19910925 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.8.23

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The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on September 25, 1991 – in New Talavana, USA. The lecture begins with a reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.8.23.

(A-side of the Cassette)

All the Gurukul at the same time at the top of their lungs. Master of the senses, Mother of śrī kṛṣṇa. For a long time. Also myself, Also myself along with my children of all of my children. By your lordship as the Protector. From a series of dangers Translation by Śrīla Prabhupāda oh Rishikesha, Master of the senses and Lord of Lords, you have released your mother Devakī who was long imprisoned and distressed by the envious King Kaṁsa and me and my children from a series of constant dangers. O Rishikesha, O Rishikesha, Master of the senses, Lord of the Lords, you have released your mother Deva King who was long in prison and distressed by the envious King Kaṁsa and me and my children From a series of constant dangers. A report by his divine grace Rlaesi Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupda. Devakī the brother. Excuse me.

The mother of Kṛṣṇa and sister of Kaṁsa, of King Kaṁsa was put into prison along with her husband Vasudeva because the envious king was afraid of being killed by Devakī’s eighth son Kṛṣṇa. He killed all the sons of Devakī who were born before Kṛṣṇa. But Kṛṣṇa escaped the danger of child slaughter because he was transferred to the house of Nanda Maharaj. Lord Ka’s foster father Kunti Devī along with her children was also saved from a series of dangers. But Kunti Devī was shown far more favor because Lord Kṛṣṇa did not save the other children of Devakī whereas he saved the children of Kunti Devī. This was done because Devakī’s husband Vasudeva was living whereas Kunti Devī was a widow and there was none other to help her except Kṛṣṇa.

The conclusion is that Kṛṣṇa endows more favor to a divine devotee who is in greater dangers. Sometimes he puts his pure devotees in such dangers because in that condition of helplessness the devotee becomes more attached to the Lord. The more attached, the more attachment is there for the Lord the more success is there for the devotion devotee. Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta Swami Translation and purport to the Canto Śrīmad Bhāgavatam Chapter 1 Excuse me. Canto 1 Chapter 8 Text 23 in the matter of prayers by Queen Kunti. So. Queen Kunti is glorifying Kṛṣṇa. This is very natural. I remember last time were here were discussing to also the different. One of the speakers also mentioned how gratitude is a part of the Veda. So it’s just interesting that here we see how when Prayers are being offered by Queen Kunti to Lord Kṛṣṇa.

She is bringing up all the mercy that Kṛṣṇa has given her. All the wonderful things Kṛṣṇa has done for her and for other devotees. You’re the Master of the senses, you’re the Lord of the Lords. Also. You went and released your mother Devakī, who was imprisoned for a long time and distressed by the envious King Kaṁsa and me and my children from a series of constant dangers. So she’s very grateful to Lord Kṛṣṇa. She’s offering obeisances. You’re the Lord of Lords, you’re the Master of the senses. But also personally, you have saved Devakī and you have saved me and my children so many ways. And many of these next verses are expressing the gratitude. The appreciation. For Kṛṣṇa’s kindness. Personally provided. In the west is have. It is taught in cultured families.

If anyone does something, they say, thank you very much, thank you please. But here we say, of course, this is a very deep appreciation. Kunti Devī was standing with folded hands and tears in her eyes. And she’s praying to Lord Kṛṣṇa, ultimately trying to appeal to him to remain some more time. She did it. She was offering these prayers of appreciation of Ka’s great qualities. So naturally she both is addressing Kṛṣṇa’s greatness, his position as the Lord of Lords, as Master of the senses, as a supreme personality of Godhead. Kunti Devī knew Ka’s position. At the same time, Kunti was related with Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa in this pastime as his aunt Kunti and she was called Pshima. She was the paternal aunt, the father’s sister, that type of relationship.

So in this way Kundi Devī, she also she had to deal with Kṛṣṇa in that relationship. Because Kṛṣṇa would always play the part of whichever pastime he was playing. Some devotees would recognize that he was the supreme Lord. He wouldn’t deny it. But at the same time he would relate with them according to the external relationship. He would almost next to ignore, if not ignore it completely, he would just exhaust, but he would act in that way. So she had to also deal with Kṛṣṇa as his superior. So that was embarrassing to Kṛṣṇa to have a superior praising him. So he had to kind of just stand for a moment with a smile. And. The Kundi Devī was appreciating all these wonderful things given by Kṛṣṇa.

Once there was Bhakti Siddhānta talk which said, however, that in Kali Yuga there’s a lot of people who are not very appreciative when their guru, when the parents, they want to give them a good education, a good spiritual Instruction. He told a story about two naughty boys called Lalu and Kalu. Lalu and Kalu were. They were never studying properly in school. They would always play around. So at the end they got thrown out of the school because they just wouldn’t learn anything. And the teacher said it was a disruption for the whole class. They’re always playing around, goofing off, wising off. So the father, he was a very good businessman, even had a shop. He had some business, she had some money. But his frustration in life, he couldn’t give an education to his two boys, Lalu and Kalu.

So he offered a reward for some Brāhmaṇa who would just dedicate himself to teaching his two boys that if they could teach these boys to count up to a hundred, he would give him half of his wealth to that Brāhmaṇa. So there was one poor Brāhmaṇa. He thought, well, this is, I mean this is solve all my economic problems. I just teach these two boys how to count to 100. It can’t be that difficult. So he took the job. But these two boys were completely determined. No matter what, they would never learn how to count. They would never do anything constructive. They would always remain rascals. In between school and finding the Brāhmaṇa, they had developed some bad habits. They learned to go and smoke behind the bar, do different naughty things.

So when the Brāhmaṇa came, of course he wouldn’t let them do any of these bad habits. And he was teaching them how to. Trying to teach them how to count, but they were always avoiding. One day he was walking with the boys and he said, oh, what is that? That’s a cow. Really? How many legs does that cow have anyway? And then they said one. Lalu started saying, well there’s 1, 2, 3.

Kalu, stop, stop. You’re counting. He’s going to teach you how to count up to 100. Watch out, you’re going to learn something.

What could be worse than that, right? Learning something. Oh yeah, sorry, I almost got taught something. They were so rascal that they wouldn’t learn it. They didn’t want to learn anything. They wanted all to stay fools and ignorant. So the teachers, wow, I really got into a hard one here. Such difficult boys. So then he was trying to think. It’s like trying different ways to teach them. But they were determined how to avoid being taught. They were so rascal as we say. And Prabhupāda used to say, so then, such rascals. Anyway, one day they were sitting in a barn on the soft straw and the two boys, they were playing like they were asleep, snoring loudly. But actually they weren’t asleep. They were just playing. The teacher, he also felt little sleepy. And so they’re asleep kind of. He dozed off a little bit.

Hard day, trying to teach them how to count. Soon as they saw the teacher was asleep, they said, let’s go. They went out behind the barn or in front of the barn, lit up a cigarette or whatever and started smoking. Then they ran back in the barn and lay down, pretended they were asleep again. The teacher, I am smelling tobacco. He got up, went out in front of the bar. He saw the smoke, saw the cigarette butt, went back in. Who’s been smoking here? They’re all playing. They’re getting out with a little. We’re just sleeping. You have been smoking. How could we be smoking? We’re sleeping. You got up before we did. We were sleeping. How could we be smoking? But who is smoking outside? How do we know? Let me smell your hands. You smell the hands? I smell cigarette smoke on your hands.

Tobacco smell. Just see, teacher, how cruel people are. While were sleeping, somebody came and rubbed it on our fingers. So Bhakti Siddharthva said that here, people in Kali Yuga, they are determined. They don’t want to learn anything. Even you try to teach them, they will avoid. Even they do nonsense. They will lie about it and say, someone else is implicating me. In other words, all the bad qualities of Kali Yuga, you could see. And Nalu went color. Ultimately, they had a good father who wanted to help them. But the father was frustrated. And the two boys, what they’re going to do in the end? Become criminals or some kind of horrible people. But he used the example also that spiritually people are like that. In Kali Yuga. Sometimes people are very expert for material things.

But when you want to teach them something Kṛṣṇa conscious, as soon as they hear God, religion, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, something like that, immediately they don’t want to learn. They’re afraid. There are many people like that in Kali Yuga. Not everyone, but there are many people like that. As soon as you try to teach them something spiritual, they want to avoid it. So Lalu and Kalu are like the two Kali Yuga kids. And there’s a lot of Kali Yuga people in the Kali Yuga. As soon as you try to teach them something good for their benefit, for their welfare, for their upliftment, for their improvement, for making them better people, then there are some people, they just want to avoid that. That’s something that is part of Kali Yuga and the preacher.

They try so many different ways to teach the people Kṛṣṇa consciousness through this way, through that way hoping that in some way they will be able to learn. But there are some people who are just. They don’t want to learn. If they don’t want to learn then it’s very hard to teach people. If you’re asleep, you can wake somebody up. I mean, if someone’s asleep, you can wake him up. If he’s awake pretending he’s asleep then it’s hard to wake him up. Just like if somebody doesn’t want to come to Mangalarthi they have already woken up but they’re lying in bed with their eyes closed. Even you try to wake them up they just lay there with their eyes closed. I won’t get up, I play. I am asleep. I can’t hear anything.

Actually getting up and seeing the deities and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Hare. It’s so wonderful. It’s so blissful. It starts the day in the most auspicious way. So when there’s dangers then people who are a little bit pious who are God conscious they tend to remember God. Many people on the battlefield become God conscious when there is big danger Although in America people tend to be mother conscious Many people on the battlefield when they’re hurt they yell out Mother. But many people yell out God. So those who are more pious they realize that God is the protector when everyone else fails, he’s the one who come and protect Kṛṣṇa is the one who can come and protect us.

I mean just in general whether Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Kṛṣṇa conscious everyone knows that the Supreme Lord is the protector. If they’re pious when they’re in danger they remember the Lord but when it’s good times they may forget. Here is Queen Kunti. She’s in a very good time. Her sons have just won the Kuruksheter War killed off Duryodhan and 99 other brothers who were the envious people who were trying to stop them defeated all the enemies. They were the emperors of the entire civilized world at that time they were no challenge to their dominion and this way Hare Kṛṣṇa. They had unlimited opulence, unlimited power no political opponents anymore. So this was a time Usually when people are in good times they can easily forget. But Queen Kunti, she’s not forgetting.

Rather she’s saying every good fortune we have every danger were saved from every situation that has come favorable to us is Simply by your mercy. She’s remembering Kṛṣṇa in the good times. She remembers Kṛṣṇa in the bad times. Remembering Kṛṣṇa, when we’re in danger, when we’re hurt, when it’s bad, that’s good and that’s natural. But remembering Kṛṣṇa, when we’re in success, we’re in victory, we’re in material opulence. That is such a great to remember Kṛṣṇa then that actually he’s the one who’s given us all this. That’s the good quality, the quality of Queen Kunti’s pure devotion. That she remembers Kṛṣṇa in the good times, she remembers Kṛṣṇa in the bad times. She remembers Kṛṣṇa all the time. When should we remember Kṛṣṇa? Who can say when? We should remember Kṛṣṇa all the time. Correct. We should remember Kṛṣṇa all of the time.

But sometimes what happens when we have the good times? We get some good fortune, we get some money. Then what happens? We get proud. We think, now I got everything, what do I need Kṛṣṇa for? We forget Kṛṣṇa, then we get in trouble. You know about the story of the frog who lived in the lake and became the richest frog in the world? You never heard about the richest frog in the entire world. You got frogs here in New Taliban. Several frogs. So this is a frog lived india. And this frog lived in a big man made lake. And it had a bathing gut with steps on it. So he jumped up the steps to go and see what was life outside the lake. And he got up on top of the steps and little distant, he saw a half a rupee coin.

It’s like 50 cents or something. And he went and he sat on it and he realized that now this is mine. I found it’s my money. Then he analyzed that he actually had more money than any other frog. What other frog? At $0.50? Of course, at half a rupee in those days, this was about 50 years ago. So that was actually more than 50 cents. In terms of buying power, you maybe could say like buying power. They could buy as much as $20, something like that, maybe more. So it was sitting on this half a rupee. And he started to consider that actually I am the richest frog in the world. But to speak of these, there’s no other frog has as much money as I do.

Now that I am the leader of all the frogs, I should think about the frog’s welfare, what to do for the frogs. And he thought for a minute, once he became the richest frog, he thought that he had to help all the other frogs. He was a pious frog, a little puffed up, but. So then he thought. That the biggest problem with the frogs is every morning this king’s elephant comes down and bathes inside our pond. I mean, it’s the frog’s pond, not the elephant pond. He comes and with his trunk he blows the water everywhere and pushes all the frogs around. Who does he think he is?

I, the richest frog in the world. Give the edict. No more elephants in the frog pond. Victory for the frogs.

He was getting really worked up. So then meanwhile, the elephant, you know, was brought down as every morning by the elephant’s caretaker, the mahout. And he’s coming down to frog.

Stop.

I command you. No more going in the pond. Elephant, you know, please do listen. What some frog is croaking has nothing to do with him. But the frog sitting on his half a rupee, he really feels that now I got this. The richest, I got more money than the elephant has. He doesn’t have a dime to his.

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So he should listen to me. So he was in a big quandary whether he should leave his 50 cents, someone else might steal it, or whether he should go. But he figured I had to do this for the frogs. He jumped in front of the elephant and stop. But the elephant didn’t even see the frog. Next thing, the elephant ended up stepping on the frog. And went on to the lake. Sad end to the richest frog in the world. Sometimes someone gets a little money and they think that now I have so much money now, everything should happen the way I want it now. I want this to happen and that to happen. I think they’re going to change the world. But they don’t realize that their power is very limited. There are much higher powers in nature.

Even someone may be the richest man in the world. He may be in the fortune list of billionaires. He still gets a stomach ache, still gets cancer. We read in the newspapers how the presidents of the United States are going in for their operations, removing their tumors and cancers and all kinds of illnesses. It’s not that because you become rich and famous and even materially powerful, that you’re beyond the modes of nature. You had to still get sick. They get old, they get diseased, they die eventually. And of course, something that many Americans don’t know, but we know here, we know in Vedic culture, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that they have to again take birth. Once they die, they again have to take birth somewhere else. And of course, nobody takes birth as a president or something like that.

They take birth as an ordinary person, some kind of another baby, and they work their way up again, depending whatever family they’re in. So people get very proud and they forget. So we have to be careful that if we get good fortune, we don’t forget our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We don’t lose our sense. So there we see in Queen Kunti that she had so much good fortune but she didn’t forget Kṛṣṇa. Rather, she was remembering all of Ka’s kindness. And she’s glorifying Kṛṣṇa for that. That shows her greatness, her devotion to Kṛṣṇa. Anybody, when they’re in real trouble, they can cry out to Kṛṣṇa. That’s also good. But it’s easier to forget when you got the wealth, when you have the opulence. Sometimes you see devotees when they’re india. They’re very good.

But when they come to America, they get bewildered by all the opulence and sense gratification available here and seem to become materialistic. But here we see what to speak of. Just, you know, petty materialism. Kunti Devī has unlimited wealth and her control. But she doesn’t forget Kṛṣṇa. She’s remaining in pure devotion. So we should be fixed. Like Bhakti Vinod Thakur prayed. Sampade Bipa de Jeevane Morane arpilo tua Kishore Sampade means in opulence, in victory and success in danger, misfortune, Jeevone while living, Morane while dying. In all our circumstances, we simply want to offer all our devotion, all of our love at your lotus feet. Everything is to be offered to you. Nada Kishore. O beloved son of Nanda Maharaj. O Kṛṣṇa. So Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He wanted his devotees to be fixed in Kṛṣṇa. He repeatedly taught Akhila Yishwar Kṛṣṇa I Sabha Britta.

Ka is the one Lord. Everyone else is his servitor. All the devas or demigods are the servant of who knows who they’re the servant of. Who can say Kṛṣṇa? Everybody in the world is a servitor of Kṛṣṇa. Even the other incarnations are expansions of Kṛṣṇa. So in one sense they’re also subordinate or they’re also like serving Kṛṣṇa. Although they’re in a position of lords themselves, they’re also a different aspect of Kṛṣṇa. Everyone is serving Kṛṣṇa and Rishikesha. Rishikena devotional service means hear. The Lord Kṛṣṇa is described as Rishikesh. So in the Nārada Pancharatra, Nārada Muni explains that what is devotion? He explains that Sarvapadi. To serve Rishikesha, the Master of the senses. With what do we serve Ka? With what do we serve the Master of the senses. What anyone can say our love and devotion and practically, physically, with what?

We serve the master of the senses. With what? Something. How do we move the ghee, lamp and flower? What moves it? Correct. Our senses belong to who? Kṛṣṇa, who is the master of the senses. So Rishikesha is a master of the senses. Therefore we serving the senses. Instead of serving the senses, we’re serving the master of the senses with the senses. We’re using our hands, our mouth, our tongue, our ears, our nose in the service of Kṛṣṇa. Who is Rishikesha, the master of the senses. When we use the senses to serve Kṛṣṇa, then the soul, our self, we feel spiritual bliss. We feel spiritually satisfied. Because when Kṛṣṇa is pleased, we’re pleased. So there are many examples of that also. But we’re already over time. Well, I will just conclude with one more example that. About two examples of that today.

So this is basically some of the meditations we can do on this verse today. Lord Chaitanya, his mother would every day offer prasadam to their Kṛṣṇa and Balaram deities. And Lord Caitanya, he would be worshipping Kṛṣṇa in the house. As a young Brāhmaṇa, he was a bit different. His father, he went to school. He was very eager to learn. Every day, whatever the teacher would show Lord Caitani, he would immediately learn it. He learned all the alphabets in one day, learned how to write in one day, learned everything is just so fast. He just immediately learned it. But then one astrologer came and told Jagannath Mitzra that your son, if he’s become very learned and he will understand the absolute truth and he will become a Sannyāsī. So Jagannath Mr. Got worried.

If my son becomes a Sannyas, how can I live without seeing Lord Chaitanya, without seeing my Nimāi? He loved Lord Caitanya so much. He became a little selfish. He thought that I couldn’t live without Lord Chaitanya. Without the. Of course he doesn’t think he’s Lord Chaitanya. He just thinks he’s my son Vimai. But his love is actually pure devotion. He’s loving Caitanya Mahāprabhu with a pure love, a spontaneous love, a love that doesn’t even depend. That he has to know that Caitanya Mahprabhu is Kṛṣṇa. He just annuls his son. But the love he feels is actually the ecstasy he’s feeling is a transcendental ecstasy. So he told Nimāi, you can’t go to school anymore. Because he was afraid if you keep going to school then you’re going to take sannyas. So better not to go to school. Just stay at home, be a full.

It doesn’t matter, but stay at home. I can see you all the time. Out of intense love, he made his decision. But Lord Caitanya was very angry. He wasn’t allowed to go to school. He wanted to go to school. He wanted to learn. He wanted to preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness all over the world. So he wanted to go through the pastime of going to school. Of course he knows everything already. That’s why he could learn everything in one day, because he already knew it. But just to go through the exercise that he was learning, since he was playing the part as a Brahmin boy. So he started to be very naughty and going down to the Ganges and stealing everyone’s clothes and splashing people. He became really heavy, putting water in little kids babies ears and they start cutting, crying.

He was creating as much mischief as he could so that his father would send him back to school. So one day he just stood on the. He was only like six years old, maybe seven or six, something like that. He stood on a big pile of broken clay pots. In those days they used to use clay pots for cooking. There was a potter and every day he would be making, you know, the big pottery wheel. I don’t know if you have ever seen it.

(B-side of the Cassette)

They make the nice pots and then they fire it in a wood kiln. So the housewives would cook the meal. At the end of the meal, time to wash pots. No washing of pots. Take the pot out, throw it in the pile. See? Primitive. Now you’re advanced. You can spend time washing the pot with nice soft detergent. Then you just throw the pot. People think that was actually better. Now you got disposable plates, but you don’t have disposable pots there. They had disposable plates, pots. The plates you’d use was banana leaves. And the pots would be clay pots. No, didn’t need an automatic dishwasher. So. And it was all biodegradable. Wasn’t styrofoam, it was just earth fired. So Lord Caitanya, however, he stood on the top of that pile of broken pots.

But because there would be little food particles and things, there would be little bugs and everything would go there. It was like a garbage pile put kind of way in the back of the yard. And Mother Satchigi, what are you doing standing in this dirty place? You’re a Brāhmaṇa boy. You don’t stand in dirty places. We have to be clean. The Brahmanas mean clean, truthful, austere. What type of. What are you going Brahmin are you? If you act in this way, standing on these dirty pots. This is Asuchi, this is impure. And Lord Caitanya said that I don’t go to school. You don’t let me go to school. How do I know what’s pure, what’s impure? For me, it’s all the same. I am just a fool, right? I can’t go to school.

See was being a little smart with his mother to get the point across that if they don’t let me go to school, how  will I know what’s right and what’s wrong? Because my teachers had to teach me all these things. So in the end, Jagannath Mr. Finally gave in and said, all right, he can go to school. So also give in. So you can go to school too. Any questions?