhūta. And he first came to Panihati and stayed in Panihati.
Lord Chaitanya actually, in while he was roaming in Puri, enjoying the moods of and service of Lord Chaitanya, Lord Chaitanya once called him and said, Come to me. I have to say something to you confidentially.
Why did we come here? We came here to save all these fools and rascals and fallen people. And what are you doing here? Roaming and saying Sri Krishna Chaitanya Shrik. What is the use?
I promised myself that I will deliver all these people who are completely fallen and degraded. Who will do it if you don't do it? Go to Bengal.
Prabhupada used to say that Bengal, uh Bengali people are the most crooked people in the whole of India. They're very intelligent and very crooked as well. And they were very fallen.
So he actually Chaitanya Mahaprabhu very cruelly and very you know his son Nityānanda Prabhu go to Bengal and preach in Bengal.
So Nityānanda Prabhu came to Panihati, had this beautiful festival there, and first kīrtana was in the Bank of Ganga and then Panihati. Then he came to Shantipur, then he came to Saptagram.
And in Saptagram, it's very interesting. In Saptagram, he converted. At that time in Bengal was a lot of Buddhists.
He converted into Bhakti cult uh two thousand five hundred uh Buddhist monks and And I think 1100 or something like this Buddhist nuns. He converted them all into Bhakti culture.
And more prominently, he converted Uddharaṇa Datta. Uddharaṇa Datta was the leader of Suvarnavanik community.
Suvarṇa-vaṇik, as you probably understand, is a special caste, those merchants which you know sell gold, gold merchants.
And Prabhupāda is from this caste, from Suvarṇa-vaṇiks. So he has the direct connection with Nityananda Prabhu. Because Nityānanda Prabhu made all the Suvarṇa-vaṇiks.
Ever since all the Suvarṇa-vaṇiks, they are Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas and they are followers of Caitanya. Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Nityānanda Prabhu.
And all these Suvarṇa-vaṇiks, very rich gold merchants, they started giving big donations to Nityananda Prabhu, gold and jewels and everything.
And it probably being Avadhūta, he put all these gold and jewels. He used it, and but he pulled all the jewels, you know, there were huge jewels in all his hands and in in his you know turbine and
and he's you know going and he's the Supreme Personality of Godhead. no problem for him. He's there and he's showing his showing up you know his opulence and everything.
And this robber, he sees all these jewels and gold and everything and he says, oh, here is something I need. This is Avadhūta, you know. He is just, you know, he's a crazy fellow. And please listen very carefully.
As much as Jagayan Madai depict our mentality, desire to enjoy unrestrictedly in Kali Yuga, and Kali Yuga gives all facilities to enjoy unrestrictedly.
You can do whatever you like, and even what you don't like, you still can do. No problem. You can do all kinds of nonsense in Kaliyuk. All facilities are there for those people who want it.
So as much as Jagai Madai represents this enjoyment spirit, you know this person, he represents a very interesting spirit, the desire envy, the desire to enjoy the enjoyment of the Lord. To steal the possessions of the Lord.
This is also inside of us. We see some spiritual opulence or opulence of the Lord, and we want to enjoy these opulences of the Lord.
You know, like sometimes people saw the influence of Prabhupada, the power of Prabhupada. And they wanted to steal this power. By using Krishna consciousness, of preaching Krishna consciousness.
So there is this subtle mentality, I want to steal something which does not really belong to me. Therefore, in my opinion, you know there is a parallel between this pastime and pralambasura pastime.
And he initially, this Brahmin Leader of the Dakoids, he pretends to be a follower of Lord Nityananda.
And he goes, he travels with him because he needs to know where he keeps his jewels and he well his riches he's looking his his purpose is deceitful
as much as sometimes this deceitful mentality can be in us also let me you know let me understand the secrets of Prabhupada, how he controls other people. Let me become his servant. Let me travel with him.
Let me find out all his tricks, how he becomes so influential and powerful. You know, the same sort of mentality.
And then, you know, when they arrived to Nawadvip, they traveled Nityananda Prabhuhi State and Hiranya Pandit's house. And in this Hiranya Pandit's house, he was there.
He was inviting people and they had this Hari Nams every day. Hari Krishna, Hari Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama. They were completely intoxicated and then they were sleeping there, you know.
The half of the night they were singing, and half of the night they were sleeping the rest of the night.
And this duckoit leader, he thought, it's a beautiful opportunity for me. Will come. And when they get drunk with this, you know, Hare Krishna mantra, and then we'll come and they become completely senseless and we'll rob them, and we become very happy.
So he makes three attempts, which is also very significant. He comes first night with all his people and they sit in the bushes and they hide themselves in the bushes. And they wait.
And the sun goes down and it becomes dark and they wait and they hear something. And all of a sudden all of them fall asleep. Very peacefully in the bushes, they fall asleep.
You know, because the you know kirtan is so nice and somebody is singing and they're sleeping.
And then they're sleeping and sleeping and sleeping and sleeping and then all of a sudden they hear karrrr, karrrr, the crowds are, you know, it's morning. It's morning. The sun is up. The whole night they were sleeping.
Didn't work. First night didn't work. This brahmana, the leader of this gang, he starts thinking, something we did wrong. Oh, he said, we didn't worship the goddess Chandi.
We first have to go to Goddess Chandi and you give her nice offerings and arati. Say to her, Wine and do this tantric worship of Goddess Chandi.
And if she pleases to us, she's pleased with us, we will be able to do what we're supposed to do. And they go to Goddess Chandi and they do all these tantric rituals with wine and meat and everything else.
And they become very convinced and they take all their weapons, they put all the kavachas and you know weapons in their hands, and uh
uh they are going again back to this house where Nityananda Prabhu stays, house of Hiranya Pandit, and they again hide in the bushes waiting for the opportune moment.
And again they hear Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama Rama Rama, etc. But they're fixed, their goal is one, they're one-pointed, they're not many branched, they are just vyavasayatmikā buddhiḥ, ekeha kurunandana. They don't care about this.
So they're sitting there waiting. And this time, you know, they're saying, don't sleep, don't sleep, don't sleep, never fall asleep. And you know, if somebody is trying to fall asleep, they push him.
They already know the trick. And all of a sudden they see huge people. And these huge people are going around this house and they're completely armed.
And all these people, they attend the Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama, Rama, Hare Hare, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Rama, Rama, Rama, Rama, Hare Hare.
And there's, you know, some mysterious guards are there that are going around and around and around and around, and these little, you know, dacoits are sitting there and saying, no, we cannot do anything against these people, you know.
It's it's really strange. It's really strange. And for the whole night they were sitting there and then stealthily in the morning they're, you know, crawling out and okay. You know, it didn't work this night.
Maybe we did some mistake in our Chandi worship ritual, or whatever? They go again. Because Chandi is our goddess. She's our, you know, she's our very important protector, you know, they got given worship and they pray.
And this leader of dacoits, he prays and prays and prays. Please let me get it. I want to get it.
And the third night they go to this and they hide themselves again in the thorny bushes and in some ditches uh where people throw garbage or whatever, and they and again they wait and again sun goes down and
all of a sudden they hear some jerk, some cry, ah, and they hear another, ah, and they hear another ah and they hear their own cry. Ah. You know, all of a sudden all of them became blind.
And the scorpions started biting them, and they are in the thorny bushes, and they're trying to get out, and they become, you know, all the thorns are in and they're just crying and crying and crying and suffering in this in this condition.
And then, you know, the whole night they're struggling like this. Please listen, because it's a lesson for us. This whole story is not just a funny story from medieval Bengali fair tale main story tellers.
It's a very it's a very important lesson for all of us. So and this leader and and the sun goes up and all of a sudden they again, uh, regain their vision, the sight.
They were completely blind and they were and they are comp they're all covered by blood and pus and all this garbage and urine and everything, you know, it was a miserable night and and this leader of the gang, he's thinking, he's a brāhmaṇa, he is, he has thinking capacity. Something I'm doing wrong.
It required him three nights to understand that something he is doing wrong. Unfortunately it, requires much longer to us to understand that we are doing something wrong.
When we encounter all the difficulties and problems in our life and all the sufferings which are there, you know, he says something is wrong. And because he traveled with Lord Nityānanda and he saw how happy he is.
This Lord Nityānanda is so happy and he's always chanting the holy name and he's so happy. And he's so innocent. He's so simple like a child. And he's so beautiful. And I want to rob him. Is it the proper?
Am I not supposed to serve him and his he's he must be somebody special? And what is the relationship of somebody who is special the, proper relationship of me who is very ordinary.
If he is so special, what is the relationship? I have to serve him. I have to get his blessings. I cannot really rob him from his possessions.
The only way I can enjoy his possessions is to get his blessings. And he's so innocent, he's so ready to give blessings.
So he uh he has this uh awakening in his soul, in his heart, and he says, You know, why should I do this? I can get his ananda, which is most important, if he blesses
me and he goes to Lord Nityananda and he falls down in front of his feet and he he begs forgiveness, he says, I'm a thief. I wanted to enjoy your uh enjoyment, your riches. But I realized that you're God.
And uh my position is to serve you. And he sincerely, with the tears in his eyes, begs forgiveness. And Lord Nityānanda says, Yes, you're forgiven, go and save all your dacoit brothers. All your people.
Go and preach to them. And the lesson here, this beautiful lesson, which is here, that we We are all dacoits, we all, and we all want to steal, you know, illegally steal the possessions of the Lord.
But what is the way to get these possessions? Is to serve Him. Is to really try to serve Him. And how to serve Him? To preach to others.
To beg sincerely forgiveness from him and say, you know, please forgive me, who am I know who am I. I was I was trying to enjoy what is what I'm not supposed to enjoy, but I realized the awakening is there.
You know, when we suffer. And you know, the sufferings are coming automatically in our life. Either we sleep or we suffer. This is, you know, or we become fearful of some other forces or whatever.
The three nights is a story of our attempts, of our wrong attempts to come to Krishna consciousness. This thief wants Krishna consciousness, but he thinks he wants the jewels of Lord Nityānanda.
In reality, he wants his bliss. All these external things is just a manifestation of his internal bliss, nothing else.
And he wants to steal these external things and he comes and he comes first. He comes first to spiritual life and he sleeps. And he says, No, it's boring. No, this spiritual life is not for me, it's boring.
Then he makes another attempt and he comes and he sees very powerful people and he says, who am I? How can I steal this? How can I possess this if all this heavy built, you know, Mahabhagavats are there?
Like sometimes people they would come to Prabhupada and they wanted to enjoy by being together with Prabhupada. But Prabhupāda was surrounded by all this heavy-built sannyāsīs and it was not easy.
You know, surf you can do. For service you don't have to be very close. You can do service in any position. No need to be too close. But enjoying you can do only while you're close.
So so many people uh would be uh disillusioned or the disappointed and would go away. I cannot enjoy. You know, so many people uh I have the misfortune of having some anyway, whatever it is.
Uh and some of them become disappointed because you know I we cannot we came to be close to you. You know, when the preacher comes and he has some little Krishna consciousness, he's attractive. He's an attractive figure.
He's happy, he has energy, this and that, and people want to steal this. And when they see that there is impediment, they cannot steal, they go away. And then they suffer.
And when they suffer, they realize something I'm doing wrong. I need this, but I'm trying to get it in the wrong way. I'm trying to get it not in the proper way. The only way to get it is through service spirit.
In this way we can become spiritually more strong and that's uh the lesson of this beautiful verse and this very long lecture. I'm really sorry for doing it for so long, but you know it's the topic is too big.
So so thank you very much.
Final lessons on applying spiritual instructions
I I we really s have to stop now. But please remember this verse which is there that we can only get uh we it is let's read it again because it's so important.
Yavan nri-kaya-ratham atma-sōpākalpam, an unless until we have this nri-kaya ratham, this body, this chariot in the form of our human body, which is nicely composed, nicely built.
Ātma-śōpākalpam, and which is not exactly completely under our control. What we have to do, and it's very important. This Yavan, the first word, it means that unless we give up this body,
we need guru. Guru, you know, if he's in his body, it's fine. If he's not in his body, we still need to have some śikṣā-guru, some somebody whom we consider to be our guru-garīṣṭha to serve him.
Until this last breath of our life. You know, Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī is the beautiful example of this. His guru was Yadunandana Ācārya. Then he came to Jagannātha Purī.
Jagannātha Purī, Caitanya Mahāprabhu became his, practically his guru, and Svarūpa Dāmodara became his real guru. And under the guidance of Svarūpa Dāmodara, he was living there in Jagannātha Purī for 16 years.
And he was old by that time. And then he came to Vrindavan. And you know, he's old, he's senior, he directly served Caitanya Mahāprabhu under Svarūpa Dāmodara, his personal secretary.
What he does, he goes to Vṛndāvana and he takes shelter of Rūpa and Sanātana. And they become his guru.
To show us the example that we need, and it is specifically said there, yāvan nri-kāya ratam ātmā sa-pākalpaṃ da-he, you should not, garishtha, caraṇāmbhuja-niṣevataṃ, you should really make your sword sharp, jñānāsinā, this sword of knowledge.
And by this balavat strength, which is given by Balarāma, you try to follow this.
What this sword of knowledge means, you follow this in your life. You apply these instructions which are there in the scriptures in your life.
And in this way, dānta-ātmā, śatru-jit, śatru-jit, you completely destroy all your enemies. And what happened then?
Svānanda-tuṣṭa, you become very happy. Svānanda-tuṣṭa, by the joy of the soul, You become completely satisfied. tuṣṭa. Svānanda-tuṣṭa. Upaśānta, and completely peaceful.
No disturbances, no panic attacks, no anxiety, nothing, no fear. And then you happily give up this body and haribol. I am there. So that's that's the lesson, that's the thing.
You can only do it by by executing the spiritual life properly. So. Thank you. Śrīla Prabhupāda-ki-jaya! Śyānanda Prabhu-ki-jaya! Gaurā-premānande! Okay.