20221105 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.1.26

The following is a Śrīmad Bhāgavatam Class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on November 5th, 2022 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur,India.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Jayapatākā Swami: So this verse is describing the virāṭa-rūpa of the Lord. It is explicitly described here that by this form one cannot realize the Supreme Lord. The Supreme Personality of Godhead always maintains His transcendental divine form. And He is not situated in His external energy, but He is always situated in His internal energy. But to help the conditioned souls see the Supreme Lord this description is given. So, we should understand that normally the materialists have an enjoying attitude in the material world. But on the devotional path now we must develop service and compassion attitude. If we have the service attitude, then it is very, very useful in the path of devotional service. So we are having an attitude to enjoy and control this material world. If we perform pious activities, we go upwards and if we perform sinful activities we go downwards. In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta there is a famous verse that says this is good, this is bad, this is all the illusion of the mind. So we should see that everything material is contaminated. Lord Caitanya’s path is bhakti, service attitude. We want to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If we do not have the service attitude we will not be able to reach the Lord.

Now there are nine islands of Navadvīpa-dhāma and nine processes of devotional service are performed, starting from hearing and chanting. So we want to hear the chanting of the holy name, we want to chant the holy name. Many people think that to chant mentally is very nice, very subtle. But there are various scriptures which describe that if one chants loudly then the benefit is 100 times more. So we want the devotees, as much as possible, to chant aloud. Haridāsa Ṭhākura would chant 300,000 the holy name a day. That is 12 times more than what we chant. If we do 16 rounds, he does 64 times 3. But of course, we can chant extra rounds, no harm. Now Haridāsa Ṭhākura the chanting he would perform he would do 100,000 times names aloud, 100,000 time he would do softly, and 100,000 times mentally. So there are three kinds of japa allowed. But if you chant loudly, all the living entities that have tongues, but they cannot chant, there are insects, birds, animals, trees and creepers, if we chant loudly, all these entities are liberated. So that is why it is a 100-times more powerful.

Whatever service you do in Navadvīpa-dhāma, we get 1000 times the benefit and if we are within a 3-mile radius of the Ganges, then we get again a 1000 more times the benefit. That is why it is so valuable to chant and serve in Māyāpur-dhāma. We want vacation, but for us Vaiṣṇavas our holiday is that we go to the holy dhāma of Māyāpur and we perform more service there. When people come here to Māyāpur-dhāma for Gaura Pūrṇimā festival, they should do a lot of hearing and chanting and service. Because if you do nothing, then what is all of this times nothing?! It becomes zero! So, we want to have the service attitude. And by visiting Navadvīpa-dhāma I hope our service attitude may increase.

Now taking initiation means that we want to achieve that service attitude and with that attitude perform lot of service for the Lord. The sannyāsīs, they have tridaṇḍī-sannyāsa, which signifies service with mana, kāya, vākya to perform service - with mind body and words. The brahmacārīs, they are using their time to serve. This way, the brahmacārīs get an opportunity to serve always. But Śrīla Prabhupāda was saying in London, that he wanted his gṛhastha followers to be paramahaṁsas. To be a paramahaṁsa the devotee requires to have service attitude towards the Lord. In Chakdaha, West Bengal, Śrīla Prabhupāda gave a lecture. Chakdaha is in Nadia district. So Śrīla Prabhupāda, gave the details of how they spend the whole day. At the end of it he said, is this human life? He said, you add Kṛṣṇa and that will make your life complete. Even till date there is a train that goes to Kolkata from Chakdaha, there is one compartment where they chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

I went to Tirupati, Tirumala and they were serving onion and garlic in the free food. I don’t call it prasāda. I told them that so many people are coming to Tirumala to have Bālājī’s prasāda.

Why do you give them onion and garlic? They said, they like it! I said, do you want to please them, or you want to give them Bālājī’s prasāda. Since that time, they don’t give any more onion and garlic. And they were asked why have you stopped? They said some sannyāsī told us! So we can make a difference.

You see, gṛhasthas, they can see how the brahmacārīs are active, they can also be active in devotional service. Gṛhasthas, they have family, children, so many things to oversee. But some time, just like we eat, we eat prasāda. We spend some time worshiping the Deities. Either we go to the temple, or we worship the Lord in our homes. And we read Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books. Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, etc. So, in this way, we keep our service attitude to Kṛṣṇa. There was one family in Kolkata, wife, children, they were all my disciples. But the husband, he was not interested. Then the husband was diagnosed with cancer. And he was on his bed, his cancer was advanced. Then some ferocious beings entered through the wall. In their hands they had ropes. They looked like Yamadūtas. He saw these entities and said, no, no, I will not go!I do not want to go! Then they disappeared through the wall. He called his wife. I want japa-mālā, I want neck beads. Please read the Bhagavad-gītā for me! And in one second the Yamadūtas made him a devotee! So the Yamadūtas gave him an opportunity to become a devotee. But everybody may not get that opportunity may not get that thought. Because his family were all devotees, he got that opportunity. So, gṛhasthas can also preach to the neighbors, to their work colleagues, to the student colleagues.

Bhakti Vijaya Bhāgavata Swami can give you some tips! Anyway, this universe does not exist except only because of Kṛṣṇa’s desire. There is nothing but Kṛṣṇa and everything else is illusion. But He wants to enjoy, so He manifested many energies. We are the jīva-śakti. Now this material world creation is but 1/4th of the energy of the Lord that is manifested. The spiritual world, Vaikuṇṭha dhāma compose 3/4th the energy. So if we stay in the service attitude to the Lord, then we can go there. But if we have the enjoying attitude then we will remain here. So we want to have our service attitude to give the Lord pleasure.

If the gṛhasthas have Kṛṣṇa conscious children, that is their service to Kṛṣṇa. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he had a son like Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, so Śrīla Prabhupāda said we need many children like that. So whether one is a gṛhastha or whether one is a brahmacārī, they should engage in Kṛṣṇa’s service. If there are any question?

Question: You said today that if someone does service in Navadvīpa-dhāma you get a 1000 times benefit, but you also said some time earlier that if one serves in Kolkata they get 10,000 times the benefit. So why is that?

Jayapatākā Swami: You see in Māyāpur in Dāmodara you get 100, in Ekādaśī you get another hundred and near the Ganges you get a thousand or a lac times, so in this way its mentioned. But Kolkata is part of Gaura-maṇḍala Bhūmi. I think that Śrīla Prabhupāda, he said something. He said he couldn’t stay in Kolkata, but those who stay in his birthplace they will get special mercy. So, I don’t remember how many times but Śrīla Prabhupāda said something. I will look it up.

Question: Thank you so much for giving us so much time during Bhīṣma-Pañcaka. We are feeling, simply by your darśana, our Bhīṣma-Pañcaka is successful. You have mentioned just now about the glories of Navadvīpa-dhāma and residence in Navadvīpa-dhāma is beneficial and profitable. We are in Bangladesh constantly facing opposition and we are in such an unfavorable situation trying to carry out preaching but practically we are on war front with certain groups. How can we remain in Navadvīpa-dhāma consciousness and get the benefits of Navadvīpa-dhāma while we are in our preaching fields under these circumstances?

Jayapatākā Swami: Interesting question. Of course, we should understand that if we face a lot of inconvenience or unfavorable situations for the sake of Kṛṣṇa, for the service of Kṛṣṇa, then we should know that Kṛṣṇa is very grateful to us. We can serve in Navadvīpa-dhāma in separation. Just like, whether you get more credit if you stay in Navadvīpa-dhāma or if you go out on saṅkīrtana preaching. When we preach and spread the glories of Māyāpur-dhāma, then our Founder-Ācārya, our previous ācāryas, they are very pleased. So the śāstra says about Navadvīpa-dhāma, about Vṛndāvana dhāma, how much benefit we get. But when one goes out to preach, the amount of benefit that one gets, that is incalculable. I was going out from Māyāpur and distributing books. Śrīla Prabhupāda did not tell me, oh, you stay in Māyāpur, you will get more credit. He told me to distribute 10,000 big books and 100,000 small books in a month. So then when I was sick, he told me, maybe you are working too hard, remain in Māyāpur and work through your assistants. So, in this verse, it mentions sevā-bhāva. And we want to do that service which is most pleasing to our Founder-Ācārya.

Question: You mentioned that raising children is a service to Kṛṣṇa. How do we give children Kṛṣṇa consciousness in an age appropriate way? Sometimes I see parents drag children from program to program and the children over time they get saturated and leave. There are so many gṛhasthas here. Please guide us.

Jayapatākā Swami: You see, the successful gṛhasthas may be able to guide the others. I am a sannyāsī, I don’t claim to know how to bring up children! But I know that it is an important service. It should be done in such a way that the children are enthused. I just talked to one wife, where is your husband? She said, he is with my son in Vṛndāvana. My son he likes hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam class or something, he likes to hear śāstra so much that he extending his visit for one week. So, obviously we should encourage the children to want to do devotional service. Now what is the secret? I don’t think there is any monopoly but there is no guarantee that every child will be a pure devotee. But if you do the garbhādāna-saṁskāra, do all the saṁsakāras, we give nice association, set good examples, then there is hope. Advaita Gosāñi had six sons and three sons were pure devotees. Three sons were not pure devotees. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, had many children. One was an ācārya, one was a naiṣṭhika-brahmacārī. I don’t know everyone, what happened to the others. Anyway, Now I have to end the class and you should all go and take your breakfast. But if you try that your child be Kṛṣṇa consciousness then Kṛṣṇa will be appreciative. I saw in New Tālavana, small children, about 6 years old or younger, they were chanting their one round japa. There was a plate of sandeśa. When their japa finished they would all get the sandeśa. Now some of the children were looking at the sandeśa and chanting! Ha! Anyway, somehow or other they were enthusiastically chanting! So we should think of some ways to enthuse them. Hare Kṛṣṇa! Thank you very much!