20250503 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.15.32

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

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

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.15.32

munaya ūcuḥ
ko vām ihaitya bhagavat-paricaryayoccais
tad-dharmiṇāṁ nivasatāṁ viṣamaḥ svabhāvaḥ
tasmin praśānta-puruṣe gata-vigrahe vāṁ
ko vātmavat kuhakayoḥ pariśaṅkanīyaḥ

Translation: The sages said: Who are these two persons who have developed such a discordant mentality even though they are posted in the service of the Lord in the highest position and are expected to have developed the same qualities as the Lord? How are these two persons living in Vaikuṇṭha? Where is the possibility of an enemy’s coming into this kingdom of God? The Supreme Personality of Godhead has no enemy. Who could be envious of Him? Probably these two persons are imposters; therefore they suspect others to be like themselves.

Purport: The difference between the inhabitants of a Vaikuṇṭha planet and those of a material planet is that in Vaikuṇṭha all the residents engage in the service of the Lord Himself and are equipped with all His good qualities. It has been analyzed by great personalities that when a conditioned soul is liberated and becomes a devotee, about seventy-nine percent of all the good qualities of the Lord develop in his person. Therefore in the Vaikuṇṭha world there is no question of enmity between the Lord and the residents. Here in this material world the citizens may be inimical to the chief executives or heads of state, but in Vaikuṇṭha there is no such mentality. One is not allowed to enter Vaikuṇṭha unless he has completely developed the good qualities. The basic principle of goodness is to accept subordination to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The sages, therefore, were surprised to see that the two doormen who checked them from entering the palace were not exactly like the residents of Vaikuṇṭhaloka. It may be said that a doorman’s duty is to determine who should be allowed to enter the palace and who the Vaikuṇṭha planets unless he has developed one hundred percent his mentality of devotional service to the Supreme Lord. No enemy of the Lord can enter Vaikuṇṭhaloka. The Kumāras concluded that the only reason for the doormen’s checking them was that the doormen themselves were imposters.

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Jayapatākā Swami: Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Nityānanda! Advaita Gosāñī! So, this interesting verse tells more about Vaikunthaloka. And all the people there are cent per cent busy in bhakti-yoga. The service to Lord Viṣṇu are their spontaneous love for the Lord, and they are constantly engaged in the service of the Lord because they love the Lord. So some devotees are with male bodies and some devotees in female bodies. I mean, in this material world the ātmā is not the same as the deha or the body. We may be having a male form in Vaikunthaloka, here we may have a female form or visa versa. But in this material world our soul is very, very infinitesimal. It is the size of one ten thousandth of the tip of the hair. If you want to go to the spiritual world, would like to go to Vaikuṇṭhaloka, you have to practice here loving the Supreme Lord. Here in the material world, there are eight different steps of devotional service all the way up to the stage of bhāva or ecstatic emotions for the Lord. Then comes prema, there are eight steps of prema. But those steps, one reaches, there are no limits. The point is that the devotee may be in a different rasa but that rasa has a particular limit. And in the TOVP West Wing, which we call the SMOVP, we are hiring a company to help us make the exhibits. Now, if one does not study the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, where will one get the information descriptions about the Vaikuṇṭha planets? They want to concentrate more on Ayodhyā because rāma-līlā in Ayodhyā, everybody knows. They don’t really understand what happens in Vaikuṇṭha. And with regard to kṛṣṇa-līlā there is even lesser knowledge. Rāmeśvara Prabhu is saying whatever emotions you have in the material world, in the spiritual world it gets multiplied by a trillion! But just saying this doesn’t mean anything. You have to give some examples. So we have to give them a lot more information. So we are giving what nobody has ever given before. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He gave the mercy which no avatāra has ever given before! Gaurāṅga!

Śrīla Prabhupāda, he asked me to get an entry for the foreign devotees and the śūdras, all the devotees into the Jagannātha Purī temple. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that since Lord Caitanya, they now accept that He was actually, Bhagavān, then they should accept all His devotees as well. But to no avail! The Tirupati Devasthānam, the Guruvāyūr Devasthānam, they say, entry only for Hindus. But our devotees from different countries, they have a system, and they can enter. But the Śaṅkarācārya of Purī, he said, no foreigners. So, Lord Jagannātha, transferred or appointed a whole duplicate Jagannātha temple in West Bengal in Digha! The architect said that the architecture was just about 15 mm different from the Jagannātha Purī temple. And they consider that a kind of miracle!

So, here in Māyāpur, we had 33,000 people visiting yesterday. The Chief Minister after her inauguration of the temple in Digha, two lakh people came! Then the next day, five lakh people came! The pāṇḍās from Purī said, no foreigners! But the Chief Minister said, we don’t care what the pāṇḍās say! ISKCON will do the worship! ISKCON will manage the temple. But we have no financial responsibility. Now the Chief Minister hired 300 cleaners, staff, for which the Chief Minister pays. The Odisha government is complaining that left over wood from the nava-kalevaram was used to make the Jagannātha Deities in Digha! So, the wood of the Deity is the same wood as the Purī Deities! So, the ISKCON managers, they say, they need more pūjārīs. So there are four or five different halls. So we going to have some devotees from Midnapore, from Māyāpur, different places to go and do kīrtana. We will discuss about book distribution in some of the other halls. And somehow, the pandas from Purī they came up, and to keep them happy, they installed the wooden Deities. So it is amazing, they would not let us in the Purī temple, but an exact duplicate Jagannātha temple has been given in Digha! And we are responsible for the pūjā! And we can do book distribution and kīrtana.

I am just amazed at the mercy of Kṛṣṇa! What the Odisha government is saying is that it is the same wood as that of the Jagannātha Deity in Purī, that is actually for our benefit!

So, this verse says, we should be practicing bhakti-yoga. When a conditioned soul reaches kṛṣṇa-prema, he becomes a liberated devotee! And then 79% of the good qualities of Kṛṣṇa, they reside in that devotee. In Vaikuṇṭhaloka there is no opposition. Śrīla Prabhupāda says in the purport: “Here in this material world the citizens may be inimical to the chief executives or heads of state, but in Vaikuṇṭha there is no such mentality.” Gaurāṅga! Here in the material world we have sannyāsīs, brahmacārīs, they have to exist on their own strength! I got a letter yesterday from someone who recently became a doctor. Now, he said that he has no Vaiṣṇava association, he was not able to eat properly, most of the time he lives eating fruits. So, he is working as a doctor. I told him, he should get married, and find a Vaiṣṇavī wife! And she can cook for him prasāda and they can do devotional service together! The gṛhasthas, they cannot say they don’t have association! They have their wife! The brahmacārīs, sannyāsīs, they cannot say they have no association, because we have to travel all  to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness,  there is no association, but the devotees become attracted to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Now Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he was a gṛhastha. Śrīla Prabhupāda said in a lecture in 1973, in London, he mentioned that Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura was a gṛhastha and he had a son who was my guru. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that his gurudeva was an ācārya. So you should all have ācāryas as children! We always say Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura but it actually takes two to make a child! Because the wife was totally Kṛṣṇa conscious, they were able to have Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura as their child! Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura told Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda, that he should spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness as far as possible. And we hear that Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura’s mother, at the time of leaving her body, she held Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura’s hand and asked him to please spread the message of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu unlimitedly! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Nityānanda!

So we want everybody to be Kṛṣṇa conscious here. It says in the Vaikuṇṭhalokas there are no demons or non-devotees. So, we want devotees here to develop their nine qualities of bhakti-yoga. When the four Kumāras wanted to enter Vaikuṇṭha, they were stopped by the doormen. So to enter Vaikuṇṭhaloka we have to be cent per cent favorable to the Lord! Śrīla Prabhupāda was saying actually, the doormen are not very relevant because no one can enter Vaikuṇṭha unless they have developed pure bhakti. So in that way they cursed the doormen to fall into the material world! So Lord Viṣṇu asked them if would they like to take three births as His enemy or seven births as a devotee? So, they chose three births as His enemy because they can get back to their service quick. Anyway, this is a very nice verse from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Anyone has questions?

Bhakti Vijaya Bhāgavata Swami: Asking blessings. From today, Māyāpur Management has started Navarātri Narasiṁha Festival, so we are also adding Navarātri Book Distribution Festival, then we can distribute more books to please Śrīla Prabhupāda! I am requesting all the Māyāpur community to take part to distribute more books.

Jayapatākā Swami: Blessings! Kṛṣṇe matir astu! You can also distribute books for 365 books in Digha! And they, the West Bengal government, will pay the book distributors. Anyway, gṛhasthas can use that. Brahmacārīs, sannyāsīs, they don’t want any payment! They just want Jagannātha mahā-prasāda!