Srimad-Bhagavatam 9.24.57
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · London · 2019
Chapters
Recitation of introductory mantras and verses
Omnamo Bhagavateva Sudevaya, Umnamo Bhagavateva Sudeva. Omnamo Bhagavateva Sudevaya Sudeva. Narayanskritya, naramcheva narotamam devim sarasvatim yam, devi sam.
Tatoja ya mu diraje, nasta praja swa badrish, dittyam bhagava tevaya Bhagavatam Sloque, Bhakti Right, Nishti, Jambraja Mano Keta Maketa Krityan Dwaipayana, Virahakatarajuhava,
Potretan Mayatayota Vinedus, Tam Sarva Bhutha Hridayanatus So today we are reading from the ninth cantal Shrimaphapatin, chapter 24, Krishna the Supreme Personality of God, text fifty seven.
Na he asya janmana etuho karmana Mahipate Atmayam Vina, isasya parasya drastu Atmanaha Nahyasya Janmanohetu, Nahyasya Janmanohetu, Nahyasya noetu, karmano mahipate, karma hipate, karmano mahipate, karmo Atmayam Vinish, Atmayam Vinishya, parasyadrasturatmana,
parasja drasturatmana, nahasya janmanohetu Karmano Bamahipate Atmayam Vinisas Parasyadrashturatmana He
indeed Asya Asya of him the Supreme Personality of God Janmana of the appearance or taking birth Hatu there is any cause. There is no cause.
Karmanaha or for reacting. Either Mahipate O King Maharaja Parikshit Maharaja Pariksit At Mamayam His
Supreme Compassion for the fallen souls without Ishasya of the Supreme Controller parasyas of the personality of Godhead who is beyond the material world.
Drashtuhu of the super soul who witnesses everyone's activities everyone's activities Atmanaha of the Super Soul of everyone.
Reading translation and purport of verse
Translation and purport by his divine grace is Sibhaktivanta Swami Prabhupada. Oh King, Maharaja Parikshit. But for the Lord's personal desire, there is no cause for his appearance, disappearance, or activities.
As the super soul, he knows everything. Consequently, there is no cause that affects him, not even the results of fruit activities.
This verse points out the difference between the Supreme Personality of Godhead and an ordinary living entity. An ordinary living being receives a particular type of body according to his past activities.
Karmanadavanetrina Jantur Deho Papatyate. A living being is never independent and can never appear independently. Rather, one is forced to accept a body imposed upon him by māyā according to his past karma.
As explained in Bhagavad-gītā, yantrārūḍhāni māyayā, the body is a kind of machine created and offered to the living entity by the material energy under the direction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Therefore, the living entity must accept a particular type of body awarded to him by māyā, the material energy, according to his karma. One cannot independently say, give me a body like this, or give me a body like that.
One must accept whatever body is offered by the material energy. This is the position of the ordinary living being. When Krishna descends, however, he does so out of his merciful compassion for the fallen souls.
As the Lord says in Bhagavad-gītā, paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām, dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya sambhavāmi yuge yuge,
deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to re-establish the principles of religion, I advent myself millennium after millennium. The Supreme Lord is not forced to appear.
Indeed, no one can subject him to force, for he is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Everyone is under his control, and he is not under the control of anyone else.
Foolish people who, because of poor fund of knowledge, think that one can that one can equal Krishna or become Krishna are condemned in every way.
No one can equal or surpass Krishna, who is therefore described as a samodva. According to the Viśvakoṣa dictionary, the word māyā is used in the sense of false pride and also in the sense of compassion.
For an only living being, the body in which he appears is his punishment.
As the Lord says in Bhagavad-gītā, daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā, this divine energy of mind consisting of the three modes of material nature is difficult to overcome.
But when Krishna comes, the word māyā refers to His compassion or mercy upon the devotees and fallen souls. By His potency, the Lord can deliver everyone, whether sinful or pious.
Srila Prabhupada ki Nahja sjayan Manohitu Karmanova Mahipate Atma mayam veneshasya Parasja Drashtu Ratmana.
O king Maharaja Parikshet, but for the Lord's personal desire, there is no cause for his appearance, disappearance, or activities.
As the super soul, he knows everything consequently there is no cause that affects him nor even the results of fruit of activities
not even the results of fruit of activities Namahu Vishnu Padaya Krishna Krishtay Bhutale Sri Mati Bhaktividanta Swami Dinami Namaste Saraswati Devi Gurawani Prachaini, Niravish Sanyavali,
Paschatalichakapataru Beschakripa Sindu Bhutya Patianam Pavane Vyu Vaishnava Yonahonuha Jrishna Chaitanya Prabhoni Dananda Sya Dva Bdata Rasivasadhi
Gor Bhakta Brinda Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hari Rama Rama Ramahari Bajanu Lambi Bujukana Kavada Sankirtanaika Bitaru Kamalaya tak, we swam
Understanding Krishna's birth and activities
baruviya varu dharma palavande ja piya karam karanawatam dah pravi mamavati mamam Sanji vai te kila shakti darak suhana, anjamatwakari, pranam bhagavathi purus, pourusha riumya.
So we're celebrating the Janmashtani which is approaching very soon and for this reason we're trying to deliberate on the causes of Krishna's descent into this world, his activities, his janma and karma because
Krishna Himself says in Bhagavad Gita very emphatically, Janma karma chanadevamyaveti tatvataha tyaktva deham punar janmanaiti The one who understands in truth the appearance and activities of the Lord upon living this body will be delivered.
Once Srila Prabhupada said that this is the most important verse in Bhagavad Gita. Because it directly relates to our situation in this material world and to the what we're supposed to do.
We're supposed to understand Janma Karmacha Nedivyam Tattvataha in truth.
Unfortunately sometimes we do have very superficial understanding of Lord's activities and births, and because of that, the promised by Krishna result does not take place in our life.
Because when Krishna says while living this body is not coming back. He also actually means that even while living, the one who understands real reason for his appearance in this world and his activities is not implicated by karma.
If we understand in reality, tattvataḥ, that causes of Krishna's activities and births, then we are not entangled, therefore, upon leaving this body, naturally we don't come.
So actually, when we understand this, then the liberation will take place immediately.
We already know the part of this material world, and therefore it's so important to understand very carefully the reasons for Lord's appearance in this world.
And Śukadeva Gosvāmī in this section of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, of the ninth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, is explaining very carefully these reasons and
uh in the previous verse he says yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata abhyutthānam adharmasya tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham, he gives a very well-known Jatehari, he gives a very well-known
reason that the Lord comes when there is too much sinful activities to establish dharma.
Incidental results versus reasons for avataras
But actually that's not the real reason. If this was the reason for Lord's appearance, first of all, why would not he appear now?
You know, definitely a good time for him to appear because there is a lot of sinful people around us, and Dharma is totally finished.
But the main reason why this is not the real reason is that by saying that the Lord comes to re-establish Dharma, we kind of drag the Lord to the level of material world.
And that's usually what people do when they speak about the Lord, who is the Lord? The Lord He's good. And usually when they say He is good, they really mean He's sāttvika. He's a sāttvika being, therefore, he likes dharma.
Dharma is material. Dharma is not really transcendental.
Dharma is the activities which we are supposed to perform in this material world to become stable in this material world, to get some promotion in this material world. It's ultimately sāttvika.
So by saying that the Lord comes to establish Dharma, We basically say He's sāttvika, He's good. He's not bad. He's, you know, and sometimes people have this dualistic understanding of the Lord.
There is Lord and He's good and there is Satan, He is bad.
And they are fighting and usually Satan wins, but at the end, because Lord is good, he wins. But that cannot be the reason for his appearance because he is not a satvic being, he's transcendental, as it is said very clearly in this verse parasya.
He is para. He is beyond this material world, so he is beyond the gunas of this material world. Yes, he does re-establish dharma when he comes, but he does it incidentally.
This is just a byproduct, this is just an incidental, insignificant result of his appearance that cannot be the main cause of his appearance.
Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, while explaining this, he gives an interesting example, which is very relevant to Bhaktivedanta manner at this particular time of the year.
He says then sometimes devotees want to celebrate the Lord and therefore they perform saṅkīrtana. And the main cause for the devotees to celebrate saṅkīrtana or celebrate Janmashtami is to glorify the Lord.
They want to please the Lord. That's the main cause. But incidentally, the whole world is purified. When devotees come together, they experience bliss by glorifying the Lord.
But incidental result is that the Lord is that the whole world is being purified. And then he says, and sometimes they invite professional musicians.
Sometimes devotees are not very good in playing drums and you know playing some flutes or violins or whatever. So sometimes Bhakti Brīṅga Govinda Mahārāja he invites the whole symphonic orchestra for his saṅkīrtana.
And the vote is hire this, and another incidental result is that these stupid musicians who don't know anything they become also purified.
They also engaged in this saṅkīrtana and they, you know, totally unwillingly, they just, you know, they're playing what they're supposed to play, but they hear the holy name.
So Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī gives this example to understand that when Lord comes, this is uh to establish dharma is just an insignificant incidental result. Like also here in Bhaktivedanta manner during Janmashtami,
the main cause for us to celebrate Janmahtami, to arrange all this bombastic festival is to please the Lord.
It's to please Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Gokulānanda, Śrī Śrī Gaurāṅga-Nitāi, Śrī Śrī Sītā-Rāma-Llakṣmaṇa-Hanumān. That's the main cause. That's why we're doing it.
But incidentally, so many people are coming, doing some volunteers, and they they may not know who is the Lord, why they are doing this, but they're getting purified, the whole world is getting purified.
So therefore, here it's very interesting the whole logic of this section of the Ninth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
In this verse which we read uh today, uh Śukadeva Gosvāmī he formulates the main reason and he's very emphatic again. He says, nahi asya janmano hetuḥ karmano vāmhi pate. He says there is no other reason.
Nahi asya janmano for Lord's births and activities.
Krishna's compassionate nature as Super Soul
But his ātma-māyā, his own desire, or as Śrīla Prabhupāda translates it, or how he explains according to Viśvakoṣa dictionary, ātma-māyā means his mercy. Why his mercy is there?
Because he is draṣṭu, because he is the witness, because he knows the sufferings of the living entities, and because he knows the sufferings of different grades of living entities.
He is draṣṭur, he sees the sufferings, and therefore he being benevolent, he extends his mercy and this mercy as it is said here is towards Ātma-māyā towards the souls and
he is ātmanaḥ, he is the Supreme Soul, therefore the ātmasah is parts and parcel, therefore he is naturally merciful. As the father, sometimes people say, why Krishna should come himself. But that's the reason.
Because he is ātmā and we are ātmā. There is certain connection there. He is ātmā and we are ātmā. He is spiritual, we are spiritual. And ultimately he cannot be indifferent to us. Therefore, he comes here.
Even though he is parasya, he is para. He is totally transcendental. He has nothing to do with this world.
And to understand his līlās, his janma and karma in reality is to understand that his transcendental, still he comes here, but by coming here, he is not being entangled in the activities of this world.
And one can say, if he manifests the mercy, is it not the entanglement? When we are uh you know compassionate to somebody, uh it's some sort of entanglement. It is said that Guru takes the karma of his disciples.
What does it mean? It means that he's kind of entangled in in their karma, being compassionate. So, but here it is still said, Parasya, please, he is compassionate. There is no doubt about it.
He is compassionate to the souls, but still he remains totally transcendental. So I will try to explain this point, and actually, this is what uh
Śukadeva Gosvāmī himself uh will be explaining in the next verses of this section, by describing how the Lord differently manifests his mercy to different categories of the soul.
And his ultimate result, please be very listen very carefully, his ultimate result is that ultimately the Lord comes only for the sake of his pure devotees.
And therefore, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, while translating this verse, this particular verse, where it is said, Ātma-māyām, he doesn't translate Ātma as the general soul.
You can translate here Ātma as Prabhupāda does, as conditioned soul, or as a soul.
And in this way, you will say that the Lord comes and performs his activities and his janma for the sake of because of the compassion for the ordinary living beings. But it is not so.
Again, His compassion to the ordinary living entities and His mercy which comes when He appears as avatāra, is incidental result.
As much as establishing dharma, it's not the main cause of his appearance. It cannot be the cause of his appearance. Because if it was the cause, he would again be implicated by the karmic activities of the world.
But he's only coming to interact with his pure devotees. And that's what Śīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī will explain in these verses, but at the same time, he definitely comes because of his mercy towards us. He's not indifferent.
But this is incidental. Ultimately, he's only engaged in his own Svarūpa-śakti, which manifests completely and fully in his pure devotees. And this is what Śukadeva Gosvāmī will explain.
So he says in the next verse he uses what is called kaimutya-nyāya in Sanskrit. Kaimutya-nyāya means kimutānyaya. The logic of what to speak of.
Creation of material world as divine mercy
In the next verse Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī says that the Lord what to speak of Him coming personally when he comes as avatāra or when what to speak of when he comes as Svayaṁ Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa?
This is the manifestation of only His mercy. He says that even when the Lord creates this material world, this is also His mercy. So this is the next verse.
In the next verse he says that the Supreme Lord creates this world because of his mercy. And sometimes I don't know about you, but I definitely sometimes wonder how this horrible world is a mercy of the Lord.
Actually Śrīla Prabhupāda explains and Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī also explains that the only cause of atheism in this world is that people cannot really understand why there is so much suffering in this world.
And because people cannot understand this, they become atheist. And we see so much suffering is there. And then we say, oh yeah, this is the mercy of the Lord. How is this the mercy of the Lord?
So this we have to understand first.
And therefore, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, while explaining the appearance of the Lord and the cause, the reason for his appearance here, he first says that even this world, we have to understand this very clearly, even this world is the manifestation of His mercy.
Why? Why all this suffering is the manifestation of His mercy? Mercy?
Because while living in this miserable place, we can develop some detachment for the from this miserable place and from the material enjoyments or so-called material enjoyments which attracted us on the first place.
And that's definitely Lord's mercy. And tad-nivṛtti.
We can develop this nivṛtti, this detachment or renunciation from this verse, become a little sober, lose our hope, and develop some desire for some different sort of existence.
Actually, we are all a result of the sufferings of this world.
I mean, we as devotees sitting here, if we carefully analyze why did we come to Krishna consciousness movement, we really have to understand that we only came because of the sufferings of this material world.
Nobody becomes a devotee because of because he's so happy in this material world. Harikesh Maharaj he used to joke when he was guru, he used to joke.
He says, in Germany people become devotees only when they fail to commit suicide. When their complete failure. Couldn't even commit suicide, then they become devotees. And you know, to a certain extent it refers to us.
We must have failed in the material world. That's why we are here. That's why we become devotees. And that's Lord's mercy.
Śukadeva Gosvāmī explained this that even this material world, it may be very difficult for us to understand that this material world is the mercy, but in reality, if we look very carefully, we will understand that you know, actually the Lord wants us to become detached from this material entanglement of material enjoyment and therefore so much sufferings is there and therefore he mercifully creates this miserable world and gives us chance to become disillusioned.
Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Gopīnātha, Śrī Gaurāṅga, Śrī Sītā-Rāma-Lakṣmaṇa-Hanumān Jaya.
And then starting from the next verse, uh he starts explaining uh the different kinds of mercy which Lord manifests according to the gradations or the level of consciousness of living entities which are living in this world in this world.
As it is said, Atma Mayam, he gives Oh yeah, I actually how Jīva Gosvāmī explained Atma. He says, ātmā is not just ordinary living entities, ātmā is his pure devotees who are equal to himself.
Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī again while translating this particular verse which we read, he says that ātmā māyam here ātmā doesn't mean conditioned souls here ātmā means the pure devotees who are dear to him as his own heart.
Therefore they are his Atma. Those devotees who are Atma of the Lord for the mercy for Him, for them, He comes to this world.
Consciousness determining the form of mercy
But anyway, incidentally, He also manifests mercy to everyone else and, it all depends on the level of consciousness or our desire. Please try to understand what Śukadeva Gosvāmī wants to tell us.
Why he is explaining this. Śukadeva Gosvāmī by saying this he explains that it actually depends on us what kind of mercy we will receive from the Lord? Everyone will receive the mercy.
Some will receive the mercy just losing material hopes, becoming completely hopeless loser in this material world. That's a mercy. Some will receive the mercy, and he will explain other things, but
ultimately he will explain the highest gradation of the mercy. And while explaining the different grades of the mercy which the Lord gives to different kinds of living entities.
Śukadeva Gosvāmī indirectly impels us or calls us to manifest the nature or the kind of consciousness which attracts the highest mercy of the Lord, the highest possible mercy of the Lord.
Therefore, the next section is very interesting for us to understand. There's different gradations of the mercy.
How when Lord comes personally, He already stated that through His indirect action of material energy, he gives mercy.
But now we are more interested in the specific mercy which he gives when he comes personally as svayaṁ bhagavān Sri Krishna.
And he explains basically one, two, three, and four four kinds of uh no five five kinds of living entities and five kinds of mercy which living entities directly received from the Lord when He comes as Krishna Himself.
So the first kind of living entity which gets His mercy when He comes here is described in the verse 59, and this is demoniac people.
The completely demonic uh people who are so much entangled in this verse, in the in this world. I don't know why I always want to call this world as a verse.
But anyway, so there are completely people, and these demonic people, it's very interesting how Śukadeva Goswami describes them. This is the people who are thirsty for power.
Those rulers who are really, you know there are normal demonic people here but the real demoniac people are you know Donald Trump and I'm sorry, we're not supposed to be.
But those people who really want to rule and to lord over uh other living entities and they as it is described here by Śukadeva Gosvāmī, they accumulate military power.
They are basically destroying the whole world by their ambitions. They are accumulating the power because this desire to lord it over material nature becomes insatiable.
They're trying to accumulate more and more and more power, and they will never be satisfied by any amount of power which they have. And what hope do they have? Do they have any hope? Śukadeva Gosvāmī says yes.
They should wait for at least for now they should wait for one Mahayuga one day of Lord Brahma and then ultimately the Lord will come and He will kill them no problem. So it's a short period of time.
So they should wait for some time. The Lord will come. He came.
He did show it when He came 5,000 years back, and there was a lot of all this demonic rulers, and the Lord very and then ultimately the Lord will come and He will kill them no problem. and there was a mass massacre, there was Holocaust of demonic people.
And the Lord Himself, what he did very cleverly, the whole arrangement is very ingenious, the Lord Himself. Uh, He became the chariot driver of Arjuna.
And because he knew that Arjuna will be the most instrumental in killing people, so he stood just in front of Arjuna. He didn't kill them. He just stood in front of Arjuna. Arjuna was killing. Arjuna was doing the dirty job.
And the Lord just smiling at them. He was just upfront so that anyone who would be killed by Arjuna and practically everyone was killed by Arjuna, most of the people were killed by Arjuna.
So everyone who was killed by Arjuna would see the Lord and delivered immediately.
So that's what Bhīṣmadeva explains in his prayers to the Lord that you know just by showing yourself you diminish the lifespan of all those demonic people but at the same time, you deliver them completely by showering your beauty upon them.
So that's what he says: if you're completely demonic, just wait a little bit. Lord's mercy is always there. He will come.
You may become Donald Trump for many, many lifetimes, being entangled in this material world, but ultimately the Lord will come and will kill you.
The next two verses he explains how Lord's mercy manifest towards those people who are inclined to become his devotees, but somehow or other may miss his appearance in this world.
As Krishna Himself says, there are two kinds of living entities: Suras and Asuras, those people who are endowed with Daivisampada or the opulences of divine nature and asura sampat demonic nature or demonic opulences, demonic powers.
He says for those sadakas, for those devotees who would like to, oh actually, sorry, it's a mistake.
Humiliation of demigods as a merciful act
Uh after it's very interesting, the devotees will go next.
The next category of living entities, and if we can s if if we see the logic of Śukadeva Gosvāmī explaining the gradation of mercy, it's very interesting because the next category, after the complete demons, goes demigods.
And according to the logic of these verses, the next less fortunate category of living entities. Śukadeva Gosvāmī says that for the great demigods the Lord says first is great demons, them he kills.
For great demigods, the Lord comes and what he does, he impresses upon their mind by his opulences. He makes a very deep impression by displaying unbelievable opulences.
And it's interesting because sometimes we say demigods are very great, this and that. They may be, but they're also entangled in this world. Indra is very much entangled in this world.
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is very negative about Lord Indra, especially when he was fighting with Vritasura. Usually in the Vedas, Lord Indra is being glorified as the conqueror of or killer of Vritrasura.
But Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam says, you know, this is a misfortune of Indra that he killed great devotee of Vṛtrāsura.
So therefore, Śukadeva Gosvāmī says here, great demigods that's so entangled that even when the Lord comes, they somehow or other want to compete with him. Lord Shiva wanted to attack him and was fighting with the Lord.
Lord Indra was fighting with Lord Krishna. Lord Brahma was completely bewildered by Lord Krishna's activities.
And therefore, Śukadeva Gosvāmī says, for the great demigods, the mercy of the Lord, when He comes as avatāra, or not as as avatāra of course, but when He comes as Svayam-bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the mercy of the Lord manifests that He manifests His opulences and He completely humiliates them. He deprives them of their pride. Because these demigods they're very proud of their power and
therefore the Lord comes and you know and the Lord Brahma comes to his door at Dvārakā and knocks the door. And the guard, Lord's guard, comes and you know says, Who are you? And he says, I'm Brahman.
And he goes to Lord Krishna and asks, Lord Krishna, some some Brahma wants to see you, shall I let him in or not? And Lord Krishna says, please ask him what kind of Brahma he is you know be a little more specific because there are so many brahmas and then you know the god says you, know, what kind of Brahma you are? He says, what do you mean, what kind of Brahma? The creator of this world, Chaturmukha Brahma. And the God says, yes, some Chaturmuka Brahma is there, okay, let him in.
And then this Chaturmuka Brahma sees the sahasra mukkha brahmas and koti mukkha brahmas and so many other Brahmas and become completely humiliated.
Purification of fallen souls through hearing glories
So Shukadev Goswami says for those people who are somewhat devotional, but at the same time be,wildered by their opulence, the Lord comes and he manifests complete opulence and deprives them of their pride.
And then he speaks about us finally. That's the next two verses. You know, because he knows that we are in majority, he Sukadev Goswami dedicates two verses to our situation. How and the Lord manifests mercy towards us.
He says, Yasmin, and it's very interesting because in these two verses he not only explains how the Lord manifests his mercy towards us, but he also explains what we should do to receive his mercy.
You know, for great demons, they only have to be great demons to receive His mercy because there is no other hope for them. Demigods have to be very proud to receive His mercy.
But for us, He says, Yasmin sat karma piuse yasha stilta varia sakrit srotanjali Shrotanjali Rupa Srityadhunote Karma Vasanam Karma sorri uhalo, Kalo, Janisiamana Nam, those people who are who will be born or who are being born in the age of Kali.
Kalo Janisya Mananam. Janisya Mananam is in present continuous according to Sanskrit.
So Kalo Janisya Mananam. Those who are being born, constantly being born in this age of Kali, where there is very little hope for our purification.
Dukhashoka Tamonudham to to free us from dukkha, from the miseries, from unhappiness, shoka, from our grief, and tama, from our ignorance. Dukashoka Tamonudam Anu Grahaya Bhaktanam Supunyam Vyatanotyashaha.
It's very interesting. We really have to understand these two verses of Sukadeva Goswami's describing Lord's mercy upon us. He says, for those people who are suffering but they have devotional tendencies.
Who are somewhat devoted who committed some pious activities and and uh uh acquired some uh some some uh bhakti un mukisukriti some uh pious credits, uh bhakti credits he comes here anugrahaya bhaktanam supunyam vyatanotyashaha he knows that we are suffering
because of our ignorance can anyone admit that he has some ignorance? And the reason is you know sometimes we think that we are completely enlightened souls and you know we're devotees.
But if we experience dukkha and shoka, it means that we are in ignorance. Does anyone sometimes feel some grief or some unhappiness? Sometimes. Very rarely. Or some depression. It's all manifestation of ignorance.
Because of ignorance. And the Lord, as it is said in this verse, because He is Drashtu, He is the witness. He is the witness within our heart. He knows that we have devotional tendencies, but he knows that we are unhappy.
And to make us happy, what he does, Anu Grahaya Bhaktanam to manifest his mercy towards ordinary devotees, Sadaka devotees, like us, Supunyam Vyatanot Yasara. He manifests his glory.
He comes here and manifests his glory and uh as it is explained by our acharyas, uh what is his glory? He manifests his glory, his Yasha, his glory, and his glory is Mangal Maya.
This quality of the Lord, his Yasha is Mangal Maya, it brings auspiciousness to anyone who hears about the glory of the Lord.
You know, there is Yasha or the ordinary glory of people in this world. There is Latin proverb, sic transit gloria mundi. There are so many so-called glorious people in this world.
But when we read about the glories of the people of this world, we become even more contaminated.
You know, if we read about the glory of Michael Jackson Recently one devotee wrote the whole complete biography of Michael Jackson by trying to explain that actually he was very spiritual.
Whether it is so or not, you know, remains to be seen. It's hard to believe.
But the point is that when we hear about the glory or pastimes or births and activities of so-called glorious people of this world, it's very among, it's very inauspicious. It really contaminates us.
Just by thinking about Michael Jackson, we become somewhat contaminated. Or to speak about getting into his past times and Lilas and you know in a very direct way. But when the Lord comes, supunyam Vyatanot Yashaha.
He distributes his glory, his Yasha, which is Supunyam, which is purifying. And when we do this, this is very important what uh Shukadev Gaswami says the next verse.
When he says, Yasmin sat karma piyusheirtavare sakrit shrotamjali su pa sritya We can be dunote karma vasanam, we can be completely purified from karma vasanam, from very deeply rooted desires.
Vasanas is not just desires, but desires which constitute our conditioned nature, deeply rooted desires, karma vasanas. Dunute karma vasanas.
Only when we shrot Anjalir when our Anjali means the your palms which you make like cup. When you want to drink something, you make your palms like a cup and then you drink it.
So here Shukadev Gaswami explains that you can get his mercy, full portion of his mercy, if you are in this category.
If you are devotee, but at the same time you are ignorant devotee. If you are under this ignorance, influence of Tamagun. If you are in this category, then what you have to do? You have to make your ears as a cup.
And you have to really drink Yasmin Sat Karna Piush by the pure pure ears, you have to drink this glory of the Lord. In other words, you have to be very, very attentive while listening about the glories of the Lord.
Not just sitting there and looking at the watch and you know saying, oh no, my goodness so, long this class is going on. When will it finish? It's already time. This is ridiculous.
You know, no, but uh Sukhadev Gaswami says you can get the Lord's mercy of the Lord.
You can be completely purified from all this karma vassanas if you make your ears like a cup and you try to drink it again and again and again Yasha Stirtavare Sakrit and even if once you did this asakrit, if you did it only once, that will also help.
But if you constantly do it this, srotanjali rupa sritya dunute karma vassana, you will be completely purified. And Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that you will be completely indifferent to the desires of this world.
Your heart will be completely purified from the material desires.
Reciprocation of Lord with pure devotees
But actually, as I said, in the next three verses, Śukadeva Gosvāmī explains the real mercy of the Lord. And he says that the real mercy of the Lord, when the Lord comes Himself, why does He come Himself?
He comes Himself only for the sake of His pure devotees. Those pure devotees who has no ignorance whatsoever, but who want to drink him with his eyes.
It's very interesting because in this series of verses, the Lord Śukadeva Gosvāmī explains that different people, according to the development of their consciousness, they're being impressed by the Lord in different ways.
Demonic people they cannot be impressed by the Lord at all, therefore, he just kills them.
They are sick as, as uh, Śrīvَّsa Gosvāmī explains, he gives the same example as Rūpa Gosvāmī gives. Because of jaundice, they are, they are diseased and they cannot really appreciate the Lord.
They are completely sick, they have this jaundice, and therefore sweet Lord tastes bitter to them, and therefore the Lord forces his sweetness upon them.
By killing them or by showing him in front of them, he forces them as much as the doctor forces somebody who is sick by jaundice from jaundice to take some sweet sugar to be cured from this?
For those people who are very proud of their prowess of their position in this world, the Lord humiliates them, that's his mercy, and he presses upon their mind.
For those who are little pious like us, but at the same time ignorant, he tries to impress us upon our ears. When we hear upon him, we become impressed.
And he says, but for those people who are really pure and who are really eager to interact with him personally, again, what we see in this series of verses, we see the progression of personal involvement of the Lord in the lives of people.
His mercy becomes more and more. And he says in the next uh three verses, he says, for those pure devotees who want to see him face to face. He manifests his real mercy. Who have the real desire to see him.
And in the case of his completely pure devotees, which are described in the last verse of this series in the verse 66, he says they cannot tolerate even a split second of separation with the Lord when their eyes blink and they don't see the Lord.
They want to see the Lord all the time. So there is a lot to be said about more about all these verses and about different manifestations of Lord's mercy.
But we really have to understand one thing: the Lord is completely independent. He comes only because of His mercy, but it's up to us what kind of mercy we will get from him. And we may get the full portion
of his mercy if by hearing about him we will purify our heart to such extent that in our heart the desire to see him will become very intense.
For those people who will develop this desire due to purification of their heart, desire to see Him personally, face to face, to bring his beauty, for those people, Krishna will give the highest portion of his mercy.
As he himself says, yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham. we will really experience Krishna Janmashtani and we will really understand the nature of Krishna's birth and activities
only if we desire this, if we develop this ardent desire, I want to see the beauty of the Lord. There is no other hope, happiness in this world, and there is no other hope for me in this world. I want to be happy.
But my natural way of getting happiness, and the only way of getting happiness, is to see the Lord face to face.
And this is what, but how we can develop this desire, we can develop this desire by only one way, by listening again and again and again about the glory of the Lord, about the beauty of the Lord, about the mercy of the Lord.
Because his mercy and his beauty is the same. And in this way develop very strong desire, I want to see the Lord. And if this desire is there, then while chanting his holy name, we will have his darshan.
And on Janmashtami Day, he will manifest himself completely and fully within our heart and we will see him face to face in our heart and in Sri Sri Radha-Gokulananda. Thank you very much, Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Okay, I guess there is no time for Krishna. Śrīla Prabhupāda-kī jaya! Haribol! (Bhakti-vṛkṣa ki jaya!)