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| | Enviado Martes, 14 de Marzo de 2006 - 06:01 pm: |  |
From Sri Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir!
Date: March 1, 2006
Verse: Srimad Bhagavatam 2.2.27
Speaker: HH Devamrta Swami
quote:na yatra soko na jara na mrtyur
nartir na codvega rte kutascit
yac cit tato 'dah krpayanidam-vidam
duranta-duhkha-prabhavanudarsanat
TRANSLATION:
In that planet of Satyaloka, there is neither bereavement, nor old age nor death. There is no pain of any kind, and therefore there are no anxieties, save that sometimes, due to consciousness, there is a feeling of compassion for those unaware of the process of devotional service, who are subjected to unsurpassable miseries in the material world.
PURPORT:
Foolish men of materialistic temperament do not take advantage of successive authorized knowledge. The Vedic knowledge is authorized and is acquired not by experiment but by authentic statements of the Vedic literatures explained by bona fide authorities. Simply by becoming an academic scholar one cannot understand the Vedic statements; one has to approach the real authority who has received the Vedic knowledge by disciplic succession, as clearly explained in the Bhagavad-gita (4.2). Lord Krsna affirmed that the system of knowledge as explained in the Bhagavad-gita was explained to the sun-god, and the knowledge descended by disciplic succession from the sun-god to his son Manu, and from Manu to King Iksvaku (the forefather of Lord Ramacandra), and thus the system of knowledge was explained down the line of great sages, one after another. But in due course of time the authorized succession was broken, and therefore, just to reestablish the true spirit of the knowledge, the Lord again explained the same knowledge to Arjuna, who was a bona fide candidate for understanding due to his being a pure devotee of the Lord. Bhagavad-gita, as it was understood by Arjuna, is also explained (Bg. 10.12-13), but there are many foolish men who do not follow in the footsteps of Arjuna in understanding the spirit of Bhagavad-gita. They create instead their own interpretations, which are as foolish as they themselves, and thereby only help to put a stumbling block on the path of real understanding, misdirecting the innocent followers who are less intelligent, or the sudras. It is said that one should become a brahmana before one can understand the Vedic statements, and this stricture is as important as the stricture that no one shall become a lawyer who has not qualified himself as a graduate. Such a stricture is not an impediment in the path of progress for anyone and everyone, but it is necessary for an unqualified understanding of a particular science. Vedic knowledge is misinterpreted by those who are not qualified brahmanas. A qualified brahmana is one who has undergone strict training under the guidance of a bona fide spiritual master.
The Vedic wisdom guides us to understanding our relation with the Supreme Lord Sri Krsna and to acting accordingly in order to achieve the desired result of returning home, back to Godhead. But materialistic men do not understand this. They want to make a plan to become happy in a place where there is no happiness. For false happiness they try to reach other planets, either by Vedic rituals or by spacecraft, but they should know for certain that any amount of materialistic adjustment for becoming happy in a place which is meant for distress cannot benefit the misguided man because, after all, the whole universe with all its paraphernalia will come to an end after a certain period. Then all plans of materialistic happiness will automatically come to an end. The intelligent person therefore makes a plan to return home, back to Godhead. Such an intelligent person surpasses all the pangs of material existence, like birth, death, disease and old age. He is actually happy because he has no anxieties of material existence, but as a compassionate sympathizer he feels unhappiness for the suffering materialistic men, and thus he occasionally comes before the materialistic men to teach them the necessity of going back to Godhead. All the bona fide acaryas preach this truth of returning home, back to Godhead, and warn men not to make a false plan for happiness in a place where happiness is only a myth.
(Can someone turn off that fan behind me? Otherwise I'll start coughing)
Om ajnana, etc.)
You are in the section of the Bhagavatam in which Sri Sukadeva Goswami is describing the gradual path back to Godhead. There are two ways, the direct path and the indirect or gradual path. Sukadeva Goswami has heard this from Brahma. He is going to say later in this chapter that what Lord Krsna told Brahma, I am telling you. Brahma had this knowledge impregnated in his heart, tene brahma hrdaya adi-kavaye. He is the adi-kavi, the original scholar of the universe and the Lord taught him personally Vedic knowledge in his heart. But still, Sukadeva Goswami is going reveal, Brahma studied the Vedic knowledge three times just to set an example for everyone that "I am studying, I am concentrating my intelligence on this intelligence. You should also do the same. Even though I as Brahma have had this knowledge enlightened within in my heart by the Supreme Lord, still I am studying." Sukadeva Goswami is saying "I am presenting you that same information."
What are you going to do about this information? Do you really accept there is a Satyaloka, a topmost planet of the universe where there are no gross bodies, the living entities exist in subtle bodies and the only anxiety they feel is because of compassion for those suffering on the lower planets? What do your imperfect senses tell you? What does your mind tell you? How can you really accept this? The Bhagavatam is apparently full of so many statements that challenge your mundane understanding and sense perception.
Why blame it all on the Bhagavatam? What does Krsna say in Bhagavad-gita?
imam vivasvate yogam proktavan aham avyayam
vivasvan manave praha
I spoke this knowledge to the chief living entity who lives in the fire on the planet of fire, the sun planet, the president of the sun planet, I spoke this knowledge. So right then and there you have the chance to reject Bhagavad-gita. I wonder how many of you think about all of these things Krsna is saying. First you have to cope with Bhagavad-gita and then to get the wonderful opportunity in life to cope with Srimad-Bhagavatam.
Now you're hearing information that your senses have no ordinary cognition of. What to do? Earlier we heard explained that for any kind of knowledge, material or spiritual, you have to rely on authority. Therefore, the quality of your life will be defined by the quality of authorities from whom you accept knowledge. So you have to compare. You have to compare the behaviour and consciousness of someone like Sukadeva Goswami with the behaviour and consciousness of mundane authorities of today. Even in this ordinary world you'll find so many things that will challenge your understanding.
I was recently speaking in New Dwaraka, Los Angeles, in January. There I was explaining to the devotees that. . . New Dwaraka community is full of many Srila Prabhupada disciples. They are very mature, experienced in the world. Yet I told them something that I didn't realize would astonish them. I explained how I was speaking in Cape Town, South Africa at the University of Cape Town. Cape Town is a very balmy place. It's a big tourist destination now in South Africa, palm trees, pleasant breezes, beautiful views of the mountains and the ocean and the beaches simultaneously. All the residents there are very laid-back and content to varying degrees. So there I was speaking at this university. Nowadays universities in South Africa have all types of bodies. There were some, along with the Europeans, South Africans of European descent, there were some African Africans [laughs] from the neighboring country of Botswana. So they were from wealthy families, very intelligent, very refined in behavior, very cultured, and they began to ask about Krsna consciousness, so I invited them, "After our gathering is over here at the university, please come to our centre nearby and we'll discuss more." So they did that. They came by later that day.
Before they came, I decided, let me do a little geographical research. What is Botswana? What is life like there? It is just north of South Africa, I believe, neighbouring country, one and a half million people. So I researched on the Internet. What did I find? The average life expectancy is thirty-two years. So when these students came over, I told them, "Excuse me, you've got to take this opportunity very seriously because, how old are you right now? Twenty? Twenty-one? Because according to statistics, you can expect to live ten more years. [laughter]
Some of you are laughing but they very gravely accepted, "We know this is true. The national average of lifespan in our country is thirty-one years, thirty-two years. Women get one more year." If you look at the official statistics for life spans throughout the world, on top is Japan, Singapore, eighty-three years. The USA is seventy-seven, and way down in the one hundred and ninety-first place on the list is Botswana. Way down at the bottom. So the students, they accepted this, "Yes, we know, we understand." They accepted this as a basic fact of life.
So when I spoke this in Los Angeles, the devotees were shocked. Scores of them came up to me after class, "How can this be true? This is impossible!" because the verse we were discussing in class was about extraordinary life spans on different planets, the lifespan of Brahma, all which is inconceivable to our ears, but that's just material knowledge.
But devotees in sunny Southern California, bordering Hollywood, they were shocked. They said, "How can this be true?" Actually, younger devotees were more emphatic, "How can I accept this there's a place on this planet where people only live to the age of thirty-one as their national average? How can this be so?" Their senses rejected it. They had such a difficult time believing. I had to show them, here are the statistics. Then their minds were pacified to some degree. Their minds accepted it. I showed them some mundane authority, "Oh, OK, Maharaja." So there you have an example of an ordinary fact of this world, and "Americans" were astonished.
How do you know what is myth? How do you know what is not myth? How do you know who to believe? How do you know who not to believe? Here you are learning about Satyaloka, the planet of Brahma. The sastra described that even if you go to the planet of Brahmaloka, if you aren't a demigod or you haven't taken fully to process of bhakti, you'll fall down to the lower planets lower than Brahmaloka. If you're a demigod who has finished his tenure as Indra or whatever, then you'll go to Brahmaloka. And at the end of Brahma's life, he goes back to Godhead if he's a devotee. In this particular universe Brahma is a devotee. Then you'll go back with him, but if you're not with that group, even though you're on Brahmaloka or Satyaloka, you'll go down again after you expend all your pious activities. This information is given by Rupa Goswami in Laghu Bhagavatamrta. So this all unverifiable by all your present senses, so who are you going to believe?
I'll give you an example which may either help you or confuse you. Now whether or not you are concerned with did anyone go to the moon or did they not, who knows it could be just ISKCON mythology, it could be just one of those "Prabhupada says", but in any case, without going into that, let me give you the authorized statement of the sixth man who says he walked on the moon. He says, I'm not. [laughter] He says, Number Six, Edgar Mitchell. Now, do you believe it? He says it. Almost all the world believes. He's the authority. He's an astronaut. In the USA, to be an astronaut, you are a deva, you are at the peak of physical prowess, intellectual prowess, you are the mahajana of the nation, [laugher] so this is who we are going to hear from now.
He says, "I was there, I was on the moon." He believes that. What is his educational background? I'll tell you later after I tell you what else he says. You see, this is how you get into trouble trying to accept mundane knowledge. If you're going to accept, as most of the world does, that he walked on the moon, then you also should accept the rest of the things he says. He says, "I know for a fact there are aliens, there are UFOs. I have seen the governmental evidence. I know the government is covering up. There are private industries which used to be under the government control, which are developing technology which they reverse engineered from recovered UFOs. All this is going on. I know it for a fact. I've seen the documents. Due to my military clearance, due to my stature as an astronaut, I was allowed to understand these things. Many government officials are tired of the cover-up, but they're afraid if the news gets out the people will panic. If the news gets out there are entities on other planets, the people will have breakdowns, and therefore, the government is doing them a favor, according to its perception, by keeping everything hidden."
So now what are you going to do? Are you going to say, "We accept you walked on the moon because you said it, but we don't accept this stuff about aliens UFOs because, well, not many people accept that, but everyone accepts what you say about walking on the moon." So what do you do? Do you accept everything he said, nothing he said, one or the other? What is your mind's predilection? Which path does your mind choose? Now let us hear about the stunning, erudite materialistic qualifications of this astronaut mahajana. PhD from MIT, the supreme destination for scientific research. PhD in aeronautics, astronautics, plus two other honorary PhD degrees, decorated with the finest military medals, ?, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and assorted other Navy awards, Army awards. Yet, this is what he said? Now what are you going to do?
If you Edgar Mitchell is sure he walked on the moon, everyone will nod their heads, even many or some of our devotees. "Prabhupada ki jai", but I still think we did it. [laughter] But what about the other thing he says? This is the pitfall of dealing with material authorities. All his words were published overseas in Europe, but very little in the USA. The news media blacked him out. Then meanwhile you have the former Head of Defense Ministry in the UK and you have generals and the National Chief of Police in France saying we know the USA is covering and we are going to use the EU to pressure the US to stop repressing information about this? So who do you believe?
Now let's hear about Satyaloka. Why should your mind reject this, just because it is beyond the range of your immediate verification? We are hearing From Sukadeva Goswami. When you understand the character and lineage of Sukadeva Goswami, then you'll trust him. And that lineage is so important. I wonder how many of us truly understand the nature of disciplic succession and how knowledge comes down. Krsna Himself stresses this in Bhagavad-gita:
evam parampara-praptam imam rajaraayo viduh
Viduh - how did they understand it? They understood it, the rajarsis, saintly kings, understood this knowledge through disciplic succession. There is a process for how to learn things. There is a process for how to understand. And if you want to understand Bhagavad-gita, you have to accept that particular process.
Right in the beginning of Caitanya Caritamrta, the most exquisite Vaisnava literature, Srila Prabhupada writes in the first purport and even in the first verse that anyone who doesn't accept the process of disciplic succession cannot understand anything that is going to come in the pages of Caitanya Caritamrta, impossible to understand. They may be the greatest scholar, they may be the greatest academic, but unless they have taken shelter of the parampara, they can't understand.
Now how does that sit with you? Does it seem just like some Hindu taboo, oh, you have to be lined up with a certain party, you have to be affiliated with a certain line and teachers and then you can understand? That's not very contemporary is it? The contemporary mentality is, you can understand whatever you want. Go to the bookstore, get a book. Go online do some research. You'll understand everything. All the understandings are available to everyone. You don't need to purify yourself. You don't need to have a qualified teacher. You yourself are enough. It's amazing how - no it's not amazing - it's typical in Kali-yuga how this attitude can affect even our own devotees. That is why it is so important to absorb yourself in a concentrated study of Srimad-Bhagavatam.
For example, here in Mayapur, you have the Bhakti-sastri programme. I've heard from so many devotees who have studied Bhakti-sastri here in the holy atmosphere of the dham that their lives were transformed by three or four months of daily full time study of Srila Prabhupada books. They said it just turned their whole life around. Why? Your life will become transformed when one way or another when you deeply accept the principles, these sacred principles of sastra, Bhagavad-gita, Srimad Bhagavatam. You have to think about these things and allow your head and your heart to be challenged. That is how you experience spiritual growth. Srila Prabhupada was expert at doing that on his morning walks. He would challenge your conceptions, he would challenge your assumptions, and then he would insert the real knowledge that Lord Krsna gives.
Once we tame our ferocious mundane minds, then we can taste the sweetness of Srimad-Bhagavatam. And tasting the sweetness of Srimad-Bhagavatam means tasting the sweetness of knowledge about Krsna - krsna-tattva, knowledge about Krsna's pastimes; just like Sukadeva Goswami is giving you a tour of the universe. Lord Krsna also gives His tour. Other saintly persons, beside Sukadeva Goswami, they give their tour.
In the Seventh Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, Prahlada Maharaja and his confidential associates go on a tour of the universe. What are they looking for? What is their form of sight-seeing? They are looking for the loka-tattva, the truth about various types of person who live in the world, particularly the truth about those advancing in Krsna consciousness. This is Prahlada Maharaja's idea of sight-seeing. He gathers his friends and says, "Let's go tour the universe and see the different types of sadhus, the different types of Krsna conscious persons."
They did that, and they came upon the python man, who's performing ajagara-vrtti. He has taken the vow to just lay in one spot like a python and just accept to eat whatever comes his way. So Prahlada saw, this man, he's a sadhu, he's a great devotee of the Lord, yet he's fat. How can you become fat just lying in one place? Prahlada began to question him so eloquently, so precisely that the python man felt the words of Prahlada Maharaja to be like a shower of nectar, he didn't feel challenged.
If someone asked you, "Excuse me, why are you so fat," [laughter] you would feel a bit offended, probably, but the python man was captivated by Prahlada's presentation that "I can see for sure that you are an extraordinarily realized devotee, at the same time, don't mind me saying, but you're fat. Can you kindly explain this?"
And indeed, the python man did. He gave Prahlada Maharaja his history that "I have seen the way this world works. I have seen what happens when people believe in material happiness." Just like Prabhupada ends the purport here by saying "All the bona fide acaryas preach this truth of returning home, back to Godhead, and warn men not to make a false plan for happiness in a place where happiness is only a myth." Now what do you say about that? You are living in a world where happiness is only a myth? Do you really believe that? This is all myth, this information you're getting. You're challenged, do I believe that material happiness is only a myth.
While Prahlada was touring the universe, the python man told him, "That is a fact. I have seen it all. I have seen people do everything to pursue material happiness and simply suffer through anxiety so much that they can't sleep at night. I have seen it all. I have seen man and woman come together to enjoy the so-called happiness of sex life and all they get is trouble. I have seen all that. I've seen the distress that comes from material enjoyment. Therefore, my conclusion is just not to participate in karmic activities. I'll just lay here and accept whatever comes my way."
In other words the python man is teaching us that material happiness is a myth and the spiritual reality and Krsna consciousness is factual. So that experience, that knowledge you are getting by the grace of Prahlada Maharaja because he was taking a tour of the universe and authentically presenting to you what he saw, what he heard by way of the python man.
Lord Krsna also gives His tours. In Vrindavan, eleven days after the Govardhan-lila, Dvadasi, Nanda Maharaja wanted to take bath in Yamuna River in order to complete his vow, but there was some technical point about whether it was the right time to take bath in Yamuna River or not, technical point about when Dvadasi actually ended, when the night actually ended on Dvadasi. So anyway, Nanda Maharaja and his friends, the elder cowherd men, the gopas, they went to the Yamuna River. As Nanda Maharaja was bathing, he was taken away, as you know, by the servant of Varuna. Immediately the gopas cry out, "Krsna! Rama!"
Krsna is sleeping on a bed of flowers the acaryas say. Immediately Krsna came because Krsna is always nearby; it is not a question of physical distance. He is inseparable from His Vrajavasi devotees. So the Lord asked, "Which part of the water did My father disappear in?" The cowherd men pointed. Krsna entered the water and in that way went to the watery kingdom of Varuna.
As soon as He arrived at Varuna's kingdom, Varuna offered so many wonderful prayers and greetings: "Now my life is successful. I have taken thousand of bodies, but at last, my body is successful by seeing You. there is so much wealth in my watery kingdom, but now I have finally attained the real jewel, I am seeing You. My Lord, You are the ocean of forgiveness, and I am the ocean of offence. If You desire, You may punish me. Here is Your father."
Krsna can see that Varuna is worshiping Nanda Maharaja. Nanada Maharaja is seated on a jewelled throne, according to Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura. And who is Nanda Maharaja worshipping? He is just thinking of his son, Krsna. The Lord takes Nanda Maharaja and they return to Vrindavan. Naturally, what is the first thing Nanda Maharaja does? He beings to tell all his his gopas, his cowherd friends, "I can't believe it! What I saw! Varuna is worshipping my son, Krsna! And all of Varuna's servants, they're worshiping my son, Krsna!"
Then it's time for Brijbasi philosophical speculation. The cowherd men begin to consider, "Youu told us before that your son is like Narayana, now we can see that He is Narayana." Sometimes by the arrangmmetn of Yogamaya, the residents of Vrindavan can understand that Krsna is God, but the amazing thing is that this understanding that Krsna is God, in the hearts of Vrindavan, does not in the slightest way disrupt their rasa. They had no problem maintaining their particular rasa with Krsna. It wasn't disturbed in the slightest.
Whereas Vasudeva, after Krsna killed Kamsa, when Vasudeva saw Krsna and Balarama approaching him, treating him as father, he could not reciprocate. "You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead. You're not really my sons."
Similarly Arjuna in Bhagavad-gita, after he saw Krsna's universal form, he begged forgiveness, "I treated you so casually, lying on the same bed, eating with you, acting in a relaxed way with you."
But in Vrindavan, even though at that particular moment, the Vrajavasis, the older men, are thinking Krsna is God, they are undisturbed in their spontaneous affection for the Lord. Then they decided, "Let's do some interesting explorations. If, and we now know it's true, your son is God," and the acaryas explain, they added some village familiarity to it all, "If your son is God - and don't forget we're related to your son, we're related to your wife, we're related to you, it's all one big family - since your son is God, he should show us what our destination will be in the next life."
In the Krsna book Srila Prabhupada explains that Krsna was very eager to impart information about the spiritual world. the Lord is like that for everyone, not simply his intimate devotees, but for the conditioned souls, He wants to teach them there is something beyond this miserable place, material world where happiness is only a myth, a place that is planned for misery. So Krsna eagerly wanted to show them. He asked them, "OK, what do you want to see?"
They all had different ideas. Some said, "I want to see liberation." Others said, "I want to see Vaikuntha."
Krsna said, "Very well, come with Me." They went to a particular lake and there the Lord submerged them all in the water and as they submerged themselves in the water, they could experience Brahman, Brahman realization, sayujya-mukti. Now generally, if you've gone into sayujya-mukti, oneness with the Lord, how do you come out of that into bhakti, but because Krsna was doing this, they were able to experience sayujya-mukti and then rise up because of Krsna's orchestrating the whole scene.
Next step on the tour, next place on this scenic tour of various transcendental locations, the Lord showed them Vaikuntha. He gave them a complete vision of the Vaikuntha planets. Then within showing them the Vaikuntha planets, the Lord showed them Goloka Vrindavan. What were the comments of the cowherd men? "This final place you're showing us, it's just like our place! It feels the same, it tastes the same!"
In this way Krsna showed them there is no difference between Goloka Vrindavan and Bhauma Vrindavan. The Lord showed them the superiority of Vrindavan, its prema, compared to merging into Brahman, compared to Vaikuntha.
Krsna also gives His tours. Sukadeva Goswami gives his tours. Prahlada Maharaja gives his tours. Later at the end of the Tenth Canto, the Lord shows Arjuna Mahavisnu-loka. You know how Arjuna promised to save the son, the new born child of a particular brahmana couple and he failed. So Arjuna had vowed, "If I can't save your newborn baby, I'll enter into fire."
So time for the birth of the child came, Arjuna protected the situation all around with arrows and mantras. Still, the child disappeared and Arjuna's arrows disappeared, too. The brahmana ridiculed him right in front of Krsna, "If Aniruddha, Pradyumna, so forth couldn't protect my son, how could you?" Then he hit Arjuna with the ultimate insult for a ksatriya: "You're a eunuch!"
Arjuna had taken the vow, "I'll enter the fire unless I can save your son," so Arjuna searched the whole universe even up to Satyaloka and he didn't find the child. So he prepared to enter into fire, and then Krsna stopped him, "Come with Me." They got on Krsna chariot with His Vaikuntha horses and they went through the coverings of the universe, they went through impersonal Brahman, they went all the way to Mahavisnu-loka.
As they approached Mahavisnu lying upon the body of Sesanaga, Krsna and Arjuna offered obeisances. Mahavisnu did not return the obeisances because Mahavisnu was acting in his way to preserve the sanctity of the nara-lila, the human-like pastimes of Krsna. So the acaryas say that Mahavisnu conspired with Krsna, "Let's bewilder Arjuna and at the end we'll all reveal everything." So Mahavisnu said to Arjuna and Krsna, "You are my parts."
You see this chapter began with an inquiry, who is superior, Brahma, Visnu, or Siva, and Brghu Muni made his test which established that Visnu is superior. Now Sukadeva Goswami is describing this pastime of Arjuna and Krsna visiting Mahavisnu to show that Krsna is superior to Visnu. At first Mahavisnu says, "You're my parts, I've always wanted to see you." Krsna offers His reverence to Mahavisnu. Mahavisnu gives the child of the brahmana and they take him back to Dvarka.
At first Arjuna is thinking, "I have seen Mahavisnu, the cause of all causes. I have seen the source of everything. By Krsna's grace, I've seen the root of it all." Then he begins to wonder, "Wait a minute, although Krsna is offering respects to Mahavisnu and Mahavisnu didn't return the obeisances, although Mahavisnu says that we are all his parts, why did he say he always wanted to see Krsna, he always wanted that opportunity? Something's not right here."
Then Arjuna began to mediate on that actual situation: "Obviously this whole incident came about because Krsna is superior to Mahavisnu. The only way Mahavisnu can have the darsana of my beloved Lord Krsna was to take this brahmana child, and in that way, he could get to see Krsna." Krsna and His holy dham Dvaraka are so powerful that Mahavisnu couldn't even come to Dvaraka to see Krsna without Krsna's permission. This is the supremacy, the super-excellence of Krsna. And Krsna's devotees are so extraordinary that Mahavisnu could not send a servant of his to take the brahmana's boy because Krsna devotees, his brahmanas, are so dear to him. All this unfolded just so Mahavisnu could see Krsna, who is superior to him.
Then Arjuna presented his conclusions to Krsna and Krsna said, "Yes, that is so. And actually I did not go to see Mahavisnu simply to get the son of the brhamana back. It was not necessary for Me to go to do that. I went to see Mahavisnu with you to save you, My dear devotee, from entering into fire." So in this way, Krsna establishes the supremacy of svayam bhagavan and also the supremacy of His devotee in relation to Him.
These are various tours of the universe available to you in the Srimad-Bhagavatam. First you rid your mind of materialisstic conceptions implanted so deeply by materialistic authorities and then you can become saturated with the pure spiritual conceptions of Srimad-Bhagavatam, Caitanya Caritamrta. You will hear Lord Caitanya talk about Krsna's opulences to Sanatana Goswami and have His mind absorbed in the aisvarya-sagara, the ocean of opulence. And then you'll see Lord Caitanya become overcome by the sweetness, the madhuryamrta, the nectarean sweetness of Krsna's intimate characteristics. He'll explain about Krsna's body, Krsna's face, Krsna's smile.
And finally, Lord Caitanya will conclude saying, "Wait a minute, Sanatana, I didn't plan on speaking about Krsna's sweetness, I was simply going to explain to you about the opulence, but Krsna wanted to shower his mercy upon you and make you aware of His intimate characteristics. Therefore, regardless of my plan, I spoke to you all these things. Even though you can see I am a madman, you have gotten that mercy for Krsna. You have heard about Krsna's sweetness." All this information is there for you. Don't be afraid that it will take at least a lifetime to relish just one drop. That is your wealth as a devotee of the Lord in parampara.
Lord Caitanya said even the aisvarya-sagara, He can't explain the length and breadth, just one drop is beyond your comprehension. And just one drop of the ocean of sweetness can drown the three worlds. So this is the information you have for absorbing your whole life. Because it is coming from parampara, you will get realization simply if you are patient and determined in devotional service.
I'll ask if you have any questions. Yes?
Question: Thank you, Maharaja. I wondered what happened with this knowledge in sampradaya that came from the sun god, Krsna gave to Vivasvan.
Maharaja: What happened to that knowledge?
Question: Yes, and also what happened to that knowledge and also what happened to the knowledge that Arjuna got. Did another sampradaya arise? What about the four sampradayas from Lord Brahma, and..., were they not there at that time?
Maharaja: Krsna says:
sa kaleneha mahata yogo nastah parantapa
Because of the time factor, the purport, the real purport of Bhagavad-gita was lost. That doesn't mean the book was lost, it doesn't mean the Sanskrit was lost, it doesn't mean the text was lost, whether oral or written down. It means the clear purport was lost because of the effects of time. You see in Bhagavad-gita, Krsna doesn't cover up, He lets you know, "There are problems in this material world. Even the meaning of Bhagavad-gita can be lost and I come to speak it again." Sometimes even in a spiritual organization, because it's operating in the material world, there are problems. We're not utopians, Srila Prabhupada once said, we are realistic about the nature of this world. And Krsna explains that in Bhagavad-gita: kaleneha mahata yogo nastah parantapa, because of time, the way things work in this world, the original purport of the Gita was lost, but I come to speak it again.
Other questions? Yes.
Question: Hare Krsna. Thank you for the very nice lecture. Maharaja, I was wondering if you could help me to understand in the beginning of the purport it says that Satyaloka is actually a place where there is no misery and there is no falldown. there is also a quote in the beginning of the Fifth Canto that says that in Satyaloka there is no birth, no old age, no disease, no death. There is also another quote in the Ninth Canto. Now, the question is this, on the other hand, you have Lord Krsna in the Bhagavad-gita who says that a-brahma-bhuvanal. . . , says that from the highest planet of Lord Brahma down to the lowest, they are all places of misery and suffereing and where old age, disease, birth and death are succeeding. I was wondering if you can reconcile this apparent contradiction.
Maharaja: There is no gross bodily existence, so there is no gross bodily birth, old age, death, or disease, but there is falldown, according to Baladeva Vidyabhusana in his commentary to Laghu Bhagavatamrta. Those who go to Satyaloka they're not retired demigods, they're not pure devotees, they will, when their pious activities are expended, they will fall down to the lower planets. You'll hear more information tomorrow about the bodily type of Satyaloka, the nature of the subtle body. Then you'll also hear how to go beyond Satyaloka, because this is Sukadeva Goswami's presentation of the gradual path, how to go beyond Satyaloka to the spiritual world. On that gradual path, Mahavisnu-loka is an intermediate stop. So you'll hear more about that in the coming days. But yes, you can fall down even from the highest planet, if you're not fixed up in bhakti. If you're fixed up in bhakti, you'll go back to Godhead with Lord Brahma. And the descriptions of Satyaloka are not in reference to a gross material body and gross material birth and death and old. age
Anything else?
Question: Another question about this falldown process, they say that pious activities are all being exhausted and the jiva falls down, comes to the Earth and comes in to the grain, which is eaten by a human being and comes into the semen and all that. So I wonder sometimes that the semen count in an average human being is one hundred and fifty million, which four individuals semen count taken would produce the entire world's population in the space of ten days. So this is something that I cannot make sense of. Please help me with this.
Maharaja: I could not catch all of it.
Question: He's saying that the average semen count, in other words, the average male has so many sperms, all of which have souls and he's thinking they're all coming down from higher planets and get eaten through grains and absorbed into the body. So he's having trouble understanding.
Maharaja: Human form of life is a junction. You can attain human form of life by coming down or coming up. And once you get the human body you can go down or you can go up. So it's not simply that you get a human body by coming down, you can also get a human body by coming up, but we can talk more about this later because I can sense you want to get into the details.
Thank you very much. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. [applause]
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