Śrīmad Bhāgavatam Recitation and Study
А. Ч. Бхактиведанта Свами Прабхупада · Майапур · 1976
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Śāstrījī: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya.
Introduction to the sanskrit verse
[devotees repeat] [chants verse, with Prabhupāda and devotees repeating] [chants synonyms; devotees chant responsively] SB 7.9.7अस्तौषीद्धरिमेकाग्र मनसा सुसमाहितः ।प्रेमगद्गदया वाचा तन्न्यस्तहृदयेक्षणः ॥७॥astauṣīd dharim ekāgra-manasā susamāhitaḥprema-gadgadayā vācātan-nyasta-hṛdayekṣaṇaḥPrahlāda Mahārāja fixed his mind and sight upon Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva with full attention in complete trance. With a fixed mind, he began to offer prayers in love with a faltering voice.
Dayānanda: **Translation = "Prahlāda Mahārāja thus fixed up in his mind with full attention; the mind and sight, everything was placed in complete trance. Thus, on account of love, he began to offer his prayer in faltering voice."**
SB 7.9.7अस्तौषीद्धरिमेकाग्र मनसा सुसमाहितः ।प्रेमगद्गदया वाचा तन्न्यस्तहृदयेक्षणः ॥७॥astauṣīd dharim ekāgra-manasā susamāhitaḥprema-gadgadayā vācātan-nyasta-hṛdayekṣaṇaḥPrahlāda Mahārāja fixed his mind and sight upon Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva with full attention in complete trance. With a fixed mind, he began to offer prayers in love with a faltering voice.
Developing faith and spiritual surrender
Prabhupāda: So this is gradual progress of spiritual mind, and this state is called prema, prema-gadgadayā. So we have to make progress as it is exemplified by Prahlāda Mahārāja.
Ādau gurv-āśrayam sad-dharma-pṛcchā sādhu-mārga-anugamanam. [aside:] Stop that.
The first business is ādau, in the beginning, gurv-āśrayam. Gurv-āśrayam means to take shelter of a bona fide spiritual master, ādau gurv-āśrayam, and this takes place when there is śraddhā. Just like in this meeting, persons who have got little faith, they can sit down and hear.
This is called śraddhā. And the higher stage of śraddhā is to completely accept the instruction of Kṛṣṇa.
In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta that is highest state of śraddhā. In the lower stage, little faith, "So here is something going on about Kṛṣṇa, let us sit down and hear it," this is kaniṣṭha-śraddhā. And this śraddhā, faith, has to be increased.
That ultimately, in the mature stage of śraddhā, faith, that is described in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, CC Madhya 22.62‘শ্রদ্ধা’-শব্দে — বিশ্বাস কহে সুদৃঢ় নিশ্চয় ।কৃষ্ণে ভক্তি কৈলে সর্বকর্ম কৃত হয় ॥ ৬২ ॥'śraddhā'-śabde — viśvāsa kahe sudṛḍha niścayakṛṣṇe bhakti kaile sarva-karma kṛta haya“Śraddhā is confident, firm faith that by rendering transcendental loving service to Kṛṣṇa one automatically performs all subsidiary activities. Such faith is favorable to the discharge of devotional service.
This is śraddhā. Śraddha-śabde, this śraddhā, faith, means sudṛḍha niścaya, śraddhā-śabde viśvāsa. Kṛṣṇa says, BG 18.66सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज ।अहं त्वां सर्वपापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुचः ॥६६॥sarva-dharmān parityajyamām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vrajaahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyomokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥAbandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.
This is called faith. Yes, Kṛṣṇa says that simply by surrendering at His lotus feet one becomes immediately a liberated person. Kṛṣṇa says that.
BG 18.66सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज ।अहं त्वां सर्वपापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुचः ॥६६॥sarva-dharmān parityajyamām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vrajaahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyomokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥAbandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.
Just like if I offer you that if you do this work, I shall give you immediately fifty thousand rupees. So who will believe me?
"This man is a beggar, sannyāsī, how he'll give fifty thousand rupees?" So there is no śraddhā. But we cannot do so with reference to Kṛṣṇa. When Kṛṣṇa says, ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi, that is a fact.
That is not a bogus promise. Because Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, all-powerful, whatever He likes, He can do. This is called faith.
So after reading Bhagavad-gītā, if one does not get this faith in Kṛṣṇa, then it is useless waste of time. That's all.
There are many so-called scholars, politicians, they declare that "I read Bhagavad-gītā daily, three times," but the result is no faith in Kṛṣṇa. This is called useless waste of time.
If you do not get the faith which is required by studying Bhagavad... Bhagavad-gītā is the ABCD reading for understanding God. That is ABC. So if you do not understand even the ABCD, how he'll advance in higher studies?
That is not possible. So even we cannot understand Bhagavad-gītā, the ABCD, Kṛṣṇa says one thing, and they make, I mean to say, interpretation in a different way. Kṛṣṇa says, aham ādir hi devānām
mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate. They do not believe it. Śrama eva hi kevalam. To such persons the Bhāgavata says, SB 1.2.8धर्म: स्वनुष्टित: पुंसां विष्वक्सेनकथासु य: ।नोत्पादयेद्यदि रतिं श्रम एव हि केवलम् ॥ ८dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhitaḥ puṁsāṁviṣvaksena-kathāsu yaḥnotpādayed yadi ratiṁśrama eva hi kevalamThe occupational activities a man performs according to his own position are only so much useless labor if they do not provoke attraction for the message of the Personality of Godhead.
Identifying authorized sources and teachers
You, you are very religious, performing the ritualistic ceremony very nicely, going to the Ganges and taking your bath, and dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhitaḥ puṁsāṁ. Very rightly you are executing your religious principle, and coming at home, you are reading Bhagavad-gītā—but you have no faith in Kṛṣṇa.
That is useless time, useless waste of time. The Bhāgavata, śrama eva hi kevalam. So this..., why this happens? Because these people do not approach the right person, guru. Ādau gurv-āśrayam.
Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was visited by many learned brāhmaṇas when He was at Purī, Jagannātha Purī. So one learned brāhmaṇa, he wrote some poems about Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
There were many brāhmaṇas, they were coming, but all such reading matter, first it was to be tested by His secretary, Svarūpa Dāmodara. If Svarūpa Dāmodara would pass, then Caitanya Mahāprabhu will hear.
Otherwise, why should He waste His time some hodge-podge writing?
So one brāhmaṇa, he wrote something about Caitanya Mahāprabhu and came to read, recite, before Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and Svarūpa Dāmodara found many mistakes in that poem, so he did not allow him, that "You do not know how to present theistic literature.
You don't... You cannot see Caitanya Mahāprabhu." He chastised him about the mistake. So to write theistic literature is not to be done by any ordinary man. It is not to, because they, they do not know.
So we should not read any literature which is not presented by a bona fide Vaiṣṇava. It has been forbidden by Sanātana Goswāmī. avaiṣṇava-mukhodgīrṇaṁpūtaṁ hari-kathāmṛtaṁśravaṇaṁ naiva kartavyam...[Hari-bhakti-vilāsa] He said.
Sanātana Goswāmī is our guide, ācārya. He is warning you that "If a person is not Vaiṣṇava, don't hear anything nonsense from him." That is the injunction. Don't hear. This is very rigidly to be followed.
avaiṣṇava-mukhodgīrṇaṁpūtaṁ hari-kathāmṛtaṁśravaṇaṁ na kartavyaṁsarpocchiṣṭaṁ payaḥ yathā[Hari-bhakti-vilāsa]
One can argue, "No, we can hear hari-kathā from any person, he may be Vaiṣṇava or not Vaiṣṇava. What is the matter?" But Sanātana Goswāmī, "No." So why it is "no"?
Because it is like sarpocchiṣṭaṁ payaḥ yathā. Milk is very good, nice food, everyone knows, but if the milk is touched by the lips of a snake, it is not to be touched. It is not to be touched. It has become poison.
Very good example.
Similarly, if we do not hear from the right person any Vedic literature, especially Bhagavad-gītā, because that is the beginning, the sarpocchiṣṭaṁ payaḥ yathā. He may be very big scholar, but because he is avaiṣṇava, not devotee, it has become poison.
In our country we have got so many editions—not only in country, in all, outside the country also, in your country.
There are so many hodge-podge interpretation of Bhagavad-gītā, and they are being read and being used for the last two hundred years ago, but there was no effective result. It could not act.
But as soon as this Bhagavad-gītā As It Is we have presented and you are reading, so many thousands of thousands, they are becoming devotee.
So therefore, this process Prahlāda Mahārāja is demonstrating by his personal behavior because he is mahājana. He is mahājana. Out of the twelve mahājanas... The śāstra says, mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ
= one has to follow the mahājana, authorized person. Mahājana means authorized person. Ordinary jana, common man; and mahājana means authorized person. We cannot take lessons, instruction, from unauthorized person.
This authorization must come through the disciplic succession. If the spiritual master, authorized spiritual master, says, "You do this," that we have to do. That we are singing daily:
guru-mukha-padma-vākya cittete koriyā-aikyaāra nā koriho mane āśā
This is the process. This is the process.
And if I think that I am more intelligent than my guru... First of all guru must be bona fide, not a bogus guru. The guru, as specified by Caitanya Mahāprabhu, that is not very difficult, who is guru. Caitanya Mahāprabhu said,
The lineage of bona fide gurus
CC Madhya 7.128যারে দেখ, তারে কহ ‘কৃষ্ণ’ উপদেশ ।আমার আজ্ঞায় গুরু হঞা তার’ এই দেশ ॥ ১২৮ ॥yāre dekha, tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa'-upadeśaāmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra' ei deśa“Instruct everyone to follow the orders of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa as they are given in the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In this way become a spiritual master and try to liberate everyone in this land.”
He is guru. One who is strictly following the instruction of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and after following Him, he is just delivering the instruction as Kṛṣṇa has said, then you become guru. It is not difficult.
Caitanya Mahāprabhu has ordered everyone. Therefore our process is to follow Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and then try to understand Kṛṣṇa's instruction. Just like here in our temple = first of all there is Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
Through His mercy we are trying to understand Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. You cannot understand Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa directly. That is not possible. That will be like that sarpocchiṣṭaṁ payaḥ yathā, milk touched by the lips of a snake.
There are so many Bhāgavata reciters in India, they jump over to the rasa-līlā without understanding Kṛṣṇa through Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura has sung... You know?
rūpa-raghunātha-pade hoibe ākutikabe hāma bujhabo se jugala-pīriti
Don't try to understand jugala-pīriti, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa's love, abruptly. It is foolishness. You will misunderstand.
Therefore Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, he said, rūpa-raghunātha-pade hoibe ākuti. Rūpa, beginning from Rūpa Gosvāmī up to Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, six Gosvāmīs, Śrī-Rūpa, Sanātana, Bhaṭṭa-Raghunātha, Śrī-Jīva, Gopāla-bhatta, Dāsa-Raghunātha, six Gosvāmīs.
So Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, rūpa-raghunātha, beginning from Rūpa to Raghunātha dāsa.
Rūpa-raghunātha-pade hoibe ākuti kabe hāma bujhabo: don't try to understand Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa love without going through the instruction of Rūpa Gosvāmī, Sanātana Gosvāmī, Dāsa Gosvāmī, like. That is the instruction.
So we see practically how Prahlāda Mahārāja immediately attained the state of prema. Here it is said, prema-gadgadayā vaca. Prema, that prema is not this prema. The lusty desire, that is not prema. Prema, one has to learn; one has to go through the disciplic or discipline to attain the stage of prema. As Prahlāda Mahārāja, so he first of all followed the instruction of Brahmā, then immediately he got the favor of Lord Nṛsiṁha-deva, and after getting that, he got the prema stage.
You cannot go immediately to the prema stage. That is also rūpa-raghunātha-pade. Rūpa-raghunātha, Rūpa Goswāmī has said [indistinct],
Sequential stages of devotional practice
ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgaḥ atha bhajana-kriyātato anartha-nivṛttiḥ syāttato niṣṭhā tataḥ ruciḥathāsaktis tato bhāvassādhakānām ayaṁ premṇaḥprādurbhāve bhavet kramaḥ
These are the kramaḥ. You cannot get prema state artificially, crying, falling down and then smoking bidi. This is not prema. Prema you have to learn by the kramaḥ pantha. That kramaḥ pantha is the same = ādau śraddhā. Ādau śraddhā. Śraddha means faith = "Yes, Kṛṣṇa says that, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam
It is right." This is faith. This is beginning of faith. Now, to keep the faith or to increase the faith, you have to live with faithful servants of Kṛṣṇa.
With our this institution, the center is meant for giving a chance to the common people to get association of devotee. Ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgaḥ
Sādhu means those who are well behaved in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, not upstarts.
They are called sādhu. So those who are living in this temple, they must be strictly very well behaved, so that whoever may come out of śraddhā, if he sits down for some time and sees your behavior, then he'll be influenced.
And if you become third class, then how sādhu-saṅgaḥ will be effective? No. You must strictly follow the regulative principles as given to you by your spiritual master, śāstra. You must follow.
Then people will come in contact with you, they will be benefited. Ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgaḥ And if he regularly makes sādhu-saṅgaḥ, then the effect will be he will try to become a sādhu. That is initiation.
Initiation means the beginning of becoming a sādhu, not that after initiation immediately he becomes a sādhu. No.
If he follows, just like we instruct that you chant at least sixteen rounds, you have no illicit sex, you cannot take any meat, fish, eggs, or you cannot have any intoxication up to drinking tea and smoking, and we say no gambling—this is the process of becoming a sādhu. So ādau śraddhā. This is called bhajana-kriyā.
Then anartha-nivṛttiḥ. Anartha. These are anartha. There is no need of smoking—it is useless—but we have practiced it.
Therefore they are anartha. But if you follow the devotional process, then anartha will be finished very soon. That is the test.
Signs of advancement in bhakti
Test means bhakti pareśānubhavo viraktir anyatra syāt
= if you are actually advancing in bhakti, devotional service, then automatically you don't like these nonsense practices = no illicit sex, no meat eating, no gambling, no intoxication. Automatically.
That is the test how far you are.
Anartha-nivṛtti syāt. These are anartha. Then it is niṣṭhā, firm faith; then ruci, taste; then asakti, attraction; then bhava; then prema. So Prahlāda Mahārāja, he is on the stage of prema, prema-gadgadayā vācā tan-nyasta-hṛdayekṣaṇaḥ. When you attain the stage of prema, then your core of heart is cleansed for welcoming.
He is there, for seeing. Therefore in the Brahma-saṁhitā it is said, premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti You can see God within your heart.
He is sitting there, īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānām hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati You get ready, Kṛṣṇa is there within your heart. But you cannot see because you have no prema. You cannot see.
Kṛṣṇa does not expose Himself to the nondevotees. He does not. Nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ He'll not expose Himself.
But if you attain the stage of prema, as Prahlāda Mahārāja attained, then you will see Him. How you will see? Sadaiva: always. Not that for two minutes I see and Kṛṣṇa is no more there. No, not like that.
Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ sadaiva. Sadaiva means constant, incessantly. You can see.
BS 5.38प्रेम अञ्जन च्छुरित भक्ति विलोचनेनसन्तः सदैव हृदयेषु विलोकयन्ति |यं श्याम सुन्दरम् अचिन्त्य गुण स्वरूपंगोविन्दम् आदि पुरुषं तमहं भजामि ॥ ३८ ॥premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanenasantaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayantiyaṁ śyāmasundaram acintya-guṇa-svarūpaṁgovindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmiI worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is Śyāmasundara, Kṛṣṇa Himself with inconceivable innumerable attributes, whom the pure devotees see in their heart of hearts with the eye of devotion tinged with the salve of love.
Then you can offer your prayers to Kṛṣṇa, Govinda, and then your life is successful. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness process. So try to follow the path chalked out by Prahlāda Mahārāja.
He is one of the mahājanas. Out of the twelve mahājanas, he is also one of them. He is our guru. So try to follow Prahlāda Mahārāja's instruction and behavior also.
Just see his behavior, how he attained the stage of prema gradually. So you should be ambitious. Our goal of life, that is the Caitanya Mahāprabhu's mission, prema pum-artho mahān [Caitanya-mañjuṣā].
He doesn't say, dharmārtha-kāma-mokṣa He never says. To become religious, that is not; but that is the beginning, because without religion, everyone is animal, cats and dog.
So religion is the beginning, dharma, artha, but generally... [break] [end]