Misc 25 — Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.1.17–18, Paris, 1975
А. Ч. Бхактиведанта Свами Прабхупада · Париж
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Defining transcendental and magnanimous acts
tasya karmāṇy udārāṇi parigītāni sūribhiḥ, brūhi naḥ śraddadhānānāṁ lilayā dadhataḥ kalāḥ. Sūribhiḥ, sūribhiḥ, sūribhiḥ. Līlayā dadhataḥ kalāḥ, līlayā dadhataḥ kalāḥ. Karmāṇi, karmāṇi. Transcendental acts, transcendental.
Udārāṇi, udārāṇi, magnanimous, magnanimous. Parigītāni, parigītāni, ventilated, ventilated. Sūribhiḥ, sūribhiḥ, by the great souls. By the great souls. Please speak. Unto us. Śraddadhānānām, ready to receive with respect.
Ready to receive with respect. Līlayā, pastimes. Dadhataḥ kalāḥ, incarnation, incarnation. Translation: "His transcendental acts are very magnanimous and great, learned sages like Nārada and others do narrate them.
Please therefore speak to us, who are all eager to hear them, about His adventures which He performed in His various incarnations."
Hearing from authorized spiritual sources
So Kṛṣṇa-līlā and such things should be listened through the mouth of great devotees like Vyāsa, Nārada, Asita. Not from, uh, non-devotees. Just like, uh, we are receiving some books written by some bhakta.
So, if he's not a devotee, such writing should not be listened, should not be read. It is according to our Gosvāmī śāstra:
when he is not a vaiṣṇava, if he speaks something about Kṛṣṇa or His activities, that is, uh, uh, poison. It should be treated as poison. Avaiṣṇava-mukhodgīrṇaṁ pūta-hari-kathāmṛtam.
Here in this material world, there is no love. Everything is lust. So one who does not know what is love and what is lust, he writes some songs, love songs.
That means he has equated these writings, great poets, transcendental poets, with ordinary songs. A vaiṣṇava should be, it must be. Especially it is stated: parigītāni sūribhiḥ. Unless one is an advanced devotee,
the speakers are on fire. Don't make sense. Don't take the easy. So Sanātana Gosvāmī said that avaiṣṇava-mukhodgīrṇaṁ... pūtaṁ hari-kathāmṛtam. Those songs, they are written by a great devotee poet, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura.
But if they are taken through the mouth of a non-devotee, avaiṣṇava, avaiṣṇava-mukhodgīrṇaṁ pūtaṁ hari-kathāmṛtam, they are... they are pure, but because it has been touched by some avaiṣṇava.
This book is, uh, presented by an avaiṣṇava, that can be understood. Uh, you may ask, "How do you understand that he is an avaiṣṇava?" Yes. From the pictures we can understand.
That base mentality is expressed in the picture. And besides that, he has printed some pictures from a professional recital. That means he has no idea, uh, wherefrom to take, how to understand these things.
He's a common man, but these songs are very high standard feelings, extreme. So he thought, "Let me do some business." So he's doing business. Therefore, such rascal literature should not be touched. They are poison.
They are distributing poison.
Avoiding professional and unauthorized recitals
Actually, many times we have questions about Kṛṣṇa's rāsa-līlā.
Because people take it very unimportantly, that Kṛṣṇa... so many comments have been, even Dr. Radhakrishnan, he suggests that He was a real boy, became very powerful. Perhaps He is as Kṛṣṇa and somebody.
That means indirectly they are trying to vilify Kṛṣṇa. They are asuras. They do not know what is Kṛṣṇa, taking advantage of their deficient mentality.
It is strictly forbidden that anyone who is not a devotee, through him, nothing should be taken about Kṛṣṇa. It is just like milk touched by the lips of a serpent. It is sarpocchiṣṭaṁ payo yathā.
Yes, especially in any time that content, and the lila is magnificent and gracious and great loving series like Narottama's songs. So we have to hear from Narottama's representation. Not from a layman.
Please therefore speak to us who are eager to hear. And the audience should be also very much eager. Both. And Pṛthu Mahārāja, both the reciter and the audience and the listener, both of them purified.
So in that association, the activities of the Lord should be heard. That will be effective. Brahmā-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā. One padma.
Divine activities versus material nature
The Personality of Godhead is never inactive. They say when perfection is there, there is no activity, the perfection means death. Because we have no idea that actually when we are perfect, then real activities begin.
So impersonists, they think like that, that God should not have any activities. He must be silent. But no, our Kṛṣṇa concept is to know about God, Kṛṣṇa, more and more activity, unlimited.
Never... Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is full of Kṛṣṇa's activities. Svarāṭ. Janmādy asya yato 'nvayād itara-taś cārtheṣv abhijñaḥ svarāṭ. His activities are not dependent on any other activity. But that is activity.
That is transcendental. Works are magnificent and magnetic at the same time.
His creations, both material and spiritual, all are wonderful things with all variegatedness, and they are described nicely by such liberated souls as Vyāsadeva, Devala, Asita, Madhva, Śrī Caitanya, Rāmānuja, Viṣṇu Svāmī, Nimbārka, Śrīdhara, Viśvanātha, Baladeva, Bhaktivinoda, Siddhānta Sarasvatī, and many such learned and self-realized souls.
These creations, both material and spiritual, both are full of opulence, beauty, and knowledge, but the spiritual realm is still more magnificent on account of its being full of knowledge, blissful, and eternally existent.
The material creations are manifested for some time as perverted shadow of the spiritual kingdom like the cinematic cinematographic focus on the screen and attracts people of less intelligent caliber who are attracted by false things.
Such foolish men have no information of the real reality and take it for granted that the false material manifestation is all in all.
But more intelligent men, guided by the sages like Vyāsa and Nārada, know that the eternal kingdom of God is more delightful, larger, and eternally full of bliss and knowledge.
Those who are not conversant with the activities of the Lord in His transcendental realm are sometimes favored by the Lord by His adventures as incarnations, wherein He displays the eternal bliss of His association in the transcendental realm.
By such activities, He attracts the conditioned soul of the material world, where some of them are engaged in the false enjoyments of the material senses and others are engaged in the business of negating the real life.
Purpose of the divine descent
His dancing with the gopīs... so kind that He could descend on this planet with these līlā activities so that we can be attracted. Yes, in this material world.
We want to play with our friends, but here in this material world, our friends, our playmates, they are temporary; that is, maybe for some time it is joyful. Again, it becomes very distasteful.
Here, the love between young boys and girls... it may be joyful for some time, but again it becomes distasteful. There is separation or there is misunderstanding, sometimes still more literature.
But if we make our friendship with Kṛṣṇa, if we play with Kṛṣṇa, if we accept Kṛṣṇa as our master, if we accept Kṛṣṇa as our son—all these rasas, humors, are there in this material world.
But there are so many inabilities. The Kṛṣṇa, by His causeless mercy, exhibits that "These things you can have with Me for eternal glee, for eternal enjoyment." But we are not attracted.
It is Kṛṣṇa's kindness that He descends with all His family to show us. Exhibit, just like somebody makes advertisement displaying something very attractive.
So Kṛṣṇa comes for this purpose: to attract us to go back to home, back to Godhead. We are trapped by such activities; we are attracted only to the material world,
where some of them are engaged in the false enjoyment of the material senses, and others are engaged in the business of negating the real life in the spiritual world.
Comparing spiritual paths and incarnations
These less intelligent persons... because being engaged in this false enjoyment, and getting, when they see that actually there is no enjoyment, they want to make it null and void. Make this... they want to make it zero.
There are two classes for that: the karmī and the jñānī. One is trying to accept the false things, temporary things as blissful, and another is trying to reject and make it zero. These two classes of men are working.
But the devotees, they not only give up these temporary enjoyable things, but they catch up the eternal blissful activities in association.
While such less intelligent persons are known as karmīs or the fruitive workers, the jñānīs, or dry mental speculators, just to make an analysis of the material elements for distinguishing matter and spirit.
And above these two classes of men, there is a transcendental one, known as the bhaktas or the devotees, who are not busy either in the rampant material activities nor in the business of material elimination.
They are engaged in the positive service of the Lord and thereby derive the highest spiritual benefits unknown to the karmīs and jñānīs.
As the supreme controller of both the material and spiritual world, the Lord has different incarnations of unlimited categories.
Incarnations like Brahmā, Rudra, Manu, Pṛthu, Vyāsa, etc., are His material qualitative incarnations, but His incarnations like Rāma, Narasiṁha, Varāha, Vāmana, etc., are His transcendental incarnations.
Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the fountainhead of all incarnations, and He is therefore the cause of all causes. Next slide.
Īśvarasya, īśvarasya, ātmā, ātmā-māyā, ātmā-māyā, ātmā-māyā hi hareḥ... avatāra... avatāra-śabda... līlā-vigraha. Our activities are karma. And Kṛṣṇa's activities are līlā.
We, whatever we are doing, that is due to our past activities; we have got a certain type of mentality, certain type of body, and we are acting dictated by the laws of material nature. This is our feature.
But Kṛṣṇa's activities are not like that; therefore Kṛṣṇa says: janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ. Anyone who simply can understand the activities of Kṛṣṇa in truth is...
Like this man has written the songs and activities of, but he does not know what is Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise, by writing such a book he would have been delivered. But he does not know.
He is making some fine sentiments of love affairs a business.
Liberation through hearing divine pastimes
Just like so many people are writing comments on Bhagavad-gītā to make business. Bhagavad-gītā is a popular book. And if you give some interpretation, people will read it. He'll make some money. So, so this is not wanted.
Man should be completely absorbed in the activities of Krishna. It is not ordinary activity. Krishna is not an ordinary man.
Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but He is acting as an ordinary man; that is His mercy.
Because of this mercy, He comes like an ordinary man and teaches us, uh, taking Arjuna as His student, He gives us instruction. And but unfortunately, we think that Krishna is an ordinary man. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ.
Mūḍhāḥ, rascals. They think Krishna is an ordinary human being. Maybe a little learned. That's all. No. Krishna is a divyam evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ. Simply by hearing about Krishna's activities, one will be liberated.
Kṛṣṇa-puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtana. We could discuss here the activities of a great politician, great scientist, a so-called scientist, but that is a waste of time. Simply, uh, waste of time.
Others, those who are not in Krishna consciousness, they think, "What is the utility of, uh, hearing so much about the activities of Krishna?" They think like that.
That these people sit down every day morning and discuss about the activities of Krishna. "What are the benefits?" They cannot understand. But you don't be misled by such foolish men.
The more you hear about Krishna and Krishna's activities, you become liberated from this contamination of material existence.