CONTENTS:
- The History of our Vaishnava heritage part 5;
- Srila Prabhupada's Appreciation; and
- Guru Maharaja’s instructions.
1. THE HISTORY OF OUR VAISHNAVA HERITAGE- PART 5
This material nature is the creation of the Supreme Lord therefore He has created some law how one should act. Abiding by the law of the King of Kings, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is also known as dharma. Here dharma has another connotation and that connotation is to abide by the law of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When one breaks the law then he creates disturbance both for himself and his surroundings and in this way when many people start to break the law of the Supreme Personality of Godhead that means when one deviates from the path of dharma and follows the path of adharma. Adharma means deviation of the path of dharma therefore it creates a disturbance in society and at that time the Supreme Personality of Godhead incarnates, Krishna incarnates. The purpose of Krishna’s incarnation is simply to establish the law and order.
yada yada hi dharmasya
glanir bhavati bharata
Krishna is saying in Bhagavad Gita whenever there is a decline of religious principles, wherever there is a decline of law and order therefore religiosity prevails then in order to establish the law-and-order Krishna comes. In this way Krishna comes from time to time to establish dharma which means He comes from time to time to establish this Sanatana-dharma. He comes and teaches how to develop a loving relationship with Him. paritranaya sadhunam He allows the saintly personalities, the devotees to develop their loving relationship with Him. This is the purpose of Krishna’s incarnation and in this way, Krishna comes from time to time. Whenever He comes, we can see that there is a similar purpose to establish dharma to establish law and order. In this way Krishna had been coming and, in this way, gradually time moved from Satya-yuga to Tretayuga to Dvapara-yuga to Kali-yuga. In this way times moves in a cycle. When Kali-yuga comes most of the people become irreligious, sinful. In Satyayuga most of the people were pious, pure. In Tretayuga about 75% of the people remained pure and 25% of the people became impure. Gradually as the time progressed, they started to become more and more impure. In Dvapara-yuga about 50% of the people became impure. In Kaliyuga about 25% of the people remained pure and 75% of the people became impure. Most of the people in this age have become impure.
Before Kali-yuga began Krishna established the law and order and Pandavas started to rule and law and order was very wonderfully established. After the battle of Kurukshetra most of the miscreants were annihilated but then very rapidly in Kali-yuga there was a decline and that is the tendency in the age of Kali. The decline takes place very quickly. By the end of Dvapara-yuga the world situation became very perfect but as soon as Kali-yuga began there was a massive and rapid decline. We notice Parikshit Maharaja became the King and during his reign everything in his kingdom was in perfect order but Kali entered. Parikshit Maharaja was so powerful that Kali did not have any scope although he was trying to do his business to torture the cows, dharma and the earth. He broke the three pillars or legs of dharma but as soon as Parikshit Maharaja detected his activities he immediately took action and he chastised Kali. He gave Kali four places to stay. Parikshit Maharaja wanted to kill Kali but Kali begged forgiveness and begged him for his life. Parikshit Maharaja said, “Okay, since you are surrendering and begging for forgiveness, I won’t kill you but you can’t stay in my kingdom.” At that time Parikshit Maharaja was the ruler of the entire earth planet and ocean Kali saw that all this was Parikshit Maharaja’s domain and if he is exiled where would he go? He asked to give him some place to reside then Parikshit Maharaja said, “Okay, I will give you four different places: wherever there is meat eating; intoxication; gambling and illicit sex. You can stay in those four places” Kali looked around and he couldn’t find any place where these activities were going on. Can you imagine just 5000 years ago the world situation was so perfect? Nobody was eating meat, no one was taking intoxication, no one was indulging in illicit sex and no one was gambling. Therefore, Kali asked Parikshit Maharaja some place where he could stay and then Parikshit Maharaja said wherever there is gold. Wherever there is gold means where gold is not utilized in Krishna’s service that is the meaning of the place where Kali could stay. Gold and wealth are meant to be used in Krishna’s service and if it is not then it is a place for Kali to stay. This is how Kali got entry into this world during Parikshit Maharaja’s rule. Kali is so treacherous that with the first opportunity he got rid of Parikshit Maharaja. He made it a point to get rid of Parikshit Maharaja because he knew that as long as Parikshit Maharaja was there he does not stand a chance to be on the earth and spread his influence. He got rid of Parikshit Maharaja and started his mission.
Kali’s mission is to establish adharma. See the conflict, Krishna comes to establish dharma and Kali’s business is to establish adharma. Kali is known as adharmabandho the friend of the personality of adharma. One very interesting thing to note here is Kali is actually a personality it’s not that Kali is some sort of imaginary character or symbolic character. Kali is as real as you and I. Kali lives and do you know who are Kali’s father and mother? Kali’s father and mother are anger and envy. Wherever there is anger and envy the offspring is going to be born and you will notice that Kali spreads his influence through anger and envy. Kali is born out of anger and envy. Anger is the father and envy are the mother. Kali’s mission is to establish adharma irreligiosity and we can see also when there is a deficiency or decline of dharma Kali’s influence spreads. Dharma stands on four legs. What are those four legs of dharma? Austerity, mercy, cleanliness and truthfulness and as the legs of dharma breaks the legs of adharma is generated. When austerity breaks meat, eating begins; when mercy is lost intoxication begins; when cleanliness disappears, illicit sex comes in and when truthfulness is lost gambling creeps in. Adharma and dharma stand side by side like light and darkness when the light is drawn the darkness moves in. Adharma comes when dharma disappears. In this way Kali is getting rid of dharma and establishing adharma.
He did it in a very expert way like when there is a war there are two ways of attacking the enemy. One way of attacking is attacking the headquarters, the most strategic points and in this way, you defeat the enemy’s main source of strength. Another way of attacking the enemy is surround your enemy and you close in. Kali preferred to attack the head; he first attacked the brahmanas, the head of the society. Kali corrupted the Brahmanas and he affected the land of dharma Bharatvarsa. These are the two areas where Kali launched his first attack. In the land of Bharatvarsa the object of his attack first was the brahmanas and how did Kali do that?
Kali made the demons take birth into the Brahmin families who were actually upholding the Vedic culture. With these demons taking birth in these brahmanical families what did they do? They simply utilized their position as the highest position in society in order to destroy the society. They introduced all kinds of things in the name of Vedic practice. One of the practices is unless and until one is born in a brahmana family one cannot become a brahmana, that’s what they introduced, in order to be a brahmana you have to be born in a brahmana family. When you are born in a brahmana family you are a brahmana by birthright, it doesn’t matter what you do or what you are. If you are born in a brahmanical family then you are a brahmana. So that is Kali’s introduction. Kali then introduced all abominable activities in the name of Vedic culture. To give short examples even the brahmanas had different classes and the certain class of brahmanas had to be married to that same class of brahmanas, the highest class of brahmanas had to be married only to the highest class of brahmanas. A girl had to be married at a certain age and if the father could not get the girl married at that age, he would be ostracized by the brahmanical society or community. The father somehow or the other had to get the daughter married and as a result of that a custom developed that this so-called high class brahmanas they would get married to many girls and travel around visiting different wives throughout the year and would live at their father in law’s expense.
There is a Vedic custom that when the husband died sometimes the wife followed the husband in the funeral pyre but it was completely voluntary and a chaste wife would follow the husband when he died like when King Pandu died both Kunti and Madri wanted to enter into the funeral pyre but they had an understanding, a discussion amongst themselves and Madri convinced Kunti to stay back. Madri’s reasoning was, ‘Look the children are young and one of us has to stay back to take care of the children. There are five children and three are yours and two are mine so it’s better that you stay and let me go with my husband.’ In these ways you can see that the wife was so eager to follow the husband after his death. So that is how the custom actually was but they introduced the custom as a forced thing that when the husband died the wife must die with him. Due to the marriage process I mentioned earlier sometimes say a 13-year old girl was married to an 85-year-old man. The father of that girl just to save his face in that society would get the daughter married somehow or the other by hook or by crook just get her married and then one fine morning this 85-yearold man kicks the bucket and then this poor 13-year old girl her hands and feet were tied and forced into the fire and in order to subdue her cry they would play these drums so loud that one would not hear her cry. So that is how cruel the Vedic society actually became and as a result of that Vedic culture started to decline very fast. Due to these activities of the brahmanas animal slaughter started in the name of sacrifice and Lord Buddha appeared.
2. SRILA PRABHUPADA’S APPRECIATION
"If Srila Prabhupada did not come to preach and if he had not made ISKCON then where would we all be?"
3. GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
“If we hear properly. The Holy Name will enter through the ears into the region of our heart and shower down nectar when we are lost in the ocean of nectar, we will see Krishna.”
(The content of this E-magazine was based on a Seminar Given By HH Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja Entitled: “The History Of Our Vaishnava Heritage”)
(Compiled and edited by Hemavati Radhika Dasi)