CONTENTS:
- SRIMAD BHAGAVATAM 3.5.12 (PART - 4) QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
- SRILA PRABHUPADA'S APPRECIATION
- GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
1. SRIMAD BHAGAVATAM 3.5.12 (PART - 4) QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
SB 3.5.12
munir vivakṣur bhagavad-guṇānāṁ
sakhāpi te bhāratam āha kṛṣṇaḥ
yasmin nṛṇāṁ grāmya-sukhānuvādair
matir gṛhītā nu hareḥ kathāyām
TRANSLATION
Your friend the great sage Krishna-dvaipayana Vyasa has already described the transcendental qualities of the Lord in his great work the Mahabharata. But the whole idea is to draw the attention of the mass of people to Krishna-katha [Bhagavad-Gita] through their strong affinity for hearing mundane topics.
Q: How do Demi-Gods get the good fortune to be with Krishna although they are not pure devotees?
A: You see there are mixed devotees but when they perform devotion then Krishna as the Supreme well-wisher of everyone makes arrangements to take them to a higher stage. Good fortune cannot take us to Krishna, it’s the mercy of Krishna and mercy of the devotees, mainly mercy of the devotees.
Q: After Krishna departed from this planet did the demi-gods return to Svargaloka?
A: There are different ways: 1. They may go back to the heavenly planets and after completing their tenor then they go back to the spiritual sky; 2. They can go back to the spiritual sky. 3. One part of them goes to the spiritual sky and another part stays in the heavenly planets. Those are the three possibilities.
Q: Arjuna and Draupadi and Krishna…unclear..?
A: We have to understand that Arjuna is Krishna’s eternal associate and so is Draupadi but also some fortunate (meaning spiritually elevated) personality may get the good fortune of merging in the body of Arjuna and may get the benefit. Arjuna is Krishna’s eternal associate; another personality may merge into Arjuna’s role and derive the benefit. A clearer understanding will come from here: in one hand we see that the srutis are getting the good fortune of becoming the Gopis and the Gopis are Krishna’s eternal associates. Wherever Krishna is the Gopis are also coming. So here we have to understand the srutis have the good fortune of merging with the personality of those Gopis. How it happened? By Krishna’s mercy, by Krishna’s mercy anything is possible. One soul can be divided into many and many souls can become one.
Q: The purpose of the battle of Kuruksetra is to eliminate the demoniac kings so why then was the saintly kings…unclear…..?
A: Good point that has been explained by Krishna Himself to Yudhistir Maharaja. When Yudhistir Maharaja left the battlefield of Kuruksetra, he was lamenting, he was completely devastated because he was thinking it was all because of him that such destruction took place. Krishna explained, “Look this was my purpose, I made this arrangement to eliminate the demons and those who came to assist Me because the mission was accomplished, I sent them back to their respective places.” See those who were on the Pandavas side obviously they are not demons so why did they have to die on the battlefield of Kuruksetra? Because now the mission has been accomplished so they had to go back to their respective places. Similarly, Krishna calls the Yadhus to fight with each other and apparently kill themselves because Krishna was about to leave His pastimes and He felt, if I go home, they should go back home first and that is why He made that arrangement.
Q: Ganga is actually consort of Lord Shiva?
A: Ganga, not really, she is the consort of Krishna
Q: So how could Ganga be the wife of Santanu?
A: Well by Krishna’s arrangement everything is possible. How could Draupadi be the consort of the Pandavas? Krishna allows some individuals to sort of have some relationship with somebody in this material nature when they come, its Krishna’s arrangements. We have to understand that their relationship is not at all mundane. The Pandavas relationship with Draupadi is not mundane, Santanu’s relationship with Ganga is not mundane. It is beyond us therefore it’s better to let it fly above our head. We will never be able to understand it.
Question inaudible
A: Because you are arranging for the service of the Lord, the Lord is in the centre it’s not material anymore. See, that’s the difference between material and spiritual. You do it for yourself its material, you do it for Krishna its spiritual. Arjuna is fighting the battle and Karna is fighting the battle. Karna is doing it for himself therefore for him its material. Arjuna is fighting for Krishna for him its spiritual.
Question inaudible
A: He actually preached Krishna Consciousness. I have a plan to make a movie on Sankaracharya, it’s only the time to film it. Sankaracharya was a great devotee, it’s only his teachings have been misrepresented in such a way, that’s the first point. The second point is that Sankaracharya came with a purpose. You see Krishna came as Buddha why did He come as Buddha? To stop the animal killing. How? By rejecting the Vedas and bringing the new doctrine, Buddhism. He did that to stop the animal sacrifice because the animal sacrifice was going on in the name of the Vedas so if you reject the Vedas then there is no room for animal sacrifice. But without the Vedas people will not have any understanding about reality. So, Vedas have been re-instated therefore Krishna instructed Lord Shankar to come and do this job of re-establishing the Vedas and in order to do that in terms of Buddhism, he had to do it in a way that they would accept. If he gave the pure doctrines of the Vedas, they would say it’s your theory, we won’t have nothing to do with that.
Therefore, Sankaracharya had to present it in their doctrine, in simple words like Buddhists think that nirvana is to merge with the void. Sankaracharya raised the point using that expression nirvana and the Vedic concept is not to merge with the void, to merge with everything, to merge with Brahman. What is Brahman? Brahman is everything. You see they are the followers of voidism and if you tell them of the variegatedness of spirituality they will not accept it. His teaching was the spiritual reality and was not void. Spiritual reality is devoid of shape, quality and form and by saying that he re-established the Vedas. When the Vedas were re-established then Ramanujacharya and other Vaishnava Acharyas came and presented the real teachings of Vedas. Sankaracharya had to do that job for the sake of re-establishing the Vedas. In Visnupuran, Lord Shiva is talking to Parvati, “I will appear in the age of Kali as a Brahmana and I will establish a theory called Mayavad, a temporary doctrine which is actually covered so I will do it in order to re-establish the Vedas.”
2. SRILA PRABHUPADA'S APPRECIATION
Srila Prabhupada had made this wonderful family ISKCON where you have your father, uncles, brothers, cousins, everyone. Thus, you are never alone.
3. GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
Srila Prabhupada will save you from this dangerous ocean of material nature and take you back to the Spiritual Sky. Just remained attached to his divine lotus feet.
(The content of this E-magazine is based on a lecture given by His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami on 26 August 2008 in ISKCON Ujjain)
(Compiled and Edited by Hemavati Radhika Devi Dasi)