(Kindly transcribed by Mataji Swetha Ganeshan)
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From Sri Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir!
Date: February 26, 2014
Speaker: HH Kesava Bharati Dasa Goswami
Subject: S.B. 9.4.68
HH Kesava Bharati Swami Maharaja:
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya,
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya.
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya.
This morning we are reading from Srimad Bhagavatam. Canto 9, chapter 4, text 68. Ambarīṣa Mahārāja Offended by Durvāsā Muni.
nāhaḿ tebhyo manāg api
(Word to word meaning is read)
TRANSLATION
The pure devotee is always within the core of My heart, and I am always in the heart of the pure devotee. My devotees do not know anything else but Me and I do not know anyone else but them.
PURPORT
Since Durvāsā Muni wanted to chastise Mahārāja Ambarīṣa, it is to be understood that he wanted to give pain to the heart of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, for the Lord says, sādhavo hṛdayaḿ mahyam: “The pure devotee is always within the core of My heart.” The Lord’s feelings are like those of a father, who feels pain when his child is in pain. Therefore, offenses at the lotus feet of a devotee are serious. Caitanya Mahāprabhu has very strongly recommended that one not commit any offense at the lotus feet of a devotee. Such offenses are compared to a mad elephant because when a mad elephant enters a garden it causes devastation. Therefore one should be extremely careful not to commit offenses at the lotus feet of a pure devotee. Actually Mahārāja Ambarīṣa was not at all at fault; Durvāsā Muni unnecessarily wanted to chastise him on flimsy grounds. Mahārāja Ambarīṣa wanted to complete the Ekādaśī–pāraṇa as a part of devotional service to please the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and therefore he drank a little water. But although Durvāsā Muni was a great mystic brāhmaṇa, he did not know what is what. That is the difference between a pure devotee and a so-called learned scholar of Vedic knowledge. The devotees, being always situated in the core of the Lord’s heart, surely get all instructions directly from the Lord, as confirmed by the Lord Himself in Bhagavad-gītā (10.11):
teṣām evānukampārtham
nāśayāmy ātma-bhāvastho
“Out of compassion for them, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance.” The devotee does not do anything not sanctioned by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As it is said, vaiṣṇavera kriyā mudrā vijñeha nā bujhaya. Even the most learned or experienced person cannot understand the movements of a Vaiṣṇava, a pure devotee. No one, therefore, should criticize a pure Vaiṣṇava. A Vaiṣṇava knows his own business, whatever he does is precisely right because he is always guided by the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
HH Kesava Bharati Swami Maharaja: Srila Prabhupada ki jay.
jaya sri-krishna-chaitanya prabhu nityananda
sri-adwaita gadadhara shrivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrinda
Hare Krsna Hare Kṛṣṇa
Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma
Rāma Rāma Hare Hare
Hare Krsna! The last time I sat on this seat in this room was in 2002. Hare Krsna! There is an intimate relationship between the tongue of the speaker and ear of the hearers. So I know for a fact that you are all very exalted Vaishnavas and I beg you, pull something out from this tongue which will be meaningful, which will be unifying and at the same time which will be accommodating to the diversity, which means each and every one of us. Thank you.
This verse is one of a series of verses, as you all know probably, spoken by Vishnu Himself, Krishna to Durvasa Muni after Durvasa Muni had offended a pure devotee of Krishna, Maharaja Ambarish. Durvasa Muni is not just an ordinary yogi or a great sage. Do you remember who gave Srimati Radharani the blessings that whatever she cooked would taste not only like nectar but give complete health and nourishment to whoever ate it? That was Durvasa Muni. Do you remember who crossed over the river in order to render service to Durvasa Muni to receive that benediction? It was Srimati Radharani.
How careful should we be? So we are thinking, Oh that’s for a pure devotee, ever liberated, Vaishnava Acharya. Visvanatha Chakravarthy Thakur however says that this applies to all Vaishnavas, whoever is fixed in the heart, serving devotional service to Krishna. And in the Madhurya Kadambini he gives a very strong statement. He says even reprobates who are fixed in service are not to be criticized for their past, however terrible it may have been. In this verse and in the verses that surround this verse, Vishnu is expressing how He feels about His devotees. And in the Brhad Bhagavatamrta when Gopa-kumar, after travelling throughout the material world, the coverings of the universe, the abode of liberation, after meeting the Vaikuntha dhutas and getting instructions from them in devotional service, in pure devotional service which culminated in nama sankirtan, they escort him, Gopa-kumar, into the presence of Vishnu in Vaikuntha. And while escorting him, mind you Gopa-kumar is a 8-10 year old boy, cowherd boy from Govardhan. And he wasn’t educated before he started his quest to find the abode of his lord Madan-Gopal. Having been given the mantra, the Gopal mantra from his Spiritual Master who happened to be an incarnation of Krishna, special situation. So he is getting instruction along the way. By the mercy of his spiritual master, he is given the benediction that even his boyish proclivity to go everywhere and find out about everything. You know how boys are? They want to put their nose in everything. They want to run here and run there and find out about everything. So, this 8-10 year old cowherd boy has been given the benediction at the strength of this mantra, given to him by his Guru, that he could go to all these different places and receive instructions from all these different devotees about the different levels of devotional service. So finally he is approaching Vaikuntha and the lotus feet of Vishnu, personally face to face. And the Vaikuntha dhuthas on the way they are instructing him what to say, what not say, where to stand, where not to stand. This is Vaikuntha, awe and reverence. And Gopa-kumar, young impressionable boy is saying yes, yes, yes. He is agreeing with everything and then they finally…anyway I won’t go into the story it’ll take way too long, if I go into the story. Then after passing, waiting at the gate, seeing unlimited opulence that are beyond anyone’s conception in this world and finally getting the permission to enter being instructed by the Vaikuntha dhutas, he is approaching Vishnu and he sees the beautiful, effulgent, opulent form of Vishnu surrounded by all of His energies and all of His eternal servants.
I am going to read to you just a few verses, don’t mind, from the Brhad Bhagavatamrta, I’m attached, don’t mind.
(Maharaja starts reading from Brhad Bhagavatamrta)
“The fullness of this ecstasy brought on by this sign made me forget what the attendance of the Lord had instructed me. I cried out again and again, Oh Gopal! my life and soul and I ran forward to embrace the Lord. Some discerning attendants who were standing at the Lord’s side held me back and I was heart-broken. I cried out in helpless distress again and again, overcome by my own excessive love and fell unconscious in front of the Lord. With some effort those attendants lifted me up and after sometime I regained my consciousness. I wiped away with my hands the flood of tears that blocked my sight and with difficulty I finally opened my eyes.”
Now we are going to hear how the Lord of the universe feels about His devotee. We are hearing it in this verse but this is explicit, the most explicit way or time that I have ever read in any sastra, in which Krishna is expressing His heart towards His devotee.
“Then I heard the Lord. That best of merciful persons, tell me in a deep gentle voice: ‘Please come back to your senses dear boy. Come here quickly’. I then felt the highest limit of joy. I danced all around as if seized by madness and stumbled about. But with great endeavor the Lord’s servants calmed me down and at last I awakened from that trance.”
Now we are going to hear how the Lord actually feels about us. Each and every one of us.
The Supreme lord said: “Welcome, welcome my dear boy. I am fortunate, most fortunate to meet you here. For so long I have been eager to see you. My dear friend you have passed many lifetimes without paying any attention to me at all. For so long, hope had me dancing like a fool thinking perhaps in this life time, or in this or this or this he will finally turn his face towards me. But I could find no pretext on which to bring you to my aboard dear brother and still follow the timeless laws that I myself have created. You showed me no mercy and as I considered this, I grew impatient full of anxiety to receive your favor. So I transgressed my eternal code of conduct and arranged for you to take your current birth”. That birth was in Govardhan. “Dear boy in that divine district of Govardhan my most beloved abode, I myself became your Guru known by the name Jayantha. Today, you have at last fulfilled the desire I have harbored for so long. Please nourish your happiness and mine by staying here forever.”
(Maharaja finishes reading from Brihad Bhagavatamritha)
Now Srila Prabhupada used to say to us, many times. So now you have come to Vaikuntha, now you have come to Goloka, now you have come to Svetadvip, Mayapur, just don’t leave. Don’t ever leave. We have been hearing a lot in these past days about how to lead, how to be spiritual leaders properly, how to unite, behind the fulfilling of Srila Prabhupada’s desire, to build this temple which is meant to unite the world. Prabhupada told us to come every year to Mayapur, specifically the GBC, the leaders, but all of us. He wanted us to come here as often as possible at least once a year and discuss unity in diversity. And due to the urgency of the moment, the need, the urgent need to bring together all of the devotees of this movement to strengthen it, to prepare it, to organize it in a way to go forward as we get larger and larger and more and more devotees come. Just how dear are the devotees of the Lord to the Lord?
One of the reason I picked this verse and this topic was because this past year I had an experience. I made an experiment. I was asking everywhere I went, I was asking the devotees who knows the verse
Famous verse! How many devotees know that verse?
See.
But I was surprised that when I asked who knew the next verse not very many devotees did. Only a few. But this next verse. You know tad viddhi praṇipātena, it tells us how to find the truth, how to find, how to get knowledge, how to get real transcendental knowledge by approaching self-realized souls, Spiritual Master. By serving, by inquiring, by being submissive. The next verse,
tells us what that knowledge is. The essence of it. And that’s my point. I want to go to the essence of the diversity by which we can unite consciously without losing the importance of the diversity. Without losing the importance of who we are dealing with as leaders. What does Krsna say in that verse? He says when you’ve received this knowledge, transcendental knowledge you will never again fall into illusion. This is the test of whether or not you have actually received this knowledge that you will never again fall into illusion. You want to know how not to fall down. Here it is in a nutshell, in the Gita.
Caitanya Caritamrita, Prabhupada told us was the post-graduate study. Srimad Bhagavatam is the graduate study, the Bhagavad Gita is the undergraduate study. The axiomatic truths. And I have seen it with my own eyes, devotees think that to go to the graduate and post graduate they kind of can leave the Gita behind. NO! We can no longer leave the axiomatic truths of the Gita behind in our behavior towards one another than we can leave behind the relationships to the integers going on to higher studies of mathematics. The axiomatic truths of mathematics must be learned so thoroughly that they becomes a part of us. How much is 6 times 6? Everybody can tell. You don’t have to think. No one, no one who is educated has to think. 9 times 9. You don’t have to think, it’s there. This axiomatic Truth that Krishna gives to Arjuna, the first verse after tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā tells us what that transcendental knowledge is. And what is it? You won’t fall down because you’ll see that all living beings are but a part of Me. In other words that they are Mine.
This is how not to fall down. This is how not to commit offences. This is how not to make the mistake that Durvasa Muni made, despite being such a great soul. Everyone one of us belongs to Krsna! Our mothers, our fathers, our children, our husbands, our wifes, our Gurus, our god brothers, our god sisters, our aunties, our uncles, everyone belongs to the family of Krsna. And us, especially us, under the shelter of our Founder Acharya- Srila Prabhupada, we belong to this family. Srila Prabhupada said, if you try to become Krishna conscious once having come to this family, once having heard this nectar directly from Srila Prabhupada if you go out, you are living in hallucination if you think you can become Krishna conscious. Caitanya Caritamrita is composed of perfect verses. Sprinkled in those verses, not in the purport, not in the commentary but in the verses themselves, sprinkled throughout, are verses of the Bhagavad Gita.
Even in the atmarama verse’s explanation by Caitanya Mahaprabhu there are verses of the Gita. Let us re-double our commitment to the basics of Krsna Consciousness, to this basic principle of Krsna consciousness that all of us, what to speak of all living beings are but part and parcel of Krsna. We belong to Krsna. We are Krishna’s and therefore we should take great care and if treat each other like that, if we actually treat each other like that, even when we have difference of opinion. There is a famous letter. We call the letter the utopia letter. You remember that letter? You know that letter? It was written by Srila Prabhupada to Atreya Rishi in 1972. I don’t have time. I have already run out of time. Sorry. I have a lot more to say. But I have run out of time. Hare Krishna.
But I want to tell you, please read this letter: Feb. 4th 1972 to Atreya Rishi and there Srila Prabhupada tells him who was complaining about faults and lacking in the GBC. That was the response to a letter that Prabhupada received on that subject. Prabhupada said, it is not that because there may be some fault, or lacking or some lack of some cooperation, that this means there is impersonalism in the air. No. Why? Because it is in the nature of the living condition that there is always something lacking. He said even in the spiritual world, of course for different reasons. Sometimes, he said, Krishna becomes so bewildered by looking at Srimati Radharani that he tries to milk the bull instead of the cow. You know, if you were a CNN reporter, you know, watching, you know, what kind of a God is this? Doesn’t know the difference between a cow and a bull? Sometimes the Gopis compete for Krsna’s favour. Sometimes the cowherd boys, they compete for Krsna’s favor. They have a kind of envy but it’s not envy because everything they do is for Krishna. So let us open our eyes with this knowledge given by Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, meant for every one of us, no matter what our positions are in this movement or in this world. Practice seeing. This is called the ‘assimilation of knowledge.’ What did Krishna mean when He said you’ll see everyone belongs to Me and that everyone is Mine. You won’t be able to see that physically immediately but it means you’ll see it through knowledge.
In the verse later, in the 4th chapter where Krishna glorifies transcendental knowledge:
as the most pure transcendental thing, the sweetest thing. In the first line of the purport, Srila Prabhupada said, when we speak of transcendental knowledge we do so in terms of transcendental understanding. This is what knowledge is and this is how to assimilate the knowledge. Understand that we all belong to Krishna and see one another in that light and if you do you will automatically take more care, no matter who the person is. And so when we naturally bicker in the heat of the moment whether we are leaders of the movement or leaders of our family or whatever we are doing, this is Kali Yuga, it is impossible to avoid that bickering. It is an ocean of faults. So, that’s my humble request. Please take this axiomatic truth, this simple axiomatic truth. Practice seeing one another no matter what the situation, no matter what the circumstance. You know my mother used to tell me count to ten, if you are feeling a little upset and you are going to say something nasty, count to 10 before you speak. And if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say it.
17th chapter 15th verse, austerity of speech. Practice, practice. And when another person sees you practicing that and looking at them at the soul and giving them the love that every soul deserves they’ll respond, according to time, according to circumstance, they’ll respond and our movement will become so strong. It already is but it will become stronger and stronger and there is no limit to how strong it can become if we take this principle into our heart and practice assimilating this knowledge.
Hare Krsna! Srila Prabhupada ki jay.
OK. I am out of time. I am not going to take any questions. Hare Krsna! Thank you so much. Each and every one of you. For your hearts and your ears, pulled something out. Thank you. Hare Krsna.
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