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| | Enviado Lunes, 13 de Marzo de 2006 - 05:11 am: |  |
From Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir!
Date: March 6, 2006
Verse: Srimad Bhagavatam 2.2.32
Speaker: HH Bhakti Vighna Vinasa Narasimha Swami
quote:ete srti te nrpa veda-gite
tvayabhiprste ca sanatane ca
ye vai pura brahmana aha tusta
aradhito bhagavan vasudevah
TRANSLATION:
Your Majesty Maharaja Pariksit, know that all that I have described in reply to your proper inquiry is just according to the version of the Vedas, and it is eternal truth. This was described personally by Lord Krsna unto Brahma, with whom the Lord was satisfied upon being properly worshiped.
PURPORT:
The two different ways of reaching the spiritual sky and thereby getting emancipation from all material bondage, namely either the direct process of reaching the kingdom of God or the gradual process through the other higher planets of the universe, are set forth exactly according to the version of the Vedas. The Vedic versions in this connection are, yada sarve pramucyante kama ye 'sya hrdi sritah/ atha martyo 'mrto bhavaty atra brahma samasnute (Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad 4.4.7) and te 'rcir abhisambhavanti (Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad 6.2.15): "Those who are free from all material desires, which are diseases of the heart, are able to conquer death and enter the kingdom of God through the Arci planets." These Vedic versions corroborate the version of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, and the latter is further confirmed by Sukadeva Gosvami, who affirms that the truth was disclosed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead Lord Sri Krsna, Vasudeva, to Brahma, the first authority on the Vedas. The disciplic succession holds that the Vedas were uttered by Lord Krsna to Brahma, by Brahma to Narada, and by Narada to Vyasadeva, and then by Vyasadeva to Sukadeva Gosvami and so on. So there is no difference between the versions of all the authorities. The truth is eternal, and as such there cannot be any new opinion about the truth. That is the way of knowing the knowledge contained in the Vedas. It is not a thing to be understood by one's erudite scholarship or by the fashionable interpretations of mundane scholars. There is nothing to be added and nothing to be subtracted, because the truth is the truth. One has to accept, after all, some authority. The modern scientists are also authorities for the common man for some scientific truths. The common man follows the version of the scientist. This means that the common man follows the authority. The Vedic knowledge is also received in that way. The common man cannot argue about what is beyond the sky or beyond the universe; he must accept the versions of the Vedas as they are understood by the authorized disciplic succession. In the Bhagavad-gita also the same process of understanding the Gita is stated in the Fourth Chapter. If one does not follow the authoritative version of the acaryas, he will vainly search after the truth mentioned in the Vedas.
So we're hearing from Sukadeva Goswami instructing Maharaja Pariksit who has come to seek guidance for how to prepare for his coming death. Sukadeva Goswami has described in this chapter two different processes: the indirect process and the direct process. And as we heard from previous speakers that although the indirect process is also authorized, it is not a practical process.
So Srila Prabhupada points out in the purport the importance of taking instruction from authorities. Srila Prabhupada points out that even the common man has to take some authorities. The scientists are something of an authority for the common man. Scientists direct us in many different ways of life. They are providing us with all of the modern electronic devices which we are very attached to, our MP3s, our computers, as well as our televisions, and so many other things are all the gifts of the modern scientists.
We've accepted these things as being very much a part of our life. We have accepted these things as something we need to live in this world, but there are many other basic things. Srila Prabhupada would point out that actually there is nothing new in this world. As Srila Prabhupada says, "The Absolute Truth is presented. . . ." How did Srila Prabhupada describe it? He said, "The truth is eternal as such there cannot be any new opinion about the truth." There is no new opinion. I think it was Mahatma Gandhi who spoke about "experiments with the truth", but Srila Prabhupada said there's no need to experiment. The research is already done for us. The Goswamis of Vrindavan have already researched everything:
nana-sastra-vicaranaika-nipunau sad-dharma-samsthapakau
They have established eternal religious principles by studying all the Vedic scriptures.
There's nothing new in this world, Prabhupada would quote a Bengali song: eta nutana kichu kore. There's nothing new. In material life, everybody wants something new.
We're very interested, the latest device comes out how to have more information stored on micro-chips. We're very interested. We have to research this. We have to experiment with this. We're very interested. We like to be innovators. It's a tendency in Kali-yuga, but Prabhupada said there is nothing new in this material world. The same sun rises every morning and sets every evening. The same seasons come every year. The same old age, disease, and death come for everyone. Actually there is nothing new.
So we are old fashioned, you could say. I didn't realise when I joined the Hare Krsna movement I was becoming old-fashioned. I thought this was something new, but this was Prabhupada's trick, I guess. Krsna tricked me into thinking this was something new. As Prabhupada wrote in his Vyasa-puja offering to his spiritual master:
The line of service
As drawn by you,
Is pleasing and healthy
Like morning dew.
The oldest of all
But in new dress
Miracle done
Your Divine Grace.
Srila Prabhupada very nicely described how his spiritual master had presented the very oldest thing, but put it in a new dress.
Yes, this is described in Bhagavad-gita. Lord Krsna says:
sa evayam maya te 'dya yogah proktah puratanah
That very ancient science of the relationship with the Supreme is today told by Me to you because you are My devotee as well as My friend. In the fourth chapter, Lord Krsna describes, yogah proktah puratanah, this very old thing, but we put it in new dress to attract all of us conditioned souls who are always looking for something new.
The oldest thing is there in the authority of the scriptures. The highest authority is the authority of the scriptures. Prabhupada explains different types of authority that there is the mundane sense perception, pratyaksa, then speculation, anuman, and sabda. So of the three different types of evidence, the evidence of scriptures is considered supreme, sabda-brahma.
Similarly, thirteenth chapter of Bhagavad-gita, Lord Krsna was asked by Arjuna to explain the field of activities and the knower of the field of activities. So then Lord Krsna, in explaining these things, goes to explain that knowledge of the field of activities and the knower of the field of activities is explained by many Vedic writings, in many texts of the Vedas, particularly in the Brahma-sutras, where it is explained with all cause and effect. So Lord Krsna in the thirteenth chapter, text four, he himself quotes the scriptures. Although Lord Krsna is the absolute authority, still Lord Krsna takes advantage of the scriptures to something which was very controversial point. Srila Prabhupada describes in the purport that because Lord Krsna has to deal with the most controversial point of the duality and non-duality of the soul and Supersoul, therefore Lord Krsna turned to the scriptures and established the position, the actual authority, quoting Vedanta-sutra.
So the scriptures is the highest authority, and yes, we have to quote the scriptures, but how to understand the scriptures? It is not so easy to understand the scriptures:
vedesu durlabham adurlabham atma-bhaktau
Very difficult to know Krsna from the Vedas, from the scriptures. There are so many different acaryas giving different interpretations. Therefore we also have to hear from the authorities in the line of disciplic succession. As Srila Prabhupada explains here, the fourth chapter of Bhagavad-gita describes to us that this knowledge is delivered through the chain of disciplic succession and the saintly kings understood it in this way, but still that knowledge can be lost.
We also know in following Srila Prabhupada's instructions, we take Prabhupada instruction in our Krsna consciousness movement as being absolute. Sometimes we may even quote Prabhupada, how Prabhupada told one devotee, "I blindly followed my Srila Prabhupada master." He was writing a letter to a devotee in charge of a temple in the USA, in Chicago at that time. He said, "I am planning to print books in so many different languages." He said, "In this regard, I blindly followed my spiritual master."
Sometimes we also try to quote this instruction of Srila Prabhupada that we should blindly follow the spiritual teacher and his instructions, but blindly following has to be properly understood.
As we heard yesterday from the speaker, he was describing Lord Caitanya with his servant Balabhadra Bhattacarya. The title "Bhattacarya" indicates he is a very great scholar, however, even he became bewildered by foolish people because the tendency is there that when we follow blindly, we think we should follow the masses. So many people were going to see this play on the Yamuna at the night, which Balabhadra Bhattacarya also wanted to go, for which Lord Caitanya gave him a good slap and told him, "Don't be so stupid."
Later on it was found out that was supposed to be the snake was actually a fisherman's boat, and what was supposed to be the jewel on the head of the snake was actually just the light on the boat, and who was supposed to be Krsna dancing on the head of the snake was simply a fisherman on his boat. The fisherman was going at night and all of this could not be understood clearly therefore foolish people simply were speculating and misunderstood the whole situation. This is an example of blind following.
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur would tell a story about how the brahmanas would go in the morning to bathe in the Ganga. And when they would go to bathe in the Ganga, they would take a little copper vessel with them to put some Ganga water in to offer, but everyone had the same vessel and was hard to tell whose vessel was whose. All the brahmanas go in to take a bath and when they come out, they can't remember where they put their vessel because all the vessels look the same.
So on one occasion, one of the elderly brahmanas decided he must distinguish his vessel from the others and he took a lump of mud and stuck it on the vessel. But then all the other younger brahmanas saw that the older brahmana had done this and they thought they should also do it. They thought this is another ritual that they are supposed to do, so they also took some mud and stuck it on their vessel. When the brahmana came out from taking bath, then he severely lamented that the brahmanas were so stupid in following rituals. They could not understand what was the purpose of the rituals.
Similarly, in commenting on the Nectar of Devotion, Rupa Goswami has always also warned us that one of the problems in fall down, one of the things that can lead to fall down is niyamagraha, being too attached to rules and regulations. While we can certainly get in a lot of trouble by being neglectful of rules and regulations, if we are overly attached to rules and regulations, this can also be wrong.
Srila Prabhupada tells us that we should know the purpose of the different rules and regulations we are following, and not simply be blind followers. We have to keep our eyes open and not be blind.
Just as Lord Caitanya told how his spiritual master said, "You are simply a fool. You are a foolish person, you should just chant Hare Krsna." So certainly in the presence of one's spiritual master, one should consider oneself foolish, but that does not mean one should be a fool. There's a difference between considering oneself a fool and being a fool. So certainly Lord Caitanya is no fool. As we saw when he would debate with Prakasananda Sarasvati, it is not that he just, "Oh, my guru told me just to chant Hare Krsna, I am not going to preach."
So while we should not remain foolish, similarly, we should also not remain blind. We have to have the vision and understand what is required in following the instructions. Blindly following the instructions of the spiritual master means we should not consider the instructions of the spiritual master to be our own glory, just as Srila Prabhupada would always give credit to his guru, in the same way, our credit is in following the instructions of our guru properly, properly implementing his instructions.
There's a nice example in the Mahabharata. We're told how on one occasion, Yudhisthira was fighting against Karna. Karna was a much more powerful and better warrior than Maharaja Yudhisthira. He severely injured Yudhisthira and defeated him. Yudhisthira was really shattered, his morale was really down and he had to retreat from the battlefield and recover from his injuries.
So shortly after Yudhisthira had retired from the battlefield, Arjuna entered his tent and Krsna because Arjuna had seen what happened and he was concerned for the welfare of Maharaja Yudhisthira. However, when Arjuna entered the tent of Maharaja Yudhisthira, Maharaja Yudhisthira misunderstood what had happened and he thought, "Certainly Arjuna must have been victorious over Karna, otherwise why would he come to see me? Arjuna is vijaya, he never leaves the battlefield defeated. He always conquers his enemies." So Maharaja Yudhisthira began to glorify Arjuna, "Well done! You have achieved victory. You have defeated Karna. You are very glorious. You are a credit to our dynasty."
Then Arjuna had to explain, "Wait a minute, I didn't defeat Karna, not yet. Karna is still fighting. I just came to see how you are."
When Maharaja Yudhisthira heard this, then he became very angry. He said, "What? You left the battlefield to come and see me? How could you be so stupid? You're a disgrace to the dynasty. You're not fit to carry that Gandiva bow, give it to somebody else who is more worthy to carry it."
When Maharaja Yudhisthira spoke these strong words Arjuna drew out his sword and he was ready to kill Maharaja Yudhisthira. It was only Lord Krsna who personally stopped him. Arjuna was ready to kill Yudhisthira because Arjuna had taken a personal vow - he had vowed: "If anyone ever tells me to give up my Gandiva bow, I will kill that person."
So when Maharaja Yudhisthira had spoken in this way, Arjuna was ready to actually take the life of Yudhisthira. But Krsna instructed him, Krsna told him, "You have not understood the real principles of religion. You have made a vow, but you have to understand the principles of religion and how to keep them intact."
At that time, Krsna then first of all told the story of how one man had made a vow to never tell a lie, but then on one occasion some man came with a lot of valuable jewels and gold and he asked where he could hide. He was told to go in the forest nearby. And then the thieves came and they asked the same man how had made a vow to never lie, "Where did he go?"
The man thought, "I've made a vow not to tell a lie," so he said, "Yes he's over there, he's in the forest." So the thieves went into the forest and killed the man and plundered all his wealth.
So certainly this so-called brahmana who was making a vow of truthfulness, he had to take the reactions, he had to take the responsibility for the death of this innocent person. He had encouraged violence in the name of his so-called religiosity. Just to uphold his vow of truthfulness, he was being the cause of irreligion. This was encouraging when Arjuna heard this from Krsna, but he said, "But still, what about my vow?"
Then Krsna explained to him, "There's another way you can kill people. When a superior person is insulted by their subordinate, then that is equivalent to killing them."
Hearing this, Arjuna, he jumped up and began to hurl abuse in the face of Yudhisthira that "This whole war is your fault. You are so fond of gambling. You are so attached to playing dice. You brought us here in the battlefield because of all of that. It's all your fault. You're not a ksatriya yourself. You have no real qualities. You're hopeless as a ksatriya. You are playing the role as a ksatriya. What kind of ksatriya are you?"
In this way, he abused him for some time and Maharaja Yudhisthira humbly lowered his head and tolerated all that abuse. After Arjuna had vented his anger, then he fell at the feet of Maharaja Yudhisthira and embraced his feet and begged forgiveness. And Maharaja Yudhisthira also embraced Arjuna. In this way Arjuna was able to full his vow. And in this way, Krsna instructed Arjuna how he could keep his religious principles and at the same time, not have to kill his worshipable older brother.
So this is intelligence, how to apply religious principles. We have to be followers of Srila Prabhupada, but at the same time, we are not blind followers. Prabhupada was aware sometimes how we would abuse his authority, innocently even sometimes. One of the hardest things to correct in our society is this abuse of Prabhupada authority.
Prabhupada heard himself even in the Bowery days, one of the guests had asked him, "Swamiji, I heard in your householder days, you had twenty children." Prabhupada did not have twenty children. However this is the kind of thing that goes on.
Then there was another thing that came to Prabhupada's attention that somebody had said that "We heard your spiritual master is one of the eight sakhis."
But Prabhupada said, "No, that is also not correct. I understand personally that my spiritual master is an assistant of the manjaris."
So these kind of misunderstanding do come in our society. As a society we have to be very careful how to understand religious principles, how to apply them. Sometimes people would say that we heard that there is going to be a war, there is going to be an atomic war and the whole world will be annihilated. Prabhupada did not accept it. We heard sankirtana is going to stop, no more sankirtana can go on, so many different things.
We have to understand Prabhupada in the proper way, how to follow Prabhupada's instructions. Prabhupada doesn't want us to be blind followers. He wants us to follow using our intelligence. He opens our eyes so that we can see real knowledge, so that we can actually understand the truth.
As Prabhupada said, "I have given you everything in my books. Whatever you need to know, it is there in my books. You don't need anything else. Simply read my books." Of course there are many other books, but we should certainly know Srila Prabhupada's books first. That is our primary duty. And if we know Srila Prabhupada's books then certainly the truth is there.
The truth is not something we have to invent. We don't need something new. We don't need to make some innovations. We simply have to follow. Prabhupada spoke about anukarana and anusarana. Anukarana is imitation and anusarana means following in the footsteps. So this is the key, as we're instructed throughout this purport, that we are meant to follow in the footsteps. The absolute truth is hidden in the hearts of the pure devotees and one can understand it by following in their footsteps:
dharmasya tattvam nihitam guhayam mahajano yena gatah sa panthah
Srila Prabhupada is our modern mahajana. We simply follow in Prabhupada's footsteps and everything will be revealed. There is nothing new. Simply understand Prabhupada's message.
We will stop here and ask if there is any questions or comments. Yes, Prabhu? OK, take the mike.
Question: How we can discriminate between speculation and using of intelligence?
Maharaja: Speculation and use of our intelligence. OK, help to discriminate between speculation and use of our intelligence. Intelligence means understanding the scriptures, guided by scriptures. Speculation is we don't use the scriptures; it's not in the scriptures. Simply by our own so-called intelligence, we come to a conclusion. So if we're using our intelligence, it will actually be there in the scriptures.
Prabhupada would tell us how the principle, somehow or other get people attracted to Krsna. The rules and regulations come later. We were hearing from Syamasundara Prabhu a few days ago how he was carving Jagannath and he had a pack of cigarettes on top of the Jagannath deity. Prabhupada cam in and saw the cigarettes. He came and hid the pack away and said, "No more cigarettes."
So things like this, Prabhupada was tolerant in the beginning to encourage people, to get them attached to Krsna. It's not that we also have to be so tolerant nowadays that we can let people carve Jagannath deities and smoke cigarettes at the same time. We try to be a bit to a higher standard. Prabhupada in the beginning would make these adjustments in order to get people interested in Krsna consciousness, but Prabhupada also wanted to establish some good standard of Krsna consciousness.
Another example, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur asked people to chant one lakh of names every day. If they couldn't chant one lakh names, which is sixty-four rounds, then they were considered patita. If Prabhupada had come to the west and instructed all of us without compromise that you have to chant sixty-four rounds, it's certainly doubtful whether or not Prabhupada could have established a worldwide society.
So Prabhupada made some adjustment according to the capacity of the people he was dealing with. He has given us this sixteen rounds, but he has instructed, "This is absolute minimum. You cannot reduce this any further." Even we know in Hawaii there was an instance, there were some very nice people, they were tennis coaches and they were chanting eight rounds a day. They asked for initiation. Prabhupada said, "No. Chant sixteen rounds. No compromise, no discounts."
But Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur said you should chant sixty-four rounds, but Prabhupada understood the capacity, our ability and engaging us according to our ability. So rules and regulations we cannot speculate according to our own judgement. A devotee like Srila Prabhupada, he is guided by his own spiritual master in applying the scriptures. He can make these adjustments.
Another adjustment, Prabhupada allowed also ladies to live in the asrama. He formed the brahmacarini asrama, which had never been heard of before. In Gaudiya Math Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati certainly didn't have that, but this was another adjustment. Prabhupada saw that the women can also preach, they were also going and distributing books just as the men. Prabhupada saw equality in the men and we are seeing it also. Here in India, more and more working women. It may not be Vedic culture, but for the purpose of preaching, giving people an opportunity to take up Krsna consciousness, Prabhupada could make these adjustments. We do not make adjustments. We follow the spiritual master. The spiritual master can adjust things but it's not our business to adjust.
Arcita Prabhu?
Arcita Prabhu: Thank you for a very nice class. . . . I'd like to comment also that we should always check with our peers. In other words, when you're in a situation where you have to make a decision on something using the scriptures and all that and your experience, but still in the end, when you come to a conclusion, pass it by some other devotees, don't just do it unilaterally.
Maharaja: Thank you for that comment. Very nice comment that before we make any decision, we consult with our peers, our godbrothers, senior Vaisnavas, and so on. Nothing should be done independently or whimsically. Cooperative movement. So many devotees are here. We can take advise from them, consult with them. That's the safe way.
So we'll stop here, thank you very much.
Srimad-Bhagavatam ki jai! Srila Prabhupada ki jai!
[applause]
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