741012 - Lecture SB 01.08.32 - Mayapur

Lectures by Date, 1974

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

741012SB-MAYAPUR - October 12, 1974 - 32:51 Minutes

Nitāi: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. (devotees repeat) (leads chanting of verse, etc.)

kecid āhur ajaṁ jātaṁ

puṇya-ślokasya kīrtaye

yadoḥ priyasyānvavāye

malayasyeva candanam

(SB 1.8.32)

(break)

"Some say that the Unborn is born for the glorification of pious kings, and others say that He is born to please King Yadu, one of Your dearest devotees. You appear in his family as sandalwood appears in the Malaya Hills."

Prabhupāda:

kecid āhur ajaṁ jātaṁ

puṇya-ślokasya kīrtaye

yadoḥ priyasyānvavāye

malayasya eva candanam

(SB 1.8.32)

So Kṛṣṇa has nothing to do. He is the Supreme. Why He shall have something to do? Na tasya kāryaṁ karaṇam . . . this is the definition in the Vedas, "God has nothing to do. He is self-sufficient. Neither He has got any aspiration." Just like we are thinking of purchasing this land, that land. Why Kṛṣṇa will think like that? Because every land is belonging to Him. So He has nothing to purchase. Everything is there. So why He comes? That is the same way, as Kṛṣṇa says personally. He comes for paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām (BG 4.8). He wants to give protection to the devotees, to glorify the devotees. That is His business. Otherwise He has no business. He has nothing to do. Just like a devotee has nothing to do except serving Kṛṣṇa, except to see Kṛṣṇa is pleased; similarly, Kṛṣṇa has nothing to do, but He wants to glorify His devotee. This is reciprocation. Ye yathā māṁ prapadyante (BG 4.11). If you . . . if you dedicate your life for glorifying the Supreme Lord, the Lord is also ready. His business is to glorify you. Otherwise, He has no business.

Therefore here it is said that priyasya, yadoḥ priyasya. King Yadu became very dear to Kṛṣṇa by rendering service. Priyasya. The . . . as Kṛṣṇa is very dear to the devotee, similarly, devotees are also very, very dear to Kṛṣṇa. There is another verse, sva-pāda-mūlaṁ bhajataḥ priyasya (SB 11.5.42). Sva-pāda-mūlaṁ bhajataḥ priyasya: "If one is engaged at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, he becomes very, very dear." Sva-pāda-mūlaṁ bhajataḥ priyasya. Bhajataḥ, one who is simply engaged for rendering service to the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa—he has no other business—he becomes priya. And as soon as you become priya, or dear to Kṛṣṇa, then your all problems solved. Just like if you become a dear child of a very big, rich man, then where is your problem? Automatically he's taken care of. Because he has become dear child of a very big man, so what is his problem? No problem. Similarly, we have to become very dear to Kṛṣṇa. Then all our problems solved.

These rascals, karmīs, they do not know. They want to become happy by their own endeavor. That is called karmī. They are working very hard—the same thing—to be very happy, and the devotee is also trying to become happy. Everyone is trying. Sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tad atīndriya-grāhyam (BG 6.21). Everyone is trying to be, become happy, because to become happy is our natural tendency. Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12). Everyone is trying to become happy. But the karmīs, the jñānīs, the yogīs, they do not know how to become perfectly happy. They're making their own endeavor. Karmīs are trying to work harder, hard, day and night, to get money, "Some way or other, never mind black and white, bring money. I must have nice car, nice house, nice bank balance." This is karmī. And jñānī, when he is fed up with working, when he understands that, "This working hard and bank balance could not make me anyway happy, so therefore this is false, all these activities, what I am . . ." The brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā. So they become disgusted and take to Brahman. Brahma satyam.

But brahma satyam is fact, but because they are trying to understand Brahman by their speculative method, they cannot understand Brahman. Athāpi te deva padāmbuja-dvaya-prasāda-leśānugṛhīta eva hi, jānāti tattvam (SB 10.14.29). You can understand the Supreme Brahman . . . simply understanding Brahman will not give you satisfaction. Simply understanding ahaṁ brahmāsmi, this will not . . . suppose if you have got money, and you are aware that you are very rich man. So simply thinking that you are very rich man and you see your money in the treasury, you'll be happy? No. When the money is utilized in so many ways for your gratification, then you are happy. Similarly, simple understanding ahaṁ brahmāsmi, this realization, will not make you happy. You have to utilize his Brahman's position. That means bhakti. This is called śānta-rasa, simply to understand ahaṁ brahmāsmi. This is called śānta-rasa. You must develop further. That is called dāsya-rasa, to become the servant of the Supreme Brahman. Then further advance. Simply to understand that "I am Brahman" will not give you . . .

Just the same example: it is very easy, that if you simply understand you have got much money . . . just like we are trying to purchase land, but purchase land means I must have money. So money is there. So why I am not happy? Why I am trying to purchase land? To utilize the money. That is required. Every businessman has got money, enough money. But why they are active in the business circle? They are going to the market, share market, this market. Utilize the money. The same thing, simply to understand that ahaṁ brahmāsmi . . . therefore they fail. All these so-called sannyāsīs, simply understanding ahaṁ brahmāsmi, "I have become now Nārāyaṇa," not giving them satisfaction. But because they have no information about rendering service to the Para-brahman, they come to again to this material field to render service, to open hospital, to open school, to feed the daridra-nārāyaṇa, and in this way they imagine, because they want activities.

So Brahman realization without activity of Brahman will not allow you to stay in the Brahman position. You'll fall down. Āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ patanty adhaḥ anādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ (SB 10.2.32). Patanty adhaḥ. By great austerities and penance, they can rise up to the paraṁ padam, ahaṁ brahmāsmi, brahma-pada. But āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ, from that place, patanty adhaḥ, again falls down in this material world. Why? Anādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ: "Because they did not learn how to honor Your lotus feet." Because they are impersonalists, they are—"God, or the Brahman, has no leg." So how they will take shelter of the leg or lotus feet? Impersonal. Therefore the very word is used, anādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ. Aṅghrayaḥ means this leg, or lotus feet. So because they have no information, or they . . . even they have got information, they are not inclined to render service, therefore they fall down. This is the position.

So our business is not to realize simply that, "I . . . ahaṁ brahmāsmi." That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). When you understand that you are not this body but you are spirit soul, then, actually, if you realize, then, if I understand . . . na jāyate na mriyate vā, the soul does not die. Then here the karmīs are working very hard because he's upset that "If I do not work hard, if I do not get money, then I shall die out of starvation." But if you are actually Brahman realized, if you understand that "I'll not die," then where is your activities? You'll not die. If somebody, some physician, gives you a tablet, "Now you take this tablet. You'll not die," then you'll stop working immediately, because "I'll not die." So brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā. "That is all right. Now I am spirit soul. I understand I will never die." That is prasannātmā. Na śocati na kāṅkṣati (BG 18.54). There is no need of lamentation. Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. But mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām. If you do not take to devotional service, simply by realizing that you are Brahman will not help. And by devotional service, you can become dear. Just like Arjuna is addressed by Kṛṣṇa, bhakto 'si priyo 'si (BG 4.3): "You are My devotee and very dear friend."

So our business is, somehow or other, to become very dear to Kṛṣṇa—as a servant, as a friend, or as father and mother, or as lover. Some way or other, you become . . . make Kṛṣṇa your dear as master or as son or as father or . . . father, they are taki . . . doing, everyone. Even ordinary person, if he is God conscious, he takes Kṛṣṇa as supreme father. Just like the Christians, they take that, "O Father, give us our daily . . ." Father means to ask him, "Give me, give me, give me, give me." Nobody wants to give father, but wants to take from father. Sometimes our students, when they spend extravagantly and I point out, he says: "My father has sent money." Sometimes. "My father has sent money." Yes. "Why did you stay at Ashoka Hotel?" "My father sent money." "Why not ask your father to send money? Why you are collecting by making Life Member?" So means idea of father . . . father means that, "Whenever I want to stay in Ashoka Hotel, he'll send money," not that, "I will send money to father, he may stay at Ashoka Hotel." Nobody thinks like that. "Father may send money, and I shall stay in Ashoka Hotel." This is the idea of father. Father means to exploit him. To exploit.

So the father conception of God, mother conception of God, is not bad. Just like in Bengal especially, they have got mother conception. Mother conception means the same thing, to exploit, take from mother, or father. But the Vaiṣṇava conception is not to accept God as father or mother but as son. Son means to give. Father means to take from him, and son means to take from the father. So if you become father of God, then your business will be to give, not to take. That is Vaiṣṇava conception. From the very beginning of the son's life, the mother is giving service to the son, the father is giving service. Therefore the service is there. Even Kṛṣṇa is afraid of Mother Yaśodā. Why? Why Mother Yaśodā was trying to bind Kṛṣṇa? Because He disrupted the process of service of Mother Yaśodā to Kṛṣṇa. That is . . . Mother Yaśodā tried that, "You have broken the butter, and You have distributed to the monkeys, You rascal. Then how You will live? I kept the butter for You so that You will eat and You'll become fatty. And You have broken that, and You have distributed the butter to the monkeys, so You must be punished." So the aim is to serve Kṛṣṇa. Not that Yaśodā is thinking, "My butter is spoiled by this child. Therefore He should be punished." He (she) is anxious to see that, "Kṛṣṇa may not starve for want of butter. He's child. He does not know. He has distributed the butter to the monkeys." But Kṛṣṇa knows that, "These monkeys are not ordinary monkeys." Those monkeys, they have taken birth in Vṛndāvana and come to Kṛṣṇa, do you think they're ordinary monkeys? They're devotees. They're devotees. They're playing as monkey for Kṛṣṇa's satisfaction. These are the intricate meanings of understanding Kṛṣṇa's līlā. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ (BG 4.9).

So to understand kṛṣṇa-līlā . . . so therefore we have to understand kṛṣṇa-līlā, Kṛṣṇa, from these books, Bhāgavata, Bhagavad-gītā, but not directly. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu recommends, bhāgavata giyā paro bhāgavata sthāne. Just try to understand Bhāgavata or Bhagavān from the realized soul, not from the professional man. So here, kecid āhur ajaṁ jātam. Āhuḥ ajaṁ jātam. Contradiction. Now Kṛṣṇa says, ajo 'pi: "Although I am birthless, I do not take birth." Ajo 'pi sann avyayātmā bhūtānām īśvaro 'pi san . . . (BG 4.6). He is the Supreme Being, He's the master of everyone, and He never takes birth; still, He takes birth. Contradiction. He never takes birth, aja; at the same time . . . ajo 'pi . . . here it is said, kecid āhur ajam. God, or Kṛṣṇa, is aja. He never takes birth. But again he (she) says jātam, "He has taken birth." This contradiction should be understood. The Vedas, there are many such contradiction like that. Paśyaty acakṣuḥ: "Kṛṣṇa, or God, sees, but He has no eyes." Similarly, God, Kṛṣṇa, takes His birth, although He never takes birth. These are contradiction. Paśyaty acakṣuḥ. Apāṇi-pādo javano grahītā: "He has no leg, but He goes so fast, nobody can compete Him." These are Vedic statement. You'll find in the Upaniṣads, apāṇi-pāda: "He has no leg, He has no hand," but javano grahītā, "but if you offer Him something, He takes." Kṛṣṇa says—it is not my word—patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati, tad ahaṁ aśnāmi bhakty-upahṛtam (BG 9.26).

Now, if the Supreme Lord, God, has no hand, no leg, then how He can walk? Just like Sākṣi-gopāla. Sākṣi-gopāla, He was Deity, apparently showing as made of stone, and the devotee's asking, "My Lord, Gopāla, You have to come to give witness." So Gopāla was smiling and said: "How you expect a Deity can walk, that I shall go to give witness for you?" The bhakta said: "If the Deity can speak and smile, He can walk also." That is the conviction of devotee. And the other party, they agreed that: "If Gopāla comes to give witness, my sister will be given to you." He . . . because he's atheist, he is thinking that, "How the Deity will come? He'll never come. Then I shall not have to fulfill my promise." He is . . . he was confident like that. That is the difference between a devotee and nondevotee. The nondevotee cannot understand. They will take it that, "Once you say that God has no eyes, then how He can see? God has no leg. Then how can He walk? God has no hand. Then how can He accept your offering?" Therefore the conclusion should be that ajo 'pi, although Kṛṣṇa never takes birth, and again He takes birth. He has taken birth. Therefore His birth is not like our birth. This is to be understood. He has no birth, but He has taken birth. Therefore, an intelligent man will conclude that His birth is not like our birth.

Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, janma karma me divyam (BG 4.9). It is all transcendental. It is not this ordinary birth. Ordinary birth means male and female union, then there is pregnancy, then the child comes out of the womb. It is not like that. It is . . . we can take this example—just like the sunrise in the morning, udilo aruṇa pūraba-bhāge. Before the sunrise, the sky becomes reddish, and then the sun comes out. So if somebody says that, "The eastern side is the birthplace of sun," is it a fact? No. The sun is always there in the sky, but with your limited eyes you are seeing that now sun comes, sunrise. Sun does not rise nor set. Sun is already there. Your imperfect eyes—you see there is sunrise, there is sunset. Is it not a fact? Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is always there, but because we do not know Kṛṣṇa, therefore we understand that Kṛṣṇa is taking birth from Devakī, or Kṛṣṇa has taken birth in the family of the Yadus. Yes, He appears like that, that He has taken birth in the Yadu family. Because why? The purpose is to glorify the family because it belongs to the devotee, Mahārāja Yadu. That is His purpose. His real purpose is that the Yadu dynasty . . . Mahārāja Yadu was a great devotee. Here the yadoḥ priyasya. He appears to take birth in the family of Mahārāja Yadu. Just like Lord Rāmacandra, He took birth in the family of Mahārāja Raghu. Therefore Lord Rāmacandra is called Raghunātha, Dāśarathi, as Kṛṣṇa is called Vāsudeva because He accepted Vasudeva as His father.

So actually, Kṛṣṇa has no birth. Kṛṣṇa doesn't require. He can appear in any family. He . . . just like Kṛṣṇa appeared, matsya-avatāra, in the family of fish. Keśava dhṛta-mīna-śarīra, jaya jagadīśa hare. Kṛṣṇa took birth as a pig. Keśava dhṛta-varāha-śarīra, jaya jagadīśa hare. Kṛṣṇa is free. He can appear anywhere, everywhere. That is . . . just like īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati (BG 18.61). He's situated in everyone's heart. So He is with everyone's . . . every living being has got Kṛṣṇa. So Kṛṣṇa is already there in the heart. From the heart, if He appears in front . . . just like Dhruva Mahārāja: He was meditating that Viṣṇu form of Kṛṣṇa, and all of a sudden he saw that Viṣṇu is not there. Then he opened his eyes, he saw Viṣṇu is in his front. So what is the difficulty for Kṛṣṇa? If He is within the heart and if He comes in your front, is it very difficult task for Him?

But the rascals, atheists, they cannot understand. Kṛṣṇa is everywhere. That is explained here, yadoḥ priyasya anvavāye. He can appear . . . how it is? Malayasyeva candanam. The sandalwood is famous as produced in Malaysia, or Malaya. I think formerly they used to grow sandalwood in Malaysia. What . . .? What is that capital?

Devotee: Kuala Lumpur.

Prabhupāda: Kuala Lumpur. Yes. We had been in Kuala Lumpur. Now, instead of sandalwood, they are growing rubber, rubber wood. Yes. So formerly malaya-candana, Malaysia, Malayasian candana, sandalwood, was very famous. Still it is famous. So this candana tree can grow anywhere, but it is famous as Malayan candana. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa can appear from anywhere. He is independent. But He appeared as this descendant of the Yadu dynasty. Why? Yadoḥ priyasya, puṇya-ślokasya kīrtaye. Those who are devotee, they are puṇya-śloka. Or Kṛṣṇa is also puṇya-śloka, uttama-śloka, Kṛṣṇa's another name. As Kṛṣṇa is known as Uttama-śloka, similarly, the devotees are called puṇya-śloka. How they become puṇya-śloka? Simply by hearing about Kṛṣṇa. Śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śloka-kīrtanaḥ (SB 1.2.17). Anyone who is always in contact with Kṛṣṇa, he's puṇya-śloka, and Kṛṣṇa is uttama-śloka. Uttama-śloke bhagavati bhaktir bhavati naiṣṭhikī (SB 1.2.18).

So these are the terms used in the śāstras. As Kṛṣṇa is uttama-śloka, similarly, a devotee is puṇya-śloka. As the devotee worships Kṛṣṇa with selected poems, uttama-śloka . . . they are not ordinary poems. Cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vṛkṣa-lakṣāvṛteṣu surabhīr abhipālayan . . . (Bs. 5.29). These are not ordinary verses. These are transcendental verses, govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi. So Kṛṣṇa is worshiped by transcendental verses, transcendental language, Vedic language. That is transcendental language. Therefore it is called uttama-śloka. So puṇya-śloka, when he's advanced, he can worship the Uttama-śloka. Naṣṭa-prāyeṣu abhadreṣu nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā (SB 1.2.18). Nityam, daily, regular. So as you are daily hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, so if you go on, then naṣṭa-prāya, everything, all dirty things within your heart, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12), it will be all cleansed. Then you become puṇya-śloka. Puṇya-śloka. Nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā. Śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ nityam . . . puṇya-śloka-kīrtanaḥ (SB 1.2.17). Simply by hearing.

So we are inviting everyone to become puṇya-śloka simply by hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. There is no . . . come here. Take prasādam. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Dance in jubilation. Become puṇya-śloka, and Kṛṣṇa . . . you'll become very dear to Kṛṣṇa. This is perfection of life.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. (end)