CONTENTS:
- Srila Prabhupada gave us everything,
- Srila Prabhupada Appreciation; and
- Guru Maharaja’s instructions.
SRILA PRABHUPADA GAVE US EVERYTHING
Hare Krishna It is always very enlivening to come to New Dvarika dham and be with you’ll. This temple has a very beautiful flavour which is very unique. Srila Prabhupada used to consider this temple to be the head quarters of ISKCON and in a way it is the head quarters of ISKCON. BBT used to be here, faith used to be here and all the wonderful devotees are already here. Prabhu is such a wonderful example and there are so many Prabhupada disciples here which are also very rare nowadays so it’s always very enlivening to be here. So today I have selected two verses from Sri Caitanya-caritamåta. This is from the Adi-lila third chapter. The few verses not just these two but few more verses from this chapter actually describes who Krishna is, what is the purpose of Krishna’s coming as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and also through these verses we can see that Srila Prabhupada gave us everything. Sometimes some individuals claim that Prabhupada did not give everything therefore they are going to give it to us and in this way many devotees get misled. Just to point out that Srila Prabhupada not only gave everything but Srila Prabhupada gave everything in the most perfect way. So that is the objective of selecting these two verses from this third chapter of Adi-lila.
Jai Jai Sri Caitanya Jai Nityananda Jai Advaita Chandra Jai Gaura bhakta Vrinda Jai Jai Sri Caitanya Jai Nityananda Jai Advaita Chandra Jai Gaura bhakta Vrinda Jai Jai Sri Caitanya Jai Nityananda Jai Advaita Chandra Jai Gaura bhakta Vrinda Gaura premananda Hari Haribol!!
So text 5 and 6 of the third chapter of Adi-lila have been written on the board so we will recite them together
TEXT 5
purna bhagavan Krishna vrajendra-kumara
goloke vrajera saha nitya vihara
TRANSLATION
Lord Krishna, the son of the King of Vraja, is the Supreme Lord. He eternally enjoys transcendental pastimes in His eternal abode, Goloka, which includes Vrajadhama.
PURPORT
In the previous chapter it has been established that Krishna, the son of Vrajendra (the King of Vraja), is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, with six opulences. He eternally enjoys transcendentally variegated opulences on His planet, which is known as Goloka. The eternal pastimes of the Lord in the spiritual planet Krishnaloka are called aprakata, or unmanifested, pastimes because they are beyond the purview of the conditioned souls. Lord Krishna is always present everywhere, but when He is not present before our eyes, He is said to be aprakata, or unmanifested.
TEXT 6
brahmara eka dine tinho eka-bara
avatirra hana karena prakata vihara
TRANSLATION
Once in a day of Brahma, He descends to this world to manifest His transcendental pastimes.
Although Krishna mentioned in Bhagavad Gita sambhavami yuge yuge that is I come in every yuga again and again, I manifest Myself but actually the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krishna, He does not come in every yuga. He comes once in a day of Brahma. The original Supreme Personality of Godhead Krishna, the son of Nanda Maharaja comes only once in a day of Brahma. What is the duration of a day of Brahma? Brahma’s day comprises of ten thousand catur yugas. Satya, Treta, Dvapara and Kali. These four yugas together is called one catur yuga or a divya yuga. In one thousand catur yuga is the duration of a day of Brahma and Krishna comes only once in a day of Brahma. When it’s almost at midday when Krishna comes in that day of Brahma. In a day of Brahma there are fourteen Manus and the seventh Manu is Vaivasvata. As Krishna mentioned in Bhagavad Gita imam vivasvate yogam proktavan aham avyayam vivasvan manave praha. Vivasvan is the Sun-God, the predominating personality of the Sun planet and his son is Manu the seventh Manu, because he is the son of Vivasvan therefore he is known as Vivasvate Manu means son of Vivasvan. There are various Manus as mentioned there are fourteen Manus and they appear in the day of Brahma and they have their period of reign, they preside over that period.
When the whole shift changes, the demi-gods change with the change of Manu. Manu comes with a set of demi-gods, set of sages and so forth. In the next Manu’s reign who will become Indra? Bali Maharaja will become Indra. Sometimes in a factory we see along with the shift the personalities change. The foreman of the shift comes with his team. The one shift goes another shift comes and they operate according to the foreman. Manu is like the foreman of the shift and there are fourteen shifts in a day of Brahma. One thousand divided by fourteen is about seventy-one so the reign of each Manu is seventy-one catur yugas. The seventh Manu is Vaivasvata Manu and out of his seventy-one catur yugas in the twenty eighth catur yuga in that Dvapara-yuga towards the end of that Dvapara-yuga Krishna the son of Nanada Maharaja descends. This son of Nanda Maharaja is THE original Supreme Personality of Godhead. Krishna comes once in a day of Brahma and He manifests His pastimes in Vrndavana, Goloka. Now Goloka is a little different from the other region of the spiritual sky which is generally known as Vaikuntha. The basic difference is in the spiritual sky in Vaikuntha the Supreme Personality of Godhead is THE Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Narayana is the Supreme Personality of Godhead but in Goloka the Supreme Supreme Personality of Godhead is Not the Supreme Personality of Godhead He is the cowherd boy. In Goloka He has some very special relationships with His devotees which is not available anywhere else. What are those relationships? Those relationships are friendship, parental and conjugal. These three loving relationships are not available in Vaikuntha or in a way we can say that these three loving relationships are not possible in Vaikuntha where the Supreme Personality of Godhead is manifest as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Friendship takes place amongst equals so who can become equal to the Supreme Personality of Godhead? In friendship they are at least equal but in parental relationship the Supreme Personality of Godhead becomes subordinate and His devotee becomes superior to Him so who can become superior to the Supreme Personality of Godhead? Conjugal relationship is like the relationship between a young boy and young girl. Now who can ever develop such a relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead? We see that these three relationships are available in the material nature. We see that there is friendship in our dealings with our friends; there are parental relationships and conjugal relationships. Since material nature is a perverted reflection of the spiritual sky so whatever is there in the material nature must also be available in the spiritual sky otherwise how can that be there in the reflection. So whatever is there in the reflection must be present there in the spiritual world.
What’s the difference between material and spiritual? The difference is when we are at the centre that is material and where Krishna is the centre that is spiritual. We have relationships friendship, parental and conjugal. In the spiritual sky these three relationships also must be available. The problem is how can one become the friend of the Supreme Personality of Godhead or parents of the Supreme Personality of Godhead or the lover of the Supreme Personality of Godhead? A living entity, a devotee may not be able to become equal to the Lord or superior to the Lord but if the Lord wants then He can become equal to His devotees or subordinate to His devotees. Goloka, Vrndavana is the region where the Lord has become equal to His friends, subservient to His parents and the paramour of His devotees.
In order to enable His devotees to develop that relationship with Him, He had to stop becoming the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So that is why in Vrndavana Krishna is not the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead under all circumstances but what actually happens is He makes the devotees forget that He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Forgetfulness are of two kinds one kind of forgetfulness is out of ignorance that is the natural forgetfulness that we naturally suffer from. In Vrndavana there is a special type of forgetfulness which is out of LOVE; out of intense love one forgets the position of the object of his love. An example to illustrate this point is that the son has become the president of the United States; it is not that the mother doesn’t know that her son is the president of the United States but does the mother treat him like the president of the United States? No because of her love for her son she treats him in spite of his exalted post in the eyes of others she treats him completely different. She treats him just like her son. Like who would ever dare to chastise the president? But she does. When he comes home late she chastises him so this is an example of forgetfulness out of love. In Vrndavana the devotees have forgotten that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead because of their intense love for Him not that they do not know that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead but their attitude is You may be the Supreme Personality of Godhead so what?
We don’t care whether You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead or not to us what really matters is that we love You. You are the object of our love that is the only thing that matters to us. That is the special mood of the residents of Vrndavana and that is the special arrangement of Krishna in Vrndavana which is called the arrangement of Yoga Maya, by the arrangement of Yoga Maya they have forgotten that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Otherwise they could not develop this loving relationship with Krishna. In this Vraja-lila Krishna reveals only once in a day of Brahma where people get to see Him dealing with His devotees in this very very special way. After manifesting His Vrndavana pastimes Krishna considered that “I revealed my Vraja-lila but how will anyone enter into My Vrndavana pastimes” Krishna considered this way. After performing His pastimes abundantly to His heart’s content. After performing His pastimes Krishna disappears and after disappearing Krishna considers that “I have revealed My Vraja-lila where prema bhakti, Vraja- prema has been manifest, displayed so how will anybody ever enter into Vraja-lila Krishna is considering that, ‘My devotees generally serve Me following the rules and regulations of the scriptures following the vaidhi or the rules and regulations of the scripture. When one renders devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead that is called vaidhi bhakti and achieves the spiritual perfection he goes to Vaikuntha and in Vaikuntha one gets his swarupa, eternal spiritual identity which is eternal now that cannot be changed. When one goes to Vaikuntha one gets stuck there so how will one go to Vrndavana which is beyond Vaikuntha? Vaidhi bhakti leads to Vaikuntha but Vraja is beyond Vaikuntha and the point here is that there are two types of Bhakti vaidhi bhakti and raganuga-bhakti. Vaidhi bhakti leads to Vaikuntha and raganuga-bhakti leads to Vrndavana. Now Krishna is pointing out that ALL the devotees ALWAYS render devotional service unto Me following the rules and regulations of the scriptures vaidhi bhakti. The Supreme Personality of Godhead must be served following the rules and regulations of the scriptures and he will get four types of liberation in Vaikuntha. It has been very clearly pointed out by Rupa Goswami in the Nectar of Devotion that sruti-smrti-puranadi-pancaratra-vidhim vina aikantiki harer bhaktir utpatayaiva kalpate. If one renders devotional service without
following the instructions of the sruti means Vedas, smrti means Upanishads, puranadi-pancaratra, etc. If one renders devotional service without following the rules and regulations of the scriptures it will simply create a disturbance. Utpat means disturbance. The point that is becoming clear here is that devotees must render devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead following vaidhi bhakti but raganuga-bhakti is the way to go to Vrndavana. Serving the Supreme Personality of Godhead following the rules and regulations of the scriptures one will go to Vaikuntha and Krishna’s consideration is how will anyone ever come to Vrndavana? How will anyone ever have access to Vrndavana? Krishna had a problem and Krishna can solve the problem also in the most perfect way. What did He do? He decided to come as a devotee. When the Supreme Personality of Godhead is served following the rules and regulations of the scriptures then one ends up in Vaikuntha but when the devotee Krishna is served following the rules and regulations of the scriptures then he goes to Vrndavana. See how wonderfully Krishna has solved the problem! There is something more to that also. What is raganuga-bhakti actually? Why serving this devotee Krishna is the way to enter into Vrndavana which is actually the means of entering into Vrndavana is raganuga-bhakti. This word raganuga is a combination of two words rag and anuga rag means love and anuga means following. The residents of Vrndavana has only love for Krishna the only way they see Krishna is through their love therefore those devotees of Vrndavana are called Ragamika bhaktas and when one follows these residents of Vrndavana these eternal associates in Vrndavana that is called raganuga-bhakti. Following one of the residents of Krishna when devotional service is rendered that is raganuga-bhakti. Raganuga-bhakti is the way to enter into Vrndavana. An example to illustrate this point is once Laksmi-devi wanted to go to Vrndavana and She approached Narayan, “Please take me to your Vrndavana pastimes.” Narayan said, “Look to enter into Vrndavana you will have to follow one of the Gopis.” She replied, “I am Laksmi-devi, Your eternal consort how I can ever be subservient to anyone else?” Narayan said. “Then you cannot enter into Vrndavana.” Laksmi-devi then performed severe austerity and as a result of that Krishna appeared and asked Laksmi-devi, “Why are you performing such severe austerity?” So Laksmi-devi narrated what had happened and Krishna placed Her on His chest and that is how Laksmi-devi had Her entrance to Vrndavana as the Srivatsa on Krishna’s chest. Even Laksmi-devi cannot enter into Vrndavana without following a resident of Vrndavana without following raganuga-bhakti. This means in order to enter into Vrndavana we have to practise raganuga-bhakti. When we follow Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Who is Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu?
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Krishna in the mood of Srimati Radharani Actually Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Radha and Krishna together. Krishna came assuming the mood of Srimati Radharani When we are following Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu who are we following? We are following Srimati Radharani the greatest of all Ragatmika bhaktas. Therefore we can see that vaidhi bhakti to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is automatically being transformed into raganuga-bhakti. Vaidhi bhakti means the way to render service unto the Lord following the instructions of the scriptures. What are the instructions in the scriptures to serve Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu? yajnaih sankirtana-prayair yajanti hi sumedhasah This personality Krishna as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu krsna-varnam tvisakrsnam sangopangastra-parsadam Krishna appeared assuming a molten golden complexion always chanting the holy name of the Lord. He descended with His associates and His abode. How to serve this Personality of Godhead? yajnaih sankirtana-prayair. When by serving Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu following this instruction of the scriptures and when one achieves his perfection then he sees Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu as RadhaKrishna just as Ramananda Raya saw Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Rasaraja mahabhava. When one is seeing RadhaKrishna one is automatically transported to Vrndavana. This is how Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu created this very very special arrangement for living entities to have access to Vrndavana. There is another consideration here the order for the yugas are usually Satya, Dvapara, Treta and Kali. Dvapara means second and Treta means third. How come is it first yuga, third yuga and then second yuga then Kali yuga? Does that sound right? No. In this particular 28th catur yuga in the manvantara the Treta and Dvapara switch places and Treta goes first and then comes Dvapara. Why? Because in Dvapara yuga Krishna will come and perform His Vraja-lila and after that He will come in Kali yuga as Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu. If Treta yuga came after Dvapara yuga then people would not be able to relate to that in Kali Yuga that is why this very special arrangement was made. Krishna performs His pastimes as soon as He withdraws His pastimes Dvapara yuga ends and Kali yuga begins and then He comes as Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu and that is how He creates the good fortune for the living entities for the age of Kali to have access or entrance to Vrndavana.
This is the very very wonderful arrangement of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Now you can see how perfectly Srila Prabhupada gave everything. Actually Srila Prabhupada gave the way Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu arranged, the way Krishna arranged. This is the divine arrangement of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and that is what Srila Prabhupada gave. Therefore Srila Prabhupada’s presentation is perfect and complete. If anybody says that Prabhupada did not give everything I will very clearly say that he is in Maya and he is not following Caitanya Mahaprabhu He is hurting Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s movement. Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s movement and arrangement to spread Krishna Consciousness throughout the world has been most perfectly manifested by Srila Prabhupada’s divine arrangement because Srila Prabhupada has been especially sent by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to fulfil His prediction. There are three personalities Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur and Prabhupada. These three personalities are the divine arrangement of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to spread Krishna Consciousness all over the world. Bhaktivinode Thakur revived Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s sankirtan movement when it was practically lost and eclipsed by the upper sampradaya’s deviant preaching. Then Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur gave it a shape and then Srila Prabhupada took it and distributed it all over the world. It is the divine arrangement of Srila Prabhupada in the form of ISKCON that will continue to spread Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s mission throughout the world. That is how it happened and that is how it’s happening and that’s how it will continue to happen. Those who do not line up in this arrangement will come and go without creating a tangible effect. I thought of making this point here today because I felt that the devotees need to know that. This year during the Mayapur GBC meeting we had a festival called ISKCON Leadership Sanga when all the leading devotees of ISKCON, the temple presidents and other senior devotees from all over the world were invited. About 1200 devotees came to this programme ISKCON leadership Sanga and when I was asked to give a seminar I decided to give a seminar on this topic entitled “Srila Prabhupada gave us everything even raganuga-bhakti.”
SRILA PRABHUPADA APPRECIATION
Now you can see how perfectly Srila Prabhupada gave everything. Actually Srila Prabhupada gave the way Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu arranged, the way Krishna arranged. This is the divine arrangement of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and that is what Srila Prabhupada gave. Therefore Srila Prabhupada’s presentation is perfect and complete. If anybody says that Prabhupada did not give everything I will very clearly say that he is in Maya and he is not following Caitanya Mahaprabhu He is hurting Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s movement. Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s movement and arrangement to spread Krishna Consciousness throughout the world has been most perfectly manifested by Srila Prabhupada’s divine arrangement because Srila Prabhupada has been especially sent by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to fulfil His prediction.
GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
It is the divine arrangement of Srila Prabhupada in the form of ISKCON that will continue to spread Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s mission throughout the world. That is how it happened and that is how it’s happening and that’s how it will continue to happen. Those who do not line up in this arrangement will come and go without creating a tangible effect. I thought of making this point here today because I felt that the devotees need to know that.
(The content of this E-magazine was based on a Lecture given by His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami on 17 June 2014 in Los Angeles)