Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.5.35
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Калькутта · 2012
Главы
Introduction of Bhakti Vijnana Goswami Maharaj
Hare Krishna. So today we are very happy that we have with us this one is Pakti Vidyan Goswami Maharaj. Read about the interest.
Bhakti Vityan Gosan Maharaj is from a very educated family and who was born in Tusking in 1956, former Soviet Union.
Bhaktivityang Bosama Maharaj took to spiritualize during a very difficult time during the communist era in the former Soviet Union in 1980. When national security forces were harassing any type of spiritual practitioners.
Despite external obstacles, Bhaktivityan Goswami, a scientist and graduate of Moscow State University and postgraduate student at Institute of Molecular Biology.
He decided to experiment with the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. To his great happiness, it moved him profoundly.
He is a disciple of His Holiness B. R. Sridhar Swami and resides primarily in Moscow, Russia, and is working tirelessly towards the building of a monumental temple there.
He travels widely throughout the Russia sharing Krishna consciousness.
Since 1997, Bhakti Vijnana Goswami Maharaj has acted as a member of ISKCON's Governing Body Commission and, since 2005, has served as one of the initiating gurus of ISKCON.
Dr. Bhakti Vijnana Goswami's movements include Georgia and Israel.
He serves as the GBC zonal secretary for the Eastern and Western Siberia, Northwest, uh, Commonwealth of Independent States, Ural region, Moscow, Southern, and Central Region of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Georgia, Armenia, Paris, and also the GBC for North and South Korea.
On July 1st, 2010, the Council for Public Awards of the Russian Federation has awarded him a medal for professional and business reputation, third degree, for his contribution to strengthening Russian and Indian friendly relations, for his contribution to the popularizing of spiritual, cultural, literary heritage of India.
He has also worked tirelessly to translate Śrīla Prabhupāda's books in Russian. And recently just last month I think in December month we saw there was a great case about Bob.
He was a center person who was coordinating all things and he was the one who helped to popularize the Bhagavad-gītā all over the world. So we are very honored to have His Holiness Maharaj here. So let us welcome him.
Recitation of introductory prayers
I don't think it was not me, it was persecutors and toms who popped oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
yad-dhṛdaye ’cita-prāyo ’bhhimanyuṁ kṛtī-dvipāyāna-viraha-kātara- juhāva putra-tīvrayā mayatayā ’bhinedus Tam Sarbu Tahridayamunimanatosmi, Narainamaskritya, naram chanarotamam, devim saraswatiasam, devim sara, tato jaya
mudiraya Loke, Bhakti Bhavatina, Shtiki, Bhakti Bhakti Nashtiki. So today we read in Shrimad Bhagavatam Mahapurana Ken 5, Chapter 5, Lord Rishabhadev's teachings. The last text of this chapter, number 35.
Sanskrit Itinana Yoga Charya Acharanah Bhagavan Kavalda Pati Rishabha Adiratha Parama Maha Anandanubava Atmani Sarvisam Bhutanam Atma Bhuti Bhavavativa Sudeva Atmano, avyavadana, ananda Rodana Bhavena, Siddha, Samastartta,
Paripurna, Yoga Iswariani Vayhyasam Mano Javanandaradana Parakaya Pradesh Dura grahanadini yad drichaya pag uh drichaya opagatani na anjasam nripa ridaye abbyanandanat. Okay. Translation, what by what translation? Iti.
Das Nana Various Yoga of Mystic Yoga Acharya Performances Acharana practicing Bhagavan the Supreme Personality of Godhead of Godhead Kaivalya Patiheen the Master of Kaivalya. Or the giver of Sayyudja Mukti. Rishabha.
Lord Rishabha. Lord Rishabha. Adirata incessantly Parama Parama Supreme Supreme Maha Maha Great Ananda Anubhava Anandama Feeling transcendental bliss Atmani in the Supreme Soul Sarvasham of all Bhutanam Living Entities Atma
Bhute situated in the heart Bhagavati Anta Supreme Personality of Godhead. Vasudeve, Vasudeva. Krishna, the son of Vasudev, Atmanaham of Himself by the non-difference of constitution. By the non-difference of constitution.
Ananda unlimited. Rodara like crying, laughing and shivering, bhavina by the symptoms of love, Siddha completely perfect. Samasta all arta with desirable opulences. Paripurna Fool Yoga Aishwarayani
Yoga The Mystic Powers Vaihayasam flying in the skying in the sky manajava traveling at the speed of mind of mind Antardhana, the ability to disappear, parakaya pravesham,
the ability to enter another's body, The ability to perceive things far. Far, far away. Adhini and others yadrichaya without difficulty automatically Upagatani achieved na not directly nripa of king parikshit.
Hridayana within the heart. Abhyanandana. Abhyanandana. Accept it.
Verse translation and Prabhupada purport
Translation and purport by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
Oh King Parikshit just to show all the yogis, the mystic process, Lord Rishabhadev, the partial expansion of Lord Krishna, performed wonderful activities.
Actually, he was the master of liberation and was fully absorbed in transcendental bliss, which increased a thousand fold. Lord Krishna Vāsudeva, the son of Vasudeva, is the original source of Lord Ṛṣabhadeva.
There is no difference in their constitution, and consequently Lord Ṛṣabhadeva awakened. He was always absorbed in transcendental love.
Due to this, all mystic powers automatically approached him, such as the ability to travel in outer space at the speed of mind, to appear and disappear, to enter the bodies of others, and to see things far far away. Although he could do all this he did not exercise these powers.
In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, nineteenth chapter, it is said, Krishna Bhakti niṣkāma haya 'śānta', bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kāmī — sakali 'aśānta'. The word śānta means completely peaceful, peaceful.
Unless all the desires are fulfilled, one cannot be peaceful. Everyone is trying to fulfill his aspirations and desires, be they material or spiritual.
Those in the material world are Ashanta, without peace, because they have so many desires to fulfill. The pure devotee, however, is without desire. Annya Bilashita Shunya.
A pure devotee is completely free from all kinds of material desires. Karmis, on the other hand, are simply full of desires because they try to enjoy sense gratification.
They are not peaceful in this life nor the next during the past, present or future. Similarly, jñānīs are always aspiring after liberation and trying to become one with the Supreme.
Yogis are aspiring after many siddhis, powers, animā, laghimā, prāpti, etc. However, a devotee is not at all interested in these things because he is fully dependent on the mercy of Krishna.
Krishna is Yogeshvara, the possessor of all mystic powers, Siddhis. And he is Atmaram, fully satisfied. The Yoga Siddhis are described in this verse. One can fly in the outer space without the aid of machine.
And he can travel at the speed of mind. This means that as soon as a yogi desires to go somewhere within this universe or even beyond this universe, he can do so immediately.
One cannot estimateletown the speed of mind for within a second the mind can go many millions of miles.
Sometimes yogis enter into the bodies of other people and act as they desire when their bodies are not working properly. When the body becomes old, a perfect yogi can find a young able body.
Giving up his old body, the yogi can enter into the young body and act as he pleases.
Being a plenary expansion of Lord Vāsudeva, Lord Ṛṣabhadeva possessed all these mystic yoga powers, but he was satisfied with his devotional love of Krishna, which was evinced by the ecstatic symptoms such as crying, laughing and shivering.
Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purports of the Fifth Canto, Fifth Chapter of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam entitled Lord Ṛṣabhadeva's Teachings to His Sons.
Nama om विष्णु-पादये Krishna-kṛṣṇāya bhūtaye śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmitin iti nāmase namaste sarasvatī-devī gaura-vāṇī- प्रचारिणे nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe
vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ Śrī-Kṛṣṇa-Caitanya Prabhu Nityānanda Śrī-Advaita Gadādhara Śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda Hare Krishna
Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hari Hare Rama Hare Ramare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hari Rama
Hare Ram Ramare Ajanulambujoka nakavada sam kirtanaya ka bitarokamplay tak shibi shwambarodviavaru, yuga dharmapala, vandeji jagat priakaru karunavatara damtah
pra visya mamma vachimamprasuktam sangiva yatikila shakti raswadamna anjamshahastacharana
Dispelling misconceptions about yoga powers
shravanatbagadim panandamu bhagavati purusha tobina. So today we are reading about the ultimate achievement of Lord Rishabhadev.
And Śrīla Prabhupāda explaining this verse in the translation itself points out that all these performances were there to show the example of other yogis to teach other yogis the real process of yoga because there are
so many misconceptions about yoga nowadays and not only nowadays. Nowadays we are living in a very confused age. Everyone is confused. Mandāḥ sumandā-matayo manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāḥ.
From the very beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the sages of Naimiṣāraṇya said, Mandāḥ Sumandāḥ Matayo. People of this age are totally, completely, utterly, hopelessly confused.
Sumanda Matayo means that there are so many different opinions and theories are there in their heads. So there is no hope for them to get little clear about this.
But uh from this description it appears that it's not only now but since time immemorial the confusion was there. And the confusion is a natural state of affairs in this material world.
The creator of this world, Lord Brahmā, before creating this world, created ignorance. He created five types of ignorance to put everyone is in ignorance here.
So ignorance is a normal state of affairs in this material world. There is nothing special about this. And yoga, according to this particular passage of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, can be a way to confuse people.
Lord Ṛṣabhadeva, being an incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, teaches what is the real yoga. Basically, the essence of this verse of this passage
of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is that there is a misconception about yoga that yoga is the way to obtain mystic powers. And there are so many different mystic powers to be obtained, and they are very attractive.
And they're very attractive to the minds of people. You know, if I ask you, would you like to travel with the speed of mind without paying airfares? Probably would agree to this. I would definitely agree. It's very handy.
And there are so many different uh very amazing, wonderful And uh attractive yoga powers. You know it is said here that a yogi if his body becomes old, he can enter into the young body. Who would not agree to this proposal?
It's a very nice proposal. In fact, in the life of Śaṅkarācārya, he showed this mystic power. When he was challenged by the Saraswati, wife of Mandan Mishra, to debate with her about the science of Kama Sutra.
He was somewhat puzzled because he took sannyās at the age of seven. So he was not very experienced in these matters. So in order to acquire some experience, because it's useless.
He probably knew Kama Sutra by heart as well as other Vedic literature, but it's useless to preach something if you don't practice it.
So, Śaṅkarācārya, he decided to practice this and uh uh but he couldn't do it because he was in the body of a sannyāsī, so it was not very appropriate to practice it being in the body of a sannyāsī.
So being a mystic yogi, he entered the body of a king and happily practiced this intricate science in the body of the king. But that's just to entice your mind into these yogic powers.
Ultimately, there are so many yogic powers, and they're all very attractive to the normal so to speak mind of ignorant people.
Correcting imbalanced values through avatars
But the Lord comes to this material world to show what is the real wealth. Basically, the confusion or ignorance of living entities is in the matter of what you want to achieve. That's the main confusion.
The main confusion which is there in all the living entities is that they have perverter values.
Śrīla Prabhupāda very mercifully stating the main goal of ISKCON, the first goal and purpose of ISKCON is to change the uh imbalanced value system in the human society.
And that's the main problem, and that's the main manifestation of human ignorance or confusion. We're all ignorant.
We're all in this confusion, confused state of mind, and we're all under the influence of this great power of avidya. And Avidya manifests in our heart is that we value something which is not valuable. And we don't value something which is valuable.
In fact, this is the definition which is given by Patañjali Muni in Yoga Sutra, the definition of Avidya. He says the definition of avidya ignorance is that something which is not valuable you value.
Something which is impermanent you think it's permanent. Something which is not really clean you think it's clean. Something which is not eternal you think it's eternal. This is the confusion. This is the avidyā.
This is the problem. This is the root cause of the problem. The root cause of the problem is the avidyā, which is the confusion about what we have to achieve in this world and what is ultimately useless.
And it is said in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from the very beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. It is said that the purpose of all the incarnations of the Lord is exactly this: to teach people. Ultimately, the Lord is Adi Guru.
This desire to teach others is very deeply rooted in the heart of the Lord. In fact it's the cause why he created this material world.
If he would only create a spiritual world, it would not be fun for him because there is nobody to teach there. Everyone is perfectly okay.
But the Lord has this nature He wants to teach, and we can very clearly see the same nature in our own heart, because we want to be little God.
So every one of us likes to teach somebody, and if there is nobody to teach, you know, we feel very bored.
You know, the husband is teaching his wife, and the wife is teaching her husband and they're very happily performing this pastime for many many years
and they both are trying to teach their children, but the children are teaching their parents in turn. So everyone is basically trying to do this one way or another.
And that's a very deeply rooted nature of a human being, which is coming ultimately from God. He is Adi Guru. This tendency to teach others and to give the example and to you know educate others is there.
He's the original educator. And because of this, he comes to this world. And his main cause of coming to this world is to teach what is real and what is unreal.
In the very beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the sages of Naimiṣāraṇya are asking Sūta Gosvāmī, please explain to us about different activities of the avatars of the Lord who are coming here constantly to this world, and they say, please explain to us their magnanimous activities.
They specifically say, udāra-karmāni. Please teach us how the Lord is magnanimous by coming to this world, how He is so audacious, generous by coming to this world.
And answering this question, Śrīla Sūta Gosvāmī gives a very important verse, the last verse of the third canto or of the third chapter of the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, where he said, where he basically explains the reason why the Lord comes to this world.
And He says: He comes to this world, bhāvayati. He comes to maintain this world by sattva. And how He does this by accepting different līlā-avatāras. Vataras.
And Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura and of course Prabhupāda explaining this verse, they say that the basic reason how the Lord maintains this world. Listen, it's a very important point. It's a little subtle.
The specific word of this verse about which I'm talking is that the Lord maintains this world, bhāvayati.
And, uh, the commentators say that He maintains this world by coming as līlā-avatāra and by giving special teachings to this world. The maintenance, sometimes we wonder how Lord Viṣṇu maintained the world.
We know how Lord Brahma creates this word. He creates this world by meditating on different Sanskrit syllables and alphabets and different words and so on and so forth.
It's explained in the third canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. It is explained how Lord Shiva destroys this world.
He destroys this world in a very artistic way by dancing. He plays his drum and he dances and everything is being destroyed. But how Lord Vishnu maintains this world?
The Lord Viṣṇu maintains this world by coming here as līlā-avatāras. And all the līlā-avatāras being the manifestation of sattva-guṇa give knowledge to dispel the original primordial Avidya ignorance of the living entities.
And uh basically the purpose of every avatar is to teach something.
But Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura commenting on this verse says that the um, uh, sādhāraṇa-hetava, the general purpose of all the avatāras is the same.
Externally, superficially, we may see that different avataras are coming to teach different things. Like Lord Ṛṣabhadeva, he is teaching proper yoga. Narada Muni, one avatar of the Lord is teaching bhakti.
And Kumāras, another avatar of the Lord, teach jñāna, and
Lord Varaha is coming here to teach how to perform sacrifice, and then Dattatreya Muni is coming here to teach Māyāvāda philosophy, and so many different avatars are coming and they're, you know, they're confusing people even more.
Because everyone is teaching different. You know, if you if you superficially again, look at this situation, you will see that they're coming. You know, it's one Lord.
First of all, He's coming in so many different shapes and forms. This in itself is very confusing. He's one.
Why does he have to come all the time in a new dress and a new appearance with a new, you know, and then every time he teaches something new. As if he doesn't know what to teach. As if he's confused himself.
So every time something different is happening, you know, he's coming, the Lord, he's coming in different ways, different shapes, teaching something different, and ultimately people look at this and say, you know, better we give up, it's anyway not possible to understand what it's all about.
And so many people are still remain completely confused about this. You know, when the scholars are trying to understand Hinduism, you know. They are totally confused.
They say, you know, it's just it's just a hochpoach of so many different things. You cannot make sense out of it.
But Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, explaining this verse from the First Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, where Sūta Gosvāmī is answering one of the basic questions of which the whole Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam appeared, he says there is only one general purpose of all avatāras. Sādhāraṇa hetu. Asadharana hetu. Oh I don't remember. Hetu or karana.
Sādhāraṇa, sorry, not asādhāraṇa, sādhāraṇa, sādhāraṇa means general. The common, the purpose which each and every avatāra is pursuing by coming, no matter what he teaches.
Again, superficially, suiting the different conditioning of living entities, the Lord may teach something which is particularly attractive for this class of the living entities. But his ultimate purpose is one.
Prema-prayojana. He says the ultimate purpose of every avatar is to teach love of God. No matter what he teaches, superficially, no matter what he does, his ultimate purpose, his common purpose of all the avataras,
It is to teach one simple point: love of God, premā. And that's an extremely important understanding which will help us to make sense out of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Even Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam can become very confusing. When the people don't know the purpose of the book, the general design of the book, you know,
by being engaged or immersed in different stories which are there in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, you may get confused in a way. But here it is very clearly explained at the end of this chapter
what is the real purpose of Lord Ṛṣabhadeva as well as of all the other avatāras. All the other avatāras come to teach, come to dispel, uh, to dispel ignorance,
but the ultimate teaching of everyone behind is to teach love of God. And if you want to understand their teachings, you have to keep this ultimate purpose in mind.
Like sometimes people criticize and even scholars criticize Śrīla Prabhupāda. When Prabhupāda comments Bhagavad-gītā, even sometimes to the devotees, it seems little how you say it, little um forced.
Like it is said in the Sanskrit verse very clearly, karma. And Prabhupada translates devotional service to the Lord. It is said, karma-yoga, you know, what does it have to do with devotional service?
You know why Prabhupada is doing this? Only because he knows the ultimate purpose of every verse of Kṛṣṇa.
And you can only understand the whole book as it is, as he very boldly says in the title of this book, if you know the ultimate purpose. If you don't know the ultimate purpose, you will be confused.
You will take one verse from Bhagavad-gītā, kula-dharma sanātanam, you know Arjuna says, you know, this is the eternal dharma of a living entity to be a grihasta. It's a very nice dharma.
Kula-dharma says it's there in Bhagavad-gītā, yes, kula-dharma sanātana. So you take this one line and you say, you know, this is the teachings of Bhagavad-gītā, to teach the eternal occupational activities of a human being.
Kula-dharma. So that's a very important point we have to understand. To understand the whole book, you have to understand the purpose behind the book.
To understand any particular teachings, you have to understand the purpose of these teachings. And here again, it is very clearly explained that
the ultimate teachings of Lord Ṛṣabhadeva, whatever he did. You know, he was performing very extreme things. We read in the previous verses how he was laying naked, how he was, you
know, take his stool and very nicely smear it all over his body.
Rejection of mystic powers for devotion
You know, it's a, it's a very amazing yoga performance which is not very common so and his stool was fragrant like roses. But he was doing it ultimately to teach that the purpose of all this is to achieve the love of God,
and it is very clearly shown here by Śukadeva Gosvāmī, because Śukadeva Gosvāmī says here that yādṛcchayā, without any endeavor of his side, all the mystic powers entered his body.
Yet yādṛcchayā means without any reason, without any special endeavor, without any special things, he didn't think about it. And, uh, all this mystic powers came to him.
He, he, you know, all of a sudden he realized that he can fly in outer space, that he can enter anyone's body, that he can see very far away. You know, so many people are so much after it.
And sometimes we as preachers, we also think, you0 know, it would be good to have some mystic powers to impress people. You know, it would be nice. It's it's a good preaching technique. Preaching approach, you know.
You look at the people and say something about their past. So many people, so many yogis are using these techniques. I was told that I don't know if it's true or not, but you
know, there was one sannyāsī of Śrīla Prabhupāda, disciple of Śrīla Prabhupāda, who was preaching here in Bengal. He was an American and he knew very well Bengali and he was preaching everywhere.
And finally he met one mystic yogi who could produce chocolate. He mastered this mystic science which was not described by Patañjali Muni, but he could produce a limited amounts of chocolate of different varieties.
And he had tremendous amount of followers, you know, because you know if you give chocolate to your followers you're destined to be uh you know to have many followers.
So, so he was very great in this, and this disciple of Śrīla Prabhupāda, he became extremely, extremely attracted to this particular, you know, mystic power.
He wanted by all means to teach this technique this trick with a very good purpose because he wanted to preach, because he he saw how effective it was, you know. It was a very effective kind of preaching.
So he was, he was chanting the bhajans to this yogi and trying to please him to get this mystic power in return; I think he was ultimately unsuccessful. The yogi didn't give him this power.
But the point is that, and, uh, and, uh, you know, uh all these things are useless and we have to be very clear about it. This is not the way to preach.
When Śrīla Prabhupāda was asked many times, please show us some miracle, Swāmījī. If you are great yogi, you should be able to show us some miracle. Prabhupada was very, you know, calm and peaceful.
Sometimes he would point it out to his disciples and he would say, you know, this is my miracle. Look, these American hippies, they they become Vaishnavas. This is the miracle. Look at them and that's indeed a miracle.
Once in Mumbai actually uh some businessmen asked him, uh, Swamiji, can you show us a miracle? And Prabhupada gave a very nice example. He said, I went to America with 40 rupees.
Now I have a few years later I have millions of dollars and so many people are working for me for free. This is my miracle. And all the all the businessmen were very impressed with indeed he has some mystic powers.
But anyway, but this is not the point. The point of this particular verse is that when all these mystic powers entered the body of Rishabadev, he was completely unhappy about this.
It is said here, Nambina uh Nabhinandanat, he didn't welcome them. He was not, Abhinandan means you're very, you know, you're very excited about something.
You know, if some mystic power comes to you, you will be for sure very excited.
You know, if all of a sudden, without any endeavor on your part, you will start seeing the future and the past and you know you you will be extremely excited. You will say great, yeah it works.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna. We didn't waste our time by chanting on these mantras. Finally it's coming. That's it. Hora-val, let me use it. But here it is said that he was he was not happy.
Nabhinandanat, he was not at all happy. He didn't experience, he didn't exercise this, as Prabhupada says, but he was not even happy about this.
Mystic powers as spiritual obstacles
He was completely, uh, you put it, neglectful. He was just even to the point that this is something really which is trying to distract me from this path.
The point here is that, and this is also what is explained by Lord Krishna himself in the Eleventh Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and in the Eleventh Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Lord Krishna is explaining to Uddhava all different kinds of mystic powers.
He explains to him, you know, eight great mystic powers.
Ashta-siddhis, which Prabhupada lists in the purport, he explains ten secondary mystic powers, twelve other mystic powers, and the mystic powers which come if you meditate on this and meditate on that and you meditate on the three gunas of the material nature, if you meditate on this particular tanmatra or that particular tanmatra, all the detailed description is there.
And after explaining all these mystic powers which are coming from the meditation ultimately on him, and he says, you know, if you meditate on me, you become unconquerable. You will achieve success in all your undertakings. Whatever you do, you will be successful.
And what ultimately he says: he says a very nice verse. Which is very important for us to understand. I don't remember the exact Sanskrit. The last line of this verse is Kalakhsapana. Antarayan forgot.
He says that all these mystic powers they all are impediments to achieve the real wealth. It says Yoga Utamam. There is a Yoga Utama, the real yoga,
and the real wealth which is love of God and all this mystic powers which are there they all Kalakshapana uh Hetavaha they all causes to waste your time. It's a very interesting and important point.
What will happen with you if you achieve some this mystic powers? Sometimes we wonder why Krishna doesn't give us mystic powers.
You know, because in some other uh spiritual traditions people become you know achieving very high degree of this mystic powers.
I recently read about one Russian Orthodox saint. He was a contemporary of ours. He recently passed away. He just. he knew future. He knew future perfectly well. He could see future. So what happened with him?
There was a constant queue of people in front of his door. And of course, he was preaching to them, he was giving them something good and whatever. But there was a constant, constant, non-stop queue of people.
People were just harassing him and ultimately this is exactly what Lord Krishna is explaining in the 11th canto of Bhagavatam of Shrimad Bhagavatam where he says that all this mystic power is kala ksapanahetavaha. They all ultimately uh force you to waste your time in a useless things.
And they ultimately distract you from the real purpose. And the real purpose is explained very beautifully here. The real purpose it is it is said very clearly said here that
he was experien experiencing Rishabhadev Parama Maha Ananda Anubhava Atmani within his heart within his consciousness, within his heart, he was experiencing such a high degree of bliss that
he couldn't help but crying and laughing and shivering and you know manifesting all these things because the bliss which was there in his heart was so much absorbing that all
these uh you know mystic powers became completely insignificant for him. And Prabhupada very clearly explains this. He explains this that everyone else except
For bhakti-yogi who has achieved bhakti by saying that that only bhakti is śānta, we mean somebody who has achieved a high degree of bhakti.
You know, because sometimes we hear this verse and we think, you know, I'm a bhakta, I'm also aśānta. I'm also restless. I want to get this degree and that degree and travel to America and preach in America.
Which is, you know, I'm I'm not going there for self-gratification, I'm going there to preach. But this is all again, uh the same kind of useless endeavors.
Like also here in Calcutta, um somebody told me that there was one in the early days, one Bengali youth, he joined the movement and he started serving. And you know, the devotee in charge here, Sanyasi, he asked him,
you know, what is the reason? Why did you join? Why do you want to be here in this temple? He was from some poor Bengali background. And he said, yeah, there are so many Americans here.
And I want to be with Americans because if I'll be with Americans, associate with Americans, then while dying I will meditate on American and next lifetime I will be born in America.
Anyway, people, they they, in the beginning stages of bhakti, they may be aśānta, but ultimately we have to be very clear about this point that the only way to achieve the complete shanti, the complete peacefulness inside is to achieve bhakti.
And only bhakti gives you this experience and Lord Rishabhadev is showing this by his example.
All these mystic powers came to him, he neglected all these mystic powers, and ultimately he just wanted to show what is the real value, what is the real wealth. And we have to be extremely clear about it.
You know, then we will not be distracted. On the initial stages of our practice, we may have so many different purposes. But ultimately, if we know that the real wealth, as Lord
Krishna Himself says in this verse of 11th Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that the real wealth is given by bhakti and this is bhakti itself.
And if you understand at least this, at least theoretically, that this is the wealth, this is the goal, that all other goals are insignificant, and there are so many examples of this in the history, then you will become peaceful.
Then you will become single-minded and you will only go for this goal without being distracted to other goals.
But if at least theoretically you think that this is good, bhakti is good, but there are so many good things in this world too. And I shouldn't miss other things. You know what will happen to me if I miss this?
I may regret when I'm old. You know what will happen to me? Then you will not be peaceful. So that's the main point and the main teaching of Lord Ṛṣabhadeva.
It is that Prabhupāda starts translation of this verse he says this is the example or the teaching of Lord Ṛṣabhadeva to all other yogis the goal of yoga practice is one to achieve love of God.
And if you achieve this, you achieve all mystic powers and you will become the great mystic and everyone else and everything else will become totally, completely insignificant for you.
Disappearance of Narottama dasa Thakura
And of course, today Kṛṣṇānanda Prabhu asked me to speak about Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura. Today is his appearance day, and I couldn't speak properly
because if you start speaking about Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, you probably would not speak about Ṛṣabhadeva and mystic powers. But just a little pastime at the end because my time has expired. I will tell.
You know how to illustrate the same point how devotees they ultimately achieve all the mystic powers, but they couldn't care less about them. You know, this is the glorious story of Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura's disappearance.
We know that Lord Caitanya Himself deposited prema love of God in the Padma river. While dancing once in Kaṇānāṭaśālā, Lord Caitanya started chanting, Narottama, Narottama, and He manifested the highest degree of ecstasy.
And His hair standing on end,
and He was you know jumping and He was you know saying Narottama Narottama Narottama so Lord Nityānanda asked Him who's this Narottama who is that Narottama and He said Narottama is coming Narottama is coming. One great devotee of mine is coming.
And I will deposit the greatest treasure which I have. The greatest treasure which is there in the whole three worlds. And this is my heritage for him. This is something which I will leave for him.
And he deposited this love of Godhead to Padma River
and Padma River herself asked, "How do I—you know, I—I—I understand that I am a, you know, I'm—I'm the uh keeper, your will keeper, uh that I will have to give this love of Godhead to Narottam, but how will I recognize Narottam?" And he said, "You know, when Narottam enters you, you will swell. You will absorb. Then you know it's Narottam."
Anyway, so at the end, we know Narottam Das Thakur left this world in a very amazing way. When all his associates left this world, Ramachandra Kaviraj, Srinivasacharya,
he started chanting bhajan which was filled with separation and love, and separation, and
he entered Ganga and he said to his associates, "Please massage my body." And all his associates, they started massaging his body by pouring water of Ganga into his body.
He was sitting in a shallow place near the bank of Ganga, sitting there. And all of a sudden they realized that his body was becoming milk. His body is dissolving in Ganga.
And they just saw that, you know, very quickly there was no, you know, divine frame of Narottam Das Thakur. Only some milk was flowing in the flow of Ganga.
And that's just one display of mystic power of Narottam Das Thakur. He also showed basically the same example. What is valuable in this world? There is only one thing which is valuable, that is bhakti.
Everything else doesn't have any value whatsoever. It's just waste of time. Temporary waste of time. And if you understand this, you will understand everything which you need to understand.
So much time we're wasting in this life. So much time we're wasting. Only because we don't understand what is the real value. And we are trying in the meantime to achieve something else.
But teachings of Lord Ṛṣabhadeva to all the yogis and every one of us is very clear. There is only one thing which is valuable, that is love of Godhead.
This is the experience, uh there is no other experience which is comparable to this and therefore it is said Parama Maha Ananda Nubhav. This is what he was experiencing Atmani within his heart. Okay, thank you very much.
Śrīla Prabhupāda ki Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam ki jaya! Sabhākī jaya! I guess.
Questions on practical devotional application
at least I know the way Krishna Maharaj Maharaj, thank you very well for us. I want to ask that uh even in our Krishna consciousness, we do endeavor to uh become more able than ourselves.
So to what degree how to measure whether it is going in this zone of useless angular or is it require some if we if our ultimate goal is bhakti then we can do so many other things, like we can maintain our body.
And because the body is a very valuable tool to obtain bhakti. And we can you know do some yoga asanas even. We may not achieve the perfection of yoga asana. But we may do it. If this is the real goal. If that's the point.
If there is only one goal and everything else is more or less serving this goal, then it's okay. But if we consider anything else as a separate uh goal, then uh it's uh it's a very dangerous thing.
So there is only one difference. If we consider something as separately valuable, valuable outside of bhakti, then we are in deep ignorance.
But if everything else we use to serve bhakti, then everything else becomes valuable. The value of the thing is only as much as it serves the ultimate value.
And it is becoming an impediment or destruction if it's considered by us as something which is separately valuable, that's that's the simple answer to this thing, you know.
We are followers of Rūpa Gosvāmī, and Rūpa Gosvāmī, we are basically following Agamas and Agamas means Tantras and Tantras mean tantra teach how to use everything in the service of the Lord. That's the teaching of Agama.
And therefore Rupa Gaswami explaining them in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu explaining this, you know, yukta-vairāgya. So that's so many things we can use and they can become valuable for us as an instrument to serve the Lord.
Thank you very much. My question is similar, but what are the things practically of Krishna And what are things that you have in valuable? Keeping the goal in mind.
For example, what is that we manage, used vehicles and vans for preaching? And Prabhupada also used airways.
But at the same time some boat or something or there Prabhupada discarded them. So how do we understand how what is valuable? Yeah, Prabhupada was there before the mobile era before the
you know, before the Satya-yuga of mobile phones. Yeah, I don't know what he would do if he would be here today. See, uh, uh, we can use everything, including mobile phones and internet.
But we can also we have to be very honest when we use it.
Whether it has become a distraction for me or not, whether I use it for purpose of bhakti or I use it for the sake of you know using the new gadget which is you know fashionable now.
We can use everything, but the mind is a very dangerous creature. And we're constantly in touch with this dangerous creature.
I would say that the only way to recognize what is valuable and what is not is to keep oneself constantly in touch with the transcendental sound in form of chanting and hearing. And if you are in this constant touch,
specifically if you're constantly hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, then all these distractions will not be able to affect you too much. But if you're not, if you're a little careless about it,
and if your mind is not protected by the transcendental sound vibration of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and the holy name, then very easily you will be distracted.
If you're regularly in touch with Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, said Nāṣṭa-prāyeṣv abhadrēṣu nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā, all this abhadra, almost all this abhadra will be purified from your heart.
Even if you do it just, you know, every day, nityaṁ bhāgavataṁ, at least once a day if you do it, uh, you know, the abhadras will be cleansed. The new desires will not be generated, you will be on track, so to speak.
But if you are a little careless, neglectful, and then you know watch out, you will not notice how all these things how you will use all these things you know for your own aggrandizement and sense gratification.
So that's it. Just constant hearing from the proper source. Then the viveka-śakti will be awakened and you will be able to recognize one from another.
Yes. Why, you know, that Lord is maintains through śikṣā by giving teachings to us. So but we also hear that as a Parma Lord enter sinj and maintain.
And those who are not devotees of Krishna, they don't take to shiksha of the Lord. So how do we understand that Lord maintains the world through shiksha?
Even if there is a small section of the people of this world who follow the real teachings of the world, the world will be maintained. If there is nobody there, then the world will be destroyed before time.
The destruction will be very speedy. But if there is at least a small section of people in the society who understand the teachings of the Lord and His different incarnations,
this small section of people will be able to maintain sanity in this world. And you know, we can see examples all around us. If there was no ISKCON, I think it would be very difficult to live.
But because there is at least some sanity, people first of all they know whom to approach when there's some difficulties. And the destructive tendencies are not so overwhelming.
You know, the devotees of the Lord who understand the real teachings, they are checking these tendencies and keeping them on a certain level. These tendencies will always be there.
And the destructive forces, especially during Kali Yuga, they will be very prevalent and prominent. But because there is somebody who understands this, the world is still there.
Like if devotees were not there, probably the global warming would be much more severe now and uh the the whole world would be confused and completely consumed by all this stuff.
But and that's why, you know, that's that's how the Lord maintains this.
Devotees because they are carriers of sattva within their hearts or shuddha sattva, they maintain certain level of sattva, otherwise, sattva would be long gone from this world.
They would not be sattva gone because the purpose of this life is to enjoy, right? And this is rajo-guna. And satto-guna is a great impediment for enjoyment.
So this is how the Lord, you know, somebody understands. Not everyone, but somebody understands that's enough okay thank you very much