20250419 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.15.17

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 3.15.17

vaimānikāḥ sa-lalanāś caritāni śaśvad
gāyanti yātrā śamala-kṣapaṇāni bhartuḥ
antar-jale ’nuvikasan-madhu-mādhavīnāṁ
gandhena khaṇḍita-dhiyo ’py anilaṁ kṣipantaḥ

Translation: In the Vaikuṇṭha planets the inhabitants fly in their airplanes, accompanied by their wives and consorts, and eternally sing of the character and activities of the Lord, which are always devoid of all inauspicious qualities. While singing the glories of the Lord, they deride even the presence of the blossoming mādhavī flowers, which are fragrant and laden with honey.

Purport: It appears from this verse that the Vaikuṇṭha planets are full of all opulences. There are airplanes in which the inhabitants travel in the spiritual sky with their sweethearts. There is a breeze carrying the fragrance of blossoming flowers, and this breeze is so nice that it also carries the honey of the flowers. The inhabitants of Vaikuṇṭha, however, are so interested in glorifying the Lord that they do not like the disturbance of such a nice breeze while they are chanting the Lord’s glories. In other words, they are pure devotees. They consider glorification of the Lord more important than their own sense gratification. In the Vaikuṇṭha planets there is no question of sense gratification. To smell the fragrance of a   inhabitants of Vaikuṇṭha give first preference to the service of the Lord, not their own sense gratification. Serving the Lord in transcendental love yields such transcendental pleasure that, in comparison, sense gratification is counted as insignificant.

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Jayapatākā Swami: So, this description of Vaikuṇṭha is very nice. And here, in the Vaikuṇṭha planets all the residents are pure devotees. Śrīla Prabhupāda said, when we say this, we are not talking about pure devotees. We see that in a lecture in London Śrīla Prabhupāda said that all the gṛhasthas should be paramahaṁsas. So, the four Kumāras went to see Lord Viṣṇu in Viṣṇuloka. But they were stopped by the gatekeepers. Therefore they cursed them that you have to go to the material world, you don’t belong here. Then Lord Viṣṇu came and they offered their obeisances. They were in the bliss of brahmānanda. But when they smelt the tulasī at the lotus feet of Lord Viṣṇu, then they started feeling ecstasy for the Lord. Then they were converted to devotees.

So, in the Nectar of Devotion, I was asking how much bliss does a pure devotee get? At first, they could not find it! Then I found it! It is said that the happiness of impersonal Brahman realization is like the water in the hoof print of a calf, whereas the ocean of devotional service is like the boundless waters of the ocean. But then the bliss of impersonal Brahman even if you compare to an ocean, is not equal to one atom of the ocean of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In the adhivāsa kīrtana there is a line we sing – “ānandera sīmā nāi, ānandera sīmā nāi, nirānanda dūre jāy, nirānanda dūre jāi.” There is no limit to the bliss of devotional service, there is no limit to the bliss and all the distress, all the unhappiness goes away! When we were in South India, the Safari went to different temples. One of the Deities in the temples in Kumbakonam, was called Ārāvamuthan, Deity of inexhaustible bliss, inexhaustible nectar. So, the Lord, He manifests inexhaustible nectar. This is Hari-dhāma. Gaura-dhāma is above this. So you should always be thinking, how you can please the Lord. This is nothing very difficult. This way, if one constantly thinks how one can perform devotional service or devotion to the Lord, then he will always be in complete ecstatic bliss, whether in family, with wife, children.

The description of the Vaikuṇṭha planets are full of all opulences. But, the residents there are interested in the qualities of the Lord. And they are not quite interested in the nice breeze and all the opulences. So, they are absorbed in the qualities of the Lord. The qualities in Vaikuṇṭha or rather, even the qualities here, dharma, artha, kāma, mokṣa, are considered by the pure devotees as tuccha, as insignificant like the straw in the street. This way, Śrīla Prabhupāda is describing to us the Vaikuṇṭha planets. So the amount of bliss in Vaikuṇṭha is so great that the devotees are not interested in the atmosphere and weather and other aspects there. So, this description of Hari Dhāma is going to be given in the West Wing of the TOVP. I was taking a BBC media person on the Ganges. I do not know what I was talking about but I used the word, sense gratification. So he said, what is wrong with that? What is wrong with sense gratification? So, materialists, that is all they have! So that was an eye opener for me, the materialists, they don’t understand about serving the Lord. So, this is what has to be informed, that actually there is unlimited bliss in serving the Lord!

So people come here and have a desire to come here because they are Indians, they are naturally religious. So we want to have Lord Caitanya’s mercy spread unlimitedly all over the planet. There was one thing said by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, he was saying that a trillion times happiness in brahma-ananda does not equal even one atom of the pleasure in Kṛṣṇa bhakti. So pure devotion means that you don’t have any material desire leading up to the impersonal realization. So the negative things of this material world encourages some people, but normally this leads to the impersonal truth.There was a yogī meditating in the Himalayas, when he heard Kṛṣṇa’s flute, he broke his meditation and started crying and hitting his head on the rock. So, like this, people in the bliss of brahma jyothi, actually when they hear the flute of Kṛṣṇa or pastime of Kṛṣṇa, they experience unlimited bliss!

Śrīla Prabhupāda here speaks about how the smelling of a blossoming flower is very nice, but it is simply for sense gratification! But the inhabitants of Vaikuṇṭha give first preference to the service of the Lord and not their own sense gratification. The bliss of serving the Lord is so great that sense gratification is considered as insignificant.

This morning at 9 am I have an emergency Bureau meeting. So I have to end soon.

Lord Caitanya, Lord Nityānanda, Pañca-Tattva are so merciful that we can taste this transcendental bliss even when we are in this material world! So if we are always trying to see how we can serve the Lord, that is ideal. That is called pure devotional service. Now, Śrīla Prabhupāda said that sense gratification is like salt. If you eat too much it is bad, less is also not good, it has to be balanced. So every person may need a different amount of sense gratification. In the 8th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in Gajendra Moksa, Śrīla Prabhupāda says that Gajendra was a land animal and the crocodile was a water animal. So, whoever will be stronger, under the circumstances, like the crocodile is getting stronger and stronger in the water whereas the elephant is getting weaker and weaker. So Śrīla Prabhupāda said we can take the strong position for us, but we have declared war on Māyā, so we should keep fighting against Māyā! We want to be always thinking and serving Kṛṣṇa! So, if we need some sense gratification, the rest of the time should be engaged in serving the Lord. If you want to be a brahmacari or sannyāsī, that is okay, but you should be all the time thinking and serving the Lord.

Any questions?

Question: In Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa says ananyas citayanto mam – one should have no other attachment in the heart. So  how can one have a sweetheart in Vaikuṇṭha? Is that not incompatible? And what sort of a relationship is that? Is it an eternal relationship with your sweetheart in Vaikuṇṭha?

HH Jayapatākā Swami: It means they have no material desires. There they want to glorify the Lord. And they get such bliss that there is nothing in the material world which is comparable to that. It is not that we become desireless. That is sayujya mukti. We don’t desire anything material. If we like to serve Kṛṣṇa, He also likes that.

One more question.

Question: We are always trying to get the mercy of Pañca-Tattva. And for the pleasure of guru and Vaisnavas. But why cant we taste even one drop of that bliss?

Jayapatākā Swami: I don’t know what the obstacles are. Anartha nivritti is one of the stages to get rid of all the obstacles. I don’t understand why you don’t feel any bliss? I am trying to control myself not to break down here and cry! I have to go for the emergency meeting. You took the ladies question! I don’t have more time!