CONTENTS:
- SRIMAD BHAGAVATAM 1.1.1
- QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
- SRILA PRABHUPADA'S APPRECIATION
- GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
1. SRIMAD BHAGAVATAM 1.1.1
SB 1.1.1
oà namo bhagavate väsudeväya
janmädy asya yato 'nvayäd itarataç
cärtheñv abhijïaù svaräö
tene brahma hådä ya ädi-kavaye
muhyanti yat sürayaù
tejo-väri-mådäà yathä vinimayo yatra
tri-sargo 'måñä
dhämnä svena sadä nirasta-kuhakaà
satyaà paraà dhémahi
TRANSLATION
O my Lord, Sri Krishna, son of Vasudeva, O all-pervading Personality of Godhead, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You. I meditate upon Lord Sri Krishna because He is the Absolute Truth and the primeval cause of all causes of the creation, sustenance and destruction of the manifested universes. He is directly and indirectly conscious of all manifestations, and He is independent because there is no other cause beyond Him. It is He only who first imparted the Vedic knowledge unto the heart of Brahmäjé, the original living being. By Him even the great sages and demigods are placed into illusion, as one is bewildered by the illusory representations of water seen in fire, or land seen on water. Only because of Him do the material universes, temporarily manifested by the reactions of the three modes of nature, appear factual, although they are unreal. I therefore meditate upon Him, Lord Sri Krishna, who is eternally existent in the transcendental abode, which is forever free from the illusory representations of the material world. I meditate upon Him, for He is the Absolute Truth.
This verse is an invocation to Srimad Bhagavatam. Srila Vyasadeva before compiling the Srimad Bhagavatam, is offering his obeisances and is explaining why he is meditating upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He had very systematically established why the Supreme Personality of Godhead should be meditated upon and why He should be the only object of one’s thoughts. The word meditation means focusing the mind on one object and keeping it fixed on that. The mind’s natural tendency is to think. Wherever there is consciousness there must be thoughts and desires and the thoughts are relative to the desires. We think about what we desire and the more we desire something, the more obsessed we become about the object of our thought.
WHY SHOULD KRISHNA BE THE OBJECT OF OUR MEDITATION AND OF OUR THOUGHT?
Why should Krishna be the object of our meditation and of our thought? In this verse, Srila Vyasadeva is explaining that Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is janmädy asya, He is the cause of everything that has been created and everything is maintained by Him either directly or indirectly. He is the Supreme Maintainer. Janma means birth or creation and adi means etcetera. Etcetera indicates birth and things related to birth. Anything that is born or created must be maintained and anything that has been created must at some point in time be destroyed. Construction, maintenance and demolition are the nature of this material creation. An example to illustrate this point is, this building has been created at some point and in order to facilitate its continued existence it must be maintained.
If the roof leaks it has to be repaired or if there is broken glass in the windows it needs to be replaced. In this way maintenance must be taken care of especially for living beings, maintenance can be very troublesome. A machine or even this building does not need much maintenance but for a human being or any other creature to maintain itself takes so much effort. We have to eat three times a day, breakfast, lunch and dinner. We then have to make provisions for so many other facilities. At night, we need a place to sleep. In this way, we can ascertain that the maintenance of living entities is a very complex process. Should we get sick, there are so many considerations for maintenance and Krishna is there maintaining. Krishna is the Creator.
THEY ALL CAME FROM KRISHNA
Although one may claim that he was born from his parents and say “Where does Krishna come into the picture?” The reality is that Krishna, although He is not directly involved with our creation or birth, He is indirectly involved. Where did our fathers and our mothers come from? They all came from Krishna. Therefore, we may say that although our birth came from our fathers and mothers actually Krishna is the cause of our fathers and mothers’ births. Although not directly involved with our creation, is Krishna involved in our creation? Krishna has not only created our fathers and mothers but also our grandfathers, grandmothers, great grandfathers and great grandmothers all the way back to Brahma. We are in this universe and who has created this universe? Krishna has created the universe. Krishna is the cause of creation and birth of everyone. Krishna is maintaining everyone. Our sustenance is very complicated and difficult.
An example to illustrate this point is every day we eat food, where does the food come from? Does the food come from the shop or the vegetable market or the farmer? One may say: “Yes, the food comes from the farmer.” Although the farmers are growing the food it must be understood how the food grows. A seed falls onto the ground; it sprouts into a seedling then gradually grows into a tree. We can observe this very strange phenomenon of a seed falling onto the ground and from the seed a tree grows. Now who made this arrangement? If we can go back, where did the seed come from? The seed comes from a specific fruit and inside the seed there is a tree, the same fruit tree. Then that tree will grow and bear fruits and in those fruits there will be seeds and in the seeds there are trees. When a seed is cultivated properly then that seed from the fruit will also grow into a tree.
IT IS KRISHNA BECAUSE THERE IS NO ONE OTHER THAN KRISHNA WHO CAN MAKE SUCH A WONDERFUL ARRANGEMENT
Do we see any such arrangement or phenomenon anywhere else? Does anything that we create have such capacity? An example to illustrate this point is that if we manufacture motorcars can we create a male motorcar and a female motorcar that will give birth to a baby motorcar? No. But Krishna’s creation is so wonderful that in the seed there is a tree and in the tree there are innumerable fruits; in those fruits there are innumerable seeds and in each of those seeds, there is a tree. A man and a woman get married; then a child will be born. In this way, creation takes place in such a wonderful way. Who is the cause of that wonderful arrangement? It is Krishna because there is no one other than Krishna who can make such a wonderful arrangement. The seed comes out, falls onto the ground and it becomes a tree. In the tree, there are innumerable fruits. Trees bear different kinds of fruits and nuts for man not for the tree itself.
An example to illustrate this point is a cabbage; it is actually a flower. You cut the cabbage, cook it and offer it to Krishna. Who made this arrangement? Our food has been so wonderfully arranged. In this way, Krishna is maintaining us; whatever we need, Krishna is providing for us. He made such wonderful arrangements that although He is not directly involved, there will continuously be food for all mankind; not only mankind, but all living creatures even an ant, Krishna had made the arrangement for its food. Another need that we have is water. How do we get water? What a beautiful arrangement Krishna has made for water. Although this planet mostly consists of water we cannot drink that water. It is not that if we needed water and this water only came from the ocean, we would have to go and stay near the ocean to get some water. To begin with we cannot drink that water because it is full of salt; it is impossible to use that salty water for consumption. The rays of the sun will evaporate the water.
When it is evaporated, no foreign elements will be present; it will be just plain and pure water rising from the ocean into the sky. This water vapour becomes clouds and those clouds are scattered all over the sky and from those clouds rain falls and this is how Krishna is taking care of our supply of water. Another one of our needs is air or oxygen. Although oxygen is everywhere, when we take in oxygen we give off carbon dioxide. Oxygen is present in the atmosphere, but when we breathe in we take in oxygen and when we breathe out we give off carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is not good for our health and we cannot breathe in carbon dioxide. So, Krishna made the arrangement that trees and plants will take in the carbon dioxide and give off oxygen. We need oxygen and if this oxygen becomes carbon dioxide after we breathe out and this process continued then the oxygen in the atmosphere would become depleted. One day, the whole world’s atmosphere would have become filled with carbon dioxide. However, the trees and plants are taking in the carbon dioxide and giving off oxygen. As a result of this, there is no shortage of oxygen for us and no shortage of carbon dioxide for the trees. Who made this arrangement? Did somebody make this arrangement or had it happened by chance? In this way, Krishna is making all the arrangements for our needs.
ALL OF OUR NEEDS ARE BEING TAKEN CARE OF BY KRISHNA
All of our needs are being taken care of by Krishna. Krishna is the Maintainer and Krishna is also the Destroyer. He destroys everything as Mahadeva, Lord Siva. Creation takes place by the effort of Brahma. Actually, original creation takes place due to Vishnu. Originally, the Lord creates by lying in the causal ocean; He creates the universes there, then He enters into the universes as Garbhodakashayi Vishnu and becomes manifest as Kshirodakashayi Vishnu. In this way, Vishnu is the cause of creation, but the secondary creator is Brahma. If we consider building of a house, once the house is built and the structure is in place, what happens next? We need someone to come and put in the fixtures. Brahma is actually doing that, the job of the interior creation but Vishnu has done the exterior creation. So, in this way, the Lord is the cause of creation, maintenance and destruction. He destroys when He sees that this universe has become old. Actually, the destruction takes place when Brahma dies; Brahma also has to die. When Brahma dies or when Brahma leaves his body then the universe also dissolves.
That is how the universes are apparently dissolved but the cause of the destruction of the universe is also Sri Krishna. In this way, we have to recognise that Sri Krishna is directly or indirectly involved in the creation, maintenance and destruction of everything in this material nature. Krishna is janmädy asya. Creation, maintenance and destruction, these three are caused by Krishna. Krishna is the cause of janmädy, birth, maintenance and destruction. 'nvayäd itarataç cärtheñv abhijïaù svaräö. Krishna knows everything. He is situated in everyone’s heart therefore He knows everything. Krishna is not only the cause of creation, maintenance and destruction but Krishna knows the heart of everyone. 'nvayäd itarataç cärtheñv abhijïaù. He is abhijïaù aware or conscious and svaräö, fully independent. Vyasadeva is explaining why he is meditating upon Krishna and also why we should meditate on Krishna as well because Krishna is the cause of all causes and He is the cause of creation, maintenance and destruction.
KRISHNA KNOWS EVERYTHING
Krishna knows everything, abhijïaù and svaräö, Krishna is completely independent. There is no one that Krishna is depending upon. Yes, for His pastimes He came as the son of Nanda Maharaja and Mother Yashoda. In this case Krishna is allowing someone to become His superior but in reality, no one can become superior to Krishna. Krishna is Supreme therefore He is completely independent, svaräö. Vyasadeva is explaining why he is meditating upon Krishna before speaking on Srimad Bhagavatam. He is establishing the fact that Krishna is the supreme object of meditation, janmädy asya yato 'nvayäd itarataç cärtheñv abhijïaù svaräö. Tene brahma hådä ya ädi-kavaye muhyanti yat sürayaù. He is the one who imparted the knowledge of the spiritual sky in the heart of Brahma. tene brahma hådä ya ädi-kavaye muhyanti yat sürayaù, this knowledge is bewildering even for the demigods. Even the sages who are extremely exalted personalities are bewildered by Krishna’s illusory energy.
The knowledge that He gave into the heart of Brahma causes bewilderment even to the demigods and exalted personalities like the great sages. Krishna has created this visible material nature together with different modes and people act in different modes. The living entities or everything in this material nature are controlled by these three modes. tene brahma hådä ya ädi-kavaye muhyanti yat sürayaù, even the demigods and exalted saintly personalities also are bewildered. tene brahma hådä ya ädi-kavaye muhyanti yat sürayaù, tejo-väri-mådäà yathä vinimayo yatra tri-sargo 'måñä, by mixing tejo fire, väri water, mådäà earth, He has created this material nature. tri-sargo 'måñä, this material nature has three aspects controlled by the three modes. Living entities are naturally bewildered by material nature, but when one surrenders unto Krishna one can very easily get out of this material nature.
SURRENDERING TO KRISHNA IS THE MOST IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION
That is why surrendering unto Krishna is the most important consideration. That is why we find that in Srimad Bhagavatam, time and time again, it has been established how important it is to surrender unto Krishna and why we should surrender unto Krishna. Everything is explained in terms of the benefit of surrendering unto Krishna. Satyam param dhimahi, I meditate upon the Absolute Truth, Sri Krishna. Vyasadeva establishes that Krishna must be glorified and that is what Srila Prabhupada also taught us, Krishna must be glorified and Krishna’s representative, Krishna’s incarnation in this age, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, must also be glorified. That is the goal of the human form of life.
2. QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Question inaudible
A: Is the devotee body or soul? Is the body created or is the soul created? His body is created. Anything that has been created must be destroyed. His body has been created so his body will be destroyed. Krishna will not save the body, He will save the soul. The body will be destroyed but not the soul. Krishna will protect the soul, save the soul and bring the soul back to His Lotus Feet but the body will be destroyed, sooner or later, either after ten years or after ten thousand years the body will be destroyed some day.
Question inaudible
A: The body is made by the arrangement of material nature. The body is made of matter. Who controls the material elements? The material elements are controlled by material energy, Maya. This body has been arranged by Maha Maya? This body is like a machine where the soul is situated. A motorcar has been manufactured by Ford. Has the driver of the motorcar also been manufactured by Ford? Who manufactured the driver? Similarly, material nature makes the body. In the body, the soul sits and drives the body and the functions of the body. The material nature didn’t make the soul therefore anything in this material nature needs to be created, maintained and destroyed. Material objects can be destroyed but spiritual soul cannot be destroyed and as you asked, “Who made the arrangement for the soul to be in the body?” This arrangement for the soul to be in the body has been arranged by material nature. That is directly but indirectly it is Krishna because Krishna is controlling everything. Ultimately, it is all Krishna’s arrangements but apparently it is controlled by material nature.
Question inaudible
A: The king decided to have a play. He told his ministers and entourage to also take part in that play. Now, the king is acting on stage; sometimes it appears that he is afraid, is it real or is he just acting? He is playing his role just like an actor; lilas are like that. In pastimes, Krishna acts. Thus, Krishna becomes the son of Nanda Maharaja. Does He need to become the son? No, He doesn’t need to be the son of Nanda Maharaja but He is acting as the son of Nanda Maharaja, that’s called pastimes. Why is He acting that way, why has He decided to act as the son of Nanda Maharaja? It is to give pleasure to His devotees. In order to give pleasure to His devotees, He acts. He performs His pastimes. While He is performing His pastimes, He is afraid when He sees the stick in the hands of Mother Yasoda. Is it real, is He really afraid or is He pretending to be afraid? He is acting like that and He is such a good actor that when He acts, it becomes real. He really feels that He is the son of Nanda Maharaja and when He sees the stick in the hands of Mother Yasoda, He really becomes afraid and begins to cry, it’s not acting. On one hand it’s acting; on the other hand, it’s real. He does become afraid when He sees that His father is in distress; He doesn’t know what to do, a huge snake has caught hold of His father.
This has been very beautifully demonstrated in the Brhad Bhagavatam. One of the incidents in the Brhad Bhagavatam begins with how Krishna, when He was in Dwarka, became very much afflicted due to the separation from Vrindavana and He fainted. He was feeling the separation so deeply and recognising the situation Brahma instructed Vishwakarma to create a new Vrindavana and told Garuda to carry Krishna there. Balarama also went with Him and he dressed Krishna in Vrindavana attire. In Dwarka, He dresses differently; He is a prince there but in Vrindavana, He is dressed as a cowherd boy.
Brahma arranged for New Vrindavana to be created and for Krishna to be taken there. Balarama dressed Krishna like a cowherd boy with a yellow dhoti, yellow chadar, flower garlands, peacock feather, then tucked His flute in His belt and woke Him up, “Krishna, Krishna wake up!” New Vrindavana is a place where there are replicas of the personalities of Vrindavana. There are dioramas or murtis of different individuals. So, Balarama woke up Krishna in New Vrindavana, “Krishna, wake up. It is late.” Krishna woke up and said: “Oh, I slept until late. I woke up so late today.” Then, He told Balarama: “Hey Balarama, I had a very strange dream; I dreamt that I went to some place and became a king there. I got married to sixteen thousand girls.” Balarama said, “Anyway, don’t worry about that. Now let’s go. Everyone is waiting for you. We are so late.”
Krishna got up and saw mother Yasoda. He thought that Mother Yasoda was angry and did not want to talk to Him, so Krishna said: “Mother, are you angry with Me because I overslept, so you do not want to talk to Me?” Balarama dragged Krishna and pulled Him along. They came to the bank of the ocean of Dwaraka. New Dwaraka was on an island and on the other side He saw Dwaraka. He told Balarama: “Hey Balarama, see there is a big city on the other side of the Yamuna. When did it come up?” At that point, Balarama said, “Krishna, come back to your senses. Although, You have killed so many demons, Jarasanda is alive and is still planning to attack the Pandavas so now You have to do something.” As soon as Krishna heard that, He became very angry and said, “Who is going to attack the Pandavas? I am going to kill all these demons. I have already taken care of all these demons and killed many of them personally and I have forced them to die in the battlefield of Kuruksetra but still you are saying other demons are trying to attack the Pandavas I will take care of them!” In this way, Krishna came back to His Dwarka consciousness.
The point is that when Krishna acts, He acts so well that He Himself forgets and that is also the arrangement of Yogamaya. The director directs an actor and according to his direction an actor acts. Yogamaya is the director and she is such a good director who trains Krishna so well to play a specific role that Krishna, Himself, forgets who He actually is and He becomes the character He plays. Presently we are unable to understand this until we go back to the Spiritual Sky to see how it is really enacted. From this platform, we can only speculate or get some understanding from the Scriptures.
3. SRILA PRABHUPADA'S APPRECIATION
One day Prabhupada asked me to cook one preparation that is made with a lot of chilli, red chilli and lot of ghee. So, at that time Prabhupada... since Prabhupada's stomach was not very good I did not put so much chilli in it. So Prabhupada took a bite and he was very upset with me. And he said, “I personally taught you how to cook this preparation, and you already forgot?” So, I didn't know what to say, so I was just quiet about it. And in this way, Prabhupada was so upset, whenever I went near him, he blasted me. (laughter) “I personally taught you and you forgot?” In this way it went on for two days! (laughter) On the third day when Prabhupada's voice sounded a little more mellow (laughter), so I told Prabhupada, “Prabhupada, actually I didn't forget, I didn't put the chilli because your stomach was not very good that's why I thought I shouldn't put so much chilli.” Then Prabhupada said, 'Then why didn't you tell me?' (laughter) And then Prabhupada told me that when you put a lot of ghee, you must put a lot of chilli because they counteract each other. Chilli is heavy, ghee is heavy. But when you put ghee and chilli together, they counteract each other. So, this is one thing that Prabhupada taught me.
(Excerpt from a lecture given by HH Bhakti Charu Swami at ISKCON New York)
4. GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
- Surrendering unto Krishna is the most important consideration. That is why we find that in Srimad Bhagavatam, time and time again, it has been established how important it is to surrender unto Krishna and why we should surrender unto Krishna. Everything is explained in terms of the benefit of surrendering unto Krishna. Satyam param dhimahi, I meditate upon the Absolute Truth, Sri Krishna. Vyasadeva establishes that Krishna must be glorified and that is what Srila Prabhupada also taught us, Krishna must be glorified and Krishna’s representative, Krishna’s incarnation in this age, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, must also be glorified. That is the goal of the human form of life.
(The content of this E-magazine is based on a Lecture given by His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami on 8th November 2004 at ISKCON Ujjain)
(Compiled and Edited by Hemavati Radhika Devi Dasi)