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>From Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir!
Date: February 24, 2006
Verse: Srimad Bhagavatam 2.2.22
Speaker: HH Jayadvaita Swami
quote:yadi prayasyan nrpa paramesthyam
vaihayasanam uta yad viharam
astadhipatyam guna-sannivaye
sahaiva gacchen manasendriyais ca
TRANSLATION:
However, O King, if a yogi maintains a desire for improved material enjoyments, like transference to the topmost planet, Brahmaloka, or the achievement of the eightfold perfections, travel in outer space with the Vaihayasas, or a situation in one of the millions of planets, then he has to take away with him the materially molded mind and senses.
PURPORT:
In the upper status of the planetary systems there are facilities thousands and thousands of times greater for material enjoyments than in the lower planetary systems. The topmost planetary systems consist of planets like Brahmaloka and Dhruvaloka (the polestar), and all of them are situated beyond Maharloka. The inhabitants of those planets are empowered with eightfold achievements of mystic perfection. They do not have to learn and practice the mystic processes of yoga perfection and achieve the power of becoming small like a particle (anima-siddhi), or lighter than a soft feather (laghima-siddhi). They do not have to get anything and everything from anywhere and everywhere (prapti-siddhi), to become heavier than the heaviest (mahima-siddhi), to act freely even to create something wonderful or to annihilate anything at will (isitva-siddhi), to control all material elements (vasitva-siddhi), to possess such power as will never be frustrated in any desire (prakamya-siddhi), or to assume any shape or form one may even whimsically desire (kamavasayita-siddhi). All these expediencies are as common as natural gifts for the inhabitants of those higher planets. They do not require any mechanical help to travel in outer space, and they can move and travel at will from one planet to any other planet within no time. The inhabitants of the earth cannot move even to the nearest planet except by mechanical vehicles like spacecraft, but the highly talented inhabitants of such higher planets can do everything very easily.
(om ajnana, etc.)
No more photographs please. In the previous verses we were hearing from Romapada Maharaja, from Bhakti Charu Maharaja and others about the transcendentalists who attain liberation by going back home back to Godhead. Immediately they leave this material body and they go back to Godhead.
Now we're hearing about a different group, these are also transcendentalists, but they don't immediately relinquish their connection with this material world. Rather they gradually attain liberation. First they spend some extra time in the higher regions of the material world as cosmo tourists. They want to see something, they've heard about these higher planets and they want to see:
quote:[continues purport] "Since a materialist is generally inquisitive to experience what is actually in such planetary systems, he wants to see everything personally. As inquisitive persons tour all over the world to gain direct local experience, the less intelligent transcendentalist similarly desires to have some experience of those planets about which he has heard so many wonderful things. The yogi can, however, easily fulfill his desire by going there with the present materialistic mind and senses. The prime inclination of the materialistic mind is to lord it over the material world, and all the siddhis mentioned above are features of domination over the world. The devotees of the Lord are not ambitious to dominate a false and temporary phenomenon. On the contrary, a devotee wants to be dominated by the supreme predominator, the Lord. A desire to serve the Lord, the supreme predominator, is spiritual or transcendental, and one has to attain this purification of the mind and the senses to get admission into the spiritual kingdom. With the materialistic mind one can reach the best planet in the universe, but no one can enter into the kingdom of God. Senses are called spiritually purified when they are not involved in sense gratification. Senses require engagements, and when the senses are engaged totally in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, they have no chance to become contaminated by material infections." [end of purport]
Note that the desires here are very subtle. We're not talking here about Indraloka, dallying with the Apsaras and enjoying the Nandana-kanana gardens. We're talking about Mahar-loka and the planets above that. The engagements there are sacrifice, meditation, samadhi. The inhabitants of those very high planets are not interested even in heavenly the sense gratification of Indraloka, what to speak planets like this one, which are slums.
They have very refined consciousness, they're engaged in serving the Lord. You don't get to the higher planets without service, especially these most elevated planets. One has to be engaged in service to go there. To attain the post of Brahma one has to live one hundred lifetimes free from all sins and perfectly executing the duties of varnasrama. So what kind of elevated situation are we talking about, very exalted. But still this is the material world, abrahma bhuvanal loka punar avartinah, still the world of birth and death.
And the great sages and saintly persons who are going to these planets are going there because they still have some material attachments. Srila Prabhupada pinpoints that material attachment as being the spirit of wanting to control, to dominate, to master. Paramesthyam, means the abode of. . . asta-adhipatyam means lording it over. Adhipatya means control, na ca suranam cadhipatyam Bhagavad-gita: "I wouldn't be happy even if I got an unrivalled kingdom and control over everything."
So we're talking about control, asta-adhipatyam, eight kinds of mystic powers. "I can do this, I can do that. I have this kind of control, I have that kind of control." The whole theme is my power, my power to do this or my power to do that. And of course the great sages are not simply focused on these things, they, as we have ordinary facilities that we enjoy, they automatically enjoy these eight-fold mystic powers. They're just part of every day life up there. It's part of every day life. But this attachment is there, "Let me control my mind, let me control my senses, let me control the powers of material nature." The issue is still control. Up to the point of Brahma, "Let me be in control of the universe."
Because these material desires are there these great sages are still residents of the material world. Anyabhilasita sunyam, they're not perfectly pure devotees. Pure devotional service is defined by Srila Rupa Goswami as "anyabhilasita sunyam." Anya, everything else, other than what? Other than being predominated by Krsna. The whole mood is "I surrender, you do whatever you want with me." Not even "Here's what I want to do and I'd to do it for you." It's not dovetailing our material propensities or material desires, it's completely "Whatever you want. You are in charge, I'm your servant, you do with me as you like. I'm constitutionally not a predominator:
purusah prakrti-stho hi bhunkte prakrti-jan gunan
karanam guna-sango 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu
Bhagavad-gita. Why are we in this material world? Because we are purusus, or rather we imagine ourselves to be purusas, enjoyers. And because we are purusa, what is the business of purusa, to enjoy prarktri. What is prakrti, the product of maya, the illusory energy. So now I can be the purusa, the enjoyer, I can manipulate the prakrti and enjoy it in different ways. Isvaro 'ham aham bhogi siddho ham, I have these achievements, these perfections, I can control, I can enjoy. Karanam guna-sango 'sya. . . By connection with material nature, because I'm trying to enjoy the material nature or control the material nature, I'm now connected with the material nature and sad asad yoni janmasu, therefore I have to take birth in different bodies according to the modes I acquire.
So pure devotional service means sunya, no other business but anukulyena krsnanusilanam, to do whatever will be favourable for the satisfaction of Krsna. It may or may not be pleasing to me, it may or may not be satisfying to me, it may be or may not be in accord with what I think I ought to have or ought to get or ought to deserve, but it's in accordance with what will please Krsna, that's all. And everything else, sunya zero.
Sarvopadhi vinirmuktam, to give up all false designations "I am this, I am this, I am this, I am this." Savopadhi vinirmuktam tat paratvena nirmalam, to be situated in pure consciousness, "I am purusa. I am also prarkrti. I am the energy provided for the enjoyment of Krsna. My business is to act in that constitutional position - jivera svarupa haya krsnera nitya dasa. I am Krsna's servant, I have to try to serve Krsna and not try to get anything for my own enjoyment, whether it's here or up there or anywhere. My whole business is Krsna service, hrsikesa hrsikena sevanam, I just have to use my senses to please the senses of Krsna. It's a very exalted position. It's not such a cheap thing. The spontaneous activities of devotional service that we find in Vrindavan are going on on that platform. They're not being performed by exalted materialists who want to please Krsna and still retain some desire to enjoy sense gratification. The Vrindavan activities are performed by pure devotees who are on that platform, anybhilasita sunyam, no material desires, no separate interest, nothing but pleasing Krsna. That is Vrindavan, that is Vrindavan. Therefore Narottam Das Thakur says:
visaya chadiya kabe suddha habe mana
When will I give up all material desires for sense enjoyment so my mind will actually become pure. Pure means no other interest than Krsna. Then I'll be able to appreciate Vrindavan, then I'll be able to relish what is Krsna consciousness, what is praharsayisyami sanatha-jivitam, then I'll have the real happiness, not of anything else but of being completely dedicated to the service of the Lord.
All right, Hare Krsna. Are there some questions or comments. Hari Vilasa Prabhu?
Hari Vilasa Das: When such a yogi takes with him - that's what I understand - takes with him the materially moulded mind and senses, is there any hope for them to become purified in the higher planets?
Maharaja: Yes, that we're going to read in the coming verses, that he has the opportunity to associate with such great devotees as Lord Brahma, and the path is there. He's actually destined for liberation, he's destined for going back to Godhead, but he's taking his time about it. He's taking his time about it, he's still loitering in this material world with some idea that there's something worth sticking around for. Otherwise he could be like the devotees mentioned in the previous verses who just go. But they have some idea that something is still here so they're loitering. But we'll find in coming verses that they'll go because they're engaged in devotional service so gradually gradually they'll attain perfection, aneka janma-samsiddhim, after so many births they'll finally attain perfection and they'll also leave. Is that all right? Yes?
Question: If everyone in those planets has the eight-fold mystic powers, then how are you special? Like everyone here can walk and talk so we don't think it special, but if someone could fly. . . without a jet then. . . ?
Maharaja: If everyone has the eight mystic powers there, then what's so special? It's not a big deal. This is just common. Just like in America everyone has a car. So it's not such a great thing, but you have to have a car, of course. So the upper planers are like that, everybody has the eight mystic perfections, it doesn't make you a hot shot. It's just like living in a high class neighbourhood. You may not be living in a greater standard of living than everybody else there, but nobody else lives in that neighbourhood except us.
Badrinarayana Das: We see these yogis, they have some tinge of desire, they wanted to see this or that, still they were guaranteed, as you say, ultimately they will be successful and liberated. And yet we always have this add-on, we're being admonished, not a pinch of material desire. Why can't we follow these guy's course: "I'm engaged in devotional service, but I've got some desires along the way; it's all going to work out, it worked out for them, why not for me?
Maharaja: Why can't we follow their course? We can also. . . .
Badrinarayana: Sounds good, sign me up!
Maharaja: That's the problem! [laughter] Hey, if I can live in the first-class prison cell, the one with the gold shackles, you know, sign me up for a couple of hundred years. They're still thinking it's not so bad, there's something to enjoy here. We can also do that, we can kick around, assuming that we're so fortunate that we might actually make it to these higher planets, which is no mean assumption, but if we were to achieve that, we can also take that path.
One thing is that these higher planets are achieved by tapasya, tapasya, and more tapasya. These planets are not achieved cheaply. Even to get there with the idea of staying around and then attaining liberation is not such a cheap thing. The only opportunity that I see for us, is we that we have to just surrender at the lotus feet of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and say, "I'm a mess, do something." Patita-pavana hetu tava avatara, we were hearing the other day, "You're the uplifter of the most fallen, do something. I'm just at your mercy. Because by my own powers. . . . "
These sages from previous days, what capability they had that just actually by their high exalted powers or capabilities or consciousness they were able to elevate themselves step by step by step by step. We were reading even those who attain liberation, who go directly, how do they do it? They block all the evacuation hole and they block all the possible exit doors in the higher part of the body and they direct the prana and push it out-capable people. What are we going to do?
So we are hopeless of achieving anything by our own capability, especially anything like this. We're not going to go to upar upar planets, higher higher planets. Who are we kidding? Yes, such little qualifications even to be in this movement, what to speak of Mahar-loka, Jana-loka, Tapo-loka, so our only hope is to present ourselves as mercy cases before Caitanya Mahaprabhu, chant Hare Krsna, depend on his mercy and the mercy of Srila Prabhupada and the acaryas and beg to be engaged in devotional service. Otherwise presenting yourself before Caitanya Mahaprabhu and begging, "Please, please, please get me to Mahar-loka [laughter] so I can make further advancement. He's not interested, he didn't come for that purpose.
Bhakti Charu Swami: Jayadvaita Maharaja, I have a question. Brhad Bhagavatamrta, second part, which you know very well because you edited it, actually describes that Gopakumar goes all the way to Brahmaloka, even becomes Brahma, but then comes back to Vrindavan to get out of the material nature. So does that imply that to get out of the material universe we have to come back to the earth planet and then go out of this?
Maharaja: Well, the way it's described here in Bhagavatam one can go directly from the higher planets to the spiritual world. It's described that Lord Brahma, at the time of annihilation he goes along with the sages. So it may not be that everyone has to follow the same path that Gopakumara did, but Sanatana Goswami is pointing out to us the glories of Vrindavan. That after going all the way to Brahmaloka, Gopakumara goes to a still higher place, Vrindavan on earth, because that Vrindavan and the Vrindavan in the spiritual world are only superficially different, but factually identical. And by the mercy of the Goswamis and the mercy of Srila Prabhupada, we are brought to Vrindavan, we are brought to Mayapur, we are given the opportunity to perform devotional service.
Even what to speak of Vrindavan, it's mentioned in Bhagavatam that just the earth itself is so glorious that the inhabitants of Svarga-loka are praying that, "At the end of our privileged time here, if we have any fragment of pious activities left, please let us take birth on the earth planet where there's the opportunity for making progress in devotional service.
Of course Bhaktivinoda Thakur goes through that analysis that among the different planets, the earth is glorious; among the places on earth, India is glorious; then Navadvipa is glorious; finally Mayapur is glorious. So such good fortune is being offered to us, but as Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu said the other day, durdaivam idrsam ihajani nanuragah, we are low on appreciation. So that appreciation we have to cultivate in the association of devotees that how fortunate, .what good fortune is being offered to us. Yes? Whoever, just make a decision. But slow.
Visuddha Sattva Das: Hare Krsna, you quoted the famous verse of Rupa Goswami:
anyabhilasita-sunyam jnana-karmady-anavrtam
anukulyena krsnanu-silanam bhaktir uttama
So this bhakti uttama is supposed to be uttama-adhikari platform. So any recommendation how to achieve this pure uttama-bhakti?
Maharaja: Is there any clue how to achieve this uttama-adhikari platform?
Sure. Chant Hare Krsna:
hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare
hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare
And avoid ten offences.
Question: You were speaking about the elevated situation of these great yogis in the upper planetary system, so if a person is on the earth planet and he is a pure devotee of the Lord, is he more elevated than the persons. . .
Maharaja: Oh yes, a person anywhere in the universe who is a pure devotee of the Lord is more elevated, is more rare than any of the sages and great yogis in the higher planetary systems. He is described as, what is that, karmana manasa gira nikhilasyapyavasthasu, jivan-mukta sa ucyate, those sages are still among the conditioned souls, but iha yasya harer dasye, anyone even here on earth who is engaged in the service of the Lord, karmana manasa gira, with his body, mind and words, nikhilasyapyavasthasu, a person who's completely engaged in that way, jivan-mukta, he's a liberated soul even in this body. And there's a quote (I don't remember) that it's more rare to find such a pure devotee than to find such persons as Brahma. Yes?
Questioner: Maharaja, it is said that one has to achieve the stage of sarvopadhi vinirmuktam, tat paratvena nirmalam in order to get out of this material world. You mentioned like the residents of Vrindavan but it appears to be impossible, because even in Srimad-Bhagavatam there is the verse that by rendering service to the pure devotee, hearing Srimad-Bhagavatam every day, all the troubles in the heart are almost destroyed. It doesn't matter how much you get purified, there's always some sarvopadhi, some anartha there.. . .
Maharaja: No, it's not that no matter how much devotional service you do, how much you're engaged, there's always some anartha. By sitting in Bhagavatam class simply hearing, chanting, practically most of the garbage is thrown out. Just a little more work you have to do by engaging in devotional service and you can throw out the rest also. It's not that you keep maybe two percent, three percent anarthas. No, there's actually a stage, unknown to us, of pure consciousness in which none of it is left. That's the Vrindavan stage, that's what's going on in Goloka Vrindavan. It's not that it's populated with pure devotees who are 97, 98 or 99.5 purified. They are 100 percent purified. How does one achieve such a situation? Step by step. You can't fake it, you can't jump, you can't do a somersault and wind up in Goloka Vrindavan, you have to follow the process, step by step by patient step, and expect the Lord's mercy. If we try to jump to a higher position than we're entitled to by our purity of heart, we'll crash.
Questioner: What I was told is that little bit of upadhi remaining in the heart is actually the independence, I don't know. . . .
Maharaja: That little bit of upadhi in the heart is actually your independence. I don't know, I've never heard that.
Questioner: I heard from Bhakti Caru Swami
Maharaja: Well, what can I say? [laughter] And he just walked out so I can't ask him what he meant! [more laughter] Well,I'm sure Maharaja knows what he's talking about, and probably from his perspective it must be completely true, but our little independence consists of not what we're holding back, but what we're dedicating. Just like the mother loves the child, she's dedicating herself, so she has independence, she can toss the child, she can ignore the child, forget the child, but she doesn't do that. She willingly dedicates herself, very spontaneously dedicates herself to the child, although she has the independence not to.
Or Prabhupada gave the example, brahmacari, a brahmacari has the capability for having sex, but he chooses not to use it. So every living entity, every jiva, has a falldown potency. He has the capability of falling down, but he doesn't use it. Instead of exercising the capability to pursue his own interests, he chooses instead of dedicating his full energy to Krsna's interest, and therefore, he never falls down. So he has identity, he has individuality, but it's not this false identity, this false individuality. He doesn't hold back. He just dedicates everything for the service of Krsna and that's as much as I've understood, I'm sure there's much. . . or as much as I've heard. I'm sure there is another angle. The acaryas sometimes explain from different points of view. but when we find Bhakti Caru Maharaja we can ask him what he had in mind there.
Thank you all very much. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Srila Prabhupada ki jai! Samaveta bhakta vrnda ki jai.
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