Srimad-Bhagavatam 8.7.19. Shivaratri
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · 2022
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Opening prayers and introductory remarks
Onamo bagate vastevaya. Unamo bagavate Vasudevaya, Onam Bhagavat, Vasudevaya, naray namasrity. Naraam chayana rauta.
We will read with you 19th verse from the 7th chapter of the 8th can of Shrimad Bhagavatam, which is entitled Lord Shiva Savi
Tadugam dici disyupari adho, visarpat, utsarpat sahjam, a pratibhita prajad duru anga seswara apraksyamanah saranam sadhasivam translation by sila pravo.
Why Vishnu grants credit to Shiva
O King, when that uncontrollable poison was forcefully spreading up and down in all directions, all the demigods, along with Lord Himself approached Lord Shiva, Sadashiva. Feeling unsheltered, they very much afraid, and very much afraid they sought shelter of Him.
One may quurpo by Srila Prabhupada.
One may question that since the Supreme Personality of Godhead was personally present, why did he accompany all the demigods and people in general to take shelter of Lord Sadashiva instead of intervening himself.
Srila Madvacharya, in this connection, Srila Madvacharya warns. Rudrasya Yasaswart Hayas Vajam Visnur Visham Vibuh, Nasanchare, Samartho Pajufso Che Rasantaye.
Lord Vishnu was complete was competent to rectify the situation, but in order to give credit to Lord Shiva, who later drank all the poison and kept it in his neck, Lord Vishnu did not take action.
Nam vis no padna pre stay butsrimate bakti vi nada só vi dele, na mastessa swahte deve chari, ne ru sa Sri Bad Paschatati Sri Sri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhunitananda Syadvayta Badharasi Vasadigaurabhta Brita, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare
Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Yanta pra visha mammacham pra supra,
sandji vajadaki doshakti daraswadama, anyamscha hasta charana chrabana, pranandam bhagavati po shar So I'm very happy to be with you on this night of Shivaradhi. Maharaj you are to be some Pakistan on what the Mahashivad.
This night of Mahashiva Ratri has a great significance. For those who following Lord Shiva, it's the greatest festival during the year. But from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, we also know that Lord Shiva is the greatest Vaishnava.
Shri Bhattan we also greatly Vaishnavanam Yathā śambhu and the 12th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Sūta Gosvāmī says that like among the rivers Ganga is the greatest, among
all the devas Achyuta is the greatest, among all the Vaishnavas Shiva is the greatest. Uh super action does a little rest of it. So we also worship Lord Shiva with great awe and reverence celebrating
his great devotion toward Krishna. And then Shrimad Bhagavatam in many many stories the greatness of Lord Shiva is
Pure unmotivated service to the Lord
being revealed. And his main greatness is that he wants to serve to the Supreme Lord by doing some ungrateful service. We all try to serve the Lord.
But we always think you know if I serve the Lord He will give me something good. We may not state it very openly but we all somehow rather expect or count that he will give me some mercy.
We come to the Lord in front of him. He's standing in the altar and we say, My dear Lord, I don't want anything, but you know better what I need. But this is not real service. But you just research this for me.
This is a resource thing. Srila Rupa Goswami says that the real service starts when you are anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-śīlanaṁ. This is the real service.
And Lord Shiva exemplifies this spirit of service when he doesn't expect anything for his service. Shastras and many occasions it is described that Lord Vishnu gives him the most ungrateful service. But also He
we know is the destroyer of the universe. When the come, when the time to destroy the universe comes, then Lord Siva starts his Tandavan Ritya and the whole universe is being destroyed.
This is very ungrateful service because if somebody is destroying something, nobody glorifies him. If somebody builds something, everyone glorifies him. He builds such a beautiful temple.
But if somebody comes and smashes this temple to pieces, nobody will say thank you very much, you did such a good service, but go in the boy put your stamp, but it's also necessary, it's a necessary service.
Or sometimes Lord Shiva has to give some benedictions to some demons. Oh, in this story of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which we just read this one verse, Lord Shiva has to drink poison.
You know, we all expect that we do some service and they give us some mahā-prasāda. And Lord Shiva comes and they give him the most dangerous poison which is there. Please drink, this is your award.
And if we would be treated like this, I don't know for how long we could be treated like this and still believe in the Supreme Lord and still worship him.
For the homeward passing, as I hope you have to say, but just actually, this fact that Lord Krishna and Lord Vishnu give the most difficult service to Lord Shiva means that they have complete trust to him.
If we only, if we trust somebody, we will do something very ungrateful to him because we know that his devotion will not swerve, his devotion will not change because of this ungrateful service.
Explaining Shiva-tattva through the yogurt analogy
But what is other things? So we have to understand very nicely who Lord Shiva is. First of all, we have to understand his tattva, his nature, his truth
about him, and then we will be able to understand all these līlās properly.
So in Brahma-saṁhitā, Śiva-tattva is described very beautifully. Brahma-saṁhitā makes Śiva-tattva context. Kṣīram yathā dadhi vikāra-viśeṣa-yogāt saṅjāyate nahi tataḥ pṛthag asti hetoḥ. Heto.
So, uh, Lord Brahma while praying to Lord Govinda, govīdam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi, he says that, Kṣīram yathā dadhi vikāra-viśeṣa-yogād Sum Kamaham Pajani, he says that Siramya Tadadivikara Vishesa Yogad in the same way as yogurt and milk is the same substance.
So Lord Shiva or Śambhu is the same substance as Lord Vishnu. Milk and yogurt is the same. Because yogurt is only coming from milk. You cannot make yogurt from uh I don't know from wood or from uh tea or whatever.
Uh, but it's vikāra-viśeṣa. It's uh it's a different transformation of the same substance. And the meaning of this is very very important and significant.
It is explained in the same Brahma-saṁhitā what is this vikāra, what is this transformation which is taking place when Lord Vishnu transforms into Lord Shiva?
Lord Vishnu is completely transcendental to this world. It has nothing to do with this world. Even Shankaracharya Srila Prabhupada often quoted his statement from his commentary to Bhagavad-gītā.
He says, Nārāyaṇaṁ paro 'vyaktāt. Nārāyaṇaṁ parād vyaktād. He is transcendental to this uh Vyakta, to this manifest world. So he Lord Vishnu is not in touch with uh with this world, is not in touch with matter.
Lord Vishnu feeling Lord's. But at the same time we always say that Lord Vishnu is everywhere, Lord Vishnu is here, Lord Vishnu is uh controlling everything that we
Lord Shiva's connection to material energy
get what is a cooker control to the same thing in reality when we say this we mean Lord Shiva. Because in the form of Shambhu Lord Vishnu comes in contact with this material energy.
Lord Śambhu is the personification of Lord Vishnu's glance. It is explained in the Upaniṣads that Lord Vishnu creates this material world by glancing over material nature. His glance has such a power that his glance by
casting his glance over material nature, his glance take shape of Lord Śambhu. And Lord Śambhu is uh coming in talk in contact with material nature, creates all other living entities.
So Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura while explaining this verses from Brahma-saṁhitā, he actually in detail explains the transformation which takes place when the Lord comes in touch with the material energy.
Lord Vishnu is great. But when he comes in touch with the material energy in the form of Lord Śambhu or Lord Shiva. He gets a little particle of minuteness. And he also uh keeps away he he he
has his ahaṅkāra, his ego which makes him separate. And from this transformation of minuteness and ahaṅkāra and chit shakti. When chit shakti is mixed with these elements, the nature of Shambhutattva comes into place.
When we look at our cells, because we are little replicas of Lord Shiva. Somebody take part of the same thing. We all have ahaṅkāra. I'm sorry, I'm somewhere. Somebody doesn't have ahaṅkāra? We all have false ego.
And we have this minuteness. Very tucha, yes.
Redirecting false ego into devotional service
So uh this is all creation of Lord Shiva, he facilitates our existence in this material world.
But actually, he comes here in his manifest form as Lord Shiva to teach us what we should do with this ahaṅkāra and with this with this nature which we have. Yes, we all have this independent nature.
Yeah, when we become teenagers we become very independent. Because of this ahaṅkāra, because of this false ego. But again Lord Shiva teaches us what to do with this.
Actually, if we employ this independent nature in the service of the Supreme Lord, we can transcend this independent nature. And how to do this, Lord Shiva also teaches us.
He teaches us that the method of transcending our conditioned nature or of our independent nature is to always think about the Supreme Lord. And to be always ready to render the service to the Supreme Lord.
Like in this particular story which we read from story of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam which we read from Lord Shiva is exemplifying Bhagavatam which we read from Lord Shiva is exemplifying this spirit of service that he is drinking the poison.
We all know this story when the demigods and demons were churning the milk ocean, then the first thing which appeared from the milk ocean was the Kalakuta poison.
And this Kalakuta poison was so terrible that it started spreading all over the universe. It's actually very significant because this churning of the milk ocean exemplifies our endeavors on the spiritual path.
Ultimately we all want by doing our sadhana, by doing our spiritual practice, we all want to achieve amṛta. Why do we do this japa? Why do we come to the temple? Because we are afraid of death.
We want to achieve this state when there is no death. I'm sure we still achieve a life beyond it. And when demigods and demons are churning this milk ocean, they also want to achieve amṛta. But amṛta doesn't come very soon.
We all know Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. But poison comes.
Sometimes we feel very dejected, sometimes we feel very, you know, down, we're doing, doing, doing this spiritual practice and nothing comes. Instead of amṛta so many problems come to our head.
So this is the first thing, this is proper. This is very uṁ bona fide that the problem because inside us there are so many problems.
when and we do when we start churning when we start spiritual practice all these problems, they surface. They become visible. It's not that this poison is coming from somewhere, it's coming from us. It's already there.
Seeking shelter during spiritual difficulties
So in the same way when the demigods and demons were churning this milk ocean, the poison surfaced, and it appeared that this poison will kill all the living entities in the universe.
And when this happened, all the demigods together with Lord Vishnu himself came to Lord Shiva. They approached Lord Shiva and started praying to him, please do something about this problem which we have.
Basically that signifies then when we during our spiritual practice encounter some problems we have to approach somebody who will be able to help us. You know, we need to give somebody our poison.
Otherwise this poison will kill us. We all know that when we have all these problems, we have to give these problems to somebody.
And in the same way, the demigods and demons they came to Lord Shiva and started praying to him, please take this poison. And Lord Shiva was not alone, he was sitting with his wife, Bhavani Parvati.
And all the demigods they knew that, you know, it's one thing to make Lord Shiva to agree with this, it's another thing if Parvati should also agree with this.
If you are sitting together with your wife and somebody approaches to you and says, please take this poison, you probably first have to ask the permission from your wife, can I take it or not?
So all these demigods, all the Prajapatis of the universe they were praying and praying to Lord Shiva and they were glorifying Lord Shiva and saying, please, you only uh one who can help us in this situation.
And then Lord Shiva looked at his wife. And his wife understood that he wants to do this service for the Lord for the Lord. As he said, yes, you can do it.
And then Lord Shiva, he took all this poison, he concentrated this huge amount of poison within his palms uh the poison became very less uh extra We
all know when we come with our problem, it seems like this problem is huge.
And when we start talking about this problem and we talk and talk and talk for a long time and then he takes this problem somebody who is our spiritual master or counselor or some senior devotee, and all of a sudden our problem becomes very little.
It's you know I have this experience.
Lord Shiva holding poison in his throat
I come with such a big problem and then I put this big problem in front of my spiritual master and he looks at this and the problem becomes hardly visible. No problem whatsoever.
So in the same way, Lord Shiva looked at this poison, and just by looking at this poison, this poison shrank and become very small amount. And then he drank this poison. But that's also very significant in this story because when Lord Shiva drank his poison, he didn't drink it completely.
He kept it in his throat. And his throat became uh uh Kaṇṭha or Nīlakaṇṭha, his throat became very dark because of this. Oh because Lord Shiva didn't drink uh the poison completely.
And one very beautiful explanation which I read is that Lord Shiva knew that Lord Krishna is within his heart. He always meditates upon Lord Krishna who is in his heart.
And he thought at this moment when he was drinking this poison, I cannot really burn Lord Krishna who is in my heart by drinking the poison completely, so I will keep it in my throat.
In this way, Lord Shiva saved the whole universe from this terrible poison which is called Kalakuta.
And in this uh in this chapter of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam uh Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī, he explains at the end of this chapter, he explains that somebody who is serving others, saving others, trying to help other people.
He is the most dear servant of the Supreme Lord. Why do we say that Lord Shambu is the greatest servant of the Lord Vaishnavanam Yathasabhu? Why do we say this?
Only because he is ready to sacrifice everything, only because he is ready to do something for others at the cost of his own happiness and comfort.
So this is some lessons of this of this beautiful Lila which we have to know that Lord Shiva is a very dear servant of Lord Vishnu coming to this universe and doing ungrateful service in this universe.
So you want to see one say one is better and then it's But at the same time, being in this universe, coming in contact with this material energy, he never forgets the Supreme Lord. Why he never forgets the Supreme Lord?
Because he serves everyone else. He always sees everyone as the representative of the Supreme Lord and tries to serve them. And in the same way, in this way he becomes the greatest devotee of the Lord.
Praying for genuine devotion on Shivaratri
And Lord Vishnu says that the one, Lord Krishna in Bhagavad-gītā even says that the one who serves in this way by trying to help other people is the most dear servant of mine.
So in this night of Sivaratri we may meditate on Lord Shiva as the greatest Vaishnava and the greatest servant of the Lord who is ready to do any service to the Supreme Lord.
Other people when they come on the night of Shivaratri they always ask Lord Shiva some material benedictions. Ladies come to the Supreme Lord to Lord Shiva and they ask, please give us nice tongue husband.
And sadhus come to Supreme to Lord Shiva and they they drink bang. But we come to Lord Shiva and we ask, Lord Shiva, please teach us how to serve the Supreme Lord.
How to do some service to the Supreme Lord, even though it's ungrateful service, but still do some service for him. Without being uh without being disappointed by uh this ungrateful service so
this is little introduction and now Sarva Bhavana Prabhu will start his real svakatha plus parti and I think is this to Buddha only I think Lord Shri is a great kathatar, he will tell the stories about Lord Shiva.
I didn't want to touch the stories so much. Thank you very much, Hare Kṛṣṇa.