Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.5.1
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Москва · 2006
Главы
Reciting verses on Prajapati Daksha
Samsapanchatanyamai, Vasyam Sapanchatanyamai, syamsapanchatanyamai, Vishnu Maya Papin Vidal. Vishnu Maya Pabrindhita Vishnu Aryaswasany Ayutam Ayaswasanyayasanyayutam, Utrana Janayat viv, Utrana Janayatvi Vishnuaya
paprindam, putranajanaya dvi Asyana Sapancha Janyambai, Sakamai, Vishnu Mayopa Vrinditava Vishnu Maya Yoga Vindita Ayeshva Samyana Yotam Ayasamy Uttra Nachanayotana Asyamsa Panjajanyambai Asamba Vishnu
Mayopa Vintana Saya Pab Iasamy Ayutam Ayasanayutam Utranatrayabhi. Sub Sisukovacamasha Sisukadeva Swami saidam in her saha prajapati daksha Praja Daksha Pancha Janya Pancha Jam his wife named Pancha Janya
named Pancha Janya Vai Indeed Vishnu Mayopa Brindhitaha Vishnu Mayopa Vrhita being made capable by the Being made capable by the illusory energy of Lord Krishna. Being made capable by the illusory energy of Lord Vishnu.
Haryashva Samyana Harashva Samyana Named the Hariasvas. Named the Hariashvas. Haryutam Ten Thousand Putran Suns and Ajanaya Bigot Being Powerful. Translation.
Sri Sukareva Gaswami Kant, impelled by the illusory energy of Lord Krishna, Pajapati Daksha, begot 10,000 sons in the womb of Pan Chachani as Sikikhni. My dear king, the sons were called Hayashas.
I will read the introduction to this chapter. This chapter relates how all the sons of Daksha were delivered from the clutches of the material energy by following the advice of Narada, who was therefore cursed by Daksha.
Influenced by the external energy of Lord Krishna, Rajapati Daksha, be brought 10,000 sons in the womb of his wife on Chachani. These sons were all of the same character and mentality, were known as the Haryashas.
Ordered by their father to create more and more population, the Haryas went west to the place where the river Sindhu, now Hindus, meets the Arabian Sea.
In those days this was the site of holy lake named Narayan Saras. But there were many saintly persons.
The Haryasur began practicing Vasterities, penances, and meditation, which are the engagements of highly exalted, renounced order of life.
However, when Nārada Muni saw these boys engaged in such commendable austerities simply for material creation, He thought it better to release them from this tendency.
Nārada Muni described to the boys the ultimate goal of life and advised him not to become ordinary carnivores to beget children. Thus all the sons of Daksha became enlightened and left never to return.
Pajat Hididaksha, who was very sad at the loss of his sons, begot one thousand more sons in the womb of his wife Panchajani and ordered them to increase progeny.
These sons who are named Shavalashras also engaged in worshiping Lord Krishna to beget children, but Nārada Muni convinced them to become mendicants and not beget children.
Four twice in his attempts to increase population for Japati Daksha became most angry at Narada Muni and cursed him, saying that in the future he would not be able to stay anywhere.
Since Nārada Muni being fully qualified was fixed in tolerance, he accepted Daksha's curse. Sri Prabhupada. She was but the illusory energy of called Vishnu Prajapa Vidaksha. They got 10,000 sons in the womb of Panchajani.
Ashikmi. My dear king, these sons are called Haryashas.
Namaghikadai, Vishna Krishna, the Tari Bhakti Vivan Tiswami, Namaste, Saraswati, Burava, Nikachary, Nirvisi, Susanyavani, Vashakari S Shaitani Panchaka Vishakri Vashivasha Patiana Panayovashnavyoga Jasri Krishna Chaitanya Brabana Sriadvaita Srivabhta
Remembering Bhakti Swarupa Damodara Swami
Brindavan, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. This
is a very shocking and sad news which we received this morning about the departure of what is fine about spa.
But before talking about this I would like to speak a little bit about the whole topic of the sixth canton, which is actually very appropriate in this occasion.
Because the very topic of the sixth kantra is the power of bhakti. The whole sixth camp is devoted to this very important understanding or concept in Gaudi Vaishnava Siddhanta that bhakti is not dependent on anything.
That bhakti being on the level of Lord Himself, being purely spiritual energy is independent, causeless, and can act under any circumstances.
The first story in the sixth canto, which we just finished reading in the course of reading Shrimapta, is the story about Ajame, which beautifully illustrates this point. That bhakti does not depend on anything.
That even sinful activities are not the impediment for bhakti. Even the shadow of bhakti, not real bhakti, just a real shadow of bhakti. Mere shadow of bhakti can drive away all impediments.
In the case of Arjuna, we will know that the shadow of holy name, not the Holy name itself, because when he was calling Vishnu Vishnu Narayan Narayan, he didn't mean Vishnu. He meant his son.
But because the composition of the syllables was the same as in the name of God, which is entirely, totally, completely, absolutely spiritual.
This was enough to drive away all the impediments, including the most horrible impediment which is hell. So this whole canto is about vijaya or triumph of bhakti.
How can Bhakti be victorious over all the material problems which are there?
And we can see actually this departure of Bhakti-svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī. Although it is a very sad news, but we can see a very auspicious indication in this departure.
Bhakti-svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī was one of the favourite disciples of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, and Prabhupāda was using him to show his disciples how to defeat scientists.
Prabhupāda was particularly very angry at the scientists. Because scientists bewilder people. I'm scientist myself by background.
Scientists they try to make an impression in the minds of people that the science figured everything out and you know there's few details left which is still to be known and you should enjoy material life to the fullest possible extent.
So actually the scientists who are the main uh defenders of this materialistic way of life were viewed by Śrīla Prabhupāda as the main target of his preaching against this bewilderment which is ruling over material world.
And Bhakti-svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī was himself a scientist by background, and Prabhupada used him as an example of a scientist, and he would force him to give the arguments on the side of scientists.
And he was—Prabhupāda was always victorious. Prabhupada often said that I am an old man. But because I know bhakti I know everything.
It's a very again very powerful and very proud in one sense statement because if you know bhakti you know everything. You can defeat any scientist.
And Bhakti-svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī, following the order of his spiritual master devoted his whole life to this topic of defeating the scientists.
Or rather bringing about the spiritual concept within the science. Because the real scientists they do understand that mere science in just a gross materialistic assumption cannot really explain everything in this world.
That gross materialistic assumptions are being defeated by the science itself. We can see that more and more in the science and you know, cutting edge of the science.
Uh, they are accepting pseudo-spiritual principles or introducing the spiritual principles in their conception. Like for example, in the quantum mechanics, which is perhaps the most intriguing
branch of the modern science, the understanding of consciousness is being introduced. And consciousness by definition is something entirely different from the matter. And this quantum physics or quantum mechanics is
actually the proof that matter is influenced by the consciousness. That matter is secondary, and consciousness is primarily force or
primarily element in this creation and basically all the movements of the matter are in fact directed by the consciousness, consciousness of an observer. That was the revolutionary concept of quantum physics.
Auspicious departure of exalted devotees
And his whole life, uh, Bhaktisvarūpa Damodara Swami, he was fighting with this scientist and he was victorious, following the footsteps of Śrīla Prabhupāda.
And he passed away in a very auspicious muhūrta, this muhūrta is called Abhijit muhūrta. The muhūrta around midday and midnight is the strongest muhūrta in the world.
We know that Lord Krishna was born in Abhijit muhūrta around midnight. And usually it is said that whoever is born around midday or around midnight becomes very powerful.
And in the same way if somebody is passing away in this auspicious time, midday or midnight, it means a very, very powerful departure.
It means a powerful destination because Abhijit basically means also victory. The muhurta which brings about victory. So we can see in the example of Bhaktiswaruta Madhar Gaswami how he passed away
in this Abhijit muhūrta around midnight. And the day or tithi on which he passed or today, today's tithi, Daśamī tithi, is Rāmacandra Vijayotsava. The celebration of the victory of Lord Rāmacandra over Rāvaṇa. And it's also interesting, the history behind this festival is also very interesting.
Because on this day, it's not that on this day Rāvaṇa was killed. Rāvaṇa will be killed much later. But still this particular tithi is called Rāmacandra Vijayotsava. Why?
Because on this day Hanumān came back to Kiṣkindhā from Lanka. And on this day Hanumān just told Rāmacandra, you know, I found Sītā. Sītā is in Lanka. And Sita uh yeah was captured by Raman. Of course this was known already.
So when Lord Ramachandra just heard this news, it signified his victory. Everything else was just more or less technical detail. It was just more or less kind of ritual which has to be performed.
For the Lord, His victory, of course, is always victorious. He's victorious over everything because He's not dependent. He's not dependent on time, he's not dependent on material nature.
But this you know this celebration is that when he heard this, Sītā was already found, and Ravana was already dead. Everything else was just you know the little ritual which has to be performed to bring it into fruition.
But ultimately uh in this uh particular story we see and uh Bhaktisvarūpa Damodara again he passed away on this day and this day again is very auspicious because this is the day of appearance of Sri Madhvacharya.
Madhvacharya is another great Ācārya of our sampradāya, who has been always victorious. He was born on this day of victory of Lord Ramachandra to again proclaim the victory of God over godlessness.
Śrīpād Madhvacharya his mission in life was to very strongly proclaim that God and by definition devotion to God. Because again, God and devotion to God are of the same nature.
And when we talk about God we uh naturally talk about bhakti of devotion to God. So Sripad Madhvachary's main mission in life was to proclaim this victory,
Independent power of devotional service
this complete victory of bhakti over this material world. And in this way we can see that even though it's sad
news about Śrīpād Bhaktisvarūpa Damodara Svāmī, but we can also see very auspicious indications in his departure. And of course, this is very much connected with the whole topic of this particular chapter on particular
skanda which we are reading. Is that bhakti, it's not dependent on anything. It's not even dependent on the laws of material nature. It's not dependent even on the words of God.
Talking about departure from this world of Bhaktisvarūpa Damodara Svāmī, we can also remember the wording of Bhagavad-gītā. Bhagavad-gītā says that whoever remembers me at the time of death he comes to me.
Krishna formulates this very broad and non-sectarian concept of the final destination. Because sometimes people become doubtful or intrigued of what would be the final destination of a person.
Krishna gives a very scientific explanation of this. He says that the final destination of a person basically reflects the nature of his consciousness which he developed in the course of his life and which is more or less manifesting himself at the last moment of this life.
And he sees the sudden image at that time, and he will be this image. But bhakti is not even dependent on this. Even though Krishna formulates this law, which is a general law, which is applicable to everyone,
But in case of bhaktas who are engaged in devotional service during this life, even this law doesn't work. So powerful is bhakti. In the life of Rāmānujācārya there was this story when Rāmānujā expressed his doubt.
And the doubt was what happened with somebody with a devotee who his whole life was engaged in devotional service, trying to serve the world, trying to chant the holy names.
But somehow or other, by some chance, he would die unconscious. Or because of severe pain, he would not be able to remember the Lord. Or because of some other circumstances, he would not be able to pronounce his holy name.
What happened to this person? And this particular doubt was expressed by Rāmānujācārya in his question to Varadharaj, the deity of Lord Varadaraj, who is still served in one of the most holy cities in India, Kanchipuram.
And Varadarāja gave the answer. Then he was asked by Śrīpād Rāmānujācārya about this particular incident. What will happen with somebody who by chance doesn't remember about the Lord at the time of death?
If he was a devotee his whole life. Varadharaj said, don't worry. I will take care of this. This is not your problem. He said, no matter in which consciousness the body dies. Because death is a very dramatic experience.
It's a very, it's a very difficult experience for everyone. But the Lord promises to us, solemnly promises to us, that I will protect my devotee, I will protect consciousness of my devotee under any circumstances.
Because this is the power of bhakti. The power of bhakti is such that the consciousness of a devotee is being protected by the Lord Himself, by the power of Bhakti.
Rather I said that I will save this devotee, no matter what, I will take him back. It doesn't matter. Sometimes people they uh become little mental, devotees become little mental, etc. Whether I'm saved or not.
There's concept of salvation on this, you know, Christian concept. I'm saved or not. In Christianity everything is simple, especially in the Protestant branch of Christianity.
You just, you know, sign up for in our sect and pay some taxin every month and you are saved. You can be sure. Sometimes devotees they develop this doubt. Am I saved or not? Yes, you are saved.
And this whole Sixth Canto is about this. You are saved if you are a bhakta. Bhakti enough. Bhakti is so powerful. It doesn't matter, you know, no circumstances can influence bhakti.
We can see Ajāmila is an example of this, another story in the Sixth Canto is about Vṛtrāsura. And Vṛtrāsura is a good guy who's a demon. And despite being a demon, he's becoming victorious.
His bhakti is more powerful than kind of mixed materialistic attitude of Lord Indra.
So this is the topic of Sixth Canto, but at the same time, Sixth Canto gives us a very important warning and this particular chapter is about this warning nothing can destroy bhakti no material circumstances can destroy bhakti no sinful activity can destroy bhakti.
Bhakti can, you know, conquer over any sinful activities, any amount of sinful activities, no problem.
Distinguishing between sins and spiritual offenses
Even shadow of bhakti can do it. But there is one thing which one has to be careful about. And this particular chapter is exactly about this. This is offenses.
Bhakti, being spiritual by nature, cannot be destroyed by anything material. As much as the Lord cannot be destroyed by anything material. But there is one thing which can destroy bhakti. Totally, completely, absolutely.
This is offenses. And uh this is a huge topic. I mean to give justice to this topic I will have to speak for a long time. But maybe tomorrow we can continue because I think I can still stay.
I don't know if I should touch it now or not. But the point here is that this story about Daksha, cursing Nārada Muni, is in contraposition with the story of Ajāmila.
In the story of Ajāmila we see somebody who is innocent, despite being sinful. This is a very essential and important concept which is not there in any other religious tradition.
Nor in Christianity, neither in Christianity, nor in this Muslim religion, nor in any other religious tradition there is this fine
discrimination between the sin and aparādha, offense. And we have to very clearly and very you know meticulously understand this particular topic.
Because the first story of uh Ajamila uh is showing uh sinful wretch who is so sinful, so sinful, so sinful that one can enter in this crime. All kinds of sinful activities he has created.
And all these sinful activities were burnt in a split second by the mere shadow of the Holy Name. And if somebody doesn't believe in this, he's an offender. You can be separate.
But it's a fact because the holy scriptures again and again proclaim the glory of the Holy Name and the Holy Name is capable of destroying sinful activities because sinful activities do not really touch the soul.
They only touch body and mind. And mere shadow of bhakti can can burn it.
I think Bhagavad-gītā says that as much as cotton, if you just touch cotton with the with the fire, the cotton will just burst in flame and it will be burned to ashes.
In the same way, sinful activities are very easily destroyed. But aparādhas are not destroyed.
And there is a distinction between sinful activity and aparādha which we have to clearly understand what is the difference between this and that. Basically it's the same kind of activity.
What is the difference between Ajamila and Dakṣa? Here we see Dakṣa committing serious aparādha against Nārada Muni. And who is Dakṣa? In the previous chapter, it was described that Dakṣa was a great devotee.
You know, this Haṁsa-guhya prayers, you know.
He he has a lot of understanding about the nature of God, about the nature of this material world, about the um different things, about the soul, you know. There's very philosophical prayers he is offering.
So much so that the Lord Himself is forced to come, appear in front of Him and fulfill His desire. This is great, great, great, great soul. You know, pray to the Lord. We also pray to the Lord.
He doesn't appear in front of us with eight arms. You know, it doesn't fulfill our desires either. Luckily for us. So, but in case of Dakṣa he did come. In case of Dakṣa he did fulfill all his desires.
But in this particular comparison between the two stories which follow one another in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam we'll see that Ajamila is a good guy and Dakṣa is a bad guy. Because Ajamila is simply sinful.
And sin is not a bad thing. Sin is... Every human, We are all human beings. It happens sometimes. We can see. But aparadha is a very bad thing.
And even and a great devotee as Daksha. It can destroy him completely, totally. You know, we see this story of Ajamila and we see great devotee Daksha.
And Ajamila is saved and great devotee Daksha is cursed because of his offensive attitude, because of the offenses which are deeply rooted within his heart. Uh uh and uh the difference is that uh sin uh again
doesn't touch the soul, but offense is rooted within the soul, within the heart or within the consciousness of the human being.
And the difference between sin and offense is that when you commit sinful activity, and we have to understand very clearly about this, when we in a way innocently commit sinful activity. You know we're not really guilty.
Like sometimes. Recently somebody asked me about his mother. His mother eats meat, as natural for many mothers in this world. Usually they do it. So, and he's a new devotee, he's a new devotee.
And he's in anxiety, complete anxiety. He loves his mother, and the mother doesn't want to change her habits. Uh and he started asking devotees, what will happen with my mother?
Every one of the devotees would tell him, you know, she will go to hell.
Importance of a simple heart
You don't have to worry about it. It's already decided. There is no doubt about it. He became more and more desperate about it. He came to me and he asked me the same question.
I said, and he said, my mother is a good good woman. She's really good. She has good heart. She's a very chaste woman. She's very kind hearted. She, you know, she's very hospitable. She invites all the guests.
She's taking care. She doesn't care about herself, she cares more about all other people, she's really, you know, she she chased uh almost every woman, but unfortunately she eats meat, what could happen with her?
I said it's no problem, don't worry about this. It's not a bad thing. It's not that she goes to hell. No. It's not true.
Because yes, this is sinful activity, but if she is innocent and if she is simple hearted, this simple activity then can be very easily destroyed. It's no problem.
You know, just take a few drops of charanāmṛta at the last moment of your life. It's not a problem. All the sins will be destroyed. She will not go to hell. He was so happy for this.
And we can see these examples in Purāṇas again and again and again, the same examples in Purāṇas are being given, the same stories about mortals, you know, which went to heaven, about the, you know, which actually meant to illustrate this point about the power of bhakti.
There was this one story in the Purana. The temple was broken down and it was abandoned. It was an old building, you know, nobody served the Lord. But still, somehow the image of the Lord was still there.
And these guys were drunkards.
They went to the jungle somehow or other on an excursion, they drank, and they became totally drunk and they saw this temple and they entered this temple and they had some sticks in their hands.
And because they were drunk they started dancing in front of the deities and they were just you know, playing with the sticks, making these round sticks, and the Lord said that they offered ārati to me. For a long time.
Nobody offered any ārati to me. These guys are great. They were safe. Even though they were drunk they didn't really mean it. You know. It was not an expression of their devotion, it was just kind of semblance of devotion.
But the point is that even semblance of devotion is accepted by the Lord. Because the Lord is so simple hearted.
If it is offered with the simple heart, if there is no offense behind it, if there is no crooked calculation behind it.
And so many other stories are like this, you know, the story about past life of Prahlāda Mahārāja, who was fasting by chance on Nṛsiṁha-caturdaśī. the śi.
By chance he was fasting, not because he knew that this was Nṛsiṁha-caturdaśī. He was a he was a debauche.
He just, no, he just had a big uh quarrel with his uh girlfriend, and the girlfriend was a prostitute, and because the girlfriend was offended and left him, you know, he started fasting because the girlfriend was offended, and he became praladma at his next life because he was fasting on a right day.
All these stories are of the same purport. The purport of this story is that you know but is extremely, extremely powerful but there is one big but
Five primary processes of devotional service
it only manifests its power when one is not crooked in the heart, when one is not offensive in the heart, when one is straightforward and simple hearted.
Then the full power of bhakti is formulated like also Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī and his Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. While describing sādhana-bhakti, 64 aṅgas of sādhana-bhakti.
At the very end of the list, he describes the five Angas, five most
powerful aṅgas of devotional service, which is reading of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, chanting the holy name, associating with the holy devotee, residing in the holy dham and worshiping the deity with Shraddha, with faith.
And he says this is the most powerful pañcāṅga-bhakti, the bhakti of these five aṅgas, five processes of devotional service.
And then he says can I describe the power of these processes? He says the power of these processes is so huge. He says śraddhā-dūratu.
He says that uh simple uh association with these processes association with the holy name association with the holy devotee because all these uh uh things which are listed here, like holy dhām or Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Holy Name, or Pure Devotee of the Lord, or mūrti. These are the agents of the Lord in this world. These are the reposits of spiritual energy in this world. These are the ways for us to contact the spiritual energy of the Supreme Lord.
We can only encounter spiritual energy in this world through these agents. This is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
And Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the complete spiritual manifestation of the Supreme Lord. This is the Holy Name, this is the Holy Dham, and this is the pure devotee
of the Lord, and this is the arca-vigraha or mūrti of the Lord. This is how we can encounter the uh uh uh the uh the Supreme Lord or how we can experience the effect of the spiritual energy upon our consciousness.
And Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī says, śraddhā-dūratu.
Any association with these five things can bring us very far away from Shraddha. Far away means much further than Shraddha. They don't give just Shraddha, they give us much higher experiences in Bhakti, including bhāva.
You know, if somebody is associating with the image of the Lord or with the Holy Name or with the holy dhāma, he can experience bhāva practically immediately. Or even Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Or of course the pure devotee of the Lord. Like somebody told me a story about is a one German devotee went to Vrindavan. Vrindavan is a holy place. It's a powerful place in this world.
And he met with one in an old bazaar. This is a main place of pilgrimage of holy devotees in Vraja. To Loi Bazaar. So in Loi Bazaar he met one strange looking guy, you know, like tourist.
And he was an elderly man and he was German. So he started speaking with him. He wanted to know how how come he came to Vrindavan and why he's coming to Vrindavan.
And he said, I'm a you know I'm a well-to-do person, I have a lot of money and I'm retired.
And when I retired from my job, I started travelling and I went to many many countries and you know it was kind of boring everywhere everywhere to see and then by any chance I came to India and um you know it's a filthy place and then uh somebody told me that there is this place Vrindavan and I came to Vrindavan.
And ever since I can't stay away from Vrindavan. I come there every year. Because there is something special in this place. I don't know what it is. It's not like any other place. It makes me it makes my heart beat.
This is the power of the holy place.
And this is the illustration of this particular point of Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, that any encounter with these five things, uh if somebody is innocent, because this is basically the condition which Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī makes about describing this pañcāṅga-bhakti, he says, if somebody is uh sādhvī, sādhvī, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī explaining this verse in his commentary to Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, he says sādhvī means somebody who is not who's offenseless, who doesn't have offenses.
So uh basically uh uh Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī says that if somebody is not offensive, then he immediately can experience the power of these things. Upati to the level of bhāva.
Practically immediately he can experience some bhāva. You know, he f he hears the holy name. Also there is one story in in Moscow there was one lady and she joined. How did she join? Uh she met the Harinam party.
And she stood being a little curious, you know, she was eating some you know, some bread or something like this, maybe potato, I don't know, what did they eat on the streets, maybe potato chips.
And she was there, you know, she was listening and listening and she started dancing, you know, in the rhythm. And then she said, then I started crying. And I didn't know why I'm crying.
And then I was crying more and more and more. And while the Harinam party was going further, I started following because I was crying and I couldn't I couldn't just you know part with this experience.
That was the most blissful experience. And then she came with the Harinam party to to the temple and then she dressed in Sari and she said, Yeah. I'm staying now here with you.
So this is again how the power, how the holy name can act upon somebody who is innocent.
And that's what Śrīdhara Svāmī says, and Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī explains that if somebody is offenseless in the heart, then immediately he can experience this power.
But if somebody is offensive and, uh, this is, uh, when should I stop, when should I close? Nine, nine. It's already now. Should I stop now? Yeah. I'll give you a few more things.
It, it's again, I said, it's a big topic. I, I cannot exhaust this topic. I, I basically didn't explain what is the difference between sin and aparādha yet. If somebody has this aparādha or offensive mentality, and, uh, then, uh, then he will not experience this. He will not experience the power of the holy name or the power of the, uh, of the servant deities or the power associated with the pure devotee.
And we can see it in the example of Daksha. Basically this whole thing not about Haryaśvas and Śabalāśvas. It's the whole story is about the very last scene of the story.
When Nārada Muni, after liberating Haryaśvas and Śabalāśvas, thinks, you know, I have to liberate their father too.
Viśvanātha Cakravartī commenting on the story, he says that Nārada Muni was thinking, I am the family priest of these guys. You know, why did he come to Haryaśvas and Śabalāśvas? Because he was the family priest.
He was helping King Prachinabarhi, he was helping Prachatas, he was helping generations after generations to all these devotees. This is the lineage of devotees, of great devotees.
And Narada Muni was always there to help them. Therefore he came to Haryaśvas, therefore he helped and he came to Śabalāśvas.
And then finally he knew that Dakṣa is not a very good person, but he still thought, let me liberate him. He could not liberate Daksha.
On the contrary, the effect was totally opposite. Daksha when he saw Narada Muni, who came with the best intention in the world to help him cursed him. He started screaming at him and you know he started freely, you know,
he was so angry, so angry, so angry, and because of this, he was basically condemned.
Underlying causes of spiritual offenses
So this is the whole point of the story that Nārada Muni, even though he's a pure devotee, even though he's the most powerful representative of God, he couldn't do anything with
Daksha because Daksha was too simple and too fancy. So the offense is despite the fact that Daksha is supposedly a great spiritual personality who offers prayers for the world.
So the difference between sin and aparādha is very significant in this regard. The difference between sin and aparādha is that aparādha is the activity which you do in relationship to the Supreme Lord.
It's basically the sinful activity which you do in relationship to the Supreme Lord. If you do sinful activities on its own, it's not so bad. But if you do sinful activity in relationship to the Supreme Lord, being
related, being connected with the Supreme Lord, this constitutes an aparādha. And the consequences of this are very severe. And that you can very clearly understand.
Because see, if somebody is not related to you, if somebody is really, you don't know him, for the first time you see him, and he says something nasty to you.
You meet somebody on the street and he screams at you and you look at him and you're not really offended. But if somebody is close to you and the closer he is, the more severe the offense becomes.
If somebody who is close to you says something even little against you, you become so deeply pained. Why? Because of the nature of this relationship.
So basically the definition of aparādha is Ārādhya ti rādhā. Ārādhyatī rādhā, if somebody serves the Lord, this very nature of service is called Radha or love. When we serve. Service and love are synonymous.
You know, if somebody is serving, this is the expression of love and this is called rādhā. The word rādhā, the very word is from this Ārādhyati uh Ārādha uh dhātu uh verbal root dhātu uh which which means serve, somebody who serves.
And and then you know the love comes to your heart, the love purifies your heart, the love melts your heart if you serve the Lord.
But apagata rādhā iti aparādha. The etymology of the word aparādha, apagata rādhā. Apagata means something which drives away rādhā, something which drives away the very spirit of service.
Or something which drives away the joy of love. Because Rādhā is the manifestation of figure of love. Basically, a parada, something which is totally opposite or contrary to the service spirit which we have.
And if we are in connection with the Supreme Lord, if this connection is already established, if some relationship is already there by the depth of our service, and then we do something which is totally opposite to
this spirit of service, this is called aparādha, apagatarada. This is something which drives away love or this sentiment from our heart.
And the consequences of this are very severe and this story is here to illustrate that this is the only thing which can destroy bhakti within our heart.
And we can see around us, we can see so many stories which can confirm this particular point, that if you are just simple, then you can remain blissful by chanting the holy name.
But if this offensive mentality somehow or other sneaks in, somehow or other you know crawls in your heart, then it immediately destroysletas the joy of bhakti. And this is very sad.
And while describing this point or explaining this point, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī in Bhakti-sandarbha, he quotes the verse which is also there in Caitanya-caritāmṛta.
This is the verse from Padma Purāṇa aparādha-bhañjanasya story. Where it is said the hṛd-drauṇi-janatā-lobha pāṣāṇḍābhijanaḥ. In this verse it is explained the nature of the or the root cause of offenses.
How the offenses come to our heart and what we should be careful about. What is the reason why offences come to our heart?
And they said very specifically there, which will be the last point which I will make. I don't want to go too long all the time.
Specifically it is said there, the hṛd-drauṇi-janatā-lobha. Lobha means greed. Lobha means this mentality and that I want more and more and more. What I want more? I want more three things.
Deha, Deha means body, and Deha means basically bodily pleasures. The pleasures which are brought about by matter, by my contact with matter.
If this greed for bodily pleasures is there, if it's not if it's not really understood clearly that this greed is useless, that it's bad. This is a cause of pāṣāṇḍa. Pāṣāṇḍa means aparādha.
Pāṣāṇḍa means being like paśu. Paśu means animal. You become like an animal. They have Dravina. Dravina means money. Dravina means also. Money which are illegally achieved. Dravina also means power because money gives power.
Money. There is another greed which is there. We have greed for material enjoyment. Which is, you know, we don't have to go into details about this lamentable condition of a human being.
But we also have greed for power because we are insecure and we think that you know if by hook and by crook I have to somehow achieve some powerful position where I can feel more secure.
Sachin Kumar Das told me this is actually the development of the Austrian school of psychology. First Sigmund Freud comes and he says, you know, the sex is the main driving force. And then Adler comes.
And Adler says, no, the striving for power is the is much more powerful driving force behind our life. Anyway, uh the same consequence is the iha dravina.
Dravina means the lobha or grief for power or for money or for security for whatever. Even if it's illegally achieved. Teha dra mean ajnata.
And ajnata means phu, this is the most dangerous. Janata means the greed for the followers, the greed for the worship, the greed for for honor, respect, all this kind of stuff.
And uh uh Śivarāma Swami basically says that if these three things are very deeply rooted within our heart and if we don't understand how destructive these things are, don't become careful about the degrading or destructive
power of these things, then for sure we will commit aparādhas. An aparādha will make us crooked in our heart. Śrīla
Jīva Gosvāmī explains the effects of aparādhas or offenses. And the first effect is the crookedness of the heart. You become calculating. And you even worship the Lord.
Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī gives an example of Duryodhana who was worshiping the Lord. The Duryodhana when Lord Krishna came to Hastināpura to the Sabha, made such a reception, you know. Phu.
Nobody was received as Lord Krishna in Hastināpura. You know, there was red carpets everywhere, the best accommodations, the best food, the best
dancing girls because Duryodhana was calculating what Krishna wants, what Krishna loves. He's a devotee. He's thinking what Krishna would like to have.
He loves girls, so let us bring him girls and he loves opulent food, let us bring the best cooks and everything. Why? And when Krishna came, you know he looked at this and he said I
will go to eat the banana peels in the house of Vidura. I don't need your opulent food. I don't need your dancing girls. I don't need the red carpets. I don't need anything.
I don't accept anything from you because you're cruel at heart. You're offering it to me, but you're calculating what will I get in return, how I will be duty. This is the... this is and uh this what uh um what
Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Thakura explains is the effect of aparādha. And he says if somebody is worshiping the Lord, but he is offensive towards Guru, towards Vaishnavas, and towards the Vedas.
This is the manifestation of his crooked heart. Because if you are to worship the Lord, you have to understand that Vedas and Vaishnavas and the spiritual master are his representatives.
And they should be as much worshipable uh worshipable as the Lord himself. Anyways that's a few points I I really don't want to... I don't like to give long classes.
And uh maybe tomorrow we can speak a little more on this topic. But it is a very important topic because despite the fact that bhakti is very powerful, it can be totally destroyed because
of the offenses and we have to really know what is an offense and how to avoid offense and how to conduct uh bhakti in a proper manner so that the full manifestation of the power of bhakti will bless us by the most elevated state of consciousness which is love.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Desires determining the soul's destination
Are there any questions? I heard once in the lecture that many followers of Śrīla Prabhupāda are going to the heavenly planets. What about that? Ah. Good question. I I think even Srila Prabhupada himself said this.
I think this is this is an authoritative statement that many followers of Śrīla Prabhupāda go to have independence. Why? Because they wanted. Because we performed bhakti with a specific desire.
Like Daksha, he was performing bhakti. In a very powerful manner. He was offering the prayers and the Lord Himself came.
And the Lord didn't even ask what He wants because He knew what He wanted. He wanted the big sensual power. He wanted to become the most powerful sexual hero in the world.
And his sensual power is amazing, you know he can beget ten thousand people at once. This is something really remarkable in the history of humanity. So if you want this, you will get it through the power of bhakti.
Like there is Bukti Nam, there is Mukti Nam, and there is Bhaktinam. There is harinam. It's powerful and in Padma Purāṇa it said Nāma-cintāmaṇi-kṛṣṇa-caitanya rasa-vigraha. Nama-cintāmaṇi. Cintāmaṇi means touchstone.
And it means that it can fulfill any desire. And there are three kinds of desires. Characteristically, there are only three types of desires. Therefore, you can chant the holy name.
And this will be called bhukti-nāma. You go Krishna Krishna Krishna. But you know Krishna knows what you mean, how are you? Dollar, dollar, dollar, dollar, euro, euro. This is bhukti- nāma.
And then there is mukti-nāma, which chanting the holy name with the desire to get rid of your sufferings in this material world. You just you're fed up and you want to get out of here. And this is mukti-nāma.
And this is a very this is a very powerful motivations within our heart. It's not so easy to clear this motivation even though theoretically we may understand that this is not the best.
And basically this is an offense because also Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura in his commentaries to this story about Daksha, to this particular chapter, he says Daksha became very opulent. In his past life he was opulent and he was performing all
the sacrifices. He ended up with the goat's head. Don't mix with godhead. He had a goat, goat's head. Which is very humiliating, especially if you're into sex lighting. Oh suddenly you have a head of the goat.
But the next slide, he also was born in a very highly elevated family, in a very opulent family too. And Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says that one of the results of aparādha is the material opulence.
Sometimes people I I heard this and this in this con it was also sometimes prevalent. That if somebody is a pure devotee, then the opulence will come to him for sure. Not necessarily. Maybe.
In case of Śrīla Prabhupāda did come. And Prabhupāda did say himself that if if the Lord trusts the devotee that he will not misuse the openings, he will bring the openings.
But the openings can also come through another channel. And also comes through the channel of aparādha. It may be it's not necessarily a result or the proof of the purity of your devotion.
It may also be a result of the offensive practice of bhakti. And uh therefore this can be can be result of uh so-called bhakti. So much for this. Yes? Anything? You mentioned two Austrian schools of psychology, yes.
There are three. Yeah, the third one is the main search for God. That's a very natural progression. And that's real right.
Victor Frankl, uh he was the third one who said that the meaning of life is much more powerful than life. That's a fact.
And we can see that if somebody is driven by this, he can neglect and you know drive for power and drive for material enjoyment. Thank you.
I would like to ask uh in connection to Bhakti Svarūpa Dāmodara Mahārāja's studies since you are also from this branch.
We know that maybe since 10 or 20 years there is definitive proof that the theory of Darwin is is a fake and it's it's untrue.
And still it is it's propagated as a truth that universities which means or which must mean that it is achieved. So what is the what is the chance that this this will change?
Oh well this is the world of cheaters and those who want to be cheating. So uh even even Darwin himself, oh no, not the Darwin himself, but somebody who was his follower in the very beginning recently it was proved that in
all the handbooks on Darwin theory there is this neat kind of proof of Darwin's theory that the embryo within the womb goes from one stage to another.
One stage it it develops some kind of you know how you call this this stuff when you breeze through like the fishes, not through the nostrils but through these. You know, and there is this elaborate kind of stuff.
You know, the embryo goes through the through all the stages of evolution and you can see this it means that you know uh all this evolution is there genetically there and recently um it was discovered that this is a total
fake. One of the ardent followers of Darwin who was so inspired by this beautiful theory, you know, he just faked it through his you know embryological so so-called uh uh things.
But uh people still believe it because they want to believe it. Actually Al Huxley, who was the main propagator of Darwin's theory, who was basically the person who
made the Darwin's theory popular, he very clearly says in his letters that I want to propagate the theory to relieve people from the prejudice regarding the sex life. He was the liberator of the human society.
He wanted to make them free from all these guilt complexes which are naturally there because of the church and church you know viciously some are made people guilty and they cannot
you know, enjoy sex life like monkeys and therefore the balance here is very good because it said you're a monkey, you know, why don't you do the same as monkeys without any guilt problems. So he was very clear.
His intention is very clear. He says this. This is my purpose. I this is why I want to. And because this kind of people will always be there who will want to give to the humanity this blessing of free sex life.
The Darwin theory will always propagate it or thought in schools or they will always be, especially in Kali-yuga. If not Darwin they will make some other arguments of fake things. It's a it's amazing, it's unbelievable.
Actually I became a devotee. One of the reasons why I became a devotee because I was totally I just couldn't take it seriously anymore the the evolution of theory on the molecular level.
I was a molecular biologist and I was studying the molecular biology and I I could
clearly see that this is ridiculous what they say because they couldn't figure out how this DNA and proteins, how they work together, because it's such a complex thing.
And then they say, oh, somehow rather just a few times by chance. Which is the theory of demons described very nicely in the sixteenth chapter, probably. be done, don't worry about this. This is Kali Yuga.
Kali Yuga is the age of hypocrisy. The hypocrisy will prevail. And we can see there are newer and newer means of hypocrisy, the internet, all this propaganda, mass propaganda,
that it's just to brainwash people, the TV and everything. It's just for one purpose. To, you know, to make Kali rule over this world, all the hearts of the people. Okay, thank you very much. Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya!
Nitai-gaura-premanande hari hari bol!