Krishna Is The Real Supreme Personality Of Godhead | His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami Archives

Verse: Srimad Bhagvatam 10.66.7-8

Date: June 24th, 2011

Place: NEW TALAVAN, NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, US

Transcription: Ram Charan Das

Editing: Her Grace Hemavati Radhika Dasi

Hare Krishna. I am very happy to be here. This is my first visit to New Talavan.

Devotees [Clapping]: Hari Bol!!

Many times devotees from here requested me to come but I couldn’t come earlier. I feel very happy to be here. It must be very nice here, peaceful at the lotus feet of Sri Sri Radha-Radhakanta and Gaur-Nitai. Thank you all very much.

So, we are reading from Srimad Bhagavatam, tenth canto, chapter sixty six, seven and eight. So, I will read through the verse seven and then I will go to verse eight

sri-suka uvaca
katthanam´ tad upakarnya
paundrakasyalpa-medhasah
ugrasenadayah sabhya
uccakair jahasus tada

Translation:
Sukadeva Gosvami said: King Ugrasena and the other members of the assembly laughed loudly when they heard this vain boasting of unintelligent Paundraka.

Text Eight

uvaca dutam´ bhagavan
parihasa-katham anu
utsraksye mudha cihnani
yais tvam evam´ vikatthase

[Recitation of Sanskrit words with their meaning]

Uvaca- said; dutam- to the messenger; bhagavan- the Supreme Lord; parihasa- joking; katham- discussion; anu- after; utsraksye- I will throw; mudha- O fool; cihnani- the symbols; yaih – about which; tvam- you; evam- in this way; vikatthase- are boasting.

The Personality of Godhead, after enjoying the jokes of the assembly, told the messenger to relay a message to his master: “You fool, I will indeed let loose the weapons you boast of in this way.”

Please repeat after me.

PURPORT
The Sanskrit word utsraksye means “I will hurl, throw, let loose, abandon, etc.” Foolish Paundraka demanded that Lord Krishna give up His powerful weapons, such as the disc and the club, and here the Lord replies, utsrakshye mudha cihnani: “Yes, fool, I will indeed let loose these weapons when we meet on the battlefield.”

In Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Srila Prabhupada nicely describes this scene as follows: “When all the members of the royal assembly, including King Ugrasena, heard this message sent by Paundraka, they laughed very loudly for a considerable time. After enjoying the loud laughter of all the members of the assembly, Krishna replied to the messenger as follows: “O messenger of Paundraka, you may carry My message to your master. He is a foolish rascal. I directly call him a rascal, and I refuse to follow his instructions. I shall never give up the symbols of Vasudeva, especially My disc. I shall use this disc to kill not only King Paundraka but all his followers also. I shall destroy this Paundraka and his foolish associates, who merely constitute a society of cheaters and the cheated.”

I will read these two verses together.

sri-suka uvaca
katthanam´ tad upakarnya
paundrakasyalpa-medhasah
ugrasenadayah sabhya
uccakair jahasus tada

Sukadeva Gosvami said: King Ugrasena and the other members of the assembly laughed loudly when they heard this vain boasting of unintelligent Paundraka.

uvaca dutam´ bhagavan
parihasa-katham anu
utsraksye mudha cihnani
yais tvam evam´ vikatthase

So, Paundraka actually proposed that Krishna gives up His symbols like Krishna carries four symbols : Conch, Lotus, Disk and Mace or Shankha, Chakra, Gada and Padma. So, his proposal was to give up those symbols, don’t artificially carry the symbols claiming yourself to be God. I am the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So, in response Krishna is using the same word that you give up and I will release. Yes my disk and the next verse actually clarifies that point, I will just read the verse, I will read the
translation, tomorrow that verse will be discussed. I will release those weapons to kill you and this is what happens to the cheaters who claims to be the Supreme Personality of Godhead himself. Actually the Supreme Personality of Godhead is one and only one.

Ekam eva advitiya param purusha.

The identity of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is one who possesses all opulence, all the opulence, all the strength, all the fame, all the beauty, all wisdom and all renunciation.

These four, these six symbols, symptoms constitute the identity of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. What to speak of six, these six, no one can claim having even one of these opulences for himself, all wealth, some people may have some wealth but no one can claim all the wealth. Some people can claim some strength but no one can claim all the strength, all the beauty, all the fame, all the knowledge, all renunciation. However there is only one person who can claim that. That personality according to the Vedas is Ekam eva advitiya param purusha, the Supreme Personality param purusha who is Ekam eva advitiya who is one without a second.

That is the identity of the Supreme personality of Godhead : He is one without a second and He has many expansions. His expansions are of two categories, Sva-amsa expansion and Vibhi-amsa expansion. That one without a second, the Personality of Godhead expands himself into many forms. He remains the same but He expands into many, they are called incarnations, there are six different types of incarnations. There are Amsa avatar, Lila avatar, Guna avatar, Yuga avatar, Manvantar avatar and Shaktavesha avatar. These are the six categories.

The first one is Purusha avatar. The Purusha Vishnu incarnation. Mahavishnu or Karnodakshya Vishnu lies in the causal ocean. Garbhodakshya Vishnu, the Personality who is in each universe lying in the ocean of Garbha and then Kshirodakshayi Vishnu who is the Supersoul of all the living entities. So, these are the category of Purusha avatar.

Then Guna avatar. There are three modes of material nature. The Lord expands Himself to control these three modes as Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. In Lila avatar, in order to perform his pastimes he assumes different forms like Varaha, Kurma, Nrsingha, etc. then Yuga avatar, in every Yuga, there are four Yugas and in each Yuga the Lord manifests Himself to establish the Dharma of that Yuga. And then Manvantar avatar, in a day of Brahma, there are fourteen Manus. The reigns of the Manus are called the Manvantars and the Supreme Personality of Godhead comes in each millennium or in each Manvantar in each Manu’s reign in various ways and then Shaktavesha avatar. The Supreme Personality of Godhead sometimes empowers a devotee to accomplish something very unusual like Vyasadeva, Narada Muni, Prithu Maharaja, these are all the Shaktavesha avatar. So, these are the six categories of the Supreme Personality of Godhead but He expands himself into innumerable forms in this way but all this forms all these personalities are He Himself. There is no difference. He may not display His entire potencies but those incarnations are He Himself.

So, they are called the Sva-amsa avatar and then there are jivas, Vibhina-amsa. They are His parts and parcels and an example has been given in this respect that the relationship between the Supreme Personality of Godhead and His Vibhina-amsa or the jivas. If the Supreme Personality of Godhead is compared to the sun, then the rays of the sun are like the jivas. The Jivas are like the rays of the sun, how many rays of the sun are there? Although the Sun is one His rays are unlimited and all these rays display some of the qualities of the Lord to some extent. All the qualities of sun to some extent, qualitatively all these rays are one with the sun but quantitatively, a ray is a ray and the sun is the sun. A ray can never be compared to the sun, a ray can never be identical to the sun or another example can be given. The drop of water and the ocean, a drop of the water is also water and the ocean is also water. But a drop is a tiny little particle of water whereas the ocean is the vast reservoir of water. So, this is the reality and this is the proper understanding.

But sometimes some living entities becoming extremely arrogant and possessing a little bit of power, they think that they have become God. Not only that they becoming extremely arrogant and by possessing a little bit of power but along with there is another factor. That factor is their followers pepping them up. They have a little bit of display, little bit of power and these foolish people start to promote this person as God, but this jiva no matter how powerful he becomes can never be equal to God. Jivas are always jiva and Krishna is always the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

For a jiva, it is never possible to become God. When he does that is the height of his false ego. It is the total misconception, total misunderstanding and wrong estimation of his identity and these people are considered to be the worst offenders to the Supreme Personality. They are the most degraded of all living entities. Why? Because in a state, what is the greatest offence in a kingdom of a king, what is the greatest offence, to revolt against the king is the greatest offence. King is the king and everyone in the kingdom is meant to abide by the authority of the king and the supremacy of the king. But if in the kingdom somebody else claims that he is the king then he is considered to be the biggest offender. Those people are either banished from that kingdom or they are sentenced to death. Similarly, when a living entity claims that he is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and especially when the Supreme Personality of Godhead is present on the planet and in His presence he not only claims but proposes that He gives up his identity as God because he claims that he is God. Like that was his proposal, he sent his message, wrote a message to Krishna because those days when Krishna was present on the planet, everybody could see that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But only those who are envious and offenders, they could not.

For example, Krishna in the assembly of the Kauravas showed His universal form. When Krishna went as a messenger of the Pandavas just before the battle of Kuruksetra with the proposal of peace and compromise, He thought why fight, let’s give it a try to stop this battle. Everything failed. Many people gave advice not only Bhisma and Drona and Kripacharya, Gandhari. Even
Vyasadeva came and told Duryodhana not to fight the battle but make a compromise with the five Pandavas and live peacefully. But Duryodhana wouldn’t listen. Then finally Krishna Himself decided to go. Krishna thought that let me give it a try. Pandavas were afraid if Krishna went to the court of the Kaurvas, they could harm Him. They were afraid due to their love for
Krishna they were worried about Krishna’ safety. A devotee feels that way.

Although Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, due to his affection for Krishna, a devotee feels “Oh! May be Krishna shouldn’t go there. They may hurt him or they offend Him.” But Krishna still said “Okay, let me go and give it a try”. Then Krishna gave them some very good advice. He said “Why are you making animosity? Why are you making enemies out of the Pandavas? Live peacefully, if you have alliance with the Pandavas, you will become the unrivalled sovereign king of this planet. Nobody will ever come anywhere near you. Your power will be so great. Join hands with them. Give them their share and live peacefully and enjoy your kingdom.” But Duryodhana was so envious, he felt that he is not going to share anything with the Pandavas rather he should get rid of the Pandavas and rule over the kingdom, rule over the entire earth planet himself. And he was so confident because he was calculating everything from the mundane perspective. He was thinking that my soul, my army is so much more powerful than the Pandavas. In my side, we have Bhisma who is practically immortal; we have Drona who is also undefeatable in the battlefield. Then I have Karna on my side who is the greatest of all archers and extremely powerful warrior. So, Pandavas, they have been living in the forest for last thirteen years and last of year of those thirteen years they were just staying incognito hiding themselves so nobody could recognize them. What is their power? We have taken over the entire earth planet. Our power is prevailing over the entire earth planet, all the kings are in our side, and only just a handful of friends of the Pandavas are with the side with them. So, why should I be afraid of them? That is how a materialistic person always thinks. He calculates everything from the material point of view. And that’s why Duryodhana was so confident that he was going to win the battle without any doubt.

But still Krishna went to give them some good advice. Krishna started to point out Duryodhana’s character, Duryodhana’s nature all that he has been doing from his childhood to get rid of the Pandavas and he even proposed to Dhritrashtra, get rid of this person and Vidhura sided with him. Vidhura told him that at the time of his birth, Dhritrashtra I told you to get rid of this son. Now you can see that he is going to be the cause of the destruction of the entire dynasty. So, please stop him and in order to stop him, just arrest him, put him in prison or banish him from the kingdom.

Duryodhana couldn’t tolerate that. With his friends, he walked out of the assembly and then they made a plan. Now Krishna is alone. We will arrest Krishna. And if Krishna if we can keep Krishna away from the Pandavas, they don’t have any strength because they derive their strength from Krishna which is true. So, they decided that they would arrest Krishna because now Krishna is alone and now he has all his soldiers, all his warriors and he will surround them and surround Krishna and arrest Him. So, they tried to do that and at that time Krishna displayed His universal form. That’s another occasion when Krishna showed His universal form and seeing that they resisted. They retreated and then Krishna just walked away from the palace and went back to the Pandavas.

So, here we see Duryodhana actually saw Krishna’s universal form but still he would not surrender to Him and Duryodhana’s alliance also saw that but still they dare to fight the battle standing against the Supreme Personality of Godhead and later on when they were discussing about that, Duryodhana in a deriding way said “Oh! He just displays some magical feat. His showing of His universal form was like display of some magical feat.” So, this is how the ignorant offenders behave. Even though they see the Supreme Personality of Godhead’s universal form that is they see that He is the source of everything, He is the cause of everything; He is the maintainer of everything and He is also the destroyer of everything. But still they don’t want to accept Him. Rather they challenge Him as Paundraka is doing here.

And nowadays also it has become a fashion. Once Prabhupada said that these incarnations of God nowadays are popping up like recently in India there was one such “Bhagavan” and now he is dead. Bhagavan is dead. Actually the real Supreme Personality of Godhead took care of him in the form of death as he is also saying to Paundraka. Yes, I will release my weapon, I will release my symbols specially my Sudarshan Chakra to separate your head and your body will be lying there as a food for the vultures and dogs and jackals. They are so proud of their material possessions but all their pride is smashed in a fraction of a moment by the will of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

So, this is the height of the stupidity. The height of the stupidity is to go against the Supreme Personality of Godhead. On the other hand, the Supreme intelligence is the real intelligence is to submit to the Supreme Personality of Godhead and become a servant. Accept His authority as the Supreme Lord and Master. Accept His authority as the Supreme Proprietor and become subordinate to Him and when we do that then everything becomes so wonderful. I am sure many of you also at some point of time wanted to become God because it used to be a very popular theory at one time. This yoga teacher, another unscrupulous individual came to America and proposed, I will give you the Mantra, by chanting the Mantra you will become God.

In the mid sixties early seventies, by practicing this or that you would become God but fortunately we realized Srila Prabhupada’s teaching. That was the first thing that actually impressed us the most, our Prabhupada’s teaching. Prabhupada simply points out- You can never become God. God is always God. You will always whatever you are. You are not God. You are servant of God. When you become servant of god, God will take care of you. You will become free from all anxieties and when we come across Srila Prabhupada’s teaching, in this way, then for the first time in our life, we get to understand what peace actually means. Now we don’t have to worry about anything. We are surrendering to Krishna and Krishna will take care of.

What a relief from anxiety. Trying to become God is so difficult but to become what we are, to become situated in our constitutional position and become the humble servant of Krishna is so easy. It doesn’t take anything but the result is the heart becomes so peaceful and the mind becomes completely free from anxiety. No more anxiety. Now, I don’t have to struggle for anything even for my sustenance, even for my survival, I don’t have to worry about it. I am surrendering to Krishna and Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and Krishna will take care and that belief becomes confirmed with the proper practice of the process. We are practically experiencing how Krishna is taking care. Every devotee at some point in time feels, he or she feels that yes Krishna is protecting me. Krishna is protecting.

At so many difficult times, Krishna saves us and that proves Krishna is there. And what to speak of Krishna’s response when we sincerely pray to Him, Krishna hears our prayers and responds. Not that He will always respond but when the prayer is appropriate just like the son may ask something from the father but if that thing is not good for the son the father won’t give it to him. But whatever is beneficial the father will give. Similarly our Supreme father Krishna will give us whatever is beneficial for us and He will not give whatever will be detrimental or harmful to us. And the best thing is not to ask at all. Like sometimes the son asks something from the father but a good son who knows my father is going to take care of me in all respects, my father knows what I really need and he will provide whatever I really need. So, he doesn’t ask for anything. Similarly at an advanced stage, a devotee doesn’t ask anything from Krishna. He simply says “Krishna please does whatever You want to do with me” because he knows whatever Krishna does with him will be for his ultimate benefit.

So, through Srimad Bhagavatam two choices become open to us and two consequences of choice also become open to us. Whether we will try to become Krishna’s competitor or whether we will surrender to Him and Bhagavatam clearly shows those who want to become Krishna’s competitor what happens to them. Here we are seeing the condition of Paundraka. Then there had been so many- Putana, Aghasura, Trinavratasura, Satakasura, Vakasura, Aristhasura, Aghasura and ultimately Kamsa. They all became inimical to Krishna but what happened to them. Now do you want an end like that? Or we want to become like the cowherd boys or cowherd girls in Vrindavana? Like if we become Krishna’s devotee, Krishna will not only give us all protection but Krishna will take us to become included in his most wonderful pastimes. So, as Prabhupada used to say “The choice is yours”. The choice is yours and I am so happy to see that so many of you made the right choice.

Thank you very much.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Gaur Premanande! Hari Bol!!

Does anybody have any comments? Yogendra Nandan Prabhu, do you have any comments? Yogendra Nandan Prabhu: Thank you very much. I am so happy to make the right choice.
HHBCS [Laughs]: Thank you
Devotees: Hari Bol!!

HHBCS: Any questions? Yes.
Devotee: Inaudible
HHBCS: It’s all right. You can ask.
Devotee: Inaudible
HHBCS: You see I simply try to follow one thing. Whatever Prabhupada did, we carry on, you see it is not that it didn’t cross my mind at that time when I used to see that cows are taken to the slaughters and it did occurred to me. Why didn’t Prabhupada try to stop that? And eventually in course of time I got to realize that Prabhupada was dealing with something on a much larger dimension because if we get involved in say, stopping or preventing the cow slaughter then we will become diverted from the main stream.

Devotee: Inaudible
HHBCS: So, the thing is that during Prabhupda’s time we bought milk from the shop and probably those cows eventually were slaughtered. That’s the point I am making that because the cows are being slaughtered therefore we are not going to take the milk. Prabhupada did not really endorse that strategy. Rather Prabhupada was working for something that will eventually change the world in such a way not only cow killing but all the sinful activities will stop in this world by establishing Krishna Consciousness.
Devotee: Thank you so much
HHBCS: Yes
Devotee: Inaudible
HHBCS: That’s true and offers it to Krishna. Very good.
Devotee: Inaudible
HHBCS: Yes, very good point. So, I just follow one principle. What Prabhupada did, I just follow. During Prabhupada’s time, we bought milk offered it to Krishna, made sweets from them and offered them to Krishna. So, continue, do that what you know. Why should we develop our new theory which was not really practiced or endorsed by Srila Prabhupada during his time? Yes, thank you. Yes Yogendra Prabhu.

Yogendra Prabhu: Still during Srila Prabhupada’s time, we bought the best milk available, So, similarly if we also have some choice today we can try to get the best milk
HHBCS: Yes, that’s right, we must offer the best to Krishna. That’s true. I mean naturally if it is possible to get the milk where the cows are not being slaughtered even though we have to pay a little more extra money for that. Let’s go for that.

Yogendra Prabhu: At New Vrindavan the cows are happy and they are giving so much milk because they are nicely taken care of.
HHBCS: It will happen as our movement grows, cow protection also will prevail.

Yogendra Prabhu: ..during Prabhupada…
HHBCS: That’s true. It’s good in a way because people are becoming aware of it.

Yogendra Prabhu: People who don’t take milk. Many times when they come into Talavan, they would take the milk here.

HHBCS: Okay. Very well. Yes
Devotee: My question is about surrender. Surrender to Krishna when we really want to surrender to Krishna and we try to explain that say Krishna will take care of him. Many people consider this foolish and not earning money well and getting arrangements for retirement in old age is more important.
HHBCS: Well one way of making them understand is all that we are doing in this material world no matter how successful we are, we will not be able to prevent death and will any of these things will go with us after death? Will all these things help us to die in a certain way in a positive way, an affirmative way? No. on the other hand, when we surrender to Krishna we are
not only securing our life here, we are also securing our life after death. Now what is the more intelligent proposal?

Devotee: When you are alive, you have enough money. We don’t have enough money like that. So.
HHBCS: You can tell them that in America you are seeing so many people with money but they can’t even sleep at night. They have to take drugs to maintain sanity. So, you know any intelligent person can understand that money cannot buy everything. Money simply gives you that allurement and the false promise. If you have it, then you can get everything that you need everything you want but we are seeing so many people with lot of money can’t even digest their food and sleep at night. Whereas devotees we have ravenous appetite and we sleep at night [All laugh]. Yes.

Devotee: There are two types of milk. One is the added ghee (inaudible)

HHBCS: Yes that is good. At some point these cows when they would stop giving milk they are slaughtered. So, that was the consideration. But it’s good to know which milk to buy and which not to buy from the market.

Yes Jagendra Mani Prabhu

Jagendra Mani Prabhu: Isn’t it true that Srila Prabhupada so much wanted milk when he was in Russia (inaudible)
HHBCS: Well that shows you see how important milk is to us and how dear milk is to Krishna. Thank you Jagendra Mani Prabhu. Yes

Devotee: First thing, Maharaja when you were describing that Mahabharata so when Krishna showed his universal form to everybody, (inaudible)
HHBCS: Duryodhana is actually an incarnation of Kali. So, from that we can see where he was. Okay, so I will stop now.

Thank you all very much.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Devotees [Clapping and saying Hari Bol]

Jagad-Guru Srila Prabhupada ki Jai!!