19800207 Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.9.30

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on 7th February 1980. The class begins with the reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Canto One, Chapter Nine, Text Thirty.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.9.30

tadopasaṁhṛtya giraḥ sahasraṇīr
vimukta-saṅgaṁ mana ādi-pūruṣe
kṛṣṇe lasat-pīta-paṭe catur-bhuje
puraḥ sthite ‘mīlita-dṛg vyadhārayat

Translation: Thereupon that man who spoke on different subjects with thousands of meanings, and who fought on thousands of battlefields and protected thousands of men, stopped speaking and, being completely freed from all bondage, withdrew his mind from everything else and fixed his wide-open eyes upon the original Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who stood before him, four-handed, dressed in yellow garments that glittered and shined.

Purport: In the momentous hour of leaving his material body, Bhīṣmadeva set the glorious example concerning the important function of the human form of life. The subject matter which attracts the dying man becomes the beginning of his next life. Therefore, if one is absorbed in thoughts of the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, he is sure to go back to Godhead without any doubt. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (8.5-15):

5: And whoever, at the time of death, quits his body remembering Me alone at once attains My nature. Of this there is no doubt.

6: Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, that state he will attain without fail.

7: Therefore, Arjuna, you should always think of Me in the form of Kṛṣṇa and at the same time carry out your prescribed duty of fighting. With your activities dedicated to Me and your mind and intelligence fixed on Me, you will attain Me without doubt.

8: He who meditates on the Supreme Personality of Godhead, his mind constantly engaged in remembering Me, undeviated from the path, he, O Pārtha [Arjuna], is sure to reach Me.

9: One should meditate upon the Supreme Person as the one who knows everything, as He who is the oldest, who is the controller, who is smaller than the smallest, who is the maintainer of everything, who is beyond all material conception, who is inconceivable, and who is always a person. He is luminous like the sun and, being transcendental, is beyond this material nature.

10: One who, at the time of death, fixes his life air between the eyebrows and in full devotion engages himself in remembering the Supreme Lord will certainly attain to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

11: Persons learned in the Vedas, who utter oṁkāra and who are great sages in the renounced order, enter into Brahman. Desiring such perfection, one practices celibacy. I shall now explain to you this process by which one may attain salvation.

12: The yogic situation is that of detachment from all sensual engagements. Closing all the doors of the senses and fixing the mind on the heart and the life air at the top of the head, one establishes himself in yoga.

13: After being situated in this yoga practice and vibrating the sacred syllable oṁ, the supreme combination of letters, if one thinks of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and quits his body, he will certainly reach the spiritual planets.

14: For one who remembers Me without deviation, I am easy to obtain, O son of Pṛthā, because of his constant engagement in devotional service.

15: After attaining Me, the great souls, who are yogīs in devotion, never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries, because they have attained the highest perfection.

Śrī Bhīṣmadeva attained the perfection of quitting his body at will and was fortunate enough to have Lord Kṛṣṇa, the object of his attention, personally present at the time of death. He therefore fixed his open eyes upon Him. He wanted to see Śrī Kṛṣṇa for a long time out of his spontaneous love for Him. Because he was a pure devotee, he had very little to do with the detailed performance of yogic principles. Simple bhakti-yoga is enough to bring about perfection. Therefore, the ardent desire of Bhīṣmadeva was to see the person of Lord Kṛṣṇa, the most lovable object, and by the grace of the Lord, Śrī Bhīṣmadeva had this opportunity at the last stage of his breathing.

* * *

Jayapatākā Swami: So of course, this is most important, a most important śloka of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Bhīṣmadeva has just completed instructing Yudhiṣṭhira and so many were present, including great sages and the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Bhīṣmadeva instructed Yudhiṣṭhira not to be in anxiety about the outcome of the battle of Kurukṣetra, where literally millions of people had given their lives, that Yudhiṣṭhira was not responsible, that ultimately everything which happens is by the will of the Supreme. And it was Kṛṣṇa’s desire that those people should leave their material body for a new life.

That of course is another subject, but this particular śloka we are seeing that Bhīṣmadeva, who is a great mahājana, a great devotee, he is ready to give up his body. And at this crucial and most important moment we are seeing that Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, He is so kind that He is personally present. Kṛṣṇa promises that His devotee will never be destroyed or defeated. So here we are seeing that although Bhīṣma is lying in a bed of arrows, he is penetrated through and through with arrows. And you can understand that he must be tolerating the most excruciating physical pain. But he, through sheer willpower he is maintaining his body and soul together. Not only maintaining, but he is giving instruction to Yudhiṣṭhira.

But Kṛṣṇa is not coming because he was a great king or because he was a great warrior. Kṛṣṇa is coming to him because he was a great devotee. Bhīṣmadeva’s only desire was at the last moment of his life to see Kṛṣṇa. That is the desire of the pure devotee to throughout the life remember Kṛṣṇa and at the last moment to remember Kṛṣṇa. So Kṛṣṇa, He is so kind that will He let down His devotee at such a crucial moment? No, what to speak of letting down. He personally came. He personally came just to benedict His devotee. We can understand how kind Kṛṣṇa is to His devotees. He comes down to this material world just to show us the pastimes, the loving relationships that He possesses with His devotees. Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Truth. There is no truth higher than Kṛṣṇa.

mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat
kiñcid asti dhanañ-jaya
mayi sarvam idaṁ protaṁ
sūtre maṇi-gaṇā iva
[Bg. 7.7]

“There is no higher truth than I”, Kṛṣṇa himself admits His personal form is the Supreme Truth and personal form means filled with qualities - Beauty, strength, renunciation, fame, knowledge and beauty. And Kṛṣṇa’s quality is that He protects His devotees. So, when Bhīṣmadeva, at this very critical time, Kṛṣṇa personally comes. In other words, Kṛṣṇa is not such a friend who will let down His friend in time of need. In this material world we have so many friends, you see, who come around. Especially when one is very financially well off or materially well situated. Then many people are friends. But when one becomes very much distressed or very unfortunate then we find that few friends remain. Cāṇakya Paṇḍita said that the test of a friend is that in time of distress, whether he remains. The test of a wife is that in the time of… in the time of extreme hardship whether she will stay with the husband or go away like that there are different tests. Test of disciple is that whether he will perform the order of the spiritual master even it is not apparently to his benefit. So, these are the tests.

So, Kṛṣṇa is known to be the supreme friend,

bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ
Sarva-loka-maheśvaram
suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati
[Bg. 5.29]

So, what to speak, you see, He is the friend of all living entities; suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ, but the living entities don’t become the devotee and friend of Kṛṣṇa because they don’t want Kṛṣṇa. Therefore, He doesn’t come. But Bhīṣma wanted Kṛṣṇa, so Kṛṣṇa came. If we want Kṛṣṇa to be with us by our side Kṛṣṇa will come. But if we say, “No Kṛṣṇa, I don’t want you”, then Kṛṣṇa, He is not such an impolite person that He will impose Himself upon us.

But even then, He is so kind. He sends His devotees and the devotees; they are more kind than Kṛṣṇa. The devotee, he comes and says, “No! Why you are not surrendering to Kṛṣṇa, you must surrender to Kṛṣṇa. Except surrendering to Kṛṣṇa, there is no other hope for your perfection, for your happiness.” Therefore, we pray to the Vaiṣṇavas as being desire trees, as being oceans of mercy. Just like Śrīla Prabhupāda, he was so kind that anyone who had a little desire to serve Kṛṣṇa, he would pick up that desire and engage him in devotional service. And he was not obsessed with the difficulties one was going through. But he would rather try to find out what is that desire to serve. Where is the spark? He would say, “I am looking for the spark. And then when I find the spark, simply to fan it.”

You see, because what we are suffering from is darkness in our heart. We are filled with darkness in our heart. That darkness is forgetfulness of Kṛṣṇa. Forgetfulness of our own spiritual nature in our relationship with Kṛṣṇa. So that darkness can only be removed by light; tamasomā jyotir gama, so,

kṛṣṇa — sūrya-sama; māyā haya andhakāra
yāhāṅ kṛṣṇa, tāhāṅ nāhi māyāra adhikāra
(Cc. Madhya 22.31)

Where there is Kṛṣṇa, there is all light and where there is light, where is the question of darkness? So, where there is Kṛṣṇa, there can be no darkness, there can be no ignorance. So, the solution to get rid of ignorance is to bring Kṛṣṇa in the heart. So, that devotion to Kṛṣṇa is what brings Kṛṣṇa and that is compared to a fire. So even if there is a spark, Prabhupāda would fan it until it became a blazing fire. And then the light from that fire of devotion would automatically destroy ignorance. Therefore, he stressed that one has to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

One has to however, avoid the sinful activities because this makes it difficult for us to chant. And this takes our mind off of Kṛṣṇa. One should associate with devotees because devotees’ association is something very rare. Bhīṣmadeva, he was a kṣatriya. He was a kingly man. In fact, he was a warrior dying in a battlefield. It mentions that demigods from other planets, great sages, they have all come to be present for Bhīṣmadeva’s passing. He is a king. Why should they come to see the passing of a kṣatriya? They are great brāhmaṇas, demigods. Because they want to get the association of a devotee. They know that he is a devotee of Kṛṣṇa and this is his last period in this material world because the Supreme Lord Himself has come present.

And Bhīṣmadeva is going to leave his body and a soul like Bhīṣmadeva will not come back again to this material world, this is the last darśana. So, for that association with devotee, people have come from all over the universe to be present. So of course, even every devotee may not be able to be like Bhīṣmadeva. But nevertheless, a devotee who has dedicated his life or is trying to dedicate his life to the cause of the spiritual master, Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Kṛṣṇa. Prabhupāda gave the example that it is like a ripe mango and a green mango. If you purchase a green mango and keep it, it will turn ripe. Green mango. So long it is on the tree, it is also going to turn ripe. So, mango is a mango, a devotee is a devotee.

A pure aspiration is non-different from actually having achieved that because it is simply separated by some time. Time is the only gap. The perfection is already guaranteed. Therefore, one should associate with devotees. Prabhupāda stressed this. In fact, he stressed that not only associating in a discussion, he said, “No, you should take prasāda together”, taking prasāda together, all these things which we take very cheaply, these are very much an intrinsic part of our Vaiṣṇava culture. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He would have so many huge prasāda festivals where He Himself along with Nityānanda would take prasāda with the devotees sometimes. Although generally He would take in private, the devotees would. Although sometimes He would also take with Him. But the devotees they would take together.

Of course we don’t even think twice of devotees taking prasāda together. But actually, this is more than just taking prasāda. It is a ritual which itself is purifying. There are six ways of exchanging love. One is to accept foodstuff, Another is to give foodstuff. To accept foodstuff and give foodstuff together. Foodstuff means prasāda, not other foodstuff. That is expression of love. To render some service and to accept some service and to reveal one’s mind and to accept someone else’s mind. If you try to reveal your mind, you want to speak your own ideas and thoughts to someone. If he is, if he doesn’t show any interest, if he shows no care to hear what you have to say, naturally you will feel a little bit put off. This person, he is not reciprocating or he is not listening to me, you see, there is no love there.

“Even I may speak nonsense, you should hear what I have to say”, that is a one will feel in this way because actually this is a way of giving love. So, someone, he may not want to exchange love in that way. But that is exchange to open one’s heart. Or someone speaks someone you feel he is not being straightforward with me. He is concealing his mind. You know that he is not putting his faith or love in me. These are very practical, we can see. So, before Kṛṣṇa and the spiritual master amongst the society of Vaiṣṇavas, Rūpa Gosvāmī recommends we have to be straightforward. That means we reveal our mind. And in turn that should be people who will reveal their mind in return.

So Kṛṣṇa, He reveals His mind. You can imagine if we reveal our mind which is so filled with simply dirt, with so many materialistic conceptions, yet we are revealing our mind to Kṛṣṇa that, “I am what I am, but I want to serve you. Please help me.” And you can imagine a Kṛṣṇa reveals His mind to His devotees. You see the reciprocation. Because we are so infinitesimal, we give 1%. If Kṛṣṇa even gives 1% in return, that becomes an unlimited factor. Because Kṛṣṇa is unlimited. So, Bhīṣmadeva, he has given his complete attention to Kṛṣṇa. In fact, he is only remaining there for the pleasure of Kṛṣṇa. And so, what is he doing now? He is preparing to leave his body. He is winding up all other thoughts.

This is a symptom of a Vaiṣṇava. He may be performing so many services and so many activities. But at the last period of life, he will stop everything and simply focus his attention on Kṛṣṇa. Our previous ācāryas, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he did the same thing although his whole life. In fact he approached his guru that, “I want to take sannyāsa.” “You are already a sannyāsī although you are gṛhastha-āśrama, but you are already a sannyāsī who can be greater sannyāsī than you. Your every activity is dedicated to Kṛṣṇa.” But anyway, the last three years of his life, he gave everything up and just engaged in bhajana but whole life, he engaged in Kṛṣṇa’s service. Śrīla Prabhupāda, we saw the last six months, he just engaged in bhajana in Vṛndāvana, simply hearing, kīrtana, translating. No involvement except in this we call nirjana-bhajana and of course the final instructions for disciples. But that is just the last small portion of time.

Śrīla Prabhupāda said, “First work now, samādhi later”, when Kṛṣṇa wants to take us back to Him. At that time, if it is His desire, then he will arrange that, “Alright, you have this private time.” Not that we should aspire. “Oh, I will give up. This is too much trouble to do all this service. Oh guru, has given me so much burden. I have to do so many things better. I just go and chant.” No, That is… that is false renunciation. You see. The real thing is to accept that burden as a burden of love. Mother is carrying the baby on the lap. She doesn’t think at all. “Oh, baby is so heavy.” Even, the baby may make a mess. Mother is taking that because of love for the baby. She is not thinking, “Oh, I should finish off the baby”, because there is some love there. So, this is a burden of love.

The Cakravartī Ṭhākura. What is his..? Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, He gave another example that newly wedded wife accepts the burden of the husband when producing children. Doesn’t think that, “Oh, this is something distasteful.” So, there are many burdens we accept in this life. So why cannot we accept the burden of Kṛṣṇa’s love? In this material life, people are accepting so many burdens without a second thought. So, why cannot we accept the burden of Kṛṣṇa’s love? The burden of the spiritual master’s love? So, that burden of love means we accept the order of the spiritual master as our life and soul even if it is difficult.

Kṛṣṇa may test us in so many ways. Look at the test Bhīṣmadeva is going through. No one could imagine such a test. But also, the reward is there. Kṛṣṇa Himself has come. The greater the test, the greater the reward. The more we are able to accept the burden of Kṛṣṇa’s love. The more we are able to accept our responsibility to our spiritual master. The more Kṛṣṇa rewards us. “Oh you have done so well.” He is not someone who will neglect His devotee. In fact, there is a very beautiful śloka that describes that just like we take the sugarcane. You know sugarcane has got sweet juice in it. Everyone likes the sugarcane juice. But to get out the sugarcane juice you have to beat it or crush it. But the more you crush the sugarcane, the more sweet juice comes out. You have seen that with a machine. They took it one time through, then again twice, three. The more you put it through, the juice is coming out.

Similarly sandalwood. Sandalwood has got a fine aroma. But if you just smell sandalwood-stick you won’t get so much scent. You have to grind it. Then you get out the scent. The more you grind, candana candaṁ gandhanaṁ gandhavānaṁ, the more the scent comes out. And gold. Gold, of course, looks very nice. But if you take it from the mine, it won’t have the same luster. The more that one takes the gold and the goldsmith, he will burn that. He will melt it, smelt it and refine it, heating it, taking out the impurities. Again heating it, beating it, heating it. In this way, by reheating again and again, the gold becomes more brilliant, more lustrous; kāñcanaṁ kāñcavānaṁ punarapī punaḥ kāñcanaṁ kāñcavānaṁ, so by putting the gold through the test of fire, it becomes more lustrous.

So similarly, a devotee, a sādhu, even he is put through a difficult test. His attachment to Kṛṣṇa carries him out of the test. And someone you see, who goes through a test and again survives that test, again comes out. But that is more glorious. And so this glory, the śāstra says of this, that glory continues even after this life. In fact, death is another great test which he gloriously passes. Therefore, his glory continues not only in this life, but forever. So, we get a burden of love from the spiritual master. And Kṛṣṇa, He may see that how seriously we have taken up that, if we are having material desires, if we are having different impurities, then Kṛṣṇa, He may put us through different situations. To overcome these impurities, Kṛṣṇa has to reveal them to us. That is why Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that,

tṛṇād api sunīcena
taror api sahiṣṇunā
amāninā mānadena
kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ
[Śikṣāṣṭakam 3]

You see, if we can always chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, we can make progress. But to chant we have to be going through a continual purification process. And that is only possible if we are in a humble mood. If we think ourselves lower than the star on the street, if we are more tolerant than a tree, if we are ready to offer respect to others and not desirous of respect and prestige, distinction, adoration for ourselves.

As soon as we want respect, as soon as we become intolerant and as soon as we become a little proud. And therefore, we become bewildered. And we think that, “I should be enjoying, I should be honored, I should not be mistreated or shouldn’t be put through any difficulty.” And this way our ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā [Bg. 3.27] we become bewildered, forgetting that, Kṛṣṇa as the doer, we are thinking, “I am the doer, others are the doers.” And, so then we get misled. But that is also Kṛṣṇa’s mercy to the devotee. Because then what happens? Māyā kicks him when he gets kicked then he remembers that, “I was enjoying such transcendental ecstasy serving guru and Kṛṣṇa. Now why I am being kicked, let me again engage in service and get out of this miserable position.” And once having suffered - an intelligent person, he will never make that mistake again. He will never again take his attention for a moment off the shelter of Kṛṣṇa. That is a sign of an intelligent person.

A dog has no intelligence. A dog, you say, he comes up, you say, “Hutt! Hutt! Get out.” He goes away. A minute later again he comes back. Then again they throw hot water, he runs off. Next day again he is coming back. Why? no intelligence? They have no memory. They can’t remember. A human being has a memory, he can remember. And devotee is very intelligent. Therefore, if somehow or another, by fate, by Kṛṣṇa’s will, if someone has some difficulty and when he remembers Kṛṣṇa, that is Kṛṣṇa’s special mercy. Because anyone who serves Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa never forgets that. And it says that nobody can forget the nectar that is at Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet. Bhīṣma, he fell in bad association. He was with the core of it. Bad association is very dangerous.

There was a question asked that Bhīṣmadeva, he is a pure devotee. He is a mahājana yet when Draupadī was being insulted by the Kauravas when Duḥśāsana was trying to, you see strip her naked in the court why such personalities like Droṇācārya, Bhīṣma, why they were speechless why they didn’t speak out to stop the injustice? Such a thing, how it can happen in the courtroom of the Emperor of the World in Hastināpura before such venerable people? So, the instruction is given because they were eating the food of Duryodhana that by accepting the food, by accepting the association of such sinful people even a great mahājana, pure devotees become affected. We can understand from this example how careful we have to be to maintain association, to maintain strictly the simple principles that Prabhupāda gave us. If Bhīṣmadeva can become bewildered, what to speak of us?

Therefore, when we say Prabhupāda says take prasāda, associate with devotees, chant your sixteen rounds, avoid breaking the four regular principles. We take, “Oh yes, yes.” But a little bit of neglect, you see and we can become misled, we can become bewildered, we can become frustrated and colored by illusion. Therefore, Prabhupāda said, “Purity is our force”, we have to maintain this purity. So, Bhīṣmadeva, of course even he may have made a mistake because of the bad association and taking the food cooked by non-devotees that was not a permanent obstacle, we are seeing that actually he has attained the highest perfection of life. What higher perfection is there that have the Supreme Lord personally present at the time of leaving the body, personally Kṛṣṇa came. In fact, Kṛṣṇa practically ran to be with Bhīṣma.

We are thinking that how I remember Kṛṣṇa? If we are serving Kṛṣṇa our whole life as it said here that for a devotee, “For one who remembers Me without deviation I am easy to obtain”, what to speak? Why? “Because of his constant engagement in devotional service.” Bhīṣmadeva didn’t invite that, “Kṛṣṇa, Please come.” He was not thinking that, “I am such a great person Kṛṣṇa should come.” Kṛṣṇa Himself on His own accord. He said, “I want to be with My devotee if someone is serving Kṛṣṇa his whole life, remembering Kṛṣṇa, chanting His name, the devotee doesn’t have to think that, “Oh, how will I remember Kṛṣṇa? At the difficult moment of death, Kṛṣṇa Himself will come to be with you! Kṛṣṇa is more eager for you to go back to Him. He is more eager for us to go back to Him we are the ones who are dragging our feet we are not eager to go back to Kṛṣṇa, so Bhīṣmadeva was eager, Kṛṣṇa personally came. And so Bhīṣma, he took everything out of his mind. And he simply concentrated on the lotus feet, the lotus face, the lotus form of the Lord. And at that moment, taking everything else out of his mind which was possible, not possible for an ordinary person, possible for Bhīṣma by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa, because of his devotional service and in that full consciousness of Kṛṣṇa consciousness he left this body that is the perfection of life. Thank you very much.