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| | Enviado Viernes, 10 de Marzo de 2006 - 11:15 am: |  |
Live from Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir!
Date: March 8, 2006
Verse: Srimad Bhagavatam 2.2.34
Speaker: HH Prahladananda Swami
quote:bhagavan brahma kartsnyena
trir anviksya manisaya
tad adhyavasyat kuta-stho
ratir atman yato bhavet
TRANSLATION:
The great personality Brahma, with great attention and concentration of the mind, studied the Vedas three times, and after scrutinizingly examining them, he ascertained that attraction for the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna is the highest perfection of religion.
PURPORT:
Sri Sukadeva Gosvami is referring to the highest Vedic authority, Lord Brahma, who is the qualitative incarnation of Godhead. The Vedas were taught to Brahmaji in the beginning of the material creation. Although Brahmaji was to hear Vedic instructions directly from the Personality of Godhead, in order to satisfy the inquisitiveness of all prospective students of the Vedas, Brahmaji, just like a scholar, studied the Vedas three times, as generally done by all scholars. He studied with great attention, concentrating on the purpose of the Vedas, and after scrutinizingly examining the whole process, he ascertained that becoming a pure, unalloyed devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna is the topmost perfection of all religious principles. And this is the last instruction of the Bhagavad-gita directly presented by the Personality of Godhead. The Vedic conclusion is thus accepted by all acaryas, and those who are against this conclusion are only veda-vada-ratas, as explained in the Bhagavad-gita (2.42).
At the end of the purport, it mentions about veda-vata-ratas:
yam imam puspitam vacam pravadanty avipascitah
veda-vada-ratah partha nanyad astiti vadinah
kamatmanah svarga-para janma-karma-phala-pradam
kriya-visesa-bahulam bhogaisvarya-gatim prati
That those who are superficially studying the Vedas, they conclude that the purpose of the Vedas is to attain svarga, the heavenly planets, resulting in good birth, power, and so forth. They desire sense gratification and opulent life. They say there is nothing more than this.
Lord Brahma was not a superficial student of the Vedas. He concluded that the purpose of the Vedas was to focus one's attention and to give one's love to Krsna. That is the purpose of the Krsna consciousness movement.
athapi te deva padambuja-dvaya
prasada-lesanugrhata eva hi
janati tattvam bhagavan-mahimno
na canya eko 'pi ciram vicinvan
That one gets a little speck, trace of mercy of Krsna, then he can understand that Krsna consciousness is the purpose of our existence. It is not that the Hare Krsna movement is some little sect of devotees that's struggling to survive in the cruel Kali-yuga, trying to become one of the established religions. Krsna consciousness is not a dharma in the sense of the established religions. It is the Absolute Truth for all time because no matter whether there is a Hare Krsna movement and Hare Krsna devotees, Krsna consciousness is always the Absolute Truth.
One time, as I have mentioned before, Srila Prabhupada was speaking in Durban at a conference and he mentioned that reincarnation, or transmigration of the self, is a scientific principle. I don't think if you go to MIT and you try to get a doctorate in transmigration of the soul that you'll be accepted as a bona fide Ph.D candidate studying the soul transmigrating from one body to another. It is not generally accepted as science, but Srila Prabhupada said this is a science.
One Indian gentleman immediately objected: "Swamiji, how can you say transmigration of the soul is a science? It is a Hindu dogma."
Srila Prabhupada said, "No it is not a Hindu dogma, it is a science."
When Krsna five thousand years ago spoke the Bhagavad-gita, he did not begin Bhagavad-gita by telling Arjuna, "My dear Arjuna, now I will speak to you Bhagavad-gita because I am a Hindu god. Now I will speak to you Hindu philosophy because you are a genuine Hindu. So as all Hindus know:
dehino 'smin yatha dehe kaumaram yauvanam jara
tatha dehantara-praptir dhiras tatra na muhyati
All Hindus know that they'll have to transmigrate from one body to another. All Hindus have to become little boys or little girls, then they have to become youths, then they have to become old, and then, because they are Hindus, they are going to have to leave their bodies. But don't lament Arjuna, because luckily, because you're Hindu and all Hindus get another body at the time of leaving this one. Self-realized Hindus are not bewildered by these changes. [laughter]
This was not what Krsna was telling Arjuna. Five thousand years ago there was no such thing as Hinduism. Krsna was not a Hindu, nor was Arjuna a Hindu nor was Krsna speaking Hindu scripture. The fact is, everyone, whether they be man or woman, Indian or Russian, animal or plant, everybody is changing from boyhood to youth to old age. And then at the time of death, the soul leaves the body and gets another body. So this is true for all time for all people for all places. Therefore, it is a science.
Similarly in the Bhagavad-gita, when the Krsna declares:
aham sarvasya prabhavo mattah sarvah pravartate
iti matva bhajante mam budha bhava-samanvitah
That I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. From me the entire creation flows. The wise who perfectly know this engage in my devotional service and worship me with all their heart. It is not a whim on Lord Krsna's part that he is declaring that he is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Bhagavan; that he is:
aisvaryasya samagrasya viryasya yasasah sriyah
jnana-vairagyayas caiva sannam bhaga itingana
That whatever beautiful things we see here in the material world, men are attracted to women, generally, and women are attracted to men, generally,. Kali-yuga, there are no absolute statements [laughter], but why? Because there are some qualities: beauty or wealth or strength or knowledge or fame or renunciation, some quality makes one attractive. But how we can conceive that there's a person who has all the wealth, all the beauty, all the knowledge, all the strength, all the renunciation, all the fame?
We can understand that someone here in the audience is the wealthiest, they have the most rupees, but surely someone in Bengal is wealthier than they are and surely someone in India is wealthier than the wealthiest person in Bengal. And we go on and on and we must admit, we must accept that finally we'll find the person who is the wealthiest.
In Bhagavad-gita Krsna declares that that is he. That he is the most beautiful, the most strong, the most wealthy. And of course, the commentators, they declare that Krsna, just like the rest of us, is a little proud. Krsna has a big false ego like the rest of us. In Bhagavad-gita, in many places Krsna declares that he is God:
mattah paratarah nanyat kincid asti dhananjaya
mayi sarvam idam protam sutre mani-gana iva
O conqueror of wealth, Arjuna, all things rest on me just like pearls are strung on a thread. There is not truth superior to me, Krsna declares, but the commentators declare that Krsna is wrong, " He wrote a good book or he spoke a good book, he just had a few mistakes," like the basic principle is wrong. And there were seven hundred commentators at the time Srila Prabhupada made his commentation, and most of them, if not all of them declared that "Krsna is a very nice person, he spoke a very nice book but he just happens to be in illusion like the rest of us. He is also declaring himself to be God."
Of course, if Krsna is wrong, then his book is useless. And if Krsna's book is useless, then writing seven hundred commentaries on a useless book is also useless. And anyone who reads a useless commentary on a useless book, they are also useless.
Therefore, at the very beginning, one has to at least theoretically accept that Krsna may be the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And if he is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and we are spiritual beings and because we are going to live forever, we must have an eternal relationship with Krsna. It is not that that relationship is ever stopped. It is eternal. Unfortunately, right now it is a perverted relationship.
bhayam dvitiyabhinivesatah syad
isad apetasya viparyayo 'smrtih
tan-mayayato budha abhajet tam
bhaktyaikayesam guru-devatatma
That as soon as we want to compete against Krsna, we have a very hard time. We may be very sincere, we may try very hard, we may have gotten teachers to instruct us how to become intelligent, wealthy, strong, whatever, we may be trying since time immemorial to become almost as good as Krsna, but we haven't made any progress. We've never changed from our identity as being one-ten thousandth the size of the tip of a hair in size. In other words, no matter how much our false ego has grown, since time immemorial we ourselves as spiritual souls have remained exactly the same size.
Not only will we remain exactly the same size, but in the meantime, Krsna has become more strong, more beautiful, more wealthy. In other words, this competition against Krsna is just a waste of time. Sorry to disappoint everyone here. [laughter] We don't meant to depress anyone.
Krsna is our good friend. He is trying to wake us up: "Jiva jago, jiva jago, gauracandra bole, wake up sleeping soul," that we are simply living in a dream, a nightmare, where we are ourselves making some progress. What is that progress? It is simply focusing our attention and giving our love to so many material concepts of life.
As I mentioned in my last class, we focus our attention on this body and the subtle mind and our conception of life and imagining it to be ourselves and imagining that as this body makes progress in this so-called dreamland that we are making progress.
It is just like watching a movie and identifying with your favorite hero or heroine and believing as the hero becomes famous or wealthy or gets his girl then we've actually become James Bond or Tarzan or Bugs Bunny or Captain Kangaroo [laughter], something like that. In a dream, imagining these things. Then if someone comes to wake us up, we say, "Wait a second, wake me up when there's a bad dream. Right now I'm having a good time. Don't spoil the fun." So Krsna consciousness is meant to wake us up to the fact that this material world is a place of suffering.
a-brahma-bhuvanal lokah punar avartino 'rjuna
mam upetya tu kaunteya punar janma na vidyate
>From the highest planet down to the lowest all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place, but one who attains my abode, O son of Kunti, never takes birth again. In other words, so much advertisement in modern society that we can enjoy in this material world, we can create perfect illusion, we, by our effort, we can create a Vaikuntha planet. We can have so many children as our expansions. We can have so much fame and popularity, so much happiness in this material world. Simply you have to work like a dog and then you'll be able to sleep like a bear. You will be able to have sex like a pigeon. And you'll be able to defend yourself like a tiger.
People believe that this is actually progress because in modern society, people are like hogs.
sva-vid-varahostra-kharaih samstutah purusah pasuh
Modern society has put so many hog-like people,
sva-vid-varahostra-kharaih samstutah purusah pasuh
na yat-karna-pathopeto jatu nama gadagrajah
Those who are like hogs and dogs, camels and asses, they are worshiping the bigger hogs, camels, dogs and asses. In other words, instead of following the Vedic acaryas for bringing us back to Krsna, people are following the hog acaryas who teach us how to become just like a hog.
If you go to Vrindavan - I guess many devotees will go to Vrindavan - you will find the hog, he is the acarya in eating. He lies down in a sewer of Vrindavan, they are the sanitation department of Vrindavan, the hogs. Their only payment is unlimited stool. So they lie down in the sewers of Vrindavan, they open their mouths and everything flows in and they have a very big simile on their face. They are actually enjoying. [laughter]
We've never found a hog being embarrassed of his weight. There is no history of any hog going on a diet. And no matter how fat the she-hog is, the male hog is always in love with her. The hog can sleep anywhere. The hog does not need an alarm clock. And the hog can have sex with anyone and anything, male, female, even if you are walking by, if the hog winks at you, you better be careful.
So the hog is the acarya, unlimited eating, unlimited sleeping, unlimited sex life. There is no embarrassment for the hog. There is no education for the hog. It becomes on the platform of raganuga kama, spontaneous sense gratification practically from his birth.
So this is more or less the purpose of modern education. People going to college, university, getting their MD, getting their MA, getting their Ph.D. Why? To become a spontaneous sense gratifier like a hog and they're proud of it.
But the actual acaryas, they begin by teaching us we are not the material body. It is not a sentiment. It is not an election: "Today I think I'll be body, and when the body is not so nice, I think I'll become a soul." There is no choice. We are eternally souls. We can eternally suffer in the material existence, suffer in the illusion that we are becoming God.
"So much is mine today and in the future I'll gain more. He is my enemy and I've killed him! And my other enemies, they will also be killed! I am the Lord of everything! I am perfect! I am powerful! And I am happy. I am surrounded by rich and aristocratic relatives. I will perform some sacrifice. I will do some charity. I will go to the heavenly planets and kiss the apsaras. In this way I will rejoice."
So everyone in the material world is basically in this dream. Krsna consciousness, the acaryas, they are meant to wake us up. We are spiritual beings eternally. We can enjoy spiritually with Krsna through the process of devotional service, through the process of focusing our attention and giving our love to Krsna.
Why is it during kirtan, during japa our minds are wandering? Because we have hope that somehow or other we can make an arrangement in the material world by which we can become happy. Or we have to avoid some situation by which we'll become unhappy. In the meantime, instead of focusing our attention and giving our love to Krsna, we are in the past, we are in the future, we are in so many different places.
But the acaryas teach us, if we simply give up this aspiration for making progress in the material world, simply give up the lamentation over our inability to become something we can never become, and simply admit our actual eternal position and try to love Krsna. . . loving Krsna means whatever energy we presently have, whether we're very big or very small, we simply dedicate that in Krsna's service for Krsna's pleasure.
Not that, "Yes, Krsna is God, I have to admit. Now let me dedicate my energy in his service. Now I have only have this much and when I dedicate my energies to Krsna he'll give me that much in return. It's a good deal. Let me put a dollar or a quarter in the bucket and soon it will grow to a million for me."
No, let me do it, whatever I'm doing, to make Krsna happy. And if I try to love Krsna, then the result is if Krsna is pleased by attempt to love him, to serve him, then he will reveal his love that he has for us and then we will actually become happy.
Therefore Caitanya Mahaprabhu has given us a great opportunity by the chanting of
Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
It's a great opportunity to focus the attention and give our love to Krsna, but first of all we have to chant Hare Krsna as clearly as possible. As I mentioned before, our tendency is that we like to get our rounds done as quickly as possible. Because the mind is wandering here and there, it is going everywhere, and we are going everywhere with the mind, and therefore, it is not very enjoyable sometimes chanting Hare Krsna.
Therefore we sometimes we chant that famous sound vibration, that famous mantra:
shnik shnik ram ram de de de de
hey kitty kitty he kitty kitty
or
hare krsna hare krsna rama rama rama rama de de de
hare rama hare rama de de de hare rama hare rama de de de
rama rama rama de de de
shnik shnik rama rama de de de
Indeed, our rounds go very quickly that way. And indeed our digestive power increases. Therefore, our absorption of prasadam increases. But first we have to chant clearly the Hare Krsna mantra:
Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
Then that is not the end of the process. The next process is we have to chant to Krsna and to Srimati Radharani asking them to engage us in their service. It is a prayer directly to them. If we believe that they actually exist, that they actually hear what we are saying, not that we are chanting: Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Ha. . . re. . . Ha . . . and we're bored listening to it. Krsna will be bored also. We have to actually chant to them, asking them to engage us in their service.
Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
Then it becomes interesting because the result of chanting to Krsna, to Srimati Radharani is that we will actually remember them. We will remember the deity form, we will remember some description in Srila Prabhupada's books, something about Krsna we will remember. Then if we do it enthusiastically the chanting, lovingly, then the result is we will actually be engaged in devotional service.
bhaktya mam abhijanati yavan yas casmi tattvatah
tato mam tattvato jnatva visate tad-anantaram
Devotional service means with love. It is not that in the beginning there is no love. In the beginning there is sraddha, a little bit of love. That is, as much as we are focusing our attention and trying to do our service with care and attention, trying to do it lovingly and enthusiastically.
Then the result is dadami buddhi yogam tam, Krsna gives us the intelligence how to do it more lovingly, how to do is more consistently. Then tesam evanukampartham, that Krsna actually within our heart, he takes away all our misconceptions that I am this body, everyone else is their body. I have something other to achieve in this world other than love to Krsna, other than service to Krsna.
All of our misconceptions are taken away and then we will realize, no matter what happens in this world, we may have good karma, we may have bad karma, we may have no karma, no matter what happens, I am always Krsna's servant. And as long as I am Krsna's loving servant, then my life becomes successful. Without that, no matter what I accomplish in this world, no matter what I think I've accomplished, whatever I think I haven't accomplished, whatever problems I may have, whatever glories I think I may have, these things are simply srama eva hi kevalam, without. . . my pride is simply to please Krsna.
Srila Prabhupada when he was installing the deities of Rukmini-Dvarkadisa, actually it is Rukmini-Dvarkanatha, in New Dvaraka, California. He was telling one story. First he started out telling about one great devotee named Vamsi Maharaja, Vamsidasa Maharaja. Then he started telling about Sanatana Goswami. He said Sanatana Goswami, he was hanging his deity in a tree.
There is a story how Sanatana Goswami, he was visiting one brahmana's house. While he was at the brahmana's house, that brahmana had a dream the night before that his deity, Madanmohan, should be given to this mendicant, Sanatana Goswami. And Sanatana Goswami also had the same dream. Therefore, while visiting his house, this particular brahmana offered his deity to Sanatana Goswami.
But Sanatana Goswami said, "My dear brahmana, I am very poor, I have no place to put the deity, what can I do? All right, I'll take the deity anyhow."
So he took Madanmohan. And Sanatana Goswami at that time, living in Vrindavan, he had no house, no place to live. He was living underneath a tree, therefore, he put the deity on the branch of a tree. Every day he would offer Madanmohan some rotis. Rotis are not like we have here in Mayapur. They were simply lumps of dough thrown into a fire - not very delicious. Sanatana Goswami was doing madhukari. He would go house to house and he would beg some of these rotis. And he would offer his roti to Madanmohan.
Madanmohan, after some time, became very disturbed. He said, "Sanatana Goswami, everyday you simply offering me this dry roti." He said, "Please, can you at least give me some salt?"
Sanatana Goswami said, "Salt? Today you ask for salt, tomorrow for sweet. I'm an old man, I can hardly move. Whatever I get, I am offering to you, kindly accept it."
Prabhupada said, "Madanmohan, he had to accept it because Sanantana Goswami was such a loving devotee." But then Srila Prabhupada said, "But what is your qualification? What is the qualification of the things that you have? It is nothing. The real thing is bhakti, that, Krsna, kindly take. I'm rotten and I'm fallen, but I've brought these things for you. Please accept." Then Srila Prabhupada began to cry. Then he said, "That will do, don't be puffed up. Always remember that you're dealing with Krsna."
That is my advice to you. Thank you. Srila Prabhupada ki jai!
Any questions? Yes.
Question: How I increase my determination to chant attentively?
visaya vinivartante niraharasya dehinah
rasa-varjam raso 'py asya param drstva nivartate
The embodied soul may be restricted from sense enjoyment, though the taste for sense objects remains. But, ceasing such engagements by experiencing a higher taste, he is fixed in consciousness.
In other words, if we simply make an endeavour and attempt to chant attentively, then the result is Krsna will help. Krsna is ever grateful for our efforts. The result is, if he is pleased, he will give us an insight to that higher taste of what it is like to associate with him directly through the chanting of the holy names. And by experiencing that higher taste, that is the impetus to try to get that higher taste more and more and more. Krsna will give us the determination if we try sincerely to follow the process.
vyavasayatmika buddhir ekeha kuru-nandana
bahu-sakha hy anantas ca buddhayo 'vyavasayinam
Those who are on this path are resolute in purpose, and their aim is one. O beloved child of the Kurus, the intelligence of those who are irresolute is many-branched.
So we actually become conscious of Krsna, we actually enter into the consciousness of remembering Krsna, it is so tasteful, it is so pleasureful, that we'll want again and again to enter into that consciousness. The remembrance of this conversation between Krsna and Arjuna, I'm taking pleasure, being thrilled at every moment, remembering as well that wonderful form of Krsna, I am being struck with wonder and I rejoice again and again.
Is that all right? Anything else? Yes?
Question: When we chant, does it matter if we chant Rama or Ram?
You'll have to ask Rama which he prefers. But if we're meaning Rama or Ram, Krsna is very intelligent, he'll know who we're talking to.
Anything else? OK, thank you very much.
Grantharaja Srimad Bhagavatam ki jai! Srila Prabhupada ki jai!
Gaurapremanande haribol! |
