20250412 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.15.8

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

Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.15.8

yasya vācā prajāḥ sarvā
gāvas tantyeva yantritāḥ
haranti balim āyattās
tasmai mukhyāya te namaḥ

Translation: All the living entities within the universe are conducted by the Vedic directions, as a bull is directed by the rope attached to its nose. No one can violate the rules laid down in the Vedic literatures. To the chief person, who has contributed the Vedas, we offer our respect!

Purport: The Vedic literatures are the laws of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One cannot violate the injunctions given in the Vedic literatures any more than one can violate the state laws. Any living creature who wants real benefit in life must act according to the direction of the Vedic literature. The conditioned souls who have come to this material world for material sense gratification are regulated by the injunctions of the Vedic literature. Sense gratification is just like salt. One cannot take too much or too little, but one must take some salt in order to make one’s foodstuff palatable. Those conditioned souls who have come to this material world should utilize their senses according to the direction of the Vedic literature; otherwise they will be put into a more miserable condition of life. No human being or demigod can enact laws like those of the Vedic literature because the Vedic regulations are prescribed by the Supreme Lord.

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Jayapatākā Swami: Is there Russian translation going on? Chinese?

So, this verse is about Vedic injunctions. Bhagavān, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, gave injunctions for our lives. We have come to this material world in order to enjoy our senses. That is why we have happiness and distress. So, if we disobey the Vedic injunctions we get misery. Now, if we follow the Vedic injunctions then we get relatively more sukha. We see that someone has money, or fame or some political power, it is all their previous karma. Then they fall into more miserable life because they forget that they had performed good activities previously and engage in sinful activities and fall into more miseries. So, maybe someone by some kind of sinning can avoid the law of the state, but one cannot avoid the law of God. The business men are planning how they can avoid income tax. But the Government is thinking how can we close all the loopholes! Like this the competition is going on! So, we are in the material world because we want sense gratification. The material world is like a prison house, and here by our karma we can get happiness or distress but we cannot get liberation. We have different yajñas for different ages – Satya-yuga it is meditation; Tretā-yuga is homa or fire sacrifice; the sacrifice for Dvāpara-yuga is temple worship and in Kali-yuga is Harināma, chanting of the holy name of the Lord.

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare!

So anything we do for the pleasure of Kṛṣṇa is called a yajña or sacrifice. So, sense gratification is just like salt. One cannot take too much or too little! But one must take some salt to make one’s foodstuff palatable. All the males should start up from brahmacārī life. That is varṇāśrama. That is an āśrama. So, a brahmacārī may decide whether they want to be a gṛhastha or stay a brahmacārī. How much salt does he want to eat?! But in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, what we want to do is to seek out a Kṛṣṇa conscious spouse. I had a stroke, I had various conditions, I went to various hospitals. Most of the nurses are ladies. And you see more nurses than doctors. The doctor comes later and asks, how are you? If you say, ok, he walks out. Every hospital has a doctor visitation fee - Rs. 1,500 or Rs, 2,000 whatever. So I never say, ok! They have to work for their money! So, there was one lady, she was not exactly a nurse, she was a technician. And she confided in me that her husband was a meat eater and he would demand that he wanted meat cooked by his wife! She told me she was a devotee and she wanted to follow all the principles. But, she had to follow her husband. So she did not know what to do. She told me that after cooking for her husband, she would take a shower and cook bhoga for the Deity. So, it is important, it is very appropriate to marry someone who is a devotee. Now the gṛhasthas are studying garbhādhāna-saṁskāra, because they want to have a child who will be an ācārya. One couple came to me and said, please bless us so we can have an ācārya as our child. Śrīla Prabhupāda had said in London, in 1973 to the gṛhasthas that my guru, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, he was an ācārya, so you should have ācāryas as children. Anyway, for some people it is too late! They are old now. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s associates and followers were mostly gṛhasthas. In those days they married very early. I was surprised that Mādhavendra Purī was a great ācārya, he had a child, he was at first a gṛhastha! I don’t know how many children he had, but one was Viṣṇu, and he was a great devotee.

So, devotional service means do everything to please Kṛṣṇa. But, those of you situated in whatever āśramas, you should follow the rules and regulations. So the gṛhasthas have a different set of rules, the brahmacārīs, sannyāsīs, vānaprasthas, have another set of rules. So, in Lord Caitanya’s movement, most of His followers are gṛhasthas. But they are very much attached to Lord Kṛṣṇa and Lord Caitanya! And Caitanya Mahāprabhu, His desire was that the whole world gets delivered. Gaurāṅga! Nityānanda! Advaita Gosāñī! Pañca-tattva!

So, we are so fortunate that Śrīla Prabhupāda has brought Lord Caitanya’s movement all over the world. Śrīla Prabhupāda was giving class that he wanted every disciple or follower to eventually become a guru. He talked in Bombay and Vṛndāvana, he said especially the Indians. He also said this in (Los Anegeles) LA, Detroit and so on and he wanted everyone to become guru. And he would always quote Lord Caitanya’s order from the Caitanya-caritāmṛta.

yāre dekha, tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa
āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra’ ei deśa
[Cc. Madhya 7.128]

“Whomever you meet, instruct them to follow the orders of Śrī Kṛṣṇa as they are given in the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In this way by My order become a spiritual master and try to liberate everyone in this land.”

So, Lord Caitanya had given these instructions and Śrīla Prabhupāda again and again gave them. So, we have the laws of Vedic literature, these are prescribed by the Supreme Lord. So, in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, there is a verse that says:

kṛṣṇa-bhakta — niṣkāma, ataeva ‘śānta’
bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kāmī — sakali ‘aśānta’
[Cc. Madhya 19.149]

Bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kāmi—sakali ‘āśanta’ – whoever is wanting material enjoyment or impersonal liberation are all restless.

Kṛṣṇa-bhakta—niṣkāma, atayeva ‘śānta’ – but the devotee is free of all material desires and therefore is peaceful.

But it is not that the devotee has no desire. His or her desire is to serve Kṛṣṇa. If we have the desire to serve Kṛṣṇa, then we will return back home back to Kṛṣṇaloka, to Lord Kṛṣṇa’s abode. If our desire is to enjoy sense gratification and no connection with Kṛṣṇa, then we should at least follow the Vedic literature and then we can rise up in the material world. You see, in the 5^th canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it says that procreation in the relation between husband and wife is also brahmācārya. I mean, for santāna, it is one thing, but even generally, their connection is brahmācārya. So, here it says one cannot take too much salt or too little salt. If a gṛhastha needs some salt then whatever is allowed within the Vedic literature it is auspicious, and can be done. Some places in the world, they have legalized alcohol, some places they have legalized marijuana. But it is against Vedic principles. So some of the laws that are made in many countries are still not accepted by Yamarāja! You can tell Yamarāja, I followed the law! He would say, where does it say, you can drink in the Vedic literature? So, we have to be very careful, with what we do! And anything we do, we do for Kṛṣṇa, by which He is pleased, Lord Caitanya is pleased, Pañca-tattva are pleased with us! Haribol!

Any questions?

Question: The instruction to become a guru given by Lord Caitanya and Śrīla Prabhupāda refers to everyone to become śikṣā-guru or dīkṣā-guru?

Jayapatākā Swami: Śrīla Prabhupāda used it in the sense of dīkṣā-guru. And dīkṣā-guru is the śikṣā-guru also. Now one of the speakers in the Vyāsa-pūjā pandal form the Gauḍīya Maṭha, he said dīkṣā-guru is one. But, you can have unlimited śikṣā-gurus. He said you are all my śikṣā-gurus! Anyway, that is what he said.

Question: During Vyāsa-pūjā and in the EIDC meeting yesterday and many times earlier as well, you had said that Śrīla Prabhupāda had said that everyone should become a dīkṣā-guru. But Śrīla Prabhupāda said you become a dīkṣā-guru when you feel you can digest the sinful reactions of the disciples. So hearing that, many devotees are backing off because when it comes to accepting the sinful load of the disciples, then devotees are scared, they don’t want to take the position of a dīkṣā-guru.

Jayapatākā Swami: So the devotees here can see how much mercy the dīkṣā-guru is giving! But the dīkṣā-guru will be telling the disciples to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, circumambulate tulasī, worship the Deity, etc. etc. etc.  and that gets rid of all the karma!