19820825 Darśana lecture

(Disclaimer: The following is a machine-generated transcript and may contain errors or inaccuracies. It will be reviewed and verified against the original audio soon.)

The following is a Darśana lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on August 25, 1982 – in Atlanta, USA.

Spiritual body. A cittadeho is the purified soul who is just suitable to serve the Supreme Lord. No one can serve the Supreme Lord as his associate without being situated in his pure spiritual identity. So in this way, the appearance day of Rti Rādhārāṇī. We pray for the ability simply to serve the servant of the servant of Ri Rādhārāṇī to serve Rla Prabhupda and his dedicated devotees and become free from all type of material misconceptions of life. And in the mood of the Gopī’s mood of separation serving, always anxious to please the Lord and his devotees, one can very quickly achieve this highest destination. It is not possible by yoga, by Gyana, by mystic practices, by mental speculation or by any type of material endeavor. But it’s possible by this process of devotional service. So we need especially the mercy of R.T. rādhārāṇī.

We pray to R.T. rādhārāṇī for blessings that we can serve Kṛṣṇa and spiritual Master because she is very compassionate and soft. Actually, when we serve the deity of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa in the temple, that service is supposed to be on a platform of pure loving devotion. But as we are not able to artificially imitate that standard, that is something which can only happen. Therefore we worship according to their rules and regulations. And thus it’s actually worshipping in the mood of Lakshmi Nirayan with awe and reverence. But that is accepted by Rādhākṛṣṇa. And this way we become purified by worshipping their deities in the temple. Formally and ultimately as one advances then spontaneous devotion for their lordships. You see Rādhā Kṛṣṇa Kishore Kishwari will develop.

That simply is happening by sticking to this process of devotional service, always remaining engaged, never allowing any material diversion to distract it. Teachings of Lord Chaitanya Kṛṣṇa Prabhupāda. Any discussion. Hare kishyas. Is described. She is of course referred to indirectly. It mentions that one devotee especially is able to worship Kaaradhido, able to worship Kṛṣṇa better. And within that word Arādhāna Rādhā is there. But that’s a little incognito. This described by the previous Acharya that as her name was so confidential and esoteric that Śukadeva Goswami, out of being overwhelmed in some humility, felt bashful even to mention directly her name, feeling unqualified to do so out of humility. But it’s mentioned in the Padma Purāṇa and other Purāṇas her name is mentioned.

I was suggesting to Rla Acharya Dev that would be more Prabhupāda said he wanted to have the Padma Purāṇa translated, which also glorifies Rt Rādhārāṇī specifically. Be nice if he did that rather than the Mahabharata. I don’t know how much he will take my advice. I heard he’s considering it seriously. Scopila. What’s his name? Abias. Abyas. Dave. Pastor dave. Vyasadev or vasudeva vyasadev? Have any question? How do you feel today? And right after me? Yes. Well, she’s known as the daughter of Vishwana, the king of the king Bishbanu. Don’t they say in Vrindaban that she was plowed up in the field or something? Was she actually born? How was it? It’s kind of a mystery how she appeared. But she’s known as the daughter of Bishop Anu. Exactly. That details how she appeared. Somewhat of a mystery. So Barana, where she appeared?

The helm of Vishubanu. That’s still there. Devotees are going to Vrindavana and then going from Vrindavana to Barshana and visiting the temple of R.T. rādhārāṇī. Today there will be wild celebrations and people will be chanting Radhe. I think in Vrindavan we have that film. Vrindavan. Doesn’t it have a scene like that? Bishop Ahmad? Yes. Most of the information that I heard, received and was about the pastime of Kṛṣṇa. It all seems to be couched into the romanticism that we do in the north, in the imperial world. And yet we are told that transcendental life doesn’t mean that at all. Unfortunately, That’s why the. That’s why this is not. That’s why we avoid discussing the details of these. Romances between Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. Because an ordinary material person won’t be able to help but think in terms of material experiences.

Therefore, it’s advised repeatedly that before one can go into the Rādhā Kṛṣṇa understanding, one has to already reach the transcendental platform. By chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, by serving, by surrendering, you will be able to gradually achieve spiritual bliss and you become detached from the material world. And then, even though immediately, you won’t be able to understand everything about Kṛṣṇa. But just like if you take one drop of the ocean, then you taste what’s salty, you get an idea about the whole ocean.

So just by becoming qualified in spiritual practice and by achieving the transcendental platform through pure devotion, even if just a few drops of the nectar which is there in Ka’s pastimes, the spiritual bliss from that, even a few drops, then that allows one to get an idea that the whole realm of Spiritual happiness which is there in these activities is categorically different than the material happiness. Until you actually taste even a few drops of spiritual ecstasy, which you can only achieve by being very and completely fixed in pure devotional service, or by getting special mercy of some great Vaishnava to be elevated to that platform. Then it’s not possible, without tasting that ecstasy to know what is this standard of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa.

But if you even get a small taste of spiritual ecstasy in its pure form, then you can start to realize that there’s a whole other category of happiness which doesn’t have anything to do with the material lusty affairs or material sense gratification. A devotee as an example, a devotee who’s already in a spontaneous devotion, even he has 100, 808 or 105 fever. Even though he’s suffering in so many ways, somehow he’s still experiencing transcendental ecstasy in spite of experiencing misery physically. It’s not possible in material life to be suffering material misery and still be happy about it. Because it’s all on the same level. But one can experience material misery and simultaneously experience spiritual happiness. Then you can understand that there’s two different worlds, the material world and spiritual world. The happiness of this world has no direct connection with the spiritual happiness.

Therefore you can even smash your toe and at the same time be crying in ecstasy for Kṛṣṇa. A person can lose his family, can lose some material loved object, and actually feel for it that I lost something. At the same time can feel separation of. He can, you know, when he loses those things, he can bring a separation of Kṛṣṇa. And he can feel. That person, can feel transcendental ecstasy. These type of, you see, minor realizations help to give one an insight. That’s why it says that very clearly. The scriptures here I have described. We cannot understand Raha Kṛṣṇa worship until we get to the pure platform of goodness. Therefore, we avoid discussing the detail. I was discussing. Basic background materials. Even then I hope I was not committing any offenses. You see, this is a liable to create doubts in people’s minds.

Because other disciplic successions can’t explain what is happening. When Raha and Kṛṣṇa are having their affairs, their loving exchanges, then they just avoid the whole subject matter. The other thing is that we have seen here that Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, they don’t have to be even physically together, but they’re completely absorbed in loving relations. Romance in the material world culminates in union. But here the romance and the spiritual culminates in separation. Try to digest that. Higher than Union is separation. In the spiritual world, that means it’s completely opposite. All you can understand. If you go into it deep, you can understand that you don’t understand that’s the first step of progress that we can’t understand. Most of this is discussing. This is that we. First, a person should realize that I can’t understand until I become a devotee. And then when you become a devotee.

But there’s something there so wonderful I should understand it. And I want to understand it. But I can’t understand it. I. I can’t even enter into this mystery unless I become a devotee of Kṛṣṇa. Then you become a devotee of Kṛṣṇa. You surrender. You follow in the footsteps of these Gopīs by always serving Kṛṣṇa, always glorifying Kṛṣṇa’s name. Then you will start to understand when you get to the spiritual platform, as you develop your spiritual body, your pure spiritual body. When the Gopīs heard Kṛṣṇa’s flute, they were held back. They couldn’t. They were physically locked up in their rooms. They died. They left their body on the spot, feeling such a desire to go to Kṛṣṇa. When they were obstructed, they just died right there. And in their spiritual body they met with Kṛṣṇa. Their body was lying just there, unconscious.

And with their spiritual body, they went to meet Kṛṣṇa. So even Kṛṣṇa is having these transcendental pastimes, the devotees that Kṛṣṇa went in their spiritual bodies. So in a spiritual body, every sense can do the activity of any other sense. No particular sense is necessary. You can eat with your eyes. Kṛṣṇa produced a baby from his navel, sprouted a lotus flower, and produced Brahma without any mother. Every sense is interchangeable. So the material conceptions of romance and all these, they don’t have any correlation. Because you’re dealing with an entirely different nomenclature, spiritual relations with spiritual bodies. Here the machines are having senses. And those senses, they’re connected with certain cells in the brain which cause certain type of responses which we take as pleasure. This actually doesn’t touch the soul, doesn’t satisfy the soul.

In spiritual relations, the body and the soul, there’s no difference. So you don’t need any mechanical arrangement. It’s all transcendental. The emotion, the love, everything is of the highest satisfying nature. So therefore all these gross activities aren’t needed. The dancing or any other activity is simply expression of this transcendental love which is already there. Therefore, the separation is higher than the union. Because the love just intensifies in the separation of the loved one. So all you can tell people basically is that if any you can’t understand it. To become a devotee, and even being a devotee, one has to actually become very purified before one can glimpse. And to actually understand that, you have to have your pure spiritual body.

Therefore, the best thing is to understand how so many great souls are chasing after that spiritual bliss, that Paramananda, that supreme happiness of life. And that supreme happiness personified as Seema Dhi Rādhārāṇī. Just as Kṛṣṇa is the supreme God, she is the supreme energy. You can understand like that. Hare kṛṣṇa. Yes. It’s made of spiritual potencies. Well, the forms are there. Like animals, trees, birds, humans. The different forms are there. But here animal is in ignorance. But there animals are also intelligent, cognizant. Birds are cognizant. Trees, plants, everything is cognizant. There’s no ignorance. There’s simply different forms based upon the different relationships they have with Kṛṣṇa. Some are having supportive roles, some are having service roles, some are having friendly roles, some are having parental roles and some are having conjugal roles. So accordingly, they get a certain form.

And that form is not different from their personality. It’s expression of their service to Kṛṣṇa. Those having supportive roles, like trees, grass, bumblebees, cows, they come and sing. They said even the bumblebees are going around Kṛṣṇa’s garland are chanting Vedic mantras and hymns. In Ramayana it describes how great sages took birth as. Rather. Not in the Ramayana, but describes how in Kṛṣṇa Leela rather that the great sages took birth as monkeys to take butter from Kṛṣṇa. So like that different devotees may take different forms. And thus they serve Kṛṣṇa in that way. So there, because everything is eternal. Nothing is decaying, nothing is growing old. Everything is vital, youthful. Time is not a factor. Time is eternally present. There, there’s no past or future. Everything is present. Nitya, Vartaman. And everything is cognizant and filled with transcendental bliss inconceivable to our material conception.

You can’t understand how these things can be. But if we accept, we understand these are the things beyond argument. You can’t argue about these things. This is beyond any experimental or speculative knowledge. It is from revealed by the Lord himself and through revelation to great realized souls. That is the original reality. And whatever you see in this world is a shadow. Therefore, there are forms in this world. But the forms are temporary. The forms in the spiritual world, they are eternal. Is that all right? What was the idea behind it? The idea is that Kṛṣṇa is given. He has expanded into small particles known as marginal potency. This marginal potency has got an opportunity, has got a choice to serve Kṛṣṇa or not to serve Kṛṣṇa. They’re given some independence.

So a certain percentage make the wrong choice or make a choice not to serve Kṛṣṇa. That’s a minute fraction. And then Kṛṣṇa, out of his causeless mercy, he manifests this material world to give that minute fraction an opportunity to gradually satisfy their desires through material nature, at the same time giving them an opportunity to come back to the spiritual world. And the Kṛṣṇa also uses it as a type of outing place where he comes down and displays, enjoys his pastimes. And then at the same time, he delivers the souls who are eager to join those pastimes and leave this rotten material world. This way, Kṛṣṇa, he keeps his devotional service completely voluntary. He gives an alternative. If you don’t want to serve him, you can come in the material world and you can be put into illusion.

And you can think that you are the controller, you are the master of your faith. You don’t have to serve God. You can deny him. But in his own spiritual kingdom, no one can deny him, no one can avoid him. He’s all pervasive. He’s everywhere. He’s very much present, and everyone is conscious of it. And so if someone resents that, then he has to come into the material world where you can be covered by ignorance to the extent that you don’t have to be conscious about God. The plants and fish here, they’re not very conscious about God. Some of the animals sometimes have a little feeling when lightning and thunder rolls about, some superior power. And human beings have the ability to fully understand that there’s an original creator, there’s original truth.

So this human birth is the opportunity to get back to our spiritual position and leave the material world. We have the intelligence to realize how we have misused our independence and how our real position is to serve our original source, Kṛṣṇa. He manifests all these varieties so he can enjoy Variety is the spice of life. And no one wants to have people serve him if they’re simply robots. They have to have that spontaneous, independent free will. So he expands and gives them some minute free will. Thus all the variety expands his enjoyment. Everyone is after happiness because that’s all Kṛṣṇa. After all, the Creator, the supreme Lord, is at is there simply to enjoy happiness. He has no other engagement. Yes, but one thing I always want to learn that if we have a seed and advocacy, unless. How can anyone be without.

Do you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa? Have you read the Bhagavad Gītā? So the Bhagavad Gītā describes that the soul is different from the body. That when the body dies, the soul doesn’t die. So the soul at the time of inception, at the time of the creation of these different seeds, or the time when they become fructified, enters into them. So if a human, if a soul who was in a human body dies when in complete ignorance, just like someone may be completely drunk, blind, walks in the street, gets hit by a lorry, by a truck, killed on the spot. So Kṛṣṇa says in Gītā yang vapi aja dante kalei varang, that just at the time when you leave your body, whatever your mentality is that you attain in your next life, if you die in God consciousness, you go back to God.

If you die in lust consciousness, you get some lusty destination. If you die in ignorance, you go to the ignorant. So if a person dies in complete ignorance, he wants to forget about the worries, he wants to forget about everything. He gets always intoxicated. He dies in that state. Then he can take birth as a tree. Because in a tree one is practically intoxicated from perceiving. Very much is almost unconscious, very slight consciousness is there in a tree. So that means that soul will go. Just like when some tree is coming, then the flower is blooming, then the bee is taking the pollen and putting it there just at that time, in that pollen there is the soul. And the soul is combined with that or not any one of them.

The pollen is there and it touches the other part of the flower, the female part, and there the life is. The soul enters and that gradually forms into a fruit which in the fruit there’s a seed, and those seeds contain that soul. And when you plant the seed, then it grows into a plant. So this is the process of creation, of generation. So according to how you train your mind, if you learn to think of Kṛṣṇa your whole life, you get a spiritual body like Kṛṣṇa. If you train to think of in a particular way, then accordingly you will get a body in your next life. So therefore, the Gītā is advising we should train ourselves to think spiritually and get a spiritual body and get out of this material cycle of birth and death, which is very dangerous.

If we die at the wrong moment, we can be in a very difficult situation. Just like Bharat Maharaj died at the time, just he was looking at a face of a baby deer, he became a deer in his next life.

(Side B of the Cassette)

If they’re in material consciousness, you die, you get some material result. Prabhupāda said Ravi Shankar, he’s been a sitar player for nine births. This is his ninth birth. That’s why now he’s become. Now finally he’s achieved some prominence. Like that, a person may be born as an artist again and again. So God knows what happens to these biologists and botanists who are studying the little bugs and the plants. If they die while studying, they may get first hand information that they never expected. So therefore, Bhagavad Gītā is advising we should train ourselves not to waste this valuable human life, but to actually awaken our spiritual consciousness. That is easily done by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare. Hare Ram. Hare Ram Ram Hare Ram. Thank you.