Verse: Yuga Dharma - The Means Of Spiritual Perfection
Date: December 10th, 2012
Place: MAYAPURA, INDIA
Transcription: Ranga Radhika dasi
Editing: Ranga Radhika Dasi
So that's why this is the yuga dharma. What will be the benefit of performing yuga dharma? What is the yuga dharma? Just chant the Holy Name! And if you chant the Holy Name then what will happen? The goal of dharma is to establish a connection to the Lord. Like for example, through meditation what happens? One sees the Lord in the heart. The connection is established. One sees the Lord and the relationship is established.
In Treta Yuga the Lord would appear from the sacrificial fire and devotees would have an exchange with Him. In Dvapara Yuga through Deity worship the Lord would become manifest Himself from the Deity and reciprocate with the devotees. Similarly, in the age of Kali the Lord will reciprocate with us if we simply chant the Holy Name. You know what the Holy Name is? This Holy Name is non-different from Krishna. It is non-different from Krishna. How? Because when you chant this Holy Name Krishna's form will appear from the Holy Name. Because this name is non-different from Krishna. So Krishna's form will appear. Krishna's form will become manifest. You'll see Krishna standing in front of you. And along with Krishna's form Krishna's qualities will become manifest. Can Krishna's qualities be separated from Krishna's form? No. Krishna's qualities are already there in Krishna's form. Nama, rupa, guna (qualities). Then if Krishna is there, will He just be standing there? No! You will see His lila, His pastimes. And when you see His lila you will see Krishna's associates. You will see Krishna's Dhama.
So in this way - just by chanting - everything about the spiritual reality will become manifest. The entire spiritual sky will become manifest along with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore please embrace this yuga dharma with full faith and confidence.
Thank you very much!
Does anybody have any question?
Devotee: Haribol. In our process we have to read books, Srila Prabhupada's books and chanting and do also services. So what should be the equal balance to all these?
BCS: Equal balance? What do you mean?
Devotee: Balance means...
BCS: I get your point. You see, when you are chanting you have to know what you are chanting, why you are chanting, right? So that's why you need to read the books, because your faith will become stronger with the understanding why you are doing it. You reading Srila Prabhupada's books is non-different from hearing Srila Prabhupada, shravanam. Shravanam is the first consideration, then kirtanam (chanting). In order to chant, you have to hear. So in order to hear, you have to read books, especially Prabhupada's books. Okay? So that is how you maintain the balance: not only chant but read as well. Hear from other devotees, discuss with them about the importance of chanting and chant together with them, sankirtana.
Devotee: Hare Krishna, Guru Maharaja. How can I chant with the understanding that the Holy Name is Krishna? So what kind of attitude or what kind of feelings?
BCS: The first consideration is that this name is non-different from Krishna. When I am calling to Krishna, Krishna is there. Krishna is hearing and when He sees that I am chanting Krishna is pleased. So with that understanding we have to chant. Krishna is hearing, Krishna is seeing and Krishna will reciprocate to our chanting, especially if the chanting is earnest, if the chanting is without offence. Yes, Atul Krishna prabhu?
Devotee: Hare Krishna. Guru Maharaja, you were describing atyanta durlabha prema that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu bestows. What is the quality of the yuga dharma in the Kali Yuga when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu doesn't personally appear?
BCS: That is a kind of a state of limbo, a state when the dharma hasn't been established. It's a kind of, you know, no man's land.
Devotee: Is it that in those Kali Yuga's when Chaitanya...
BCS: Oh you mean those, the Kali Yugas, the other Kali Yugas.
Devotee: Yeah, the Kali Yugas when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu isn't personally present.
BCS: Okay, very good. No, I thought between Dvapara Yuga and Kali Yuga, before Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared. Okay, well, that's a very good question actually. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appears only once in a day of Brahma. Once in a day of Brahma Krishna appears in the twenty-eighth chatur-yuga of Vaivasvata Manu, seventh Manu. There are fourteen Manus. In the seventh Manu's reign Krishna appears in the twenty-eighth Dvapara Yuga. And in the following Kali Yuga Krishna appears as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. The other Kali Yugas, when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself doesn't come, in those Kali Yugas this chanting of the mantra is there. But this mantra does not reveal the Vraja aspect, this leads to Vaikuntha. So by performing sankirtana they go to Vaikuntha, not to Goloka Vrindavana. Thank you.
Devotee: Thank you very much, Guru-ji. Guru-ji, there are four pillars of Dharma. One is mercy which is most intact in Satya Yuga.
BCS: All are intact. All are intact but the first one to break
Devotee: But in Kali Yuga the three legs are broken, so how come mercy is more magnificent in Kali Yuga?
BCS: How come mercy?
Devotee: is most prominent in Kali Yuga?
BCS: Mercy most?
Devotee: Prominent, because Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is most merciful.
BCS: Okay. This mercy is not of the Lord. The mercy that Dharma stands [on] is the mercy that is practiced by living entities, human beings. This mercy is the mercy that a human being practices. This is not the Lord's mercy that Dharma is standing on. You get it? There is a difference between man's mercy and God's mercy. So in Kali Yuga God's mercy, Krishna's mercy, has become manifest. But this mercy is different from the mercy that Dharma is standing on. Dharma is standing on the mercy of us, our practicing of mercy. Yes, you have a question?
Devotee: Hare Krishna, Guru Maharaja. In one of your lectures I heard that you told that chanting of the Holy Name is also applicable in other yugas also.
BCS: Did I say that?
Devotee: Yes.
BCS: Also practiced in other yugas?
Devotee: No, no. It is the most highest and it is applicable in all the yugas.
BCS: Oh yes, it is the highest, yeah, very good. Yeah. The chanting of the Holy Name is there. In the spiritual sky, in Vrindavana, they are always chanting. In this material nature in other yugas some very special devotees of the Lord, who have a very special relationship with the Lord, are also chanting. Like for example, in Satya Yuga Prahlada Maharaja was chanting the Holy Name. It was available to him. In this way some rare devotees had access to the Holy Name but it was not given to everybody like this. In this age everybody has access to the Holy Name, right?
Devotee: Hare Krishna Gurudeva, what does it exactly mean when we say the Holy Name is non-different from Krishna? As you said that when we chant, Krishna is actually listening to it. So when He is listening it means, if He is non-different then...
BCS: Okay, good point. So to understand how the Holy Name is non-different from Krishna, we have to understand how our name is different from us. Say for example, your name is?
Devotee: Ankit.
BCS: Ankit. So when I say Ankit, does Ankit appear here? Ankit the person and Ankit the name are two different things. Say if somebody is in Bhopal, he is calling Ankit, will Ankit be there? Ankit is sitting in Mayapura, right? So this is how Ankit's name and Ankit's form are different, but that's not the case with Krishna. When you say Krishna, Krishna is there. You say His name, Krishna is there. Although we are not eager to see Him, but He is there. That is the meaning of the name being non-different.
Devotee: But He is there. Otherwise also, if we are not saying, then also He is there.
BCS: He is there but He is not there for you. Like the Lord is there everywhere but He is not interacting with you. But when you chant the Holy Name He is there for you. So that is the meaning of...thank you, Ankit. Yes?
Devotee: Hare Krishna Guru Maharaja, as you told that in Kali Yuga chanting the Holy Name is the only means to get out from here. So we can understand that the Holy Name is so powerful in this Kali Yuga age, but in some cases, some person is chanting the Holy Name but at the same time he is doing some materialistic activities...
BCS: Yeah, good. The Holy Name has three aspects. One is offensive, one is clearing and one is pure. Offensive chanting is only the syllables are being uttered, but it is not the name. When the offences are becoming clear that is the clearing stage. But when the pure name is chanted, that is Krishna Himself. The pure name of the Lord is actually non-different from Krishna. Not offensive chanting. That is just syllables.
Devotee: Clearing and offensive?
BCS: You are aware of the ten offences? So when you are chanting committing offences, that is offensive chanting. When the offences are getting cleared, reduced, that is the clearing stage. And when all the offences are completely gone then only it is the pure name. No more offences, it is the pure...Like for example, water. When the impurities are gone, what do you have? Similarly, the name, when the offences are gone what do you have? The pure name. So that pure name is actually the Holy Name. Yes?
Devotee: Thank you, Guru Maharaja. Has every substance, has it inherent characteristics? Our body also has substance so is it that our bodies...
BCS: Say it again.
Devotee: Yes. Every substance has its dharma, so our bodies also are made of substance. So is there some inherent characteristic of bodies?
BCS: Yes. Like, as I said, a lion's body has a lion's dharma, right?
Devotee: Yes.
BCS: Those characteristics are there with the lion's body. Similarly a dog's body has a dog's dharma. Man's best friend! [laughs] Similarly, human beings, when we get the human body then there are three of four different divisions according to the three modes. They are known as brahmana, kshatriya, vaishya, sudra. So that is called varnashrama-dharma and the human life has four phases: brahmachari, grihastha, vanaprastha, sannyasa. So these are the dharma of the human beings. Somebody likes to do business. Somebody likes to fight. Somebody likes to study and think and somebody likes to play football. So, different people have different characteristics. So that has to be considered to be their dharma. But those are physical dharmas: the dharma of the body. But what really matters is dharma of the soul.
Okay, I have some questions from the internet. The viewers from the internet have sent some questions. Joshila from South-Africa: Is it fine to take the name of the Lord during all daily activities when there is no time to physically sit and do japa due to circumstances surrounding household life? What else can one do to improve spiritual life if one is in such a situation?
Yes, if it is absolutely impossible to chant due to the circumstances, sit down and chant on japa beads, then one can chant in whichever situation one is in. But that situation is difficult, you see. That's why there is a consideration of practicing stage: chanting a certain numbers of rounds everyday sitting down or exclusively chanting. That is the practicing stage of chanting so that you can chant all the time or so that you can remember Krishna all the time. But if you don't really have that kind of time or opportunity - but I will say you can make that time. Sleep one hour less. When do you go to bed Joshila, eleven o'clock? And when do you get up? Eight o'clock? Or no, seven o'clock say. Now go to bed at ten o'clock and get up at five o'clock and there is one hour between five and six, you make it a point to chant sitting down at one place. As they say, where there is a will there is a way. But if you don't really have that time then, yes, chant whenever you can. Like, for example, you make time to eat, don't you? No matter how busy you are you eat. Now if you are too busy to sit down and eat at home then you take your food, brought to your office, and there you eat. But do you skip your eating? No. So similarly don't skip your prescribed number of rounds.
Shamala from Bangaloru: In those Divya Yugas when Treta Yuga comes after Dvapara Yuga, when the original Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu doesn't appear Himself, are the yuga dharma for Treta Yuga and Dvapara Yuga the same as yajna and Deity worship respectively or do they also get changed? Very good question. Personally I have not really come across it in writing, but I think that it should be in sequence: dhyana, then probably in that Dvapara Yuga which comes after Satya Yuga, then it will Deity worship and then sacrifice. Because it says that krite yad dhyayato vishnum tretayam yajato makhaih: so the yuga dharma of Treta Yuga is yajna. So when Treta comes before or after, the yuga dharma remains the same. Similarly dvapare paricaryayam.
Aishvarya Radhika from Domjur: Guru Maharaja, once in Domjur you were describing that in the age of Kali the roads are the temple, Harinama is the process of worship. I request you to kindly describe it again. It was so nice, but I can't remember it completely. Okay, this has been described in Sri Chaitanya-Bhagavata. In Chaitanya-Bhagavata it has been described that in the age of Kali the yuga dharma is sankirtana. Now where this yuga dharma is performed? On the streets! Sankirtana, collectively you are chanting - where? On the streets. And you are inviting everybody to come and join. That's the yuga dharma. Therefore in Kali Yuga the streets are the temple.
Thank you. Hare Krishna! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
More questions? Okay.
You have a question?
Devotee: Yes, thank you so much, Maharaja. Maharaja, I wonder about a thing. I have been told that to chant we have to be very...the quality chanting is very important.
BCS: What is that?
Devotee: The quality chanting. Thank you so much, Maharaja. I have been told that when you chant the quality of chanting is very important. So you have to pronounce the Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna fully. Sometimes when I...
BCS: Well, quality is not in how you pronounce the syllables. Quality chanting is offenseless chanting. If a child cannot even say the word "mama", but whichever way the child says it, how does the mother feel? Does the mother care about the pronunciation? "No, you did not pronounce it right?"
Devotee: Okay. Thank you so much, because I asked this question because sometimes I hear people around me say "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Rama Rama Hare Hare Krishna Krishna Rama." [devotee chants very fast and indistinct]
BCS: Don't worry about how others are chanting: put attention on how you are chanting.
Devotee: Thank you so much.
BCS: If you think that that is not right, you don't do it.
Devotee: Okay, but you cannot tell them to...no, okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. I understand.
Well, this is a very special question from Pankajalochana Dasa. Where is Pankajalochana? This is from you?! From Mayapur.tv studio. [laughter] Very good. How to accept challenges in devotional life as an impetus for becoming more fixed up in spiritual life?
Challenges mean doing things, accepting things as a mission to express your commitment to the Lord. You want to do something for Him. So that is very important. Like, if you want to serve Krishna, how are you going to serve Krishna? How are you going to serve Krishna? So that should be the impetus. Yes, that's true.
Any other questions?
How come in Ujjain we get them printed out, the questions? [devotee: inaudible] Yeah, you can do that. [devotee: there are three more questions] Three more questions. There is Dina Krishna Dasa, London, Bhaktivedanta Manor: In Kali Yuga the process is to chant the Holy Name but could you explain why Sukadeva Goswami spoke the Srimad-Bhagavatam instead of Maharaja Parikshit to simply chant until death?
You see, Parikshit Maharaja was cursed at a time when Dvapara Yuga just ended and Kali Yuga just began. That's why the yuga dharma was not properly established at that time. Therefore he spoke Srimad-Bhagavatam to establish the yuga dharma. This was Krishna's arrangement to establish the yuga dharma. And actually, Parikshit Maharaja was chanting. He first heard from Sukadeva Goswami, then he spoke, kirtana. And what Parikshit Maharaja spoke is Brihad-Bhagavatamritam. He heard Srimad-Bhagavatam and then he spoke Brihad-Bhagavamritam to his mother.
[unclear] Pankaja?
Devotee: Yeah. This is a question from Ratna Chakravarti. She is saying Bhagavad-gita 4.8: To deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreantsi
BCS: To deliver the pious people?
Devotee: To deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants
BCS: Annihilate
Devotee: Annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principle of religion I Myself appear millennium after millennium. My question is why were the demons in the presence of Krishna and irreligious activities were during His appearance and afterwards, His disappearance.
BCS: What is the last part? I couldn't get that.
Devotee: My question is why were the demons in the presence of Krishna and irreligious activities were during His appearance and afterwards, His disappearance.
BCS: Well, this is the material nature. The material nature is the place of the criminals. So that's why the material nature is like a prison house. So in the prison house the law has been established. The law is given: such and such criminal is going to get so much sentence and there is also another law that if the criminal surrenders to the king then the criminal would become free. But when the activities of the criminals become more prominent and they start to disregard the situation or the law and order of the prison house then the king has to come. The king sometimes comes to establish the law and order. So that's why in the prison house we'll always find miscreants and that is the adharma. The Lord comes to establish dharma when the adharma becomes too prominent, too prevalent, but when the Lord comes He establishes dharma. But then again, due to the influence of time in the material nature, due to the activities of the miscreants things again deteriorate. So that is how things go on in the material nature. If your question is why then there is adharma or irreligious activities, sinful activities in the material nature: Because Krishna has given the living entities the liberty to act in that way to fulfill their desire. But the result of that desire is punishment. So through punishment they're getting rectified and ultimately coming to the point of surrender.
Devotee: Hare Krishna, Maharaja. There is another question from Narma Radhika, Ujjain. She is saying: Hare Krishna, Guru Maharaja. Dandavat pranama. Guru Maharaja, as you said that in the twenty-eighth chatur-yuga of the seventh Manu Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself gave the Maha-Mantra and by chanting this we can go back to Goloka Vrindavana. But my question is that if in this twenty-eighth chatur-yuga I could not become qualified to go back to Goloka, then if I take birth in the next chatur-yuga then I have to go to Vaikuntha? [laughter]
BCS: That's the possibility and the other possibility is, you wait for another thousand chatur-yugas and appear in the next day of Brahma when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would come. Anyway, try to finish your business now. That means become fixed up. How many chatur-yugas, which chatur-yuga doesn't matter. But now that you found the process of Krishna consciousness practice it with full sincerity.
Devotee: This is a comment from Prema Manjari Dasi, Bombay: Maharaja, thank you so much for explaining different concepts of dharma so nicely. Just before you started your class I was looking for so many lectures or articles written by Srila Prabhupada and I was praying that I get right knowledge as I am preparing for my tomorrow's class that I have to give my students to whom I am preaching and just at that time I received this reciprocation. Thank you very much.
BCS: Thank you, Prema Manjari. Hare Krishna! So give your class very nicely tomorrow to your students. Yes, Atul Krishna prabhu?
Devotee: How is it possible in the cycle that after the Kali Yuga when everything is degraded, that again there can be a Satya Yuga and everyone is pious? What is it that facilitates that change?
BCS: Yeah. You see, all the miscreants will be wiped out. Only the pure souls will be spared and they will set the new Satya Yuga, because all the miscreants will be annihilated by Kalki.
Thank you!
Hare Krishna! Okay, last question.
Devotee: [inaudible]
BCS: Enjoying spirit means don't worry about your enjoyment. Rather, focus on Krishna's pleasure. You are appealing. When you are praying to somebody, are you concerned about your own pleasure? No, you are praying to Him, that please, allow me to serve You. So when it is that appeal, "Please, allow me to serve You", can there be any tinge of personal sense gratification in that?
I'll just elaborate on your question [referring to the devotee who asked a question earlier] on that. You see, how one is pronouncing is not important. How offenselessly one is chanting that is what...if somebody is chanting with his mind somewhere else, not attentively doing it, if he is not sincerely chanting, no, that is not desirable. But if one is chanting, even if one is chanting very fast, as you were saying "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna", but inside if it is pure that is what matters. But somebody may chant "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna" [Maharaja chants slow and melodiously], but his mind is thinking of Bollywood then it is not pure.
Devotee: One last question.
BCS: Last question.
Devotee: Again from Dina Krishna prabhu.
BCS: Who?
Devotee: Dina Krishna prabhu from London.
BCS: Okay.
Devotee: Dina Krishna prabhu from London, Bhaktivedanta Manor. He is asking how does one get from the second stage of chanting to pure chanting? How does one get that mercy from Krishna?
BCS: It will depend upon your own sincerity: how sincerely, how honestly, how purely you are chanting. If you are chanting with a sincere heart then Krishna will reciprocate. It is up to you, because Krishna will reciprocate according to your sincerity, your surrender.
Thank you. Hare Krishna!
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Gaura Premanande Hari Haribol!